Recommendation 4

HM Government · verbatim extract Accepted in Part

Government response to Recommendation 30: Partially Agree 13. Despite progress made on the WPS agenda since 2000, we accept that global implementation is lagging. The overall number of peace agreements has declined over recent years, whilst conflict has escalated. Within this context, the majority of peace agreements remain gender-blind and those agreements that do mention gender rarely provide substantive references to issues such as violence against women. 14. The UK agrees that the future of WPS is of critical importance to global peace and security and to the work of the Security Council and will continue to spotlight women peacebuilders and human rights defenders with opportunities to speak directly to the Security Council on the conflicts and crises affecting them and their communities. Women’s full, equal, meaningful and safe participation must be embedded not only in country-specific mandates, where decisions have direct operational impact, but also across a wide range of thematic discussions, including on counterterrorism, climate security and cyber security. Integrating WPS across the Council’s daily work ensures it informs real decision-making and outcomes. 15. Inviting women to brief in geographic-focused Council meetings is one tangible way to anchor WPS in UN Security Council discussions and action, achieving strong impact to a wide audience. Women’s participation in peace and security efforts is reducing due to the threat of intimidation or reprisals - with fewer women briefers coming to the UN Security Council. This is unacceptable, and the Foreign Secretary has made clear that the UK will adopt a zero-tolerance approach to such reprisals. Protection and participation must go hand in hand. 16. This is why the UK partnered with UN Women in the 2025–2026 financial year to develop a “Quick Reference Guide” to help Member States in preventing and mitigating reprisals against women civil society representatives engaging with the UN, providing practical advice to help Security Council members anticipate, address, and respond to risks of intimidation linked to UN briefings. This guide builds on a set of broader best practice guidelines the UK funded through OHCHR in 2021 that detailed specific risk mitigation strategies for women civil society briefers. 17. The UK considers carefully how best to focus on, and deliver against, priority issues such as WPS, including during our Presidencies of the Security Council. We may decide that a dedicated WPS meeting is the best way to deliver this in a future Presidency but would not want to prejudge that at this stage.