Central African Republic
The Central African Republic (CAR) has been engulfed in violent armed conflict since 2013, and conflict-related insecurity has left women and girls vulnerable to forced marriage, abduction, and especially sexual and gender-based violence; according to the International Development Monitoring Centre, 68% of girls in CAR are married before the age of eighteen. Women in the CAR continue to be largely excluded from peacebuilding and reconstruction efforts and have even been subjected to violence perpetrated by UN peacekeepers. Deployed in April 2014, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA)is mandated to protect women, monitor and report on violations against women, adhere to the zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse, ensure women’s full participation in conflict resolution and elections, and incorporate gender as a cross-cutting issue. To further this progress, based on the work of NGOWG members and their partners, the NGOWG advocates for more thorough monitoring of UN peacekeepers in CAR to ensure that no exploitation and abuse occurs on their watch.
Central African Republic
The Central African Republic (CAR) has been engulfed in violent armed conflict since 2013, and conflict-related insecurity has left women and girls vulnerable to forced marriage, abduction, and especially sexual and gender-based violence; according to the International Development Monitoring Centre, 68% of girls in CAR are married before the age of eighteen.
Women in the CAR continue to be largely excluded from peacebuilding and reconstruction efforts and have even been subjected to violence perpetrated by UN peacekeepers. Deployed in April 2014, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) is mandated to protect women, monitor and report on violations against women, adhere to the zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse, ensure women’s full participation in conflict resolution and elections, and incorporate gender as a cross-cutting issue. To further this progress, based on the work of NGOWG members and their partners, the NGOWG advocates for more thorough monitoring of UN peacekeepers in CAR to ensure that no exploitation and abuse occurs on their watch.
Current and Past Recommendations to the UN Security Council (Monthly Action Points)
Central African Republic (November 2020)
In its renewal of the mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in CAR (MINUSCA), the Security Council should:
- Renew all existing mandate provisions related to women, peace and security (S/RES/2499 (2019), OPs 32(a)(iii), 32(b)(iii), 32(b)(iv), 32(b)(v), 33(b)(iv), 33(c)(i), 33(c)(ii), 33(d)(ii), 33(e)(vii)) and ensure that gender is prioritized as a cross-cutting issue throughout all aspects of the mandate.
- Call on MINUSCA to ground its efforts to prevent conflict in community-identified root causes of conflict and violence, including gender-based inequality and discrimination (Search for Common Ground); call on the mission to actively push back on efforts to close civic space, including by partnering with and expanding the capacity of women’s civil society (Oxfam); call on the mission to ensure its efforts to address the proliferation of small arms and light weapons are undertaken in a gender-responsive manner in collaboration with women’s civil society (S/RES/2499 (2019), OP 46); and request that the mission include gender-sensitive conflict analysis in its reporting.
- Strengthen the mission’s mandate in the context of providing electoral support to clearly articulate that the mission should ensure the full, equal, meaningful and safe participation and leadership in all aspects of the electoral process, including for candidates, voters and poll workers (S/RES/2499 (2019), OP 32(c)).
- Strengthen the mission’s mandate as it relates to support for rule of law and access to justice, including specifically its support for the Special Criminal Court, and in this regard urge the mission to ensure its technical and administrative support is gender-responsive and inclusive of civil society, including women’s organizations and victims’ associations. Call on the mission to ensure its support to strengthening the rule of law is gender-sensitive.
- Strengthen the mandate of the mission as it relates to gender-sensitive, survivor-centered approaches to preventing and addressing gender-based violence by including language calling on the mission to collaborate with women’s civil society organizations, ensure all efforts are inclusive of diverse women, including women and girls with disabilities (Women Enabled International), and ensure legal assistance is included in assistance for survivors (S/RES/2499 (2019), OP 32(a)(iii)).
- Call on the international community to increase its funding in critical areas, including comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services and access to justice, including via the protection cluster. The lack of adequate funding has detrimental consequences to survivors/victims of gender-based violence; only 42% reported they had access to medical follow-up and 33% had access to legal support (Oxfam). Lack of adequate financial support for justice initiatives like the SCC and, importantly, ordinary courts, impacts overall capacity to deliver justice.
Relevant Resources
