Sima Bahous, Government Director of UN Women, which champions gender equality worldwide, informed ambassadors within the Security Council that cuts are being made by some governments regardless of an uptick in battle and insecurity.
“It’s counter-intuitive that, within the face of unprecedented ranges of battle and violence, the variety of deployed peacekeeping personnel has dropped by nearly half from 121,000 in 2016 to roughly 71,000 in 2024.”
She highlighted rising misogyny and violence in opposition to girls and ladies, including that wars are being fought with clear disregard for his or her lives, rights, welfare or autonomy.
Rushed transitions amid volatility
Additionally briefing, Martha Pobee, Assistant Secretary-Common for Africa on the division of peacebuilding affairs, warned of the implications of dashing by a transition course of in a tense political local weather, persisting safety threats, safety considerations and unprepared nationwide stakeholders.
“Until transitions are well-structured, adequately resourced and gender-responsive, girls and ladies shall be in danger of setbacks,” she stated.
These might embrace shedding entry to important providers, being excluded from decision-making and turning into susceptible to additional violence.
Alarm goes off in Haiti
UN Ladies’s Ms. Bahous cited the case of Haiti, the place calls have been made shield gender equality beneficial properties shortly after the departure of the UN peacekeeping mission, MINUSTAH. Alarms have been sounded over elevated kidnappings, rape and different violence in opposition to girls and ladies by prison teams.
UN Photograph/Manuel Elías
Sima Bahous, Government Director of UN Ladies, briefs the Safety Council assembly on girls and peace and safety.
“That was April of 2019. Ten months later the peacekeepers had left…4 and a half years in the past,” she stated.
“Nearly 5,000 circumstances of rape have been reported to case managers and repair suppliers in Haiti in 2023, with homicides, kidnappings, and sexual violence rising yearly with no signal of slowing down,” she added.
Positive factors rolled again in Mali
Ms. Pobee famous the state of affairs in Mali, the place the UN peacekeeping MINUSMA closed in December 2023 on the insistence of transitional navy authorities.
Previous to its accelerated departure, the nation had witnessed “transformative” progress that enhanced girls’s political participation.
“The drawdown of MINUSMA has nevertheless negatively impacted peacebuilding programmes specializing in girls and ladies and sustaining the beneficial properties made within the political sphere,” Ms. Pobee.
Fears for DR Congo, Sudan
She additionally voiced considerations over the current departures of missions from key hotspots in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which have led to safety vacuums and higher vulnerability for girls and ladies.
UN Photograph/Manuel Elías
Martha Pobee, Assistant Secretary-Common for Africa, briefs the Safety Council assembly on girls and peace and safety.
The drawdowns have diminished the UN’s capability to help nationwide companions in addressing conflict-related sexual violence altogether in areas together with investigation, reporting and help to survivors.
Different challenges relate to restricted funding, and the flexibility to implement present nationwide motion plans regarding girls, peace and safety.
Shut the gaps
Ms. Bahous urged key steps to assist deal with the gaps left by the accelerated drawdown of UN missions.
The Safety Council ought to be certain that transitions shield gender equality and girls’s participation by routine choices and interactions with host governments and organizations, she stated.
Alongside that, there ought to be common engagement with girls from civil society to chart the impression on the bottom, whereas additionally facilitating oversight by the Informal Expert Group on Women and Peace and Security.
It must also prioritize financing for girls’s peace and safety work, collaborate with monetary establishments and guarantee enough sources are allotted when missions are being wound down.
“We worry a future of accelerating atrocities in opposition to girls, their ever-greater marginalization from decision-making and in the end a failure of the worldwide neighborhood,” she stated,
“That prospect ought to be, and I’m assured is, unacceptable for all of us.”
