Empty Words or Real Achievement? The Impact of Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women in Armed Conflicts

Abstract

On October 31, 2000, the Security Council of the United Nations (UN) adopted Resolution 1325 as the first comprehensive document on strengthening the role of women and girls in conflict and postconflict situations. The article reviews the resolution's history and examines its potential for the advancement of women. The characteristic advantage of Resolution 1325 is its central idea of the empowerment of women in conflict and postconflict settings. However, have the objectives of the resolution been adequately endorsed at the international level? Have they been sufficiently implemented at the national level? Or have the commitments of Resolution 1325 remained empty words without further impact? The article explores the case of Uganda to illustrate the effects of the resolution on women as peace-builders in a national context and discusses the advances in addressing gender issues in postconflict justice processes. It concludes that many of the commitments outlined in Resolution 1325 still remain to be implemented—at the level of the UN as well as in national contexts.