NEW YORK: Governments must up their efforts to meet their obligations under the Women, Peace and Security agenda, as conflict-linked deaths hit a 28-year high, a delegation of foreign ministers and UN representatives said on Thursday.
Addressing a summit titled “Advancing the Sustainability and Adaptability of the WPS Agenda,” held during the 78th session of the UN General Assembly and attended by Arab News, the US secretary of state said the participation of a diverse collective of women is imperative to addressing global violence.
“When peacekeeping agreements include the thoughts of women, research shows a higher likelihood of them being both agreed to and to their enduring. This is something I see every day in my work and know it’s very real,” said Antony Blinken.
“It’s imperative women are used to strengthen security and end conflict, and through the WPS Focal Points Network we must build partnerships and share information or we’ll reinvent the wheel time and time again.”
The session was held in the lead-up to the 23rd anniversary of the first UN resolution of the WPS agenda, resolution 1325. But in recent years there have been seeming reversals in the successes initially hoped for.
Not only have conflict-related deaths hit a 28-year high, but 614 million women and girls are now living in conflict-related contexts, representing a 50 percent increase on 2017, and leading speakers to call for a new “path to peace.”
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Namibia’s minister of international relations and cooperation, said the formation of the WPS Focal Points Network in 2016 — of which the country is a founding member — had revealed the lack of progress surrounding the agenda.
Rebeca Grynspan, secretary-general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, echoed Blinken’s call for the increased participation of women in peacebuilding and peace-sustaining efforts, as she highlighted some of the themes of a pending annual WPS report.
“Our report underlines the urgent need for ambitious and measurable targets for women’s direct participation on delegations and negotiations, as we call for governments to nominate and appoint women as mediators, and accept their expertise as normal,” she said.
“Towards this, the report will call for governments to earmark a minimum of 15 percent of their mediation funds to support women’s participation, and to report in real time that participation.”
Grynspan’s call for minimum funding levels comes amid an international decrease in funding for women-led foundations, a factor she called to be reversed with a UN pledge to raise $300 million for women’s organizations in crisis situations over the next three years.
“We must ensure national action plans on WPS are budgeted, because we as women aren’t a vulnerable group, but a group who have been violated. That’s a different concept,” she added.
Both the US and the UAE have been very vocal in their own domestic efforts to see the WPS agenda normalized as part of everyday life, with Blinken noting America having become the first country to introduce a WPS Act, entrenching its commitment to the agenda.
Ahood Al-Zaabi, director of the UN department at the UAE Foreign Ministry, said her country has prioritized legal and policy reform in line with its WPS obligations.
Describing the UAE’s efforts as focused on the “long-term,” she pointed to its global outreach program for training mediators, with some 500 candidates already trained across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
“We need women’s voices in decision-making processes,” she said. “This must take into consideration an inclusive approach with all segments of society, which is particularly relevant in the security sectors.”
Commenting on the dearth of women leading in peace talks, Sima Sami Bahous, executive director of UN Women, said: “Let us be unwavering in our unambiguous rejection of our reality. We continue to see all-male delegations.
“Even in UNGA, women leadership is celebrated as the exception rather than seen as the norm.”
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Governments urged to meet obligations under Women, Peace and Security agenda
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Governments urged to meet obligations under Women, Peace and Security agenda
- Some 614m women, girls living in conflict-related contexts, up 50% since 2017
- ‘We need women’s voices in decision-making processes,’ Emirati official tells summit attended by Arab News
Striking Argentine workers clash with police in protest over labor reforms
BUENOS AIRES: Shops and supermarkets closed, flights were canceled and garbage piled up Thursday as Argentine workers staged their fourth general strike of President Javier Milei’s term, some clashing with police.
The few buses running in Buenos Aires were nowhere near full, although car traffic was unusually heavy as many workers observed the 24-hour strike against a contentious labor reform.
Dozens of flights were canceled and train stations were left deserted with only a handful of buses running, AFP observed.
On roads leading into the capital, small groups of protesters blocked traffic.
Later in the day, several thousand demonstrators gathered outside parliament, where a few dozen participants engaged in running battles with police, throwing bottles and stones.
Officers replied with tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to clear the area.
Police were observed making about a dozen arrests.
The CGT labor federation said more workers adhered to the walkout call than during any of the previous three strikes.
“It has levels of compliance like never before under this government,” union leader Jorge Sola told Radio con Vos, claiming that “90 percent of activity had stopped.”
The contested reforms pushed by budget-slashing Milei, an ideological ally of US President Donald Trump, would make it easier to hire and fire workers in a country where job security is already hard to come by.
It would also reduce severance pay, limit the right to strike, increase work hours and restrict holiday provisions.
The measure was approved by the chamber of deputies in the early morning hours of Friday, and will go back to the Senate for a final green light.
“I want to work because I am afraid of losing my job but I cannot get there. I will have to walk,” Nora Benitez, a 46-year-old home caregiver, said ahead of a five kilometer (three mile) trek to her job along streets reeking of uncollected garbage.
- Reforms spark protests -
The labor action comes as Argentina’s economy is showing signs of a downturn in manufacturing, with more than 21,000 companies having shuttered in two years under Milei.
He had come to power after wielding a chainsaw at rallies during the 2023 election campaign to symbolize the deep cuts he planned to make to public spending.
Unions say some 300,000 jobs have been lost since Milei’s austerity measures began.
Most recently, Fate — Argentina’s main tire factory — on Wednesday announced the closure of its plant in Buenos Aires, prompting some 900 job cuts.
The last general strike in Argentina was on April 10, 2025, but adherence was uneven as workers in the public transport system did not join.
Last week, thousands of people demonstrated in Buenos Aires as senators debated the reform bill, and clashes with police resulted in about 30 arrests.
On Tuesday, the government issued an unusual statement warning reporters about the “risk” of covering protests, and announced it would establish an “exclusive zone” from which the media can work.
“In the event of acts of violence, our forces will act,” a statement from the security ministry said.
Almost 40 percent of Argentine workers lack formal employment contracts, and unions say the new measures will make matters worse.
But the government argues they will in fact reduce under-the-table employment and create new jobs by lowering the tax burden on employers.
Milei, in office since December 2023, has achieved at least one of his macroeconomic goals: bringing annual inflation down from 150 percent to 32 percent in two years.
But it is a success that has come at the cost of massive public sector job cuts and a drop in disposable income that has sapped consumption and economic activity.
Milei will follow Thursday’s events at home from Washington, where he attended the first meeting of Trump’s “Board of Peace,” which has drawn criticism as an attempt to rival the United Nations.
The few buses running in Buenos Aires were nowhere near full, although car traffic was unusually heavy as many workers observed the 24-hour strike against a contentious labor reform.
Dozens of flights were canceled and train stations were left deserted with only a handful of buses running, AFP observed.
On roads leading into the capital, small groups of protesters blocked traffic.
Later in the day, several thousand demonstrators gathered outside parliament, where a few dozen participants engaged in running battles with police, throwing bottles and stones.
Officers replied with tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to clear the area.
Police were observed making about a dozen arrests.
The CGT labor federation said more workers adhered to the walkout call than during any of the previous three strikes.
“It has levels of compliance like never before under this government,” union leader Jorge Sola told Radio con Vos, claiming that “90 percent of activity had stopped.”
The contested reforms pushed by budget-slashing Milei, an ideological ally of US President Donald Trump, would make it easier to hire and fire workers in a country where job security is already hard to come by.
It would also reduce severance pay, limit the right to strike, increase work hours and restrict holiday provisions.
The measure was approved by the chamber of deputies in the early morning hours of Friday, and will go back to the Senate for a final green light.
“I want to work because I am afraid of losing my job but I cannot get there. I will have to walk,” Nora Benitez, a 46-year-old home caregiver, said ahead of a five kilometer (three mile) trek to her job along streets reeking of uncollected garbage.
- Reforms spark protests -
The labor action comes as Argentina’s economy is showing signs of a downturn in manufacturing, with more than 21,000 companies having shuttered in two years under Milei.
He had come to power after wielding a chainsaw at rallies during the 2023 election campaign to symbolize the deep cuts he planned to make to public spending.
Unions say some 300,000 jobs have been lost since Milei’s austerity measures began.
Most recently, Fate — Argentina’s main tire factory — on Wednesday announced the closure of its plant in Buenos Aires, prompting some 900 job cuts.
The last general strike in Argentina was on April 10, 2025, but adherence was uneven as workers in the public transport system did not join.
Last week, thousands of people demonstrated in Buenos Aires as senators debated the reform bill, and clashes with police resulted in about 30 arrests.
On Tuesday, the government issued an unusual statement warning reporters about the “risk” of covering protests, and announced it would establish an “exclusive zone” from which the media can work.
“In the event of acts of violence, our forces will act,” a statement from the security ministry said.
Almost 40 percent of Argentine workers lack formal employment contracts, and unions say the new measures will make matters worse.
But the government argues they will in fact reduce under-the-table employment and create new jobs by lowering the tax burden on employers.
Milei, in office since December 2023, has achieved at least one of his macroeconomic goals: bringing annual inflation down from 150 percent to 32 percent in two years.
But it is a success that has come at the cost of massive public sector job cuts and a drop in disposable income that has sapped consumption and economic activity.
Milei will follow Thursday’s events at home from Washington, where he attended the first meeting of Trump’s “Board of Peace,” which has drawn criticism as an attempt to rival the United Nations.
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