Solomon Islands adopted its first National Action Plan (NAP) in 2017 for the period 2017-2021. The NAP was developed by the Ministry of Women, Youth, Children and Family Affairs, and supported by the Ministry of National Unity, Reconciliation and Peace, the Ministry of Police, Corrections and National Security, and the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force with technical and financial support by the Government of Australia, UN Women, and UNDP for the during the NAP development process. The NAP acknowledges the importance of civil society involvement in the implementation of the WPS agenda, but does not specify details on civil society involvement in the country’s NAP. The NAP aims to support the recommendations made by the previous Truth and Reconciliation Commission, specifically as it pertains to women and girls, CEDAW General Recommendation 30, and the entire WPS agenda, including access to government services, protection, prevention and rehabilitation with the promise that a commitment to women’s rights will be reflected in “all related policies, programs and budgets, including the resources [the Solomon Islands] invest in recovery and reparation.” The NAP does not include an allocated budget, but indicates that a financing and implementation plan will be developed in the first six months of the NAP timeline.
Solomon Islands gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1978. The most recent history of armed conflict in Solomon Islands was a period of civil unrest known locally as “The Tensions,” which lasted from 1998 until 2003, when the Townsville Peace Agreement was signed. The conflict had a disproportionate impact on women and girls, who were deliberately targeted with violence, the reverberations of which continue to this date, including through the societal impacts of post-conflict trauma.
During the Tensions, women played a key role in peacemaking using traditional practices and churches to mediate and place pressure on parties to disarm, as well as a role providing social, spiritual and material support to one another and to combatants. Despite these efforts, women were excluded from the peace agreement negotiations and amnesty was given to all actors, depriving women and girls and other affected people access to justice and accountability.
Currently, the Solomon Islands is affected by environmental challenges such as increasing climate temperatures, rising sea levels, commercial logging, food (in)security for increasing populations with decreasing agricultural viability, and the destabilization of communities.