As one of the key outcomes of the Generation Equality Forum, the Compact on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action (WPS-HA Compact) aims to mobilize an inter-generational, inclusive movement for action in the next five years to implement existing commitments on women, peace and security and gender equality in humanitarian action.
On 2nd July 2021, the WPS-HA Compact was formally launched at the Generation Equality Forum in Paris together with compact signatories. The launch called for the Member States, UN entities, regional organizations, women’s and youth networks, academic and research institutions, and members of the private sector to become Compact signatories.
More than twenty years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995) and UN Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), the WPS-HA Compact calls for the redesign of peace and security and humanitarian processes to systematically and meaningfully include women and girls – including peacebuilders, refugees, other forcibly displaced and stateless women and girls in the decisions that impact their lives.
The WPS-HA Compact builds on years of work on women, peace and security and humanitarian action at the global, regional, national and local levels. It has been collectively developed in a multi-stakeholder format with inputs from the Member States, UN entities, regional organizations, women’s and youth networks, private sector, academic and research institutions, and participants at the Generation Equality Forum in Mexico in March 2021.
The Peace Centre has joined the Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action Compact as a Catalytic Member. As a Catalytic member, In Burundi, DRC, South Sudan, Nepal, Uganda and at the regional level, the Peace Centre will advocate and support the advocacy work of women, women’s groups and women and youth-led organisations/networks for inclusive and gender-responsive peace processes, for the implementation of gender-related provisions in current peace agreements and delivery on existing WPS and YPS commitments. This will include financial, technical and advisory support, particularly grassroots and displaced women peacebuilders, facilitating linkages between formal and informal conflict prevention and peace processes. Refugee, internally displaced and young women in addition to other categories of women will be a priority in our commitment to strengthen and amplify women’s leadership and contributions to peace and security, resilience and humanitarian or crisis response.
In case you missed the Compact launch, you can find out the different actions that will be taken on by the signatories over the next 5 years: Compact on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action – YouTube