UN Women expands partnerships to implement women, peace and security agenda in Georgia
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Since the adoption of the landmark United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), the global women, peace and security (WPS) agenda has gained significant normative strength. Implementation, however, remains a challenge.
An increasing number of actors, including national and local governments and international and intergovernmental organizations, are developing their own action plans to translate all eight WPS resolutions into reality.
During the high-level international conference in Baku hosted by the Government of Azerbaijan on 20 September 2018, NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller launched the ambitious 2018 NATO Action Plan for Women, Peace and Security. The plan has been developed around three “I’s” - integration, inclusiveness and integrity - to enhance NATO operational effectiveness and success. The document places emphasis on meaningful cooperation with international and intergovernmental partners, as well as partnerships with women’s civil society organizations. “The advisory role of women’s organizations in implementing the UN resolutions on WPS is critical to making NATO’s operations more effective,” remarked Clare Hutchinson, the NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security.
The conference provided a platform for exploring effective partnerships in implementing the WPS agenda. UN Women Country Representative in Georgia Erika Kvapilova highlighted: “There is a diversity of actors implementing the WPS agenda under their specific mandates. What unites all of them is the same goal: increased meaningful participation of women in order to prevent conflict and build sustainable peace.”
Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality of Georgia, Ms. Gottemoeller and Ms. Kvapilova also met with internally displaced and conflict-affected women and their organizations in Tbilisi on 21 September to commemorate the International Day of Peace. They each underlined the importance of women’s contribution to sustainable peace and called for increased meaningful participation of women in decision-making, conflict prevention and peaceful resolution of conflicts, and sustainable peacebuilding.