For nearly 25 years, the United Nations (UN) has had a peacekeeping mission deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC) was deployed in 1999. The deployment of MONUC coincided with an evolution taking place in the UN Security Council regarding the centrality of women’s political participation in peace processes and the importance of considering women’s protection needs as part of the maintenance of international peace and security. The adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325 and the establishment of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in the year 2000 would have an instrumental impact on the mandates of UN peacekeeping missions, including those deployed in the DRC over the following two decades.

As the mandate of MONUC, and later of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), evolved in the two decades that followed, the Security Council applied many of the normative evolutions taking place in the WPS agenda to the peacekeeping missions. The Council drew specifically on provisions included in nine subsequent thematic resolutions on WPS to inform the drafting of provisions in the mandates of MONUC and MONUSCO. These included elements focused on women’s meaningful political participation as well as efforts to protect women from conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and human rights abuses and to integrate a gender perspective across the work of the mission.

This report examines how MONUSCO has worked to implement the WPS dimensions of its mandate in the period 2010 to 2021. This is based on an analysis of the mandate resolution texts during this time to identify trends over time and key themes, as well as an analysis of documents and interviews with MONUSCO personnel carried out in 2021. Assessing the approach to the mandate and its more recent implementation offers insights into the contribution and limitations of UN peacekeeping when it comes to advancing women’s protection and meaningful participation in a conflict-affected environment.

MONUSCO’s approach to WPS has evolved in the period under study. The mandate had a rather narrow understanding of WPS at the outset, with provisions to address violence and threats towards women, reflective of the insecurity and gendered threats within the DRC. These threats have remained, as have more comprehensive provisions in the mandate to address them, but the mandate has also evolved in recent years to include a more substantive focus on women’s participation in conflict prevention and political processes. These evolutions in the mandate reflected evolving thinking and political priorities on WPS among UN Security Council Member States, as well as the emerging political and security needs in the country. The mission has consequently adapted its approach to different gendered threats to civilians and efforts to support gender equality across Congolese society, while recognising that some aspects of the mandate require the investment and support of partners, including the host authorities.

The mission has developed a range of innovative practices targeted at improving women’s security and equality in the country, as part of the WPS provisions in MONUSCO’s mandate. These have included developing a women mediators’ network, mapping security threats to women, supporting initiatives to address discriminatory media coverage, and implementing positive masculinity programmes. The mission has also put in place mechanisms to assess the progress and hold different components accountable for their activities on WPS using the gender scorecard. These mechanisms were illustrated during a substantive period of research for this study in 2021 and 2022, and they remain in place as MONUSCO prepares to transition (drawdown) from the country.

However, women in the DRC still face staggering levels of inequality and violence. Women are subject to horrific levels of CRSV from armed groups and, in some instances, the national security forces that are meant to protect them. While there have been improvements in women’s political representation in national and local governance, as well as regional peace processes, societal norms and expectations regarding women continue to limit more progress on equality. The external security and political environment, along with conservative gender norms and stereotypes across Congolese society, have limited the effectiveness of MONUSCO when it comes to improving the situation for women in the DRC. Such efforts have also been compounded by some internal mission dynamics relating to the availability of resources and capabilities to support a more comprehensive implementation of the WPS mandate, with a decentralised approach to integrating gender into the work of different mission components.

This report offers recommendations to MONUSCO, UN Headquarters, the Security Council and Member States, troop- and police-contributing countries (T/PCCs), and the national authorities when it comes to strengthening the implementation of the WPS aspects of the mission’s mandate in the DRC, with wider lessons for other UN peacekeeping missions in terms of their approach to WPS.