In partnership with the Governments of Australia and the Republic of Korea, UN Women developed a five-year Regional Framework Towards Inclusive and Peaceful Societies, outlining strategies to tackle the most pressing governance and peace and security challenges across the Asia-Pacific region. This brief summarizes key approaches under the framework.

Indonesia recognizes that a stable, just and peaceful society cannot be achieved without acknowledging and highlighting women’s important role in building peace, preventing conflict and addressing emerging security threats such as climate change and violent extremism. Within the global framework of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), Indonesia has endeavoured to localize the WPS agenda into a National Action Plan (NAP). In 2014, through a Presidential Decree (Perpres No. 18), the first NAP for the Protection and Empowerment of Women and Children during Social Conflicts, also known as NAP WPS, was launched. It included three pillars: prevention, mitigation and empowerment, and participation of women and children.

Since the adoption of UNSCR 1325 in 2000, and to ensure the protection and participation of women, including in conflict-affected settings, Thailand has localized and implemented UNSCR 1325 by prioritizing full, equal and meaningful participation of women in peacebuilding and by integrating the WPS agenda into both existing or newly developed national laws and policies, especially those related to women and gender.

To effectively meet these challenges in the years ahead— and to avoid a backslide in women’s rights and the progress that has been achieved on the WPS agenda—continued efforts and stronger partnerships are needed to ensure that women’s voices, including young women’s voices, are heard and respected and that their leadership is strengthened across all sectors. This brief outlines how the UN Women Regional Office in Asia and the Pacific will support the implementation of the WPS agenda in the region for the years to come.

Gender equality is a precondition for achieving Sustainable Development Goals and any kind of meaningful and sustained progress, including in laying out the foundation for peaceful and resilient societies. This brief outlines how the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific will support inclusive governance processes in the region for the years to come.

This brief provides an evidence-based analysis of recent trends in online hate speech. Focused on Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, this brief analyses misogynistic hate speech which has occurred in the context of increasing polarization, shrinking democratic space and the ongoing gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through this programme, UN Women contributed to the implementation of the Secretary General’s Plan of Action on Preventing Violent Extremism and to the achievement of the Agenda 2030 goals, particularly SDG 16 on promoting peaceful and inclusive societies, and Goal 5 on promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment.

UN Women in India has adopted a multi-pronged approach to advance the goal of gender equality through interventions that support the formulation of gender policies and norms at par with global standards. Our Inter-governmental Processes (IGP) programme works with the Government of India in supporting an enabling environment necessary for the fulfillment of India’s international commitments to advance the goal of gender equality. Through the Generation Equality Forum (GEF) initiative, we provide a platform for dialogue and action on gender-based issues. Our support of global peacekeeping efforts has ensured that women play a decisive leadership role in UN humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts. UN Women has an important role in working across the UN in India, supporting and coordinating the UN system’s work in support of gender equality and the empowerment of women.

The project is implemented with the generous support of the Government of the Republic of Korea, and the Government of Australia under the Cyber & Critical Tech Cooperation Program, and falls under the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific Regional Framework Towards Peaceful, Inclusive Societies: Advancing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda and Inclusive Governance in the Asia Pacific Region. Learn more about UN Women’s approaches to conflict-sensitive and gender-responsive cybersecurity in this brief.

The second thematic brief looks at the legal and justice system changes and implications for gender equality and women’s rights in Afghanistan since the Taliban take-over on 15 August 2021. While incremental progress was made prior to August 2021 to advance access to justice for women and girls in Afghanistan, there has been an observable and swift backslide. Institutions and infrastructure supporting the legal rights of women, such as legal aid and shelters, have been largely dismantled.

This ‘Easy Read’ document highlights the key learnings and recommendations discussed during the joint event ‘Access to Justice for Women With Intellectual and Psychosocial Disabilities,’ led by UN Women in partnership with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Irish Centre for Human Rights, University of Galway and the International Disability Alliance, during the World Justice Forum 2022.

Women with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities are among the most marginalized of the estimated 690 million persons with disabilities living in Asia and the Pacific. This brief analyses the key barriers women with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities face in accessing justice and proposes targeted actions to close the justice gap.

The brief concluded that the indirect ramifications of dismissing women staff in the media sector removes them from public space, contributing to the retreat of women into domestic environments. The justification underpinning this retreat is often that of protecting women, which normalizes the narrative that women are inherently vulnerable and require protection, erasing their agency and vital contribution to a pluralistic society.

Pathways for women’s meaningful participation, across all levels of decision-making in politics, the media, the security sector and conflict prevention and resolution mechanisms which, despite challenges, had previously been possible, are currently non-existent. In the lead-up of the Global Open Debate, UN Women Afghanistan run a serios of in-country consultations with Afghan women leaders from diverse sectors in October 2022. The infor­mation presented in this briefs captures the views and policy recommendation of Afghan women on the relevance of the WPS agenda to Afghanistan.

This advocacy brief was developed by representatives from women’s civil society organizations (CSOs), digital rights organizations, think tanks, academia and cyber-defenders in Southeast Asia, with the support of UN Women. It emphasizes the importance of cybersecurity and its gendered implications for implementing the Women, Peace and Security agenda

The impacts of multiple, overlapping crises arising from climate change, pandemics and conflict disproportionately affect women, exacerbate existing inequalities and deepen power imbalances. In contexts where disasters and conflict risks intersect, responses need to recognize that women perform various roles in disaster and conflict prevention, have access to different information and services, and are impacted differently — yet they are overwhelmingly excluded from decision-making processes and mechanisms.

UN Women and UNDP have piloted a training programme on Non-Violent Communication – a method which has found success in international mediation and conflict resolution settings – in Bangladesh, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. The project was generously supported by the Government of Australia and the European Union. This brief provides an overview of the approaches used in the pilot project and presents results from the evaluations of the trainings.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the extent to which women peace builders use ICT and digital solutions to support their work. Although gender biases in these technologies hinder equal and safe online engagement, digital peace building and online civic engagement are venues for increased opportunities for women peace builders to advance their work. Digital solutions will play important roles in several key peace building areas. This brief outlines some of the challenges and opportunities that AI carries for the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda in Southeast Asia.

The regional project Empowering Women for Sustainable Peace: Preventing Violence and Promoting Social Cohesion in ASEAN aims to achieve the ultimate goal that ASEAN Member States will advance and strengthen the implementation of the WPS agenda, including preventing violence against women and girls and promoting social cohesion in the region.

The regional project Empowering Women for Sustainable Peace seeks to operationalize a simple but revolutionary idea first introduced in the landmark United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) – that peace is inextricably linked to equality between men and women.