General Women, Peace and Security

This is a brief account of the Annual Civil Society Dialogue and Report Card process in Australia, improving the engagement between civil society and governmenty on the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. 

The last two decades have seen a dramatic transformation in the Security Council’s (Council) role in advancing and enforcing international humanitarian law (IHL). The changing nature of armed conflict, the universal acceptance of human rights, the calcification of certain precepts of international law into jus cogens, and advances in international law have all redefined the limits of state sovereignty and influenced the modern understanding of the Council’s mandate under the United Nations Charter (Charter).

The Asia Pacific Region has had some of the most intractable and longest running conflicts anywhere in the world. Eighty-two percent of conflicts in the region since 1948 have been internal conflicts[1], although many have had inter-state and even regional and international dimensions. Many of  the conflicts are also sub-national armed conflicts[2] which are not formally recognized and do not therefore benefit from any formal peace negotiations or efforts to end the violence and address their deep-rooted origins as part of peace initiatives.

The adoption of UNSCR 1325 has undoubtedly brought about greater attention, yet there continue to be huge gaps in the actual implementation of UNSCR 1325 + and the Global Study provides a much needed  opportunity to highlight some of these glaring gaps and recommend strategies for the full realization of the transformative potential of UNSCR 1325 and for its effective implementation. 

The West is now becoming more aware of the widespread genital modification done abroad, with attention especially centring on the highly controversial practice of "female circumcision," which involves mutilation of the labia majora and/or labia minora and clitoris. Far less publicity however is given to the practice in Western medicine of surgically reassigning an intersex infant to be an anatomical match with (what is regarded as standard) male or female, irrespective of the child’s true sex or gender identity.

Bangladesh is a signatory to a number of international conventions intended to secure women’s rights.

The CHT has been a conflict zone for a long time. The non realization of all the provisions of the CHT Accord reached between the Government of Bangladesh and the Parbottyo Chattogram Jana Shanghiti Samiti (PCJSS) has resulted in a failure to bring peace and stability to a region which is still ridden by old problems as much as they are
acquiring new dimensions.

In this paper, Amnesty International sets out a series of recommendations addressed to States, urging them to take steps to entrench long-lasting commitments to tackling impunity for sexual and gender-based violence in conflict in domestic law and policy, enhance international coordination and technical assistance, and ensure the empowerment and participation of survivors of these serious crimes under international law.