On 11 December, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea (ROK), in collaboration with PRIO’s Gender, Peace and Security (GPS) Centre, organized an Expert Forum in Seoul led by Research Director Louise Olsson.
The year 2025 and the period beyond will be pivotal in ensuring both the advancement and the shielding of WPS progress. The world is witnessing an escalation in geopolitical tensions, a rise in armed conflicts with international involvement, rapid increases in military spending, and the backsliding of democracy and human rights. There is a need to draw on the power of women’s agency for both peace and continued improvements in women’s security and rights. To ensure effective and targeted action, the Forum participants underlined the importance of this form of exchange that enable the sharing of knowledge and dialogue across generations, sectors, and regions.
The Expert Forum was opened by Mr. Byungseok Yoo, Deputy Director-General for International Organizations and Nuclear Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea. He outlined the ROK’s WPS priorities and the aim with the Expert Forum to draw on the experts’ advice and concrete recommendations to further ROK efforts in 2025 and beyond. The focus for the Forum were then placed on the ROK’s current role in the UN Security Council, and its efforts through the Action with Women and Peace initiative. Expert deliberations and suggestions included models for combining evidence-based approaches with bringing forth the voices of women from conflict-contexts, the importance of mobilizing on issues that unite multiple stakeholders, improved understandings of masculinity, creating functional accountability measures, and finding synergies between Youth, Peace and Security and WPS and intergenerational dialogue.
The Forum was moderated by Dr. Louise Olsson as part of a collaboration in 2024 between the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and PRIO’s GPS Centre, where PRIO has contributed with insights from its research on WPS integration in the UN Security Council and in national efforts. Pedagogically, the Expert Forum utilized a dialogue roundtable format tailored to specific policy debates originally designed during Norway’s term in the Security Council 2021-2022. PRIO GPS Coordinator Stine Bosheim also took part in the expert forum.
