Click here to download the report's fact-sheet

Introduction

The current, global reality for women and girls indicates that they are the most-affected victims of armed conflicts, directly and indirectly, whether before, during, or after. More than twenty years after the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (Resolution 1325), which garnered international recognition, the women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda remains the cornerstone for building more just and prosperous human societies. However, Resolution 1325 remains ink on paper. Over the past twenty years, it has become clear that the efforts made by countries have not been enough to ensure a just world that has achieved gender equality. Numerous speeches still echo through the halls and corridors of the United Nations but have failed to effect positive change on the experiences of women and girls in several regions across the world.

The Arab region is no different, especially in the countries where the so-called Arab Spring took place. These countries have always experienced divisions and civil wars that have victimized women and children of both sexes. The Palestinian experience in particular cannot be considered separately from the people’s daily endurance of the Israeli occupation, whether in the West Bank, Jerusalem, or the Gaza Strip, even if the particulars of their experiences take on different forms in the various Palestinian communities. The Palestinian political division and the catastrophic multi-level effects on the reality in Palestine cannot go unnoticed, especially in light of the high rates of unemployment and poverty, the decline of the civil peace system, and the disruption of the Legislative Council, whose legal mandate has ended according to the law due to the political division. The cumulative effect is, unsurprisingly, Palestinian policymakers’ inability to develop policies and procedures to implement Resolution 1325.

One of the main aspects of the philosophy of knowledge building aims to see and understand the world through various perspectives. In our study, we seek to understand the experiences of women who suffer from discrimination by integrating theoretical knowledge with practice; it is our belief that the discrimination against women, and their exclusion from different friends, limits our ability to fully understand the problems facing a society, and that women’s experiences could open our eyes to new methods of pursuing solutions to existing problems. In fact, the incorporating the concrete experiences of women enhances credibility in fact-finding processes. The study examines and analyzes Resolution 1325 through the eyes of women, discusses the reality of Resolution 1325 in the Palestinian territories, and sheds light on the four principles enshrined in the resolution: protection, relief and recovery, accountability, and political participation.