Civil Society Statement on Gender and Intersectionality to the 79th session of the UN General Assembly First Committee

Thank you, Chair. I’m delivering this statement on behalf of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and other civil society groups that have signed on.

Gender is about social norms. Gender norms are socially constructed, they are not innate. Challenging gender norms is important for many reasons, including to support disarmament and demilitarisation.

Gender norms perpetuate a binary construction of men who are violent and powerful and women who are vulnerable and need to be protected. The framing of war and violence as “strong” and “masculine” is often coupled with a framing of peace and nonviolence as “weak” and “feminine.”

In this context, weapons are typically seen as important for security and power, while disarmament is treated as something that makes countries weaker or more vulnerable. This has implications for policies related to all weapon systems, from nuclear bombs to small arms. It also is reflected in the patriarchal approach to security that we’ve heard in this room, including the defence of genocide and military invasions.

The persistence of these gender norms is enabled, in part, by the lack of diversity in disarmament discussions. People of diverse genders, sexual orientations, racial identities, disabilities, as well as people from communities most affected by weapons and war, can help articulate alternative conceptions of strength and security that foster disarmament and demilitarisation.

Diversity can also help illuminate the various ways in which weapons have gendered, racial, and other intersectional impacts on communities and peoples. From nuclear weapons to small arms, from drone strikes to using artificial intelligence and algorithms to target weapon systems, there are gendered, racialised, disability-related, and other intersectional impacts from weapons.

Interest in the topic of “gender and disarmament” has gathered momentum in the First Committee in recent years, though most statements and resolutions do not take an intersectional or nonbinary approach to the impacts, diversity, or norms described above. A more robust reflection of the gendered norms associated with weapons, war, and violence is crucial for effectively addressing the challenges associated with the proliferation and use of weapons.

The UN Secretary-General’s New Agenda for Peace calls for dismantling “the patriarchy and oppressive power structures” and encourages governments, society, and the United Nations to “fight back and take concrete action to challenge and transform gender norms, value systems and institutional structures that perpetuate exclusion or the status quo.” First Committee delegates should prioritise this.

Thank you, Chair.

This statement was written by Ray Acheson, Reaching Critical Will programme of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and has been endorsed by the following organisations:

Action on Armed Violence
Article 36
Campaign Against Arms Trade
Campaña Colombiana Contra Minas (CCCM)
Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
Centro de Estudios Ecuménicos (México)
Changemaker
Mines Action Canada
Pax
Perú por el Desarme
Protection
Red de Seguridad Humana para América Latina y el Caribe (SHELAC)
Soka Gakkai International
Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society
Women for Weapons Trade Transparency
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
WILPF Canada