Women’s voices and leadership are key to sustaining peace, stability and development in the region. ASEAN is committed to advancing women, peace and security (WPS) as a regional priority agenda.

The WPS agenda in ASEAN is guided by the commitments to implement the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) and other related resolutions on women, peace and security. Other key reference instruments are the Beijing Platform for Action, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and ASEAN policy statements and plans of action on the promotion of the women, peace and security agenda as well as the protection of women’s rights.

Since the adoption of the Joint Statement on Promoting Women, Peace, and Security in ASEAN by ASEAN Leaders at the 31st ASEAN Summit in 2017, ASEAN has set important milestones in implementing the WPS agenda through concerted multi-sectoral efforts and partnerships:

• The ASEAN Women for Peace Registry was established in 2018 as a creative initiative to mobilise resource and consolidate knowledge for capacity building and advocacy on a gendered approach to peace and conflict in the region.
  
  
• Aligning efforts of the ASEAN Committee on Women, the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children and the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation have been pivotal to ASEAN’s collective action in mainstreaming women’s rights and gender equality in peace and security.
  
  
• Women military and law enforcement officers have also made a positive impact globally through their active participation in 10 UN peacekeeping operations.
  
  
• The first comprehensive ASEAN Regional Plan of Action on WPS (RPA WPS) was adopted by ASEAN leaders at the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits in November 2022. The RPA provides a regional normative framework for ASEAN Member States to further localize and contextualize the key priority actions to address specific needs at the national and local levels, with active engagement from ASEAN-IPR and AWPR since 2022. To facilitate its implementation at the national level, a monitoring and reporting framework and guidelines were also developed.
  
  

To further enhance women’s engagement for sustainable peace, ASEAN has embraced an all-encompassing approach to women, peace and security from the angle of preventing and countering violent extremism, disaster management and climate change to women in peace processes and post-conflict rehabilitation. Recognizing the mutual reinforcement and interconnectivity of economics and peace, regional efforts are forged to articulate women, peace and security in the context of economic integration. Women’s economic empowerment is also enforced as a form of conflict prevention, resolution and recovery.