Gender, violence, and the Women, Peace and Security agenda

Abstract

The United Nations Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has become the dominant international legal and discursive framework for addressing gendered violence in international relations. The UN made its first great strides towards recognizing violence against women as an issue of international security in its landmark Security Council Resolution 1325 on ‘Women and Peace and Security’. While previous declarations, covenants and treaties made by various UN bodies treated the issue of gender and violence through the prism of rights, Resolution 1325 was the first time that mass, systematic and conflict-related forms of violence were considered for their gendered effects and determined as an obs..