KOSOVO (S/2014/68)

The Security Council discussed during a meeting dated 27 May 2014 (S/PV.7183) the recent report of the Secretary-General (S/2014/305) and its implementations for international peace and security.

Women, peace and security references were made on fifteen occasions during the meeting with regards to: sexual violence against women during conflict; women’s participation in decision-making processes and consideration of their needs; get rid of impunity for human rights violators; ensure respect for the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and minority groups; eliminate all forms of discrimination for minority groups; enhance legal mechanisms to ensure human rights violations are prosecuted; address the use of rape as a tool of war as the crime against humanity that it is; address the high rates of disappeared persons, particularly disappeared persons of minority background; and address electoral rigging.

This report did a decent job at addressing the concerns of women, peace and security, however there are opportunities for improvement. While the mention of women’s participation in decision-making processes and consideration of their needs is an excellent mention of one of the pillars of women, peace and security, the other three pillars were not addressed. The pillar of prevention to avoid relapsing into conflict, which would likely disproportionately affect women, was not mentioned. The pillar of protection of women and girls’ safety, economic security, health, and respect of human rights was not mentioned. Finally, the pillar of relief and recovery that addresses the specific needs of women and girls in conflict/ post-conflict situations is not mentioned.

This report record is inadequate by comparison to the recommendations laid out in the April 2013 MAP. The MAP called for increased information of the human rights situation, particularly regarding protection of witnesses, women’s rights to political participation, and prosecution of war crimes and crimes of sexual violence. Additionally, the MAP called for independent, impartial and thorough investigations into assaults such as those on female human rights defenders[1] . While the report reiterated the need for many of these changes, it did not offer updates on the progress of these goals, thus not satisfying the recommendations of the MAP.

The mention of women, peace and security issues in the Security Council meeting of 27 May 2014 (S/PV.7183) is on par with the previous report of 10 February 2014 (S/PV.7108). That report mentions the issue of IDPs, strengthening the judiciary system to find disappeared persons, and getting rid of all forms of discrimination, specifically discrimination against minority persons.

The report of the operations on KFOR dated 27 May 2014 (S/2014/371) (enclosed in a letter from the Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to the Secretary General, covers the period from 1 January to 31 March 2014. The report discusses two instances of violence highlighting ongoing tension between the Kosovar Albanian and Serbian ethnic groups, socioeconomic protests and Serbian parliamentary elections, facilitated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

Issues of Women, Peace and Security are absent from this report.

The report misses an opportunity to employ sex-disaggregated data in reporting on civilian deaths; in regards to participation in Serbian parliamentary elections. Further, there is broadly gender is not integrated as a cross-cutting issue in the operations and reporting of KFOR.