The Conference
Decades of data show that when women do better, countries do better. But after twenty years of domestic and international Women, Peace and Security (“WPS”) initiatives, are women doing better? Are governments’ national security measures and outcomes better? How does a lack of women’s participation affect national and international security? What steps can be taken to bridge the gender gaps and improve women’s participation in peace and security initiatives?
Women offer distinctive contributions to making and keeping peace: including women in peace negotiations makes resulting agreements far less likely to fail, and higher levels of gender equality in societies and governments are associated with a lower propensity for conflict, both between and within states. Many countries have taken concrete steps to increase women’s participation in conflict prevention and peace stabilization efforts, but women still make up only a small percentage of national security leadership, cybersecurity experts, and combat forces worldwide. Moreover, women throughout societies continue to suffer disproportionately from the ravages of armed conflict, including as victims of sexual violence.
Twenty years ago, the United Nations Security Council affirmed the importance of women’s participation in preventing and resolving violent conflict and in maintaining stable peace processes when it passed Resolution 1325 and its progeny. In recognition of the Resolution’s impending twentieth anniversary and the numerous follow-on efforts since, this one-day public symposium seeks to introduce participants to WPS initiatives advancing its four pillars and explore how far have we have come towards realizing the Resolution’s goals.
The first of its two panels will address WPS initiatives in the United States, defining the term “WPS” and engaging in a status-check on the implementation and realization of the U.S. National WPS Action Plan, the 2019 U.S. Strategy on Women, Peace, and Security, and recent U.S. WPS legislation. The second panel will address international efforts to further Resolution 1325 goals, reflecting on the core recommendations of the 2015 U.N. Global Study on SCR 1325’s implementation and comparative global progress.
The symposium will conclude with a keynote fireside chat with Michèle Flournoy – a former Under Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Defense and a leader in the U.S. national security space who has worked to promote gender equality and women’s participation in military and civilian national security positions at home and abroad.
This program has been approved for 2.5 ethics CLE credits for Pennsylvania lawyers. CLE credit may be available in other jurisdictions as well. Attendees seeking CLE credit should bring separate payment in the amount of $100.00 ($50.00 public interest/non-profit attorneys) cash or check made payable to The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania.
Schedule
Location: University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, 3501 Sansom Street, Philadelphia PA
| 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm | Registration |
| 1:30 pm – 1:45 pm | Welcome Remarks |
| 1:45 pm – 3:00 pm | Panel 1 – Status-Check on WPS Initiatives in the United StatesImplementation of Resolution 1325 initially faced significant hurdles in the United States, including Congressional concerns that implementation could allow the United Nations to infringe upon U.S. sovereignty. After years of Congressional obstinance, in 2011 President Obama took matters into his own hands and issued Executive Order 13595, which outlined a U.S. approach to the Resolution’s four pillars. An initial National Action Plan soon followed. After this comparatively late start, the United States has been playing catch-up to implement the Resolution’s goals. But in just a few short years, WPS has gained bipartisan support in Congress and beyond. Indeed, in 2017 President Trump signed the Women, Peace, and Security Act into law.Potential issues to be explored by this panel include the following: How does current U.S. government programming comport with both the WPS Act and the original aims of the U.S. National Action Plan? Has U.S. WPS policy remained consistent? What are key “action items” identified the WPS Act? How is the United States integrating WPS training into its military and civilian education and national security strategy? Do additional hurdles remain to U.S. implementation of WPS initiatives? Mindful that the next Presidential WPS strategy due in 2021, what are the United States’ strengths and weaknesses on WPS that should be addressed Moderator: Ms. Alexandra A.K. Meise, CERL Senior Fellow; Adjunct Professor of International Human Rights Law, Georgetown University Law Panelists: Amb. Melanne Verveer, The first U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues, Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security Ms. Jenna Ben-Yehuda, CEO and President of Truman National Security Project; Founder of the Women’s Foreign Policy Network Professor Joan Johnson Freese, Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College. Author of Women, Peace and Security: An Introduction Ms. Angelic Young, Director of Training for Law Enforcement, Anti-Defamation League Ms. Lyric Thompson, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the International Center for Research on Women |
| 3:00 pm – 3:15 pm | Break |
| 3:15 pm – 4:30 pm | Panel 2 – International Efforts to Promote WPS Initiatives – What Now?This panel will explore the successes and challenges of international efforts to further Resolution 1325’s goals. In recognition of the Resolution’s fifteenth anniversary milestone, the Security Council commissioned a comprehensive study of the its global best practices, action priorities, implementation challenges, and related emerging trends. The subsequent meeting that reviewed the study included the “best-attended open debate in the history of the Security Council.” But the enthusiasm of that attendance belies ongoing difficulties in its implementation. For example, as of December 2018, only 40% of U.N. Member States had adopted a National Action Plan for implementation.Potential issues to be explored by this panel include the following: What accounts for the gap between purported government interest in WPS issues and formal adoption of government National Action Plans? Are the Resolution’s goals helping or hurting advancement of the rule of law internationally? Which states are making the most progress towards implementing the goals? Which states are lagging further behind? Are the 2015 U.N. Global Study recommendations being followed? What should the Security Council do to help promote the Resolution’s goals? How has foreign direct investment and foreign aid helped or hindered advancement of the goals? Moderator: Dr. Rangita de Silva de Alwis, Associate Dean for International Affairs at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Panelists: Ms. Irene Khan, Director- General of the International Development Law Organization Ms. Farahnaz Ispahani, Global Fellow at Wilson Center and Adviser to the Prime Minister of Pakistan (2008-2012) Ms. Funmi Balogun, South Sudan Country Representative for U.N. Women |
| 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm | Keynote – Women Driving Change through Red Tape: Policymaking in the World’s Biggest Bureaucracy – Ms. Michèle Flournoy, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from February 2009 to February 2012 The Paul G. Haaga, Jr. Lecture in Law, Government, and Public Policy |
| 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm | Reception |
Keynote
February 11, 2020
4:30 pm – 6:00 pm Fitts Auditorium
University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Women Driving Change through Red Tape: Policymaking in the World’s Biggest Bureaucracy
featuring Michèle Flournoy, Chief Executive Officer, WestExec Advisors, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from February 2009 to February 2012, and moderated by CERL Faculty Director Professor Claire Finkelstein
As Under Secretary, Ms. Flournoy was the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense in the formulation of national security and defense policy, oversight of military plans and operations, and National Security Council deliberations.
During her time in that position, the United States was debating the formulation of an action plan required by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, a ground-breaking resolution on Women, Peace and Security (“WPS”) adopted to address the under-valued and under-utilized contributions of women as active agents in peace and security.
In this “fireside chat” with Claire Finkelstein, Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at Penn, Ms. Flournoy will talk about her experience devising front-line U.S. defense policy, her leadership in security strategy, and her role in developing new U.S. policy in line with domestic and international women, peace, and security efforts.
This lecture has been made possible through the generosity of Paul G. Haaga, Jr. (Penn Law class ’74; The Wharton School ’74) and Heather Haaga. Mr. Haaga chairs the executive board of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL).
This event is free and open to the public.
This program has been approved for 1.5 ethics CLE credits for Pennsylvania lawyers. CLE credit may be available in other jurisdictions as well. Attendees seeking CLE credit should bring separate payment in the amount of $60.00 ($30.00 public interest/non-profit attorneys) cash or check made payable to The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania.
Webcasts
Participants
Ms. Funmi Balogun
South Sudan Country Representative for U.N. Women
CEO and President, Truman National Security Project; Founder of the Women’s Foreign Policy Network
Victims’ Rights Advocate for the United Nations
Associate Dean for International Affairs, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
CERL Founder & Faculty Director; Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania
Chief Executive Officer, WestExec Advisors, Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from February 2009 to February 2012
NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for Women Peace and Security
Professor of National Security Affairs, U.S. Naval War College; Author of Women, Peace and Security: An Introduction
CERL, Senior Fellow; Adjunct Professor of International Human Rights Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Director of Policy and Advocacy, International Center for Research on Women
The first U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues; Executive Director, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security
Director of Training for Law Enforcement, Anti-Defamation League
Background Readings
LAWS
- US Women, Peace and Security Act of 2017
- US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Report on the Women, Peace and Security Act of 2017
GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS
- United States National Action Plan for Women, Peace and Security (2016)
- United States Strategy for Women, Peace and Security (2019)
- Australia Committee, UN Women: Women, Peace & Security: An Introductory Model
NEWS ARTICLES, BLOGS, & OTHER PUBLICATIONS
- Civil Society Open Letter to Permanent Representatives to the United Nations: Recommendations on the Security Council Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security (October 2019)
- J. Johnson-Freese and A. Goldstein, “How the Pentagon Can Build on NATO’s Success with Women, Peace & Security” (May 2019)
- R. Brooks, “Tear Down the Foreign-Policy Glass Ceiling!” Foreign Policy (June 2015)
- H. Lynch, K. McGill, H. Proctor, “The Limitations of the 2019 US Women, Peace and Security Strategy, WIIS Blog (July 2019)
- R. Vogelstein & J. Bigio, “Three Things to Know: The Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017,” Council on Foreign Relations (Oct. 2017)
- L. Seligman, “Women Look to 2020 to Break the National Security Glass Ceiling,” Foreign Policy (Aug. 2019)
UN DOCUMENTS
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (Annotated)
- Global Study on the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 (2015)
- Report of the Secretary-General on women and peace and security (S/2016/822)
SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS & OTHER RESEARCH
- Independent Commission on Multilaterialism, Women, Peace, and Security (2016 study)
- P. Kirby and L. Shepherd, “Reintroducing women, peace and security,” Int’l Affairs (2016)
- M. Bachelet, “Women as Agents of Peace and Stability: Measuring the Results” in Women on the Frontlines of Peace and Security, (National Defense University Press, 2014)
- B. Kapur and M. Rees, “WPS and Conflict Prevention” in The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace, and Security (2019)
- R. Coomaraswamy and E. Kenn, “Global Study: Looking Forward” in The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace, and Security (2019)
- V. M. Hudson and L. Eason, “The Challenge of Foreign Policy in the WPS Agenda” in The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace, and Security (2019)
- S. E. Davies and J. True, “Women, Peace, and Security: A Transformative Agenda?” in The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace, and Security (2019)
- S. W. Eddyono and S. E. Davies, “Women’s Roles in CVE” in The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace, and Security (2019)
- “Student Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of the Women Peace and Security Agenda,” Women, Peace and Security: Security Council Open Debate, United Nations, NY, Oct. 29, 2019, Penn Law
- J. Johnson-Freese, Women, Peace and Security: An Introduction (Routledge 2018)
Contact us
For any questions regarding the conference or registration, please contact: Jennifer Cohen at [email protected]