Dear Editor,

In 2000 a small group of civil society women gathered together in the office of UNIFEM, the United Nations Office for Women, now UN Women, to draft a resolution that would become known as the Women Peace and Security (WPS) Security Council Resolution 1325.

Ambassador Durrant was one of a few members of the Security Council on whom we could count for getting the resolution through.

Bangladesh and Namibia, which held the presidency in October 2000, were the other countries who were serious supporters of women’s right to be at every level of governance, at all decision-making tables, and especially at peacemaking tables. The Security Council Resolution 1325, which we call the 3Ps, also calls for prevention of violent conflict, protection of women and girls during violent conflict, and participation at all levels of governance and at peacemaking.

Ambassador Durrant helped to get unanimous adoption for the resolution, which means it is international law and, according to the UN Charter, all member states agree to carry it out. We celebrate the resolution every October, and there is an organisation dedicated to helping women learn how to use it from the local village to the national level. The Global Network of Women Peacebuilders has trained hundreds of women peacebuilders with SC Res 1325.

We owe Ambassador Durrant a huge debt of gratitude, a great deal of appreciation and thanks for her role in giving women the tools we need to be decision-makers in society and to be peacebuilders.

Thank you, Pat.

Cora Weiss

UN Representative International Peace Bureau

Honorary patron, Committee on Teaching About the UN

Int’l Adviser, Global Network of Women Peacebuilders

cweiss185@gmail.com