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25 years of UN promises to elevate and strengthen Palestinian women’s voices in peacebuilding have failed, says Oxfam

UN member states have wasted 25 years of potential by largely ignoring the crucial role that Palestinian women and girls should have played in building peace in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), says Oxfam

In a new report, ‘Arming Injustice with Impunity’, published in the wake of the October 31 anniversary marking 25 years since the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 was adopted and the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda, Oxfam says that the UN’s initiative has not only failed Palestinian women, but has reinforced the status quo by failing to confront the root causes of violence: Israel’s illegal occupation and militarization, and the international
community’s complicity in selling arms and failing to hold Israel to account.

The WPS Agenda calls for women’s full participation in peace processes, protection from violence, and gender-responsive approaches to conflict prevention and recovery. While widely endorsed, its implementation has often been narrowed and inconsistent, particularly in contexts of prolonged occupation and systemic injustice.

Oxfam’s report, based on research conducted through consultation with partners and specialists in the field, outlines the devastating impacts upon women of Israel’s illegal occupation. In Gaza, almost 70,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 170,000 injured since October 2023, with women and children making up the majority of the casualties. Ninety percent of the population has been displaced, with Gaza left in ruins. Women face disproportionate burdens from the
collapse of infrastructure, healthcare systems, denial of maternal care, and increased exposure to trauma, starvation, and gender-based violence.

These harms extend beyond the battlefield: Palestinian women in detention have also been subjected to systematic abuse, including sexual and gender-based violence, which UN investigations have found may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In the West Bank, armed settler attacks – often backed by Israeli forces – have led to sexual harassment, threats of rape, and destruction of homes and schools. Women and girls live in fear, leading to school dropouts, miscarriages, and long-term psychological harm. Women human rights defenders face detention and repression, while internal patriarchal structures, exacerbated by militarization and unlawful occupation, further marginalize women’s
participation in political and public life.

Despite these challenges, Palestinian women-led civil society organizations continue to play key roles in providing education, protection support, and advocacy. However, the report criticizes the international community’s failure to uphold the WPS Agenda’s core commitments. States continuing to sell arms and militarily cooperating with Israel undermine their global commitments to women’s rights, gender equality and peace.

While the Palestinian Authority (PA) has adopted National Action Plans (NAPs) on WPS, their implementation is hindered by political fragmentation, lack of funding and lack of political will.

Originally envisioned to challenge power structures and centre women in peacebuilding, the WPS agenda in the OPT has been narrowed by militarized approaches and political fragmentation, that overlook the root causes that prevent full gender equality, protection, participation and justice, Oxfam says.

Oxfam believes that the WPS Agenda should return to its core: confronting militarism, enforcing international law, and prioritizing gender justice. For Palestinian women, peace requires dismantling Israel’s unlawful occupation, restoring justice and accountability and ensuring their
voices are central in shaping a just and lasting future.

For further details contact: [email protected]

Killer facts:

  • Almost 70,000 Palestinians killed and 170,000 injured in Gaza since October 2023 — the majority being women and children.

  • With 90% of Gaza’s population forcibly displaced, with no safe zones remaining, women face trauma, humiliation, and increased vulnerability to GBV.

  • Healthcare collapse: hospitals bombed, health workers killed, and maternal care denied.

  • Armed settlers commit gendered crimes including sexual harassment and threats of rape.

  • Women human rights defenders face arbitrary detention without charge or trial.

  • Civil society groups provide vital support but face severe restrictions under occupation.

  • The WPS Agenda has failed to address militarization and occupation in the oPt.

  • In a context of genocide and unlawful occupation, arms-transfers to Israel have played a part in undermining global commitments to gender equality and peace.

Notes to Editors:

The full report, Arming Injustice with Impunity: How Support for Israel’s illegal occupation and militarization undermines States’ commitments to gender equality and the WPS Agenda, is here

Another recently published Oxfam report on WPS, Beyond Rhetoric – Feminist Leadership for a Transformative Women, Peace and Security Agenda at 25 is here:

The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000. It was the first resolution to formally recognize the unique impact of conflict on women and girls, and the critical role they play in peacebuilding and conflict prevention. The agenda is built around four key pillars: prevention, protection, participation, and relief and recovery.

Palestinian women face what has been described as ‘double jeopardy’: the combined impact of Israel’s prolonged military occupation and entrenched patriarchal laws and norms within Palestinian society. Discriminatory legal frameworks—many of which predate 1967—continue to restrict women’s rights in areas such as marriage, mobility, access to healthcare, and political participation. These are further compounded by the extreme challenges presented by Israel’s illegal occupation, including violence, displacement, and restrictions on movement. One particularly harrowing dimension is the treatment of Palestinian women in detention. According to a March 2025 report by the UN Commission of Inquiry, Israeli detention practices are marked by widespread and systematic abuse, including sexual and gender-based violence, which has intensified significantly since 7 October 2023. Women and girls have reported being subjected to forced nudity, threats of sexual violence including rape, and physical assault of a sexual nature during interrogations and searches. The Commission concluded that such acts amount to war crimes—including outrages upon personal dignity and inhuman treatment—and crimes against
humanity, including torture. It further found that these abuses reflect an intentional policy aimed at humiliating and degrading Palestinian detainees through sexual, reproductive, and other forms of gender-based violence, observed across multiple facilities and transit locations.

Contact information:

For more information, please contact: [email protected]

Arming Injustice with Impunity – How support for Israel’s illegal occupation and militarization undermines States’ commitments to gender equality and the WPS Agenda

Twenty-five years after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda, women in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) have no peace and no security. The agenda promised a new era of elevating women’s voices in conflict and peacebuilding, a transformative vision of gender equality and feminist peace. But the reality for Palestinian women and girls has been daily, brutal violence for decades under Israel’s prolonged illegal occupation, culminating in the genocide we are witnessing today. Indeed, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women described the situation in Gaza as an unfolding ‘femi-genocide’ due to the crimes inflicted on women and girls by Israeli forces.

The briefing paper highlights how the WPS Agenda has failed to confront two major obstacles to peace for Palestinian women: the arming of Israel and militarization; and the unlawful occupation of the OPT which, sustained by international support and a lack of accountability, continues to erode Palestinian women and girls’ rights, protection, and participation in political and public life. It notes that the WPS agenda has at times been understood in relatively narrow terms and calls for States signed up to the agenda to take a wider lens and address the broader political, military and legal context that disproportionately impacts Palestinian women and girls.

Notes to Editors:

Download Arming Injustice with Impunity report here.

Contact information:

For more information, please contact: [email protected]

“Keep Up the Good Work” – Oxfam Aotearoa Calls on Government to Renew Climate Finance Commitment

As world leaders prepare to gather for global climate talks, Oxfam Aotearoa has launched a new report showing the positive difference that climate funding from New Zealand has made since the support was boosted from 2022.’

Oxfam in the Pacific’s Climate Justice Lead, Lote Rusaqoli, said:

“Aotearoa New Zealand has long been a leader on the global climate stage, setting the benchmark for other wealthy nations by providing all of its climate finance as grants and not loans – a move that has been incredibly beneficial for Pacific Islanders who continue to feel the worst of the climate crisis. As we approach 2026, we urge Aotearoa New Zealand to renew their climate finance commitments to help boost the Pacific’s resilience to disasters, tackle poverty, and reinforce its leadership on climate justice.”

Oxfam Aotearoa Executive Director, Jason Myers, said:

“In 2021, the New Zealand government announced its biggest climate finance contribution to date. This has enabled communities all over the Pacific to maintain resilience in the face of the climate crisis. With no further funding for climate finance announced in the 2024 or 2025 budgets, critical projects have had to begin closing out. Keeping our promise to fund climate action has become urgent and the New Zealand government must act now to renew funding. Pacific livelihoods depend on it.”

Report author, Oxfam Aotearoa’s Climate Justice Lead, Nick Henry, said:

“New Zealand’s funding for climate action has benefited tens of thousands of people across the Pacific, but runs out at the end of next month. Our message to Government is simple: we need to keep up the good work.

New Zealand must keep our promise to help our Pacific neighbours, who have done nothing to cause the climate crisis, but are already feeling the worst of the effects.

Our report shows how New Zealand’s climate funding has generated enormous goodwill and positive relationships with governments and communities in the Pacific and beyond. If we continue the trend of ramping up funding for climate action, New Zealand could be on track to meet our fair share of the assistance promised to lower-income countries, including here in the Pacific.”

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

  • Full report: Pacific Resilience: How funding for climate action strengthens our region link

  • The report includes new calculations, based on data published by MFAT, showing that New Zealand’s climate finance programme has exceeded its targets to deliver the majority of funding in the Pacific, with at least 50% supporting adaptation to climate change. The report analyses New Zealand’s climate finance since 2022 and shows that:

    • 59% of programme has been delivered in the Pacific.

    • 87% supports adaptation.

    •  57% has a significant gender-equality component.

Contact information:

For more information contact:

Nick Henry, Climate Justice Lead, Oxfam Aotearoa: [email protected]

A person from the richest 0.1% produces more carbon pollution in a day than someone in the bottom 50% produces all year

  • Since 1990, the richest 0.1% have increased their share of total emissions by 32%, whilst the poorest half of humanity have actually seen their share fall by 3%.

  • If everyone emitted carbon like the richest 0.1%, the carbon budget – the amount of CO2 that can be emitted while avoiding climate disaster – would be used up in less than 3 weeks.

  • To stay within the limits of the 1.5°C threshold, the richest 0.1% would need to cut their per capita emissions by 99% by 2030. 

  • A person from the world’s richest 0.1% emits over 800 kg of CO2 every day. Even the strongest person on earth could not lift this much. In contrast, someone from the poorest 50% of the world emits an average of just 2 kg of CO2 per day, which even a small child could lift.

Ahead of the major international climate conference COP30 in Belem, Brazil, new Oxfam research finds that the high-carbon lifestyles of the super-rich are blowing through the world’s remaining carbon budget – the amount of CO2 that can be emitted while avoiding climate disaster. The research also details how billionaires are using their political and economic influence to keep humanity hooked on fossil fuels to maximize their private profit. 

The report, “Climate Plunder: How a powerful few are locking the world into disaster”, presents extensive new updated data and analysis which finds that a person from the richest 0.1% produces more carbon pollution in a day than the poorest 50% emit all year. If everyone emitted like the richest 0.1%, the carbon budget would be used up in less than 3 weeks. 

The super-rich are not just overconsuming carbon, but also actively investing in and profiting from the most polluting corporations. Oxfam’s research finds that the average billionaire produces 1.9 million tonnes of CO2e a year through their investments. These billionaires would have to circumnavigate the world almost 10,000 times in their private jets to emit this much. Almost 60% of billionaire investments are classified as being in high climate impact sectors such as oil or mining, meaning their investments emit two and a half times more than an average investment in the S&P Global 1,200. The emissions of the investment portfolios of just 308 billionaires total more than the combined emissions of 118 countries. 

“The climate crisis is an inequality crisis. The very richest individuals in the world are funding and profiting from climate destruction, leaving the global majority to bear the fatal consequences of their unchecked power,” said Amitabh Behar, Executive Director of Oxfam International. 

The power and wealth of super-rich individuals and corporations have also allowed them to wield unjust influence over policymaking and water down climate negotiations. At COP29, 1,773 coal, oil, and gas lobbyists were granted badges, more than the 10 most climate-vulnerable nations combined. Multiple rich and high-emitting countries including the US, UK, France and Germany have watered down climate laws after large donations from anti-climate lobbyists.   

“It is a travesty that power and wealth have been allowed to accumulate in the hands of a few, who are only using it to further entrench their influence and lock us all into a path to planetary destruction. The super-rich and the corporations they run have a deadly track record of bankrolling lobbyists, spreading climate disinformation, and suing NGOs and governments that try to stand in their way. We must break the chokehold of the super-rich over climate policy by taxing their extreme wealth, banning their lobbying and instead put those most affected by the climate crisis in the front seat of climate decision-making,” said Behar. 

The emissions of the richest 1% are enough to cause an estimated 1.3 million heat-related deaths by the end of the century, as well as $44 trillion of economic damage to low- and lower-middle-income countries by 2050. The impacts of these climate damages will disproportionately impact those who have done the least to cause the climate crisis, particularly people living in the Global South, women, girls and Indigenous groups. 

COP30 marks ten years since the Paris Agreement in 2015. During this period, the world’s richest 1% have burnt through more than twice as much of the carbon budget than the poorest half of humanity combined 

Ahead of COP30, Oxfam calls on governments to cut the emissions and dismantle the political and economic power of the super-rich through: 

  • Slashing the emissions of the super-rich and make the richest polluters pay, through taxation on extreme wealth, excess profits taxes on fossil fuel corporations, and supporting the UN Convention on International Tax Cooperation. A 60% tax on the total incomes of the richest 1% globally could cut carbon emissions equivalent to the total emissions of the UK and generate in the region of $6.4 trillion.

  • Curbing the economic and political influence of the richest by banning fossil fuel corporations from climate negotiations such as COP, implementing sustainability regulations for corporations and financial institutions, and rejecting trade and investment agreements like investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS) that put the interests of the super-wealthy above public good.

  • Strengthening the participation of civil society and Indigenous groups in climate negotiations and address the unequal impacts of climate change.

  • Adopting a fair-share approach to the remaining climate budget by committing to nationally determined contributions (NDCs) that reflect historical responsibility and capacity to act, and ensuring rich countries deliver ambitious climate finance.

  • Building an equal economic system that puts people and planet first by rejecting dominant neoliberal economics and moving towards an economy based on sustainability and equality. 

Notes to editors

Download – Climate Plunder: How a powerful few are locking the world into disaster

The Stockholm Environment Institute’s Emissions Inequality Dashboard is also available for consultation. 

Oxfam has launched a global petition to Make Rich Polluters Pay. 

Contact information:

Rachel Schaevitz, Head of Communication, Media, & Advocacy: [email protected]

Climate Plunder: How a powerful few are locking the world into disaster

Ahead of the major international climate conference COP30 in Belem, Brazil, new Oxfam research finds that the high-carbon lifestyles of the super-rich are blowing through the world’s remaining carbon budget – the amount of CO2 that can be emitted while avoiding climate disaster. The research also details how billionaires are using their political and economic influence to keep humanity hooked on fossil fuels to maximize their private profit.

The report, Climate Plunder: How a powerful few are locking the world into disaster, presents extensive new updated data and analysis which finds that a person from the richest 0.1% produces more carbon pollution in a day than the poorest 50% emit all year. If everyone emitted like the richest 0.1%, the carbon budget would be used up in less than 3 weeks.

View report here – Climate Plunder: How a powerful few are locking the world into disaster

Contact information:

For more details, please contact: [email protected]

25 years on from UN pledge, local women’s rights organisations and peacebuilders get just 0.1% of aid as donors pour billions into arms

The same governments that pledged support in 2000 to the UN’s flagship resolution on “Women, Peace and Security” (WPS) have since spent 25 years paying it lip-service, according to a new Oxfam report today that reviews its progress.

The report called “Beyond Rhetoric” shows that while military spending has risen by $1.5 trillion in 84 countries in 2024, aid for gender equality and peace fell by 7.1%. Women’s organizations are now getting less than half a cent of every dollar of aid.

Amina Hersi, Oxfam’s Head of Gender, Rights and Justice, said: “Feminist-led peace hasn’t failed – it has been betrayed”.

“A generation after world leaders promised women a seat at the table, the same powerful states that authored the blueprint have simply not backed it properly. Women peacebuilders are being left to nurture shattered communities, shouldering most of the responsibility but without enough political space or financial backing to do so.”

Oxfam warns that promises made toward securing women’s leadership in peace and security building are collapsing.

Case studies from Colombia, the DRC, the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), and South Sudan find that national action plans remain mostly empty pledges, even as rising militarization means that important women rights actors and peacebuilders become further sidelined.

NATO members alone have increased defence spending by $159 billion over the past decade, while global funding for gender-responsive peace has flatlined and is now in freefall.

The same NATO powers touting feminist foreign policies and National Action Plans on WPS —including Canada, the US, the UK and France — along with the UN Security Council, have largely failed to act in the face of atrocities in the DRC, the OPT, South Sudan and beyond.

Funding for global gender, conflict, peace and security aid only accounts for just 2.6 per cent ($7.5 billion) of total ODA ($289 billion). Of the $148 million in global gender, peace and security aid that went to women’s rights in 2023, only $4.7 million – 3.1% – actually reached local women rights organisations. More starkly, between 2014 and 2023, just 0.1 per cent of overall ODA reached women’s rights and women-led organisations directly; while cuts in 2025 threaten to close almost half of such organisations in crisis settings within months.

Attacks on women and girls during conflicts have soared. Verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence rose by 50% in 2023 while the incidence of grave violations against girls increased 35%. The report also highlights:

  • In Colombia, over 180 women human rights defenders were killed in 2023 alone, and the gender provisions in its own peace accord remain among the least implemented.

  • In DRC, only 13% of parliamentary seats are held by women, and there is evidence of high levels of conflict related sexual and gender-based violence and displacement fuelled by mineral extraction and widespread militarisation and conflict.

  • In OPT, Israel’s genocide in Gaza and violent repression in the West Bank, on top of decades of illegal occupation, has resulted in severe violations of the rights and lives of women. These violations include sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated by Israeli forces, as well as restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities, such as military checkpoints and the destruction of health infrastructure, that have denied women access to essential reproductive healthcare and violated their reproductive rights.

  • In South Sudan, women’s 35% political quota has not translated into genuine influence, amid repression and pervasive sexual and gender-based violence used as a weapon of war.  

“Feminist peace is a political imperative, not an optional extra. Unless governments change course now, the WPS agenda will be remembered as just another broken promise,” said Hersi.

“The real contribution of the WPS agenda is not only about including women in peace processes, but instead a fundamental challenge to transform unequal power structures. This is a process that continues to be led from the ground by feminist actors, often at great personal risk.”

Following the UN Security Council’s Annual Open Debate on Women Peace and Security, Oxfam is calling for member states to deliver a radical reset and redirect some of their military spending toward peacebuilding.

They should guarantee that at least half of WPS funding goes directly to grassroots women’s rights organisations. They should also do more to enforce accountability for those responsible for genocide, war crimes and sexual and gender-based violence.

“The WPS agenda remains an essential tool for women peacebuilders, women’s rights and feminist actors,” Hersi said.

“Whether it survives as a force for justice depends on the global community backing its principles with the resources and political will to make that potential real. Without this happening, the 25th anniversary of the UN Resolution on Women, Peace and Security will be a mark of its decline, not its maturity.”

Notes to the editor

Contact information:

Rachel Schaevitz, Head of Communications, Media & Advocacy: [email protected]