Questions/Answers

Gender perspectives in multilateral nuclear disarmament have traditionally been neglected or marginalised in negotiations. Ireland’s efforts to mainstream a gender perspective during negotiations on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2017 ensured the inclusion of provisions for the equal participation of women in the future work of the Treaty. The final Treaty text reflects several Irish initiatives, including provisions on disarmament education, on gendered impacts of nuclear weapons and, for the first time in international treaty, included a reference to the equal participation of women in its work. The main challenge was to overcome resistance among many partners in the disarmament community who were reluctant to accept gender as a core concern in nuclear disarmament negotiations. The decision of two thirds of U.N. Member States to adopt the TPNW, which included ground-breaking gender equality provisions, was the result of a two-year process in which Ireland played a key role. The role played by our negotiating team ensured the linkages between nuclear disarmament, gender equality and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals formed a central pillar of the negotiation process and the final Treaty text. Practical activities undertaken to support this work, included: (a) Sponsoring female candidates from Least Developed States to attend and participate in the various meetings and conferences; (b) Commissioning research to explore the levels of participation of women in the disarmament discourse and relevant forums, along with the gendered impact of nuclear weapons; (c) Launching a wide-ranging project exploring nuclear disarmament as the “missing link” in multilateralism. This project worked to broaden the traditional national security focus of nuclear disarmament to include issues related to long-term human security, including showing how nuclear weapons use would impact, with devastating effect, on Sustainable Development, Climate Change, and Cultural Heritage.

The Irish team’s objectives throughout the negotiating process were to ensure the new Treaty would: (a) promote women’s participation in nuclear disarmament forums in line with United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSR) 1325; (b) highlight new research on the strongly gendered impact of nuclear weapons use and to include provisions for the equal participation of women with men in the future work of the Treaty; (c) encourage a better understanding of how gender mainstreaming can promote disarmament goals; (d) safeguard the Non Proliferation Treaty’s (NPTs) important role in Nuclear Non-proliferation efforts; (e) to establish a global norm which would ban nuclear weapons and; (f) to raise awareness of the catastrophic consequences of using nuclear weapons. All objectives were met.

It is widely recognised that the equal full and effective participation and empowerment of both men and women are crucial components of the maintenance of international peace and security. Ireland’s efforts to further advance efforts to mainstream a gender perspective in the promotion of disarmament goals accords with aims of the 2010 General Assembly resolution 65/69 (2010) on the role of gender and disarmament, UNSR 1325 and related resolutions. Moreover, our efforts to promote the participation of women in all decision-making processes related to disarmament is reflected in the inclusion of provisions on disarmament education and on gendered impacts of nuclear weapons and women’s participation, and our work to ensure the equal participation of women with men in the future work of the TPNW

Ireland’s initiative to ensure a gender perspective was at the heart of the TPNW negotiation process and was reflected in the final text of the Treaty was, in part, an acknowledgment of the failure of the international community to realise a core goal of UNSR 1325 which is to decrease war and make greater investments in human welfare through public service provision rather than armaments. In our work, Ireland set out to explicitly widen the focus of disarmament negotiations from a traditionally narrow national security focus to encompass issues of sustained and inclusive economic development, reversing environmental degradation and efforts to tackle climate change. In sum, we aimed to show how the link between successful multilateral nuclear disarmament efforts are fundamental to the successful realisation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and can help ensure more peaceful, equal and productive societies.

In focusing on nexus between gender, equality, disarmament and the Sustainable Development Goals, Ireland’s initiative is helping to ensure to expand the focus of discussions in the areas of disarmament from a narrow national security perspective to a broader longer term human security perspective. In promoting the idea of gender equality as an explicitly component of the Treaty we aimed to demonstrate the importance of a gender perspective for more inclusive policy outcomes and the benefits that can accrue to societies and the international community when a gender perspective is central to all policy development, research, advocacy, and implementation.

The success of our efforts to ensure not only the participation of women in the TPNW negotiation process, but the integration of substantive consideration of the gender in the provisions of the Treaty itself, sets down a marker for gender equality and will help ensure that attention is given to gender perspectives as an integral part of all activities and programmes related to the work of the TPNW in the countries that join the Treaty. In addition, in our work we aimed to draw attention to the gendered impact of weapons, with the aim of reducing weapon proliferation, and ensuring better practice and use of these weapons over the long term.

An innovative component of our approach was to integrate wider foreign policy concerns into nuclear weapons discussions and therefore broaden them beyond a technical and narrow focus. The Team prioritized gender and disarmament in line with targets included in Ireland’s Second National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. With regard to Nuclear weapons, this innovative approach of integrating one core foreign policy priority with another included a strong focus on raising awareness of a little known aspect of nuclear weapons use, the strongly gendered impact of ionising radiation. We also prioritized women’s participation in nuclear disarmament work. A further innovation, which is ongoing, was to commission policy research showing how nuclear weapons use would impact, with devastating effect, on wider global goals including Sustainable Development, Climate Change, and Cultural Heritage. These innovations led to an inclusive and diverse process and more effective decision making, demonstrated by the fact that the Treaty was adopted after only four weeks of negotiations.

Gender Equality is viewed as a cross cutting issue in Irish Foreign Policy, as outlined in Ireland’s Second National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. Noting that gender perspectives in multilateral nuclear disarmament have consistently been neglected or marginalised in international negotiations, the Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Section pioneered efforts to mainstream a gender perspective in the lead up to and during negotiations on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2017. Leveraging Departmental knowledge and innovating new disarmament specific approaches, through focusing on the nexus between gender, equality, disarmament and the Sustainable Development Goals, Ireland’s initiative is helping to broaden disarmament discussions to a human security perspective. These efforts ensured the inclusion of provisions for the equal participation of women in the future work of the TPNW.

The Irish team was made of five diplomats who took part in the TPNW negotiations. In addition, financial resources were used to commission research highlighting the gender development and nuclear weapons. The link to the research is here: http://www.unidir.org/files/publications/pdfs/gender-development-and-nuclear-weapons-en-659.pdf. We also funded Chatham House to undertake a wide-ranging project exploring nuclear disarmament as the “missing link” in multilateralism. The link to the research is here: https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/files/chathamhouse/publications/research/2016-10-12-nuclear-disarmament-lewis-unal-aghlani-final-2017_0.pdf We also used financial resources to sponsor increased levels of female participation at disarmament meetings. This was administered through the UN Development Programmed.

Yes

While the inclusion of an explicit gender provision on the participation of women in the TPNW is a first in an international treaty of this sort, we believe it sets an important precedent for future disarmament agreements. Ireland’s disarmament work is viewed internationally as an effective model and a new way of conducting international negotiations, both in the disarmament fora, but also more generally. Our emphasis on diversity, on gender equality and on broadening the debate beyond its narrow political and security focus into the wider humanitarian context and our efforts to ensure the necessary focus on the interconnected and interdependent nature of global challenges is being seen as a fresh new way of conducting business with real impact. We have noted that other actors in disarmament are reflecting some of these concepts for the first time in their statements and approaches. At the Preparatory Committee of the Treaty on Nuclear Non-proliferation in May 2017, references to the gendered impact of nuclear weapons and also to the need for greater participation of women were included for the first time in an official document of that Treaty’s Review process. It is expected that this question will be reflected in the work of the 2020 NPT Review Conference.

The inclusion of an explicit gender provision on the participation of women in the TPNW is the first time that States have made an explicit commitment to the equal participation of men and women in an international disarmament Treaty. This Treaty provision sets an important precedent for future disarmament agreements, and will help to further promote and sustain the issue of gender equality and nuclear disarmament as increasing number of States ratify the Treaty. Ireland also aimed to focus on nexus between gender, equality, disarmament and the Sustainable Development Goals, and our hope is that this approach will add further momentum to expand the focus of disarmament negotiations from a narrow national security perspective to a long-term broader human security and welfare perspective.

We are confident that by drawing out the important interdependent linkages between gender mainstreaming in disarmament, the successful implementation of the SDGs and human security more generally, our approach will prove a sustainable framework for future Treaty negotiations. This approach could be expanded to include future work in arms control and non-proliferation as well as discussion on small arms and light weapons. We have noted that other actors in disarmament are reflecting some of these concepts for the first time in their statements and approaches. At the Preparatory Committee of the Treaty on Nuclear Non-proliferation in May, references to the gendered impact of nuclear weapons and also to the need for greater participation of women were included for the first time in an official document of that Treaty’s Review process.

Yes

While there is no formal evaluation process for an initiative of this kind, the commitment to include a gender and disarmament perspective is captured in Ireland’s second National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security in 2014, which has been subject to an evaluation process. In addition, the aims of this policy initiative is reflected in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) business planning process, which is subject to Government business planning evaluation processes. On top of this, the disarmament delegation of Ireland, alongside Austria, Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand and South Africa, and Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gómez of Costa Rica, has been awarded 2017 Arms Control Person of the Year for their leadership during the negotiations of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2017. The work of ICAN and other Civil Society organisations was fundamental to achieving a treaty-based prohibition of nuclear weapons earlier this year. ICAN has supported the work in recent years to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons.

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Engagement and collaboration with stakeholders - including States, civil society, research institutions and UN organisations - was key to success of the initiative. An important aspect was the inclusion the identification and cultivation of new, non-traditional stakeholders. This included for example, engagement with States affected by nuclear testing in the South Pacific with whom Ireland would traditionally have little contact regarding the disarmament and non-proliferation agenda. Engagement was focused on listening, respect, diversity and inclusion, and on endorsing and reflecting back to stakeholders the significant learning we absorbed from them. Recognition of stakeholder impacts as a key driver of the process was reflected in our analysis, public statements, and political recommendations. Ireland also provided sponsorship to encourage greater diversity in attendance at the meetings which resulted in a far more inclusive process than is normally the case in nuclear disarmament negotiations. Preliminary research commissioned by Ireland on the effects of this more inclusive and diverse attendance at the meetings seemed to demonstrate, a positive effect on achieving consensus in decision making. The link to the research is here: http://www.unidir.org/files/publications/pdfs/gender-development-and-nuclear-weapons-en-659.pdf

The success integration of gender into our disarmament work, and the decision to approach our work in this field through a gender and diversity lens has generated some key lessons for Ireland. One lesson from this initiative was the importance of having diverse views to invigorate the disarmament and non-proliferation agenda. This ensured the avoidance of groupthink and that a progressive outcome was obtained which furthered the disarmament and equality agenda. A second lesson is that the integration of one policy priority into the other led to outcomes which were far more effective than if we had sought to advance our objectives from the viewpoint of either gender or disarmament on their own. Our sponsorship funding for least developed countries and for female delegates contributed to the presence of many new voices in the Treaty process which were a powerful driver for the consensual decision making which allowed the adoption of the Treaty on 7 July by such an overwhelming majority. Support for these new stakeholders can also be studied in the context of garnering support for Ireland’s campaign for membership of the UN Security Council.