UNSC favours doubling number of women in peacekeeping ops

The UN Security Council has favoured doubling the number of women in peacekeeping operations over the next five years as it emphasised the need for peacekeeping missions to take into account gender considerations and the rights of women.
The 15-nation Council adopted a revamped version of a 15- year-old resolution yesterday by which it decided to integrate women, peace and security concerns across all country-specific situations on its agenda, within relevant contexts.
The resolution called on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to initiate a revised strategy, within existing resources, to double the numbers of women in peacekeeping operations over the next five years.

"Fifteen years ago, Security Council resolution 1325 underscored the pivotal link between gender and international peace and security," Ban said in his remarks to the Council.
"Since then, this Council has adopted several resolutions on women, peace and security - each of them a call to action for the international community," he added.
In the new resolution, the body expressed its intention to dedicate periodic Council consultations on country situations, as necessary, to the topic of women, peace and security implementation, as well as the intention to ensure that Security Council missions take into account gender considerations and the rights of women.

The Council urged the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Political Affairs to ensure that gender analysis and technical gender expertise were included throughout all stages of mission planning, mandate development, implementation, review and mission drawdown.

Ban said implementation of the resolution "must be aligned with the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals".
He added that particular attention should be given to women who are the most vulnerable, particularly indigenous.
"We must also do much more to combat the growing spread of violent extremism," he continued.
"Groups such as Da'esh (also known as the Islamic State) and Boko Haram have mercilessly targeted women and girls," said the Secretary-General, noting, for example, the systematic killings, torture, rape and sexual slavery by ISIS against the Yazidi community may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

"We must ensure accountability," he said.