Background
Twenty-five years after UNSCR 1325, the Women, Peace and Security agenda faces existential threats as UN peace operations confront unprecedented reform and financial crisis amidst the worst global rollback on gender equality in decades. Hard-won gains in women's participation, protection from conflictrelated sexual violence, and gender-responsive peacekeeping risk rapid erosion as missions downsize and budgets shrink against a backdrop of waning commitment to gender equality and accountability. Critical questions emerge: will the international community defend these commitments as integral to peace and security and central to mission effectiveness - or allow them to be redefined out of existence? Will protection commitments — particularly hard-won gains in combatting conflict-related sexual violence —be treated as optional or subject to fiscal convenience? Will persistent taboos and stigmas facing women peacekeepers finally be addressed, or will cultural barriers continue undermining operational capacity?
The credibility of the UN's global leadership depends on demonstrating commitment within its own operations—at precisely the moment when that commitment faces its greatest test.
Objectives
• Assess how UN reforms and liquidity crisis have (or will potentially) concretely constrain or deprioritise WPS implementation across peace operations and identify corrective measures.
• Examine threats to the Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) prevention and response mandate.
• Address cultural barriers facing women peacekeepers.
• Identify strategies for strengthening participation, prevention, and protection in constrained environments.
Programme Highlights
Moderator: Dr. Lotte Vermeij, Senior Expert on UN Peace Operations, NORCAP
Opening Remarks: Framing the Critical Moment for WPS in Peace Operations
• UK Mission to the UN and UN DPO DPET
Panel Discussion
• Women, Peace and Security under UN Reform – The DPPA-DPO Relationship in Transition
Speakers: Dr Georgina Holmes, Open University, UK, and Dr Jenny Lorentzen, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, NUPI
Examination of reform scenarios and their consequences for gender programming in peace operations, drawing on a range of cases. Analysis of current practice, enabling factors, and challenges to WPS sustainability amid institutional restructuring and the liquidity crisis.
•The Military Gender Alliance – Advancing the WPS Agenda by Strengthening Networks and Partnerships Speaker: Carolyne Moller, UN DPO
Exploring how professional networks strengthen collaboration, knowledgesharing, and capacity-building among stakeholders committed to integrating gender perspectives in military peacekeeping operations. This session will highlight the Military Gender Alliance's role in fostering crossmission learning and advancing the WPS agenda.
• Protection Under Pressure – CRSV and the MINUSCA Experience Speaker: Maria Reyes-Retana Fernandez, MINUSCA
Operational realities from Central African Republic: resource constraints impacting CRSV monitoring, investigation, survivor support, and protection commitments.
• Research Initiatives Advancing the WPS Agenda Speaker: Phoebe Donnelly, IPI
Reflections on research findings related to advancing the meaningful participation of uniformed women and gender perspectives in peace operations, as well as key recommendations for sustaining WPS gains
Closing Remarks Synthesis of key takeaways and pathways forward.
Date and Time: Wednesday, 5 November 2025 12:30-14:00 hrs
Venue: Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the UN, 885 2nd Ave, New York
