Monthly Action Points (MAP) for the Security Council: July 2022

Haiti

In its renewal of the mandate for the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), the Security Council should maintain the existing WPS provision and include new language calling on BINUH to:

• Prioritize women’s meaningful participation and leadership in the humanitarian response, ensure there is active, ongoing, and regular consultation with women’s civil society organizations in line with the humanitarian system’s commitmentsand obligations, and emphasize the importance of local ownership in response efforts.
• Monitor the implementation of the UN’s New Approach to Choleraand ensure that the ‘material assistance package’ is gender-sensitive, fully-funded and ensures women’s full participation in its implementation while encompassing a renewed sense of urgency in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic, and natural disasters, as survivors endure another economic shock.
• Monitor and publicly report on violations of human rights, including women’s rights, in the context of state violence perpetrated against protestors as well as alleged state involvement in attacks against civilians allegedly perpetrated by gangs (BINUH, Miami Herald).
• Monitor compliance with the Status of Forces Agreement, Haitian law and the UN’s policies on the facilitation of child support claimsarising out of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers and personnel, and on the provision of material assistance to victims/survivors and their children.

Libya

In its renewal of the mandate of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), the Council should strengthen WPS-related provisions, in line with the recommendations of the independent strategic review (S/2021/716) by:

• Strengthening language related to women’s and young women’s meaningful participation and leadership, including by specifying that participation should be safe and inclusive of a diverse range of groups, and calling on UNSMIL to support the establishment of measures that ensure non-discrimination and equal rights to participate in political and public life, as well as ensuring candidates and voters are protected from reprisals, violence, coercion and intimidation.
• Emphasizing that security sector reform, disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration processes, rule of law efforts, elections, and governance institutions should be gender-responsive, human rights-based and attentive to the needs of youthaffected by conflict, including by ensuring human rights vetting for members of armed groups in the process of security sector reform.
• Including a new mandate provision calling on UNSMIL to monitor and document violence targeting women in public life – including women human rights defenders, peacebuilders, and politicians – and take concrete steps to ensure their protection; follow-up with the Government to ensure investigation and prosecution of human rights violations; and include information and analysis in periodic reports of the Secretary-General.

Finally, the Security Council should express its support for the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya as a step towards justice and accountability and act on its findings.

Yemen

In its discussion of the situation in Yemen, the Security Council must emphasize its unwavering support for the ongoing truce and remind all parties to the conflict and their allies of the importance of upholding international humanitarian, human rights, and refugee law. Since the truce came into effect on 2 April 2022, there has been an overall reduction in violence against civilians and some limited improvements in humanitarian space. However, against the backdrop of the ongoing health, economic, environmental, and climate crises, the humanitarian situation will continue to be dire. An estimated 23.4 million Yemenis are in need of assistance, an increase since 2021, and by the end of the year, there is concern that 19 million people will be facing high levels of acute food insecurity, including more than 1 million pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls. More than 80% of Yemenis now live below the poverty line, some on less than 50 cents a day. This is particularly evident among marginalized Muhamasheen community and internally displaced persons (IDPs) and in districts heavily impacted by frontline fighting. Yet, delivery of humanitarian assistance, including notably to the estimated 4 million persons with disabilities in Yemen, continues to be undermined by ongoing constraints on humanitarian access (specifically in the context of access to services, restrictions on movement – particularly of female aid workers – and interference with humanitarian activities), lack of sufficient donor funding to meet growing humanitarian needs, and ongoing restrictions on imports of oil, food and other vital supplies. At the same time, conditions in camps for IDPs, particularly women and girls, often fail to meet fundamental needs, with women unable to access essential services, such as clean water and health care.  Further, human rights violations targeting marginalized communities, including diverse women, persons with disabilities, displaced persons, migrants and ethnic and religious minorities continue to be documented. In particular, women and girls face restrictions on their freedom of movement, lack of access to basic services, including sexual and reproductive health services, and threats and risks, including arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, hate speech, and even targeted killings, particularly for women peacebuilders, human rights defenders, political leaders, activists, artists, and journalists. In any adopted outcome, the Council should call for all parties to fully uphold international humanitarian law and human rights law, and fully reflect the recommendations laid forth by previous civil society briefers, including Ms. Al-Salafi (S/PV.9063), and further:

• Include a mandate provision clarifying that, as a special political mission, UNMHA must mainstream gender across all its operations, including particularly by supporting women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation in all peace and political processes, facilitating confidence-building measures with diverse women leaders and women’s groups, and regularly consulting with diverse women’s groups. In this context, UNMHA should be given sufficient resources and capacity to implement its mandate in a gender-responsive manner by ensuring there is gender expertise, led by a senior gender advisor.
• Emphasize the necessity of an inclusive Yemeni-led and Yemeni-owned political process that is designed to build the foundation for just and sustainable peace with the full, equal and meaningful participation of diverse women, youth and civil society of all political backgrounds from all regions of Yemen, in all diplomatic tracks and stages of the peace process, including in leadership roles, and further call on the Special Envoy to push for the inclusion of women in the main committees formed as a result of the peace process including the prisoners’ exchange, the Taiz ceasefire, and the security and military committees. Additionally, the Special Envoy should be directed to consult regularly and transparently with diverse women’s civil society groups, which should be supported through core, flexible and long-term funding.
• Call for a cessation of arms transfers and other support to the conflict parties and to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law and the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).