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The U.N. Celebrates the 10th Anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325

October 25, 2010 at 5:19 PM ET by Taara Rangarajan
Summary: 
Read about this landmark resolution, which calls for parties in a conflict to respect women's rights and to support their participation in peace negotiations and in post-conflict reconstruction.

Ten years ago today, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security. This landmark resolution calls for increased representation and inclusion for women and girls in the UN decision making and peace building process. 

USUN PRESS RELEASE 237                                                                                  Oct. 25, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Statement by Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, in Commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, Oct. 25, 2010

Ten years have passed since the UN Security Council unanimously adopted its landmark Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security. The resolution committed the Security Council and all UN Member States to strengthen the participation and representation of women in UN decision-making, peacebuilding and peacekeeping. It recognized that elevating the role of women in matters of peace and security lifts all of us up.

Resolution 1325 inspired a broad and welcome shift in approach at the UN during the last ten years – including a focus on the abhorrent use of rape as a weapon of war. Still, women continue to lack decision-making power in post-conflict processes. Despite often leading calls for peace, women are too frequently excluded from helping to achieve it, remaining chronically underrepresented as signatories to peace agreements and in negotiating delegations, in national governments and in the uniformed ranks of UN peacekeeping operations. Member States are falling far behind on national efforts to implement Resolution 1325. Women and girls continue to bear the brunt of horrifying violence in armed conflict, tearing at the fabric of societies and impeding lasting peace. This must change.

The United States will commemorate the 10th anniversary of Resolution 1325 in the Security Council tomorrow. We look forward to supporting former President Michelle Bachelet as she begins her critical work at UN Women, our crucial new agency for women at the United Nations. The U.S. remains steadfastly committed to a world free of discrimination, impunity, and sexual violence, a world that makes all women and men more secure.