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New U.S. Plan for Women in Armed Conflicts

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  • Stewart M. Patrick
    James H. Binger Senior Fellow in Global Governance and Director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton holds a meeting with Afghan civil society representatives and Afghan Women’s Network, as she sits alongside Selay Ghaffar of the Humanitarian Assistance to Women and Children of Afghanistan during an international conference on the future of Afghanistan, in Bonn December 5, 2011. (J. Scott Applewhite/ Courtesy Reuters)

Yesterday, the White House released its first-ever National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace, and Security. The United States is the thirty-third nation to publish a NAP in order to implement the 2000 UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on women and conflict. As I argued one month ago here, it is vital to better integrate women into post-conflict negotiations for a number of reasons. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed these sentiments when the White House released the plan:

From Northern Ireland to Liberia to Nepal and many places in between, we have seen that when women participate in peace processes, they focus discussion on issues like human rights, justice, national reconciliation, and economic renewal that are critical to making peace, but often are overlooked in formal negotiations. They build coalitions across ethnic and sectarian lines, and they speak up for other marginalized groups.  They act as mediators and help to foster compromise. And when women organize in large numbers, they galvanize opinion and help change the course of history.

The plan outlines strategies for the United States to implement UNSCR 1325, by infusing U.S. government efforts to promote peace with a heightened awareness of the importance of women in peacebuilding. The U.S. Department of Defense and Department of State, Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as civil society consultants contributed to its drafting. The NAP lists five areas in which the United States will “redouble” its efforts in the words of Secretary Clinton:

All this attention to women in peace-building may strike some national security traditionalists—who tend to be overwhelmingly male—as special pleading. But the lessons of hard experience are clear. The achievement of sustainable security—that is, human security—requires not only controlling the men with guns but empowering the women who will serve—as they always have—as the anchors of societal stability. The NAP is grounded in sober realism—and should accordingly be celebrated.