The following are highlights from the foreword by Under-Secretary-General Jean-Pierre Lacroix to the Women, Peace and Security Highlights of UN Peacekeeping in 2023 report, “Navigating Challenges and Driving Change.”
In 2023, despite many challenges, peacekeepers helped support political solutions to conflict, monitored ceasefires, protected civilians from violence and strengthened the role of women in all peace efforts. They strived to do all this in a gender-responsive manner.
With the rapid spread and intensity of armed conflicts and protracted crises, heavily impacting women and girls worldwide, the call of the Secretary-General to implement the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda is more urgent than ever. It is central to our work to achieve long-lasting political solutions and peace.
The annual report provides excellent examples of our work on gender equality and WPS. Our missions in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan worked to ensure women’s meaningful participation in political processes, including elections. In Abyei and Kosovo, UNISFA and UNMIK took a strong stance on violence against women. In Cyprus and Lebanon, community engagement by the missions strived to ensure that the voices of women, including young women, are heard in decision making. Before its drawdown, the peacekeeping mission in Mali supported women’s safety and their meaningful participation in electoral and political processes, peacebuilding and reconciliation efforts.
Alongside my colleagues across UN Peacekeeping, and through the Action for Peacekeeping Plus initiative, we remain steadfast in our efforts to make women’s meaningful participation in peace and political processes a reality, to continue strengthening the gender-responsiveness of our operations and increase the number of women peacekeepers.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix
Under-Secretary-General, Department of Peace Operations