October 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of the signing of the landmark United Nations Resolution 1325 which inaugurated the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. In this context, this year’s WPS Week in New York is increasingly inaccessible for many women’s rights organisations (WROs) and civil society organisations (WROs). In response, the WPS community is mobilising collectively to host regional convenings that provide a space for those individuals and organisations that have made the WPS agenda what it is today to continue advancing their work. We are reclaiming the agenda and rooting it back into civil society.
Our shared thinking is communicated in the following Collective Statement, which is published in English, Arabic, French and Spanish.
Call to Action: Reclaiming the WPS Agenda at 25
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. This
milestone should have been a moment of reflection, recommitment, and collective mobilisation.
Instead, we are witnessing increasing exclusion, backlash, and shrinking civic space. Women’s
rights organisations, particularly those led by communities most affected by violence and conflict
are being systemically excluded from the spaces where this agenda has been shaped and
defended.
The WPS agenda was, and remains, a call to action. It emerged from decades of feminist
organising, from communities affected by conflict, from women and gender-diverse people
demanding power, protection, participation, peace and security.
We cannot celebrate an agenda of inclusion and peace while borders are closing, surveillance is
intensifying, and those advocating for gender rights and justice are harassed, intimidated,
detained, deported, or shut out. Visa barriers are a longstanding issue, however, we now face
an extreme and deliberate narrowing of civic space. Exclusionary travel bans and entry policies
have made participation in WPS Week inaccessible and unsafe for many, particularly those
from the Global South/Global Majority. Even those holding valid visas are reconsidering travel
due to the risk of being detained and deported. These are not theoretical concerns; they
are already happening.
This year’s UN Security Council Open Debate on WPS takes place under heightened political
tension and fragmentation. The WPS agenda is increasingly affected by anti-gender backlash
and racialised securitisation which makes visible feminist organising and women’s political
participation dangerous. We understand the importance of maintaining presence and pressure
within UN spaces. But our presence cannot come at the cost of safety, dignity, or principle.
Therefore, to mark the WPS 25th anniversary, we are mobilising collectively. We will not centre
New York but will centre the frontline individuals, feminist movements, and the Global Majority
who were critical in bringing UNSCR 1325 to the UN Security Council 25 years ago. Throughout
October, we will convene a series of regional WPS gatherings in Amman, Nairobi, Geneva,
Brussels, and Southeast Asia. Those who are able and want to engage with the UN Security
Council Open Debate Week in New York, both to ensure civil society’s meaningful presence and
to stand in solidarity with those unable to be there, should do so. This will amplify the messages
from our regional convenings, making clear that our mobilisation is interconnected and
collective.
These convenings will serve as spaces for collective reflection, strategy and advocacy led by
civil society – in particular by women-led organisations and those most impacted by conflict
and insecurity. They will be open to governments and allies willing to support, listen and act.
These events will be politically grounded in this statement and form part of a visible, global
reclaiming of the WPS agenda.
We are not withdrawing: we are reclaiming the WPS agenda by re-rooting it in civil society
where it continues to be lived, defended and demanded.
We call on Member States, the United Nations system, and international allies to recognise that
participation without access and influence is not inclusion, it is performance. We urge
governments and institutions to engage seriously with what this moment demands. This will
mean supporting, attending and resourcing our regional and community-led efforts to mark
the 25th WPS anniversary. This means listening to what is being said not just in formal
spaces and recognising that civil society is not asking for symbolic gestures or statements but
real action. We are asking for partnership rooted in trust, accountability, and shared
responsibility to implement and defend the WPS Agenda now and in the future.
Signatories:
- Gender Action for Peace and Security (Secretariat)
- PAX
- WO=MEN
- Conciliation Resources
- Peace Direct
- Beni Peace Forum
- Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA)
- Peace and Freedom Organisation
- Resonate Yemen
- Researchers Without Borders (REWiB)
- People’s Voice for Peace
- Envision Zimbabwe Women’s Trust
- Mwaka Nawila Foundation
- Research Initiatives for Social Development
- Chanan Development Association (CDA)
- Ladies Empowerment Goals and Support Initiative (LEGASI)
- Un Ponte Per ETS (UPP)
- Tawaza for Women’s Advocacy
- Peace and Freedom Organization
- South East Asia Women Peace Mediators
- Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies
- AJCAD Mali
- Le Réseau des Organisations de Jeunes en Action pour la Paix, la Réconciliation et le
Développement (REJA) - Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom UK (WILPF UK)
- Humanity & Inclusion
- Saferworld
- Women for Women International-UK
- REDEPAZ
- Oxfam Novib
- FARAGGER (Women Led Global Forum for Afghanistan)
- International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN)
- The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation
- Berghof Foundation
- Rethinking Security
- Wings of Peace Charitable Foundation for Development and Humanitarian Response
- ActionAid UK
- Mother of Hope Cameroon (MOHCAM)
- Women’s Platform
- Gender Initiative for Change and Social Transformation (GISOT)
Read more about this call to action on the GAPS website.
