As a result of the engagement of women in the peace movement, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, in the year 2000. The resolution calls for protection of women in armed conflict and for their serious participation in conflict prevention, peace building and reconstruction.
To ensure implementation of the Security Council Resolution, it was agreed that governments should formulate National Action Plans 1325, in cooperation with civil society organisations. In the Netherlands an NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security was formed by 19 non-governmental organizations for international development cooperation in 50 countries, combined with 75 civil society networks on gender justice, peace, human rights and development. The National Action Plan 1325 on Women Peace and Security in the Netherlands represents up to 200 organisations.
A number of documents in this collection illustrate the history of the WPS agenda in the Netherlands. The documents are summarized in 4 chapters:
1. The predecessors [1970-2000]: how the peace movements, the human rights movements and the women’s movements succeeded in joining efforts to convince the Security Council on the importance to include the role of women in matters of war and peace.
2. The NAP1325 community [2000-2010]: how the Dutch government and these movements cooperated through a learning community to draft the first national action plan and explore through so-called “country groups” in a number of conflict countries through Dutch development cooperation and through engendering of the Ministry of Defense.
3. Tools and methodologies for WPS [2011-2015]: how the signatories of the National Acton Plan cooperated in opening a financial channel to implement 1325 activities in various countries and designing methodologies that combined protection of women’s rights in armed conflict with their participation in conflict resolution (on national and local level) and the intertwining of peace building in development programs.
4. Theory of Change [2016-2020]: how the sectoral approaches on Women, Peace and Security merged into one combined approach, based on a theory of change to monitor and prove its effectiveness and to set professional standards.
Click here to go to the timeline on Women, Peace and Security.
