Peace Trailblazer: "Peace and equality are inseparable. We will not achieve equality without peace, nor peace without equality"

Ida Brorsdatter Harsløf, 85, is a long-time peace activist from Denmark. With the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), she attended the Beijing World Conference in 1995 and advocated for United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) in 2000.

1. How did you get involved in peace work?

I was born in 1939 in Denmark, just before World War II. As such, my early childhood was during the German occupation. My mother, being in WILPF, was involved in rescuing Jewish children from the concentration camps before the war, supporting Norwegian prisoners going to and coming back from the concentration camps during the war, and working to get German youth to Denmark after the war. The German youth were not responsible for the war, and should have a chance to start their adulthood without the burden of guilt. So, peace work was, right from the beginning, a natural part of my life.

My own commitment started in the early sixties, marching and speaking against nuclear weapons, and nuclear power in Denmark. In the seventies, the main issue both in WILPF and for progressive women, was gender equality. Denmark passed the law for gender equality in 1978.

2. How has your work evolved?

However, despite a deep understanding of women issues in WILPF, my peace work didn’t start until the early eighties, when I was at an international WILPF meeting and met women from Lebanon, which at that time was at war with Israel. Their stories about living under attack every night, singing to the children for them not to hear the bombs falling, was so touching and eye-opening, that I understood, in depth, that women’s solidarity was the only way.

Since then, I have been involved in promoting women’s issues in all aspects of peace work. At the fourth UN International Women’s Conference in Beijing, I took part in organizing and travelling to the conference with the WILPF Women’s Peace Train to Beijing, with 223 women and seven men on board. We travelled from Helsingfors, Finland, through Russia and the former Soviet States, through Kazakhstan and on through China to Beijing, carrying the message of peace. I saw poverty like never before.

3. Was your message successful?

It was during the war in the former Yugoslavia, where we heard about the atrocities against women. One of the messages from WILPF to the conference in Beijing was how important it is to recognize the role that peace could play in promoting equality and development.

The conference resulted in the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a comprehensive document outlining key areas for global action to achieve gender equality. Yes, our work did help secure the Women and Armed Conflict section in the Beijing Platform for Action. But what didn’t get in, as far as I remember, was, that peace and equality are inseparable, that we will not achieve equality without peace, nor peace without equality. This was one of the many reasons for the work for the UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) adopted in 2000.

4. How has UNSCR 1325 made a difference?

Now 25 years later, I am still very active working for a feminist peace trying to make the world see that negotiating peace without women at the table is both unjust and very stupid.

The Women, Peace and Security agenda means as much to me today, as the day it was passed. Carried out as it was intended, it would be the perfect way to obtain development, equality and peace. But I have to realize that the way it is interpreted, at least in Denmark, has reduced it to be a tool to strengthen the women’s participation in the armed forces and not as a resource in peace negotiations. Protection in war and conflict zones is also a miss. With Denmark obtaining a seat on the UN Security Council and committing to strengthening the Women, Peace and Security agenda, governments should seize this moment to mainstream gender into all peace and security decisions and support women’s leadership.

5. What are your current concerns and focus?

We are hoping for the UN to work seriously on the WPS agenda, taking it in the direction of women at the table in all serious negotiations and not in a military direction, as in Denmark.

We have had very little influence, although we in WILPF and the other NGOs have been very much involved in both the third and fourth National Action Plans on WPS. During the latest negotiations, we worked closely with representatives from both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense, but our ideas and wishes have not found their way to the content – which is critical for the government to translate its commitment to women’s leadership into action.

Having worked for so long for women’s right to participate on equal terms in all aspects of life, and with so little success, the answer is that we have to work on shaping, leading and reclaiming the WPS agenda.

This story is published as part of "The Past, Present, and Future of Women, Peace, and Security" campaign, commemorating the 25th anniversary of UNSCR 1325, to celebrate the power of peace. The campaign aims to foster a deeper dialogue on equality, justice and peace, honoring the legacies and amplifying the voices of 25 trailblazing women from across Europe and Central Asia whose significant contributions have transformed their communities, societies, and beyond. The content reflects the personal views and experiences of the author(s) and does not necessarily represent the official position of UN Women, its partners, or the United Nations.