Nominations open for African women advancing peace and security in Africa

The African Union Commission (AUC) and the United Nations Office to the African Union (UNOAU) will in 2020 launch a commemorative book celebrating African women who have advanced the women, peace and security agenda on the continent. Nominations are open with st least 20 African women to be featured in the book.

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The commemorative book initiative is part of the activities for the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. A chapter will be dedicated to each woman to share her story or contribution to any of the four pillars of Resolution 1325 namely; prevention, protection, participation and/or relief and recovery as part of the peace and security activities.

Message of encouragement to other African women

Additionally, the book aims to send a message of encouragement to women across the continent and in the rest of the world by reflecting the exceptional stories and contributions of women to peace and security on the continent and serve as a learning experience and motivation to other women, especially young women involved in mediation, peacebuilding and peacekeeping activities. The commemorative book will be launched at the margins of the 33rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of State and Government of the African Union (AU Summit), scheduled for February 2020 at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This will also align with the launch of the African Union theme of the year 2020 on Silencing the Guns by 2020.

The African Union – United Nations collaboration envisaged in this initiative reflects a greater partnership between the two organisations, marked by the signing of the UN-AU Joint Framework for Enhanced Partnership in Peace and Security in April 2017, by Moussa Faki Mahammat, AU Commission chairperson and Antonio Guterres, UN secretary-general.

In the year 2000, the UN Security Council adopted its landmark Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. The resolution observed that conflict affects women differently and underscored the importance for peace processes to be inclusive and address the needs, views and ensure the participation of women in order to achieve positive outcomes and a lasting peace dividend.

The nominations will close on 12 August 2019. For more information, click here.