Engage Men towards Feminist Peace

During a lively briefing on 27 January 2025 for NGOs in the Netherlands about the 69th UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), experts from diverse backgrounds presented their pitches about key topics of importance for the delegation to keep in mind while engaging in the upcoming CSW negotiations.

The sixth pitch was contributed by Ilse Wermink, Policy Advisor on Gender Peace and Security at PAX. For personal reasons she could not attend the meeting and her statement was read by Yara Bon, WO=MEN. PAX is an international organisation that has over 75 years of experience working with local organisations for global peace.

From militarisation
Military expenditure is at an all time high, while the world is seeing a devastating peak in conflict-related fatalities. Gender is central to all this. Militarisation should not be glorified or normalized.

In 1995, states committed through the Beijing Platform for Action to “reduce excessive military expenditures, control the availability of armaments and promote non-violent forms of conflict resolution”. Now more than ever this is needed!

... to feminist peace
By understanding and transforming how dominant patriarchal masculinities shape institutions, communities and intimate lives to heroize violence, military, and engagement in armed conflict. And by engaging men towards feminist peace, transforming gender norms and systems, and facilitating inclusive peace processes that see the full participation of women in all their diversity.

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