Call for CSO Nominations: Two New Civil Society Oversight Board Members
About Nap1325
The Dutch National Action Plan (NAP) 1325 is a partnership between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Education, Culture and Science, Justice and Security and over 70 civil society organizations based in The Netherlands. The NAP 1325 contains our joint commitments to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and its successive resolutions, as well as other international obligations and commitments on ‘Women, Peace and Security’. Such as CEDAW General Recommendation 30 and the UN Arms Trade Treaty.
The Dutch government and CSOs have committed to support women, men and youth in conflict affected countries and in The Netherlands in their efforts for inclusive peace and security. The NAP 1325 ‘Signatories’ do this in close cooperation with Dutch missions and local women’s organisations, human rights defenders and peacebuilders in (post)conflict countries, and with migrant communities and institutions in The Netherlands.
Read The Netherlands' commitments to the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda in the fourth Dutch NAP 1325 here.
Find a Dutch version of the NAP 1325 here.
Stories of Change
Tearfund: Transforming Masculinities
Tearfund, together with their partner PPSSP, implemented a programme on transforming masculinities through training of church leaders and other community role models. They learned how to speak out and raise awareness on SGBV and address the unequal relations between men and women. The programme was highly successful and reached over 148 thousand people, in particular due to the enthousiasm of the church leaders trained. The report also contains a number of stories of change that you can read (in Dutch on page 8 and 9) here.
VOND: Portraits of Women Peacemakers in Darfur Sudan
NAP signatory VOND, together with their local partner Women's Aliance for Peace in Darfur, Sudan, collected a number of stories by women working on conflict resolution and peacebuilding in their communities. The collection of stories is a powerful display of how women contribute to conflict resolution and peace in their communities in innovative and effective ways, by all means available to them.
Sentence in the Maya Achi Women's Case in Guatemala
Impunity Watch provided legal and political guidance on the case of sexual violence and forced labor against indigenous Achi women in Guatemala in the 1980s by the Civil Self-Defense Patrols. This story of change summarizes the case, the legal arguments and the remedial measures ordered. The case serves as an example for efforts to seek justice for sexual and gender-based violence around the world.
Download the document here.
Positive Male Engagement
The We Rise project was designed through a holistic lens in order to address many of the barriers facing Palestinian women in leading the journey towards peace and security. WCLAC (Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counseling) is among the pioneering organizations within the We Rise consortium. WCLAC worked on implementing a training package focused on mobilizing young men to transform restrictive gender norms.
Among the participants, two young men expressed their ideas against gender-equality and dismissed discussions surrounding supporting women’s participation in leadership and decision-making positions. However, the training managed to challenge these young men’s ideas and negative perceptions of gender-equality. After completing the capacity building and training packages, these two young men carried out awareness raising sessions themselves on women rights and gender equality for other male students in the local schools of their villages.
Do Our Voices Matter?
The presence of local women civil society briefers in UN Security Council meetings often introduces new and compelling perspectives for governments to consider – and these frequently challenge the status quo. As one briefer noted:
“When my turn came, I started actually talking about civilian losses; I talked about the shrinking political space for civil society, shrinking space for women’s organizations and activists. It was very welcome. It opened the door for questions and answers in the conversation around the peace process and many other challenges we were talking about."
Read the full story here.