Localising UNSCR 1325: Assessing Pakistan’s Women, Peace and Security Agenda

Fri, January 16, 2026

UNSCR 1325 (2000) links women, peace and security (WPS), recognising that conflict affects women and men differently and women can play a crucial role in its prevention, peace-building and security. Thus related decisions must include women. UNSCR 1325 aims to localise the international plan, but national action plans are needed. Over 100 states have NAPs, which must be based on: prevention, participation, protection, and relief & recovery. UNSCR 1325 can be localised via NAP to improve policy framework, enhance budgeting and create better reporting and accountability tools.

UNSC has adopted seven more WPS-related resolutions. UNSCR 2242 has steps to make NAPs more sustainable; stressing data collection on conflict’s impact on women, CSO capacity building, and women’s integration into peace and security. As peace ambassadors, women bridge divides in communities, understand societal needs, and have access to areas and info that men don’t, enabling them to increase security forces’ operational effectiveness and inspire inclusivity. Localising UNSCR 1325 means adapting global WPS commitments to local policies, institutions and practices by including women’s development and role in peace in manifestos, and a consultative process for drafting NAPs based on measurable indicators, monitoring and reporting and budget allocation.

Localising UNSCR 1325 faces structural, cultural, and political issues, weak institutional capacity, lack of trained staff, and weak monitoring mechanisms. Social norms often restrict women’s inclusion in decision-making and conflict resolution. Without a NAP, institutional commitment, and broader societal support, efforts are driven more by civil society than government.

Gender bias and security challenges hinder women’s local engagement as peacebuilders through NGOs and community networks in conflict-affected areas. Media should amplify importance of women’s participation in peace and security and role of successful women. Post-18th Amendment women’s development has devolved to the provinces, with varying levels of will and capacity. Women’s development needs coordination. Weak civil society and government collaboration hampers unified advocacy.

UN resolutions link women, peace & security.

Weak coordination between governments has largely rendered women’s development donor-driven. A security approach based mainly on a kinetic approach shrinks space for women in peacebuilding, viewed as ‘non-essential’. Including ‘gender security’ in our first National Security Policy 2022-2026 is a federal initiative; implementation needs more provincial effort. No security policy is successful without a gendered lens as half our population comprises women, whose increased presence in law enforcement, decision-making and the justice sector is crucial for equitable access to public services. UN Women plays an important role in conducting gender gap analysis, identifying structural gendered weaknesses in security policy, supporting gender-responsive policies and building institutional capacity.

In KP, the Peace and Justice Network worked with UNDP to enhance female LG representatives’ capacity and decision-making involvement. LGs can enable women to contribute to peace and security, but participation is often symbolic. In Punjab, 14 per cent of LG seats are reserved for women; KP and Balochistan reserve 33pc and Sindh 22pc. Increasing women’s role in peace needs more accommodation by a male-dominated CJS.

LJCP figures show: out of a total 3,142 judges, 572 (18pc) are female; of 230,879 lawyers, 40,000 (17pc) are women; of 2,210 prosecutors, 341 (15pc) are female. With 521 women judges in the district judiciary, the highest female representation is in KP (28pc); Islamabad (20pc); Punjab (19pc); Sindh (14pc); Balo­chistan (12pc). As of 2023, women in police make up 3.2pc (15,509 female officers out of 489,645); Punjab, 4.4pc; Sindh 2.62pc; KP 1.46pc; Balochistan 1.74 pc, and Islamabad 5.04pc. Increasing their security representation will help realise UNSCR 1325’s ideals.

Lack of accurate WPS data limits planning and evaluation in UNSCR 1325 initiatives. Women representation in peace processes is limited, especially in peace committees and conflict resolution bodies. Lack of a dedicated budget reduces long-term WPS initiatives scope. While the SDGs don’t explicitly address WPS, SDG 5 and SDG 16 have related targets. Policymakers must go beyond acknowledging women’s contributions — from talk to commitment, commitment to action, and action to impact isn’t easy.

Synchronising national and local laws is a huge task. In developing societies, the focus is on enacting laws and expanding institutions. Real progress lies in promoting women’s inclusion in decision-making and policymaking.

The writer is a published author. The article is based on a talk delivered on ‘The Implementation and localising UNSCR 1325’.

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