Calls for Mainstreaming of Women, Peace, and Security Agenda in all ASEAN Pillars

Ambassador Elizabeth P. Buensuceso urges mainstreaming of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda in all three pillars of ASEAN in her keynote address for the Second ASEAN-Australia Women, Peace, and Security Dialogue. (DFA-ASEAN photo)

MANILA, 11 November 2021 – Philippine Eminent Person for the High-Level Task Force for the ASEAN Community’s Post-2025 VisionAmbassador Elizabeth P. Buensuceso called for the mainstreaming of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda in all three pillars of ASEAN during the Second ASEAN-Australia WPS Dialogue, which was co-hosted by Australia and Viet Nam. 

“We were able to do this for ASEAN connectivity; we can do it for WPS,” Ambassador Buensuceso said in her keynote address during the event held in hybrid format on 09 November 2021. She added that gender must be mainstreamed as a crosscutting issue to facilitate cross-sectoral collaboration on WPS in strategic policy, planning, and programming among key ASEAN mechanisms. 

The Ambassador called for the ASEAN Women for Peace Registry (AWPR) to actively participate in the peace and reconciliation efforts in the region as mandated in its terms of reference. 

She stressed that the AWPR should also be allowed to interface with the ministers or even the leaders of ASEAN to present suggestions in the same manner that the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights is allowed to do. She added that the AWPR should push through with its brainstorming and team-building activity. 

Ambassador Buensuceso is former Philippine Permanent Representative to ASEAN and, as then DFA Acting Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations and ASEAN Affairs, former Philippine Leader to the ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting. It was during her term as Philippine Permanent Representative to ASEAN that the AWPR was conceptualized and launched.

Launched in December 2018, the AWPR includes women experts from all ASEAN Member States, who may be approached by ASEAN when a specific expertise is required. The registry is also intended to support the operationalization of the 2017 Joint Statement on Promoting Women, Peace, and Security in ASEAN. END