REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION 1701 (2006) (S/2015/475).

Code: S/2015/475

Period of time and topic: The report provides an assessment of the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) from 28 February 2015 to 26 June 2015.

WPS Section

With respect to the women, peace and security agenda, the report of the Secretary-General (S/2015/475) provides information on the humanitarian situation as well as the attempts of a security sector reform.

With the deteriorating refugee situation, the report provides detailed information on the conditions and numbers of displaced persons. According to the report, an overwhelming 80 percent of women and children make up the refugee population.[1] Given this information, the report portrays the types of hardships that the women refugee face, including forced sex and forced marriage.[2]

The report also provides information as to women’s involvement in the security sector. The report states that 398 women and four female military observers are members to UNIFIL[3] and also draws attention to the missions’ future goals. The mission is cited to actively work on increasing the number of women in its ranks.

References in Need of Improvement Section

In its reporting on the effects of the humanitarian situation on women and on women’s roles in UNIFIL, the report should ensure that children are not included in data referring to women and should detail the design of certain initiatives promoted by UNIFIL. The reporting has shown no improvement in regards to separating women from children Even though the report does state that 80 percent of the refugee population is made up of women and children, this data fails to depict exactly how many women are refugees. Detail is also lacking in the report’s description of UNIFIL’s efforts to increase the number of women in the mission. While it is commendable that the mission seeks to reduce the gender imbalance, it is equally important to know which initiatives are the most effective in order to fully integrate women’s security sector reform concerns.

Missed Opportunities Section

The report of the Secretary-General (S/2015/475) misses several opportunities to show whether women’s issues or women themselves are integrated in political dialogue and training initiatives. In order to promote a better understanding of its mandate, UNIFIL coordinates outreach with local civil society and religious leaders.[6] However, the report does not go beyond this general depiction to state whether women’s civil society is part of this outreach effort. Neglecting to do so, the report does not sufficiently display whether the outreach efforts include a women’s perspective nor whether they are partially aimed at female civilians. UNIFIL’s training efforts are also reported on without any mention of the integration of women’s issues. This neglect transpires again during the report’s coverage of UNAMI’s training implemented for both the trainers in preparation of the implementation of resolution 1701 (2006), as well as general training for the officers of the mission.

Ideal Asks for WPS Transformation Section

The report should be improved with an explicit reference to and ideally an analysis of all genders, emphasizing diverse masculinities and femininities, including the dynamics between and amongst genders as well as the power relations and hierarchies at play, and the intersection of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, class and age across all political peace and security processes.

___________

[1] S/2015/475, para. 42

[2] S/2015/475, para. 42

[3] S/2015/475, para. 51

[6] S/2015/475, para. 18