25th Anniversary of UNSC Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security
Feminist Peacebuilding in an Age of Backlash
The year 2025 marks two major milestones in the global struggle for gender equality and peace: the 25th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) and the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. UNSCR 1325 and its follow-up resolutions set a global precedent by recognizing the unique and disproportionate gendered impacts of conflict, and the essential role of women in preventing conflict, resolving disputes and building sustainable peace. Adopted on 31 October 2000, the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) established a foundational normative framework that not only addresses women’s rights and gender equality in conflict and post-conflict settings, but also, for the first time, formally recognizes the critical roles women play in conflict resolution and peacebuilding. This resolution, reinforced by nine subsequent resolutions, established a global normative framework for gender equality in peace and security processes.
Against the backdrop of a world increasingly affected by violent conflict, democratic decline, and intensified pushback against gender equality, anti-discrimination policies and feminist achievements, these anniversaries offer a timely and critical opportunity to reflect on both the progress made and the ongoing as well as emerging challenges facing the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda.
This dossier explores whether the gains of the past 25 years have laid a resilient and transformative foundation for feminist and gender-transformative approaches in peacebuilding, as well as in foreign, security and development policy. The experts that wrote articles for this dossier invite us to zoom into concrete examples from different countries where the WPS agenda has been implemented.
