The Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) attended this year’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) week at the United Nations, an annual event held in October to highlight the importance of gender equality in peace-building efforts around the world. The global WPS agenda is based around UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which aims to increase women’s participation in peace processes, combat gender-based violence, and ensure women’s inclusion in decision-making.
The week was filled with conferences, side events, and an open debate on WPS at the UN Security Council. The mood was hopeful, but tense. The survival of this agenda at an international level faces myriad challenges- political will, funding, disagreements over the proper attitude towards militarism and self-defense, and the need for stronger monitoring and enforcement mechanisms. Though there are successes in some places, the situation for Afghan women was of particular focus. The inability for the international system to address this worsening situation is unfortunately indicative of the weakness of wider global will on these issues.
The SDC’s presence at the UN, however, offered a counter-example. The SDC and the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria do not struggle from a lack of political will around women’s leadership. DAANES has created a system of governance that guarantees full-gender parity in decision-making and peace-making, and has implemented gender-sensitive laws protecting women from violence and programs supporting women’s health, education, and economic empowerment.
During the week, the SDC announced the creation of its own WPS national action plan (NAP) for the DAANES to codify these achievements. NAPs are country-specific strategies that form the crux of the global agenda for implementing UNSCR 1325’s internationally agreed upon goals, most of which the DAANES has reached or surpassed. And yet DAANES is not a country. The fact that the DAANES has achieved success on these issues despite its status as a regional actor, brings up larger questions about the UNSCR 1325, and where the international community can look for success stories to guide the future direction of the WPS agenda.
Regional actors like the DAANES face unique challenges when collaborating with international resolutions, and trying to tap into the international network built to support nation-states. This is also true for participation in peace-making in general, especially in the Syrian context. Within the wider negotiations at the UN level, the DAANES’ status as a regional actor keeps it at arm’s length, despite controlling a third of Syrian territory.
The SDC’s presence at the UN during WPS week was a reminder that local governance models, and innovations outside state agendas, are crucial to advance the WPS agenda, especially in conflict-affected regions.