Source · Select Committees · Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 41
41
Accepted
Outline work to include women in WPS mediation and strengthen UNSC commitments
Recommendation
We recommend: a. The Government should outline in its response to this report what work it is pursuing as penholder for Women, Peace and Security to include women and women-led organisations in mediation and peace negotiations. The UK Mission to the United Nations in New York should lead by example by including women in all stages of the penholding process across files. b. The Government should outline, in its response, its strategy for navigating increasing attempts by some countries who are Permanent Members to the United Nations Security Council to remove references to women’s health and safety from resolutions. The Government should detail how it is engaging like-minded allies, Elected Members to the United Nations Security Council and regional actors to push back against such narratives. c. The Government should seek to strengthen United Nations Security Council statements, resolutions and mandates concerning Women, Peace and Security through the inclusion of measurable and concrete commitments which go beyond symbolism and which protect the language around women’s inclusion and health. (Recommendation, Paragraph 134)
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, outlining that the UK Mission in New York includes women at every stage of the WPS penholding process and consults women experts. It details its strategy to defend and strengthen WPS language by deploying expert negotiators and diplomatic influence, citing recent successes in Colombia and South Sudan, and reaffirms a commitment to strategic women's involvement.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
Agree. 57. As the penholder of resolution 1325 (2005) and as a signatory of the Shared Commitments on Women and Peace and Security (WPS), a cross-regional group of countries championing WPS in the UN Security Council, HMG is working to implement the WPS agenda across all of the Council’s work. The UK Mission in New York includes women at every stage of the penholding process on WPS including through consulting women diaspora and experts in conflict resolution and CRSV. Policy teams leading on WPS, conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) feed into the UK’s action and engagement on all relevant UN Security Council files. 58. While current dynamics and national priorities amongst the Council membership are less favourable than previous years in progressing these agendas, HMG will continue to fiercely defend the progress that has been made, and push for further action through securing language on women’s rights in UN Security Council products. In order to retain existing successful products and mandates, the UK deploys expert negotiators and policy professionals to identify individual challenges to ambitious language and to identify places for growth and opportunities for retention where not possible to push progress forwards. HMG deploys its strategic influence and diplomatic levers to this end and has most recently successfully secured language in the mandate renewals on Colombia (on women’s participation) and South Sudan (on CRSV). 59. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has affirmed, including at the “Beijing+30” side event at UNGA High-Level Week 2025, that women’s involvement in peace and security matters must not be symbolic, it must be strategic, demanding change and ensuring safety. The UK is proud to lead global action both in and outside of the UN, in collaboration with international partners and civil society, and will continue to ensure that women are at the heart of peace and security for the next 25 years and beyond.