Recommendation 3

HM Government · verbatim extract Rejected

Government Response to Recommendation 29: Disagree 9. The UK deliberately made advancing the position of women and girls, in line with the WPS agenda, a core element of our February UN Security Council Presidency. We specifically and safely invited women to brief the Security Council’s meetings on Syria, Sudan and the Middle East Peace Process, as one of the most credible, meaningful and impactful ways to anchor WPS in UN Security Council discussions and action. We led a WPS Shared Commitments joint statement on the situation for women in Syria, delivered at a press stakeout in advance of the meeting, in which eight countries participated. Recognising the need to elevate women’s voices in understanding conflict and its impacts, we convened member states to interact with the women we invited to brief the Council and spotlighted their messages in UK Government communications products. This approach, to bring women’s voices and perspectives into country-specific discussions, has proven more meaningful and impactful than holding generic discussions on WPS, which can, given differing views of Council members, have little impact and let rhetoric take the place of implementation. 10. Furthermore, the Foreign Secretary specifically and personally used the UK’s Security Council Presidency to raise the alarm on the rights and protection of women and girls in Sudan, delivering a powerful intervention in the Council and joining the Sudanese woman briefer in a joint press stakeout. These interventions amplified the testimonies of Sudanese women the Foreign Secretary had met at a refugee camp in Chad. 11. The Foreign Secretary also convened at the UN a high-profile in-studio discussion in collaboration with UN Partnerships, “Hearing Her Voice”. This brought together Sudanese feminist activist Hala Al-Karib, advocate for children born from rape in war Lejla D., former war correspondent Jane Ferguson, and the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten, for a powerful, honest and action-oriented discussion. 12. The further examples below illustrate how this approach has translated into concrete outcomes across a range of country files: a. During negotiations on the renewal of both the Al Shabaab (AS) sanctions regime and the mandate of the African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), the UK protected references to gender and robust language on women’s rights and participation. In the AS sanctions renewal, we maintained language underscoring the participation of women in Somalia and support for women’s leadership roles, as well as provisions addressing sexual and gender-based violence in conflict, trafficking, forced marriage and sexual slavery. In the AUSSOM mandate, the UK fought to retain language recalling WPS resolutions, recognising the critical role of women in conflict prevention and peacebuilding, and condemning all forms of sexual and gender-based violence. It called on the Federal Government of Somalia to accelerate implementation of the National Action Plan to Combat Sexual Violence in Conflict, while tasking AUSSOM to integrate a gender perspective across its operations. b. During negotiations on the UK-penned mandate renewal of the UN Verification Mission to Colombia (UNVM), the UK successfully retained a focus on the disproportionate impact of conflict on women and children, and defended language on the impact of sexual and gender-based violence targeting women and girls in conflict-affected areas. c. For the UK-penned UN Mission to support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA) renewal, the UK defended the inclusion of gender-responsive and civilian protection considerations within its mandate. d. In a challenging context, we sought to protect the WPS agenda, although given Council dynamics, there have been a small number of areas where the Council has not retained existing language. In order to reach Council agreement on mandate renewals, for example in Security Council mandates on Colombia (UNVM), the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), and Haiti (BINUH), the UK agreed language we found acceptable but which modified existing language such as replacing the word “gender” with “women, girls, men and boys” or removing the phrase “gender-responsive”. The UK approached this process by partnering with likeminded Council members and prioritising the highest-impact language in mandates, for example in the operative paragraphs that set out Mission tasking. This has ensured the operational capacity of UN Missions has been retained and the core tasking on issues affecting women and girls has been protected.