The first-ever Regional Open Day on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS), held in Amman from 2 to 4 December, underscored the continuing importance of the WPS agenda in the Arab region while highlighting persistent challenges. Close to 100 participants, including government representatives, policymakers, UN entities, international partners, and women-led civil society organizations from across the region, gathered to assess progress, share experiences, and identify pathways for advancing WPS in conflict-affected and post-conflict contexts. The event marked the 25th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and offered a solutions-oriented appraisal of where the agenda stands and the risks it faces.
Participants recognized meaningful strides in the region, including the adoption of nine National Action Plans (NAPs), some now in their second or third generations. These NAPs reflect strong political will, institutional engagement, and collaboration between governments and civil society. However, speakers emphasized that adoption alone is insufficient. Effective, adequately resourced implementation is crucial to translating commitments into tangible improvements in the lives of women affected by conflict and crisis. Without strategic action, progress risks being undermined by shrinking civic space, declining global aid, rising militarization, and anti-rights backlash.
Key priorities identified at the Open Day focused on localizing the WPS agenda, ensuring civil society inclusion, and strengthening accountability. Participants stressed the importance of grounding policies in women’s lived realities and involving women at the grassroots level, rather than drafting NAPs solely in government or UN offices. Embedding WPS principles—participation, protection, prevention, and relief and recovery—into education, media, youth engagement, and formal peacebuilding processes was highlighted as critical for sustainable change. Civil society actors must be recognized as co-architects of peace, with mechanisms to ensure meaningful participation of women, including marginalized groups such as women with disabilities or from minority communities.
Accountability emerged as a central concern. Discussions called for closing legal gaps that allow perpetrators of violence against women, including conflict-related sexual violence, to evade justice, and for protecting women human rights defenders. Participants emphasized leveraging domestic and international mechanisms to amplify women’s voices, pursue justice, and end impunity. Strengthening regional feminist networks was also seen as essential to monitoring commitments, exposing violations, and sustaining pressure for reform.
The backlash against women’s rights, driven by conservative social forces, restrictive legal frameworks, shrinking civic space, and deliberate efforts to delegitimize feminist advocacy, was identified as a structural barrier. In contexts such as Palestine, intersecting power structures and political occupation exacerbate these challenges, limiting women’s protection, civic participation, and leadership. Safeguarding women’s rights narratives and fostering solidarity among gender equality actors were underscored as vital strategies to resist fragmentation and counteract these pressures.
Civil society participants drafted a shared vision for the next phase of WPS implementation, emphasizing institutionalized participation, justice-centered accountability, and local ownership. The roadmap prioritizes power-sharing with women and civil society actors, linking meaningful engagement to decision-making authority, accountability for violations, and sustained, flexible financing. Regional and international institutions were urged to deepen engagement with women-led civil society actors and ensure political will, institutional openness, and adequate resources to maintain momentum.
Twenty-five years after the adoption of UNSCR 1325, the consensus from the Amman gathering was clear: progress without accountability, resources, and local ownership is fragile. The WPS agenda remains critical in the Arab region, particularly amid ongoing conflicts and political transitions. The post-25-year phase requires decisive action to position women as architects of peace and security, delivering real impact rather than renewing commitments alone.
