Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (S/2015/1031).
Code: S/2015/1031
Topic: This report by the Secretary General is on the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the implementation of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework, covering the time period since the last report of 28 September 2015.
Women, Peace and Security
The Secretary-General’s report gives account on major political, security, human rights and humanitarian developments, and updates on the implementation of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for DRC and the Region as well as the mandate of MONUSCO. While reporting on the protection pillar of the WPS agenda is equally strong as in previous reports, including a separate section dedicated to sexual violence[1], the report does not pay any attention to additional concerns relating to the WPS agenda, such as references to the impact of women representatives in the national political dialogue or women’s participation in mediation and reconciliation activities. Moreover, while the report states that MONUSCO’s advocacy focuses on mainstreaming gender issues in national planning and policy documents, it does not include further details, for example, whether MONUSCO seeks the consultation with local women’s civil society organizations.[2] The report also provides some sex-disaggregated data on MONUSCO-led trainings for national police personnel on electoral security as well as public order and human rights principles.[3] Considering the launch of a number of dialogue initiatives, the report also accounts for the implementation of legal assistance for victims of sexual violence and the facilitation of the construction of separate wings for women and juveniles in prison facilities.[4] Ultimately, the report reiterates MONUSCO’s commitment to the zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuses for all UN personnel.[5] While the separate section on sexual violence with detailed accounts on the numbers of incidents is of unquestionable importance, the failure to consistently apply a gender lens leads to the assumption of an overall unawareness for gender-sensitive reporting on aspects other than protection concerns.
References in Need of Improvement and Missed Opportunities
Political process
Considering the President’s initiation of a national dialogue “in order to reach consensus among stakeholders on the electoral process”[6] and his continuous consultations with a variety of actors, including political representatives and religious groups, the report completely misses to highlight whether women representatives and women’s civil society organizations were part of theses processes.[7] Additionally, in its mentions of the reactions of civil society to the newly initiated national dialogue, the report could have highlighted whether women’s civil society organizations had raised their voices regarding the electoral process to ensure that women’s concerns, including facilitating their participation, are adequately addressed. Moreover, the report fails to account for women’s participation in MONUSCO-supported reconciliation activities and local mediation efforts to prevent inter-communal, land and pre-electoral violence.[8] Ensuring women’s participation in all decision-making processes is crucial as only a gender-balanced view on the deteriorating political, security and humanitarian situation on the ground can ensure that the varying needs of women, men, girls and boys are adequately addressed.
Security Sector Reform/DDR
While the report accounts for MONUSCO-led trainings for national police personnel, including women police officers, the report completely fails to address whether women representatives have been part in the design and implementation of security sector reform strategies to ensure women’s security concerns are fully taken into consideration.[9] Moreover, reporting on the dire security situation is absolutely gender-blind and does not detail whether and how women are affected differently, including by displacement.[10] Additionally, the report does not provide any insight into whether women ex-combatants and women associated with armed groups are addressed in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration strategies and whether DDR programming is informed by the voices of local women’s civil society organizations to ensure that particularly reintegration strategies are responsive to the needs of women ex-combatants, including through offering comprehensive psycho-social and livelihood support.[11]
Humanitarian situation
Considering the deteriorating humanitarian situation, the report could have further detailed whether gender-sensitive needs assessments have been or will be conducted to ensure that humanitarian assistance is effectively tailored towards the varying needs of women, men, girls and boys, and whether women-headed households are specifically affected by food insecurity and malnutrition.[12]
Protection of Civilians
Reporting on the MONUSCO-led joint assessment missions to identify protection concerns, the report completely fails to detail whether women were part of the mission teams. It further missed to detail whether these teams consulted with local women’s civil society organizations to confirm that women’s specific security concerns are taken into account in order to ensure that future protection strategies are responsive to incidents of sexual and gender-based violence, including by adequately training peacekeeping personnel and establishing reporting and investigation mechanisms that are easily accessible and accountable to the claims of survivors of SGBV.[13]
Ideal Asks for WPS Transformation
Pursuant to resolution 1925 (2010) on the mandate of MONUSCO, particularly OP 12 (c)/(f) on the protection of civilians including women-specific provisions; resolution 2053 (2012), OP 15 on the full and effective participation of women in the electoral process; and resolution 2147 (2014), OP 11 and 27 on women’s participation in stabilization activities, security sector reform and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes, future reports by the Secretary-General must reflect the Security Council’s commitment to the WPS agenda and provide updates on the implementation of gender-sensitive programming regarding both participation and security concerns. Applying a gender lens throughout the report will ensure that all genders are adequately represented and their particular needs in regards to the volatile security, political and humanitarian situation are being met.
In view of the upcoming elections, future reports must give detailed account on the measures taken to ensure women’s full and equal participation at all stages of the electoral process, including the involvement of women’s civil society organizations, to ensure that women are adequately trained as candidates as well as trained to be employed as election observers in order to create an enabling and safe environment for women to approach observer staff to report irregularities.
Code: S/PRST/2015/20
Topic: This statement by the President of the Security Council stresses the importance of neutralizing armed groups in the DRC and concern that joint operations between the Congolese army and the Force Intervention Brigade in cooperation with the whole of MONUSCO have yet to resume.
Women, Peace and Security
References to the WPS agenda only touch upon protection concerns relating to widespread sexual and gender-based violence. Condemning human rights violations, the statement recognizes the progress made by the Government and MONUSCO in implementing action plans to end both the recruitment of child soldiers and sexual violence by FARDC and calls for continued efforts to combat impunity for sexual violence.[14] Interestingly, the issues of child recruitment and sexual violence are continuously addressed in one sentence while they – given their different nature – would have deserved to be addressed in different paragraphs. Failing to consistently apply a gender lens, the statement ultimately suggests an overall unawareness for gender-sensitive reporting on aspects other than protection concerns.
References in Need of Improvement and Missed Opportunities
Security situation/DDR
Accounting for the dire security situation and the need to neutralize armed groups in the DRC, the statement fails to call for women’s participation in all security-related matters to ensure the specific security needs of women and girls are adequately addressed. If also fails to detail whether women ex-combatants and women associated with armed groups are addressed in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration strategies and whether DDR programming is informed by the voices of local women’s civil society organizations to ensure that particularly reintegration strategies are responsive to the needs of women ex-combatants, including through offering comprehensive psycho-social and livelihood support.[15]
Electoral process
Addressing the upcoming presidential and legislative elections scheduled for November 2016, the statement missed to call for women’s full and effective participation, as demanded per resolution 2053 (2012).[16] The statement would have highly benefited from calling for measures to ensure women’s participation at all stages of the electoral process, including the involvement of women’s civil society organizations, to ensure that women are adequately trained as candidates as well as trained to be employed as election observers in order to create an enabling and safe environment for women to approach observer staff to report irregularities.
Ideal Asks for WPS Transformation
Pursuant to resolution 1925 (2010) on the mandate of MONUSCO, particularly OP 12 (c)/(f) on the protection of civilians including women-specific provisions; resolution 2053 (2012), OP 15 on the full and effective participation of women in the electoral process; and resolution 2147 (2014), OP 11 and 27 on women’s participation in stabilization activities, security sector reform and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes, future presidential statements must reflect the Security Council’s commitment to the WPS agenda and call for the implementation of gender-sensitive programming regarding both participation and security concerns. Applying a gender lens throughout the statement will ensure that all genders are adequately represented and their particular needs in regards to the volatile security, political and humanitarian situation are taken into consideration.
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[1] S/2015/1031, para. 69f
[2] S/2015/1031, para. 38
[3] S/2015/1031, para. 41
[4] S/2015/1031, para. 47, 48
[5] S/2015/1031, para. 75
[6] S/2015/1031, para. 2
[7] S/2015/1031, para. 5
[8] S/2015/1031, para. 19, 53
[9] S/2015/1031, para. 15f
[10] S/2015/1031, para. 22
[11] S/RES/2251 (2015), para. 43
[12] S/RES/2251 (2015), para. 27f
[13] S/RES/2251 (2015), para. 50
[14] S/PRST/2015/20, para. 5
[15] S/PRST/2015/20, para. 2
[16] S/PRST/2015/20, para. 6