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Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women works to achieve women empowerment, gender equality and elimination of discrimination against women and girls. UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world.
In South Sudan, UN women support national priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with government, civil society and other relevant actors. Through the “Gender mainstreaming in Security Sector Reform” project, UN Women aims to support the establishment of a representative, inclusive and gender-responsive South Sudanese security sector that ensures the meaningful participation of women at all levels of the security institutions, and prioritizes the protection and promotion of human rights of civilians, especially of women and girls at community levels, and contributes to the sustainability of peacebuilding efforts. The project supports security sector reform (SSR) that provides the blueprint for facilitating inclusive peacebuilding and social cohesion in local communities through women’s participation in the design of its laws, policies, and practices.
The project is guided by the Security Council resolution 2151 (2014), which identifies core standards and principles of the UN support to national SSR processes. The resolution underscores the need for the “inclusion of more women in the security sector” and notes the importance of the “equal and effective participation and full involvement of women in the SSR process, given their vital role in the prevention and resolution of conflict and peacebuilding”. Furthermore, the project is also guided by the WPS SCRs 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013) and 2467 (2019), which expressly highlight the necessity of integrating women’s needs and priorities into the UN’s support to SSR.
Aligning with South Sudan’s national priority, the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), signed on 12th September 2018, also guides the implementation of the project. The R-ARCSS provides important entry points to include women’s experiences with security sector institutions in anticipated security sector reforms under the R-ARCSS. Chapter Two of the peace agreement addresses transitional security arrangements and articulates a reform package of the security sector. In line with this, the parties to the R-ARCSS have been making efforts to realize the security sector reform. However, patriarchal norms and negative masculinities may make it difficult to include women and consider their participation as part of the security sector reforms in the different security institutions.
CONTEXT OF THE ASSIGNMENT:
The promotion of gender equality in the security sector is a core element of global, regional, national, and local efforts to “build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels” as enshrined in Goal 16 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. For example, the 2019 High-Level Roundtable on Gender Parity and SSR recommended the Member States and the UN to join efforts to:
(i) increase the proportion of women at all levels of the security sector institutions, in particular in senior positions;
(ii) prevent and respond to gender-based discrimination in the security sector work-place;
(iii) promote the empowerment of women in the security sector and their networks; and;
(iv) enhance availability of data of women in the national security institutions to track progress and promote accountability to the implementation of the Goal 16.
Since gaining independence in July 2011, South Sudan has signed and/or ratified a significant number of international and regional agreements/instruments on gender equality to promote and protect the rights of women and girls in all sectors and institutions. This constitutes the Government’s commitment to promote and protect the rights of women and girls on an equal basis with men, including ensuring the meaningful participation of women at all levels of the security institutions of South Sudan based on the gender equality principle enshrined in the regional and international agreements/instruments signed and/or ratified by South Sudan. The national security sector institutions to be targeted in this project include the Ministry of Defense and Veterans Affairs, Ministry of Interior, South Sudan National Police Service, South Sudan People’s Defense Forces, South Sudan Prisons Services and Strategic Defense and Security Review Board, the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Commission and any other relevant security sector institutions that are part of the R-ARCSS.
To strengthen gender analysis of women’s engagement with institutions that are tasked with negotiating, monitoring, and implementing the provisions of the Peace Agreement, UN Women is engaging with the Joint Transitional Security Committee (JTSC) within the Security Sector Reform (SSR) to ensure gender mainstreaming of the sector through the engendering of the training curricula of the unified forces as per the R-ARCSS provisions.
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