[Title] East Asia Summit Leaders' Statement on Women, Peace and Security

WE, the Heads of State/Government of the Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Australia, the People's Republic of China, the Republic of India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America, met via videoconference on 14 November 2020, under Viet Nam's 2020 ASEAN Chairmanship, on the occasion of the 15th Anniversary of the East Asia Summit;

EMPHASISING that the East Asia Summit, sitting at the apex of the ASEAN-centred regional architecture, will continue to be a Leaders-led forum for dialogue on broad strategic, political, and economic issues of common interest and concern with the aim of promoting peace, stability and economic prosperity in East Asia;

RECOGNISING women's important role in peace and security, and in ASEAN community building, and EMPHASISING the shared commitment of the East Asia Summit community to advance the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda across the region;

RECALLING the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, in particular the intersection of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 and SDG 16, and the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979);

REAFFIRMING support for United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security and subsequent UNSCRs on the Women, Peace and Security agenda;

RECOGNISING the opportunity presented by significant anniversaries in 2020 notably the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the 20th anniversary of Resolution 1325, and further recalling the need to strengthen multilateral, regional, and international dialogue and cooperation;

RECOGNISING the increasing threats to regional stability and prosperity posed by traditional and non-traditional security challenges;

ACKNOWLEDGING the need to ensure and promote women's equal, full, effective and meaningful participation at all levels of prevention of armed conflict, peace operations, peace processes, peace negotiations, post-conflict reconstruction, peacekeeping operations and peacebuilding efforts, while recognising that countries do so on a flexible, voluntary and non-binding basis;

RECOGNISING the role of women in all stages of peace processes as well as their role in sustaining peace and security;

ACKNOWLEDGING the WPS agenda, which recognises the disproportionate impact of armed conflict on women and girls, the increased occurrence of all forms of violence against women and girls, including but not limited to sexual violence, trafficking in persons, and exploitation prior to, during, and after armed conflict; and emphasises the importance of women's equal, full and meaningful participation at all stages of peace processes given their necessary role in the prevention and resolution of armed conflict, peacebuilding, and peacekeeping, as embodied in relevant UNSCRs;

RECOGNISING the regional commitments, as applicable to the WPS agenda, as expressed in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women in the ASEAN Region (2004), the Ha Noi Declaration on the Enhancement of Welfare and Development of ASEAN Women and Children (2010), the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Elimination of Violence Against Children in ASEAN (2013), the ASEAN Regional Plan of Action on the Elimination of Violence against Women (2015), the ASEAN Declaration on Culture of Prevention for a Peaceful, Inclusive, Resilient, Healthy and Harmonious Society (2017), the ASEAN Declaration on the Gender- Responsive Implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and Sustainable Development Goals (2017), the Joint Statement on Promoting Women, Peace and Security in ASEAN (2017), the Action Agenda on Mainstreaming Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE) in ASEAN (2017), and the Joint Statement on Promoting the Women, Peace and Security Agenda at the ASEAN Regional Forum (2019);

DO HEREBY DECIDE TO:

1. Explore areas of cooperation to promote women's meaningful participation at all levels of prevention of armed conflict, peace operations, peace processes, peace negotiations, post-conflict reconstruction, peacekeeping operations and peacebuilding efforts, recognising that countries contribute to such operations on a flexible, voluntary and non-binding basis;

2. Encourage political leadership to promote a greater balance in representation of women and men, and the integration of a gender perspective into the workings of our respective international security efforts addressing armed conflict;

3. Promote the safety and protection of women and girls from all forms of violence as well as prompt response and effective rehabilitation, so that women are better positioned to participate in conflict prevention, resolution, and recovery, and their resilience is enhanced in the face of absence of peace and security and of armed conflict situations;

4. Emphasise the need for all East Asia Summit participating countries to increase efforts, where appropriate, to mainstream a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations and, peacebuilding efforts, and strengthen cooperation to increase numbers and capacity of women peace keepers and peace builders on a flexible, voluntary and non-binding basis;

5. Support the role of women in promoting a culture of peace that educates and empowers all people; prevents armed conflicts; promotes the rule of law; and sustains peace through approaches that are comprehensive, cross-sectoral, and integrated;

6. Promote an enabling environment and capacity building to empower women to realise their full potential and influence as, among others, negotiators, mediators, entrepreneurs, and decision makers, by addressing the security challenges and root causes of women's exclusion from peace processes and obstacles to women's economic empowerment;

7. Continue to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls as a way to address causes of armed conflicts, such as poverty; discrimination; social injustice; and the economic and/or social exclusion of persons and communities vulnerable to and at risk of instability and terrorism;

8. Encourage East Asia Summit participating countries to support the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (ASEAN-IPR), including the ASEAN Women for Peace Registry, in accordance with its Terms of Reference, to continue its efforts to advance the role of women in peace and reconciliation processes;

9. Acknowledge the role of men and boys and commit to engage them in advancing the WPS agenda;

10. Strive to protect the rights of women and girls during and after armed conflict, including from discrimination and social exclusion by fostering a culture of inclusion;

11. Meet the specific needs of women and girls in humanitarian settings, including the provision of the full range of accessible and affordable medical, legal, educational, psychosocial, housing, and livelihood services, in accordance with applicable laws and policies;

12. Encourage East Asia Summit participating countries to promote women's participation in conflict prevention in national and regional agendas, as appropriate;

13. Raise awareness of the WPS agenda among policy-makers as well as the general public, and encourage inter-governmental discussions on issues of critical importance to the WPS agenda so as to share policy experiences, lessons learned and best practices, and identify ways of cooperation;

14. Encourage consultations and engagements, where appropriate, with regional and international organisations, peacebuilders, and other relevant women-related stakeholders, to promote and support the implementation of the WPS agenda at the national and regional levels, as well as highlight women's perspectives on and experience with security and peace processes through research and collaboration; and

15. Emphasise the need to promote information, education and communication (IEC) materials on the WPS agenda.

ADOPTED on the Fourteenth of November in the Year Two Thousand and Twenty.