The echoes are heard in every corner of the globe, from the rubble of besieged cities to the quiet desperation of displacement camps. The messages are as consistent as they are urgent: “Ceasefire.” “End the war.” “Stop the brutality.” These are not merely slogans; they are the collective cries of women and girls who bear the disproportionate weight of global conflict. For UN Women, these calls serve as the North Star, guiding an institutional mission to transform how the world conceptualizes security. The evidence is no longer up for debate: when women are central to peace negotiations, the resulting agreements are more inclusive, more representative of society’s needs, and significantly more likely to endure. Yet, as we approach the 25th anniversary of the landmark Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, a troubling paradox has emerged. Despite a quarter-century of rhetoric acknowledging that gender equality is a prerequisite for peace, the global community is faltering in its commitment to turn those words into sustained action.
To understand the current crisis, one must look back to October 31, 2000. On that day, the United Nations Security Council achieved a rare moment of total consensus, unanimously adopting Resolution 1325. This was not just another bureaucratic milestone; it was the culmination of years of tireless advocacy by grassroots feminist organizations and civil society leaders. Resolution 1325 fundamentally redefined the landscape of international relations by asserting that peace is not merely the absence of war between men, but a condition that requires the active participation and protection of the other half of the population. It challenged the traditional “men in suits” model of diplomacy, where warring factions—almost exclusively led by men—negotiate the terms of a future that women must then inhabit. Today, that original resolution has been bolstered by nine additional Security Council mandates, creating a binding legal framework for all UN member states to integrate gender perspectives into every facet of conflict prevention and resolution.
The WPS agenda is built upon four foundational pillars: Participation, Protection, Prevention, and Relief and Recovery. These are not isolated goals but interconnected necessities. Participation ensures that women have a seat at the highest levels of decision-making, from constitutional drafting to ceasefire monitoring. Protection focuses on safeguarding women and girls from the specific horrors of conflict, including the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. Prevention seeks to address the root causes of violence, recognizing that societies with higher levels of gender equality are less likely to descend into armed conflict. Finally, Relief and Recovery mandate that humanitarian aid and post-war reconstruction efforts prioritize the unique economic and health needs of women, ensuring they are not left behind in the wake of disaster.
The tangible impact of these pillars is best seen through the lives of those on the front lines. Consider Randa Siniora, a Palestinian lawyer and human rights defender who has spent over three decades navigating the complexities of justice under military occupation. As the Director of the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling, Siniora has been a vocal advocate for the idea that women must be seen as more than just victims. In 2018, she made history as the first Palestinian woman to brief the UN Security Council, emphasizing that women are active initiators of change who demand meaningful political participation rather than just protection. Her work underscores a vital truth: peace cannot be “given” to women; it must be built by them.
In South Sudan, the role of leadership takes a different but equally vital form through individuals like Police Commissioner Christine Fossen. Leading the UN Police component in the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Fossen brings 30 years of experience from the Norwegian police force to one of the world’s most challenging environments. For Fossen, leadership isn’t defined by rank but by the ability to mentor and protect. By overseeing the Network for Uniformed Women Peacekeepers, she is helping to dismantle the gender barriers within security forces themselves, proving that a more diverse police force is a more effective one. Her presence in South Sudan serves as a reminder that when women are visible in positions of authority, it changes the community’s perception of what is possible.
Despite these individual successes, the 2025 report from the United Nations Secretary-General reveals a “grim picture” of the global state of affairs. We are currently witnessing a period of chronic under-investment and a systematic “shutting out” of women from formal peace processes. While military spending is reaching record highs globally, the funding for conflict prevention and peacebuilding is being slashed. This financial retreat is devastating for frontline organizations. When budgets for UN peacekeeping missions are cut, the first things to go are often the mechanisms for monitoring human rights abuses, the legal support for survivors of sexual violence, and the training programs for grassroots women leaders. This creates a vacuum of protection that leaves women and girls vulnerable to the very brutality the WPS agenda was designed to prevent.
One of the most insidious challenges currently facing the movement is the “gender data gap.” In many conflict zones, women and girls are becoming effectively invisible because their experiences are not being recorded. Without accurate statistics on sexual violence, technology-facilitated abuse, or the specific economic losses suffered by women-led households, it is impossible to secure prosecutions or allocate resources effectively. This lack of data is not accidental; it is a symptom of a broader backlash against women’s rights that is now reported in one out of every four countries. When budget cuts undermine the collection of gender-disaggregated data, they essentially erase the evidence of crimes committed against women, making justice an impossibility.
The consequences of this neglect are measured in human lives. The data that *is* available shows an alarming rise in targeted violence. This includes not only physical rape and displacement but also the modern scourge of digital abuse—trolling, stalking, and harassment designed to silence female activists and officials. Furthermore, the intersection of conflict and poverty is becoming increasingly lethal. Women in fragile or conflict-affected regions are nearly eight times more likely to live in extreme poverty than those in stable environments. Perhaps most tellingly, in 2023, 60% of all maternal deaths globally—most of them from entirely preventable causes—occurred in countries currently experiencing a crisis. This statistic alone highlights how the collapse of infrastructure in war zones is a death sentence for women.
In Mozambique, peace champions like Quibibi Faquihe Buana are working to reverse this trend. Displaced from Cabo Delgado, Buana now serves as a district facilitator in the Marrocane resettlement center. She uses mobile tools to report violence and trains other displaced women on how to prevent gender-based conflict. Her work is a testament to the resilience of women who, despite losing everything, continue to lift up their communities. Similarly, in Sudan, Mona Mohamed Omaer Hamad works through the Sorkenat Organization to ensure that women are not just bystanders to the democratic changes and peace processes in her country. She advocates for women to be present in state institutions as leaders capable of high-level decision-making, side-by-side with men.
Looking toward the future, the path is clear but requires political courage. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration, the most comprehensive global blueprint for gender equality ever created. The upcoming “Beijing+30” agenda calls for a radical shift in how the world finances the WPS mandate. It is no longer enough for 115 countries to have “national action plans” on paper; those plans must be fully funded and integrated into national budgets. This includes supporting leaders like Pédrica Saint-Jean, Haiti’s Minister for Women, who has survived multiple armed attacks and continues to push for a stronger response to gender-based violence in a nation grappling with immense instability. Saint-Jean’s message is simple: equality and the fulfillment of fundamental rights are not luxuries to be addressed after a war is over; they are the tools required to end the war in the first place.
The next 25 years of the Women, Peace and Security agenda will be defined by whether world leaders choose to listen to the voices they have long ignored. We will know we are making progress when women’s participation in peace talks is the norm rather than the exception. We will know we are succeeding when a girl born in a refugee camp has the same access to healthcare and education as a girl born in a peaceful capital. Gender equality is not a “soft” issue to be sidelined in favor of “hard” security concerns; it is the very foundation of a stable world. When women lead, peace follows. The only question remains: will the world finally invest in the leadership it so desperately needs?
