Three civil society organizations, PeaceWomen Across the Globe, cfd – the feminist peace organization and KOFF – the Swiss Platform for Peacebuilding, are currently at the forefront of a Swiss experiment with feminist foreign policy. 

In 2000 the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 1325 marked the single biggest achievement in the history of feminist advocacy at the multilateral level. It was the first time that a gender analysis was integrated at the highest level of international security politics. After years of feminist peace activism, it was finally stipulated that special measures were needed for women’s protection during war as well as for their participation in peace processes in order to ensure lasting conflict prevention.

History has shown feminist activists however that adoption is only the first milestone. It all stands or falls with the implementation. This is why Swiss civil society has closely observed the implementation of Resolution 1325 in the past years, by critically monitoring the so-called National Action Plans (NAP), which are the official vehicles for implementation. To this end a shadow report was written on the last National Action Plan. This is in and of itself remarkable because resolution 1325 unlike other UN frameworks, such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women for instance, does not have an accountability mechanism. It was this unique instrument that served as a springboard for the closer collaboration between Swiss civil society and Switzerland’s Foreign Ministry. 

For the first time in history, the current Swiss National Action Plan involves civil society as an active partner in the implementation of resolution 1325. Sweden was the first country to officially announce a feminist foreign policy in 2014 and considers this kind of cooperation key for an effective feminist foreign policy. 

Our main objective throughout this four-year long project is to strengthen a gender-sensitive peace policy in Swiss international politics, to raise public awareness around the UN resolution 1325 and to show its relevance for the domestic realm. A cornerstone of our work is to show that women’s participation in political processes requires certain socio-economic conditions in the first place, which is linked to a feminist approach to human security. We rely heavily on the un(der)paid care work overwhelmingly shouldered by women across the globe. This also goes for the strenuous times of conflict. By documenting the practical experiences of feminist civil society in the areas of women’s participation and care-work, we strive to demonstrate both: 1. that women are effectively already champions of peacebuilding, except that it is neither visible nor valued and 2. that this burden has to be redistributed if we want them to be equal participants in the established and acknowledged processes.