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Foreign Minister Maas on the Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas issued the following statement today (24 February) on the third Federal Government Action Plan on implementing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda:
Effective peace policy requires the participation of women. All the talks I hold with female peace activists on my travels to conflict regions reinforce this conviction: talks with protest leaders in the Sudan, with Yazidis kidnapped by IS in Iraq, with Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where sexual violence is used as a means of warfare on an unimaginable scale.
These talks show me very clearly that only when women and men participate in peace processes on an equal basis can we ensure that the agreements also benefit women and men equally.
That is why one priority of our foreign policy is to involve women more intensively in peace processes and to combat sexual violence in conflicts. During the past two years we also tabled these priorities in the Security Council – in the face of fierce resistance from some quarters. With the Action Plan we are now setting ourselves further key goals which we are pursuing in our foreign policy but which we also intend to anchor more firmly within the Federal Government.
Background information:
Twenty years ago, the United Nations Security Council emphasised the importance of women in peace processes by adopting Resolution 1325. Since then, Germany has been working around the world to implement the Women, Peace and Security Agenda adopted at the time: on the ground in crisis regions, in multilateral organisations and at regional level.
The goals that Germany has set itself in this area and the measures planned are outlined in the current Federal Government Action Plan on implementing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda (2021 to 2024), which will be presented to the Federal Cabinet on 24 February.
The Action Plan defines six priorities: The four main areas of the Agenda are to be driven forward: crisis prevention, the participation of women in peace processes, protection against sexual violence and support for survivors as well as strengthening the participation of women in humanitarian assistance, crisis management and reconstruction. In addition, the Agenda needs to be given a greater profile, both in the international arena and in Germany. Germany is also examining its own structures in order to anchor Women, Peace and Security even more firmly in the work of the Federal Government.
The Action Plan is available on the Federal Foreign Office’s website at www.diplo.de/291532