The passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (SCR 1325) in 2000 was a legal milestone for women’s rights to equality and non-discrimination. For the first time the UN Security Council not only recognized the gender-biased impact of internal or country conflict,  it also mandated that the UN itself and all member states erect and monitor enforceable protections from such gender-based violence. However, there is still an urgent need to address:

• The lack of any systematic progress towards parity for women as decision-makers in UN sponsored and other peace negotiations;
• The failure to recognize SCR 1325 as a binding international law, particularly, as applicable to transitional justice processes;
• The total exclusion of women stakeholders from such pariah states as Burma who are forced to operate only in exile and because of their difficult legal status are prevented from travel and access to critical  INGO and UN networking;
• The discrimination against women survivors/victims of conflict from certain countries like Iraq where the politicized nature of the conflict has led to such actions as the de facto UN “blacklisting”, stopping any UN  support to the war crimes tribunal or to women victims of gender crimes under the Saddam regime;
• The absence of any penalties or sanctions for repeated violations of SCR 1325 or country funding conditions based on compliance in country action plans.

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