20 years of UN resolution 1325: Germany's commitment to more women's rights

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Cemetery in Potocari, Bosnia-Herzegovina, final resting place for victims of the Srebrenica massacre

Photo: Getty Images

More than 25,000 women were systematically raped in the Bosnian war.

Many became pregnant and gave birth to children.

Thousands of Tutsi women were raped and infected with HIV during the genocide in Rwanda.

In Myanmar, soldiers assaulted women belonging to the Rohingya minority.

Victims reported it when they fled to neighboring Bangladesh.

In all of these conflicts, women became victims because of their gender.

How many can often not be quantified because those affected are silent, the situation is too confusing - or because nobody asks about it.

To change that, exactly 20 years ago - on October 31, 2000 - the United Nations anchored women's rights in peace processes for the first time.

The signatories of Resolution 1325 undertook to involve women in it and to protect women and girls from sexual violence in war zones.

Peace negotiations, according to a study by the UN, are more sustainable when women are involved.

The resolution with the motto "Women, Peace, Security" is the thematic focus of Germany for its time as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

It will run until the end of the year.

According to the federal government's action plan, the gender perspective should be systematically integrated into all relevant areas.

Germany wants to be a pioneer.

Foreign policy in the EU and G-20 countries remains a male domain

So far, it has remained with the declaration of intent, both internationally and in this country.

It is true that women are now better represented in many areas of society than they were 20 years ago.

But foreign policy is still a male domain.

This is the conclusion reached by the data analysis "SHEcurity", which has analyzed developments in the EU and G20 countries since the resolution was signed.

According to this, only around a quarter of the ambassadors in the member countries were women in 2019.

On average, only eleven percent women were employed in the military.

Even if leadership positions in UN peace missions are now almost equally occupied, women in the military personnel of these missions only make up five percent of those involved.

And Germany had more than four times as many ambassadors as female ambassadors in 2019.

The analysis names the lack of data as the clearest deficit.

A gender perspective is apparently not important enough for states to collect figures specifically on this.

This also applies to Germany.

An intergroup of women in the Bundestag discussed for two years how equality for women can be better anchored in foreign policy.

There was no agreement on a joint application.

The Union and the SPD failed on a topic that recently caused disputes in many countries: abortions.

The Union did not want to sign a motion in which the demand for support for reproductive rights of women was not linked to the "protection of unborn life".

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Daniela De Ridder (SPD) in the Bundestag

Photo: Britta Pedersen / dpa

The SPD MP Daniela De Ridder, who largely negotiated the motion for her group, is angry about it.

After all, abortion law is currently coming under pressure in many countries, she argues.

With a corresponding paragraph in the joint application, so-called life protectors would be able to ban abortions even after mass rape.

Germany must not stand by and stand by.

USA and Poland sign anti-abortion declaration

Most recently, for example, the USA signed an anti-abortion declaration with 30 other countries - including Hungary and Poland.

Poland tightened its already rigid abortion law.

According to a decision by the Polish Constitutional Court, women there will in future only be able to terminate their pregnancy after rape or if the mother's life is endangered by the pregnancy.

Hard-won women's rights, it turns out, can also be restricted again - there is massive resistance in Poland.

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Green politician Agnieszka Brugger: "It has to be about the structures, about power and about money"

Photo: Soeren Stache / picture alliance / dpa

Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) had initiated a debate in the UN in 2019 on the connection between sexual violence and war crimes.

In the end, however, only a weakened resolution text was passed.

Sexual and reproductive health offers for rape victims were no longer mentioned.

The US feared that the paragraphs could be understood as encouraging abortions.

During the Bundestag debate on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of UN resolution 1325, the left was angry about Germany's buckling.

The Green politician Agnieszka Brugger stated that the democratic parties agreed on wanting to implement the resolution.

But that is not enough with a few more posts in foreign policy positions.

"It has to be about the structures, about power and about money," said Brugger.

Two motions from the Left and the Greens wanted to oblige Germany to a feminist foreign policy.

Both were turned away.

In essence, the two groups wanted to consider violence against people because of their gender in peace processes as well as arms exports.

Germany has announced that it will include the issue in arms exports.

But according to a report by the "Center for Feminist Foreign Policy" (CFFP), gender-based violence has hardly played a role in export decisions to this day.

The organization therefore demands that the federal government should examine whether German weapons allow gender-based violence.

Because there is no data on this either.

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