United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates adopted its first National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security in 2021.

Fourteen national entities including federal, local and civil society institutions participated in the preparation of the UAE National Action Plan, including the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Health and Community Protection, the Ministry of Culture and Youth, the Ministry of Education, the General Women’s Union, the Islamic Affairs and Endowments Authority, The National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority, the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre, the Federal National Council, and the UAE Gender Balance Council, with technical support from the UN Women Liaison Office for the GCC. 

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the United Arab Emirates has not made information on military expenditure available since 2014, and the information available on official documents is uncertain and lacks transparency. The UAE was elected for a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council for the period 2022-2023.

CEDAW Ratification

2004

Global Gender Gap Index 2020

120 out of 153

Arms Trade Treaty

Signed 2013

Military expenditure (2014 - most recent estimate)

$22.8 billion USD

Explore the UAE's National Action Plan

  • Actors
  • Timeframe
  • Objectives
  • Actions/Activities
  • Indicators
  • M&E
  • Budget
  • Disarmament

Actors 

The NAP outlines a variety of actors responsible for its development and implementation. Each group of actors respond to the objectives outlined in the NAP framework. For the integration of women into foreign policy priorities, including humanitarian aid for women and girls, the responsible Ministries are: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ministry of Defense, General Women’s Union, and civil society institutions. On the other hand, activities relating to women’s participation in peacekeeping forces and within the security sector falls under the responsibility of the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, General Women’s Union, and UN Women Liaison office for GCC. 

Civil society institutions are mentioned as relevant and responsible for the implementation process of the NAP, however there is no clarity of the role they will play in them. In addition, the General Women’s Union is mentioned throughout most objectives as a relevant actor. 

Development

The UAE entities involved in the preparation of the National Action Plan were the Federal National Council, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Culture and Youth, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and Prevention, the Ministry of Justice, the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority, the General Authority For Islamic Affairs and Endowments, the General Women's Union, the UAE Gender Balance Council, thel Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre, and UN Women.

Implementation

As the United Arab Emirates considers that the Action Plan should articulate a government’s commitment and priorities regarding women, peace, and security, government institutions are responsible for the execution of the NAP at all levels, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Culture and Youth, the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority, the General Women's Union, and other relevant authorities. 

M&E

The Emirati NAP does not outline mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation, nor allocates responsible actors for such tasks.

Civil Society

Even though the document states that civil society and the private sector are relevant to the WPS Agenda and participated in the development of the NAP, further information is not provided about which activities they would be a part of.

The timeframe for the implementation of the NAP is from 2021 to 2024.

UAE recognizes four main objectives that are the core of the NAP:

  1. Women's needs are integrated into foreign policy priorities, including humanitarian aid for women and girls
  2. Women’s meaningful participation in promotion of conflict prevention and participation in peacebuilding activities is increased
  3. Women’s meaningful participation in peacekeeping forces and within the security sector is strengthened, and peacekeeping troops deployed have a strengthened capacity to protect women from sexual exploitation and abuse during deployment
  4. Women’s meaningful participation in preventing violent extremism and other emerging women, peace, and security challenges is strengthened.

Each objective in the Emirati NAP has secondary objectives that must be reached through different proposed actions. Example of these include: 

Objective 1

Women’s political participation in UAE is strengthened: Conduct training to enhance women’s leadership and governance skills broadly in UAE, create peer-to-peer and mentorship relationships between women within Ministries and Governmental entities, set annual targets for total number of women in senior-level positions at Governmental entities, and to ensure a gender balance.

Objective 2

Enhance the role of decision-makers in the Arab Gulf region and the international community to build their capacities in the field of supporting women's contributions to the peace building process:  Conduct advanced trainings and technical workshops on women’s contributions to targeted peacebuilding, convene training workshops for policy makers involved in developing and implementing peacebuilding policy, including UAE representatives and promote cross-country and regional collaboration; and exchange best practices

Objective 3

Relevant stakeholders are responsive to the security needs and priorities of women, and are understanding of women’s contributions to the field: peacekeeping and security sector staff of all levels, receive trainings on UNSCR 1325 and subsequent resolutions on WPS Agenda, UAE commitments to address all types of violence and how to effectively promote zero-tolerance of gender-based discrimination, sexual exploitation, and abuse.

Objective 4

A gender perspective is integrated in efforts on prevention of and countering violent extremism: Identifying and addressing early signs of radicalization and gendered strategies to deal with extremism within communities and supporting women’s leadership in PVE/CVE field through their inclusion as decision-makers within relevant ministries. 

A gender perspective integrated into emergency response and crisis management planning and implementation: Relevant ministries to emergency response and crisis management planning (including pandemic response) will establish WPS coordination mechanisms, ensure the gender perspective is successfully integrated into implementation of operation mandates across all levels (strategic, operation, and tactical), and ensure equal career opportunities by recruiting and training more women at all levels to serve as first responders.

To evaluate if the main and secondary objectives were reached, the Emirati NAP includes a number of outcomes that indicate the fulfillment of achievements, largely using qualitative metrics.

Objective 1

Women’s political participation in UAE is strengthened: Gender parity within the Ministry

of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and other relevant entities is strengthened, and the percentage of women at senior-level positions within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and other relevant entities is increased.

Objective 2

Enhance the role of decision-makers in the Arab Gulf region and the international community to build their capacities in the field of supporting women's contributions to the peace building process: UAE representatives involved in developing and implementing peacebuilding policy - including current peacebuilding engagements - receive capacity building training on integrating women’s contribution into peacebuilding efforts and capacity building for middle and upper-level functional levels of the relevant authorities is conducted and deals with women’s contributions to peace building processes

Objective 3

Relevant stakeholders are  responsive to the security needs and priorities of women, and are understanding of women’s contributions to the field: Relevant staff in the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces and the security sector have an increased awareness of the importance of women’s participation in the security sector, relevant staff in the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces and the security sector are aware of issues related to integrate women needs and are capable of responding to harassment and all types of violence, and integrate women needs and its analysis in the training of senior leadership and experts.

Objective 4

A gender perspective is integrated in efforts on prevention of and countering violent extremism: Senior management incorporates a gender perspective into prevention of and countering violent extremism policy planning, key government institutions understand the role women play in preventing and countering violence extremism and women’s capacity for leadership is enhanced regarding prevention and countering of violent extremism at national and international levels.

A gender perspective integrated into emergency response and crisis management planning and implementation: Key agencies involved in crisis management are enhanced and supported to be more gender responsive including having capacity to all type of violence, the number of women serving in civilian and military crisis management tasks are increased, and women are ensured equal career opportunities, and gender is integrated into crisis management training and exercises, including pandemic response.

 

The Action Plan does not establish a monitoring or evaluation mechanism, nor establish responsibilities for this.

There are no specific mentions of the budget for the implementation of the NAP.

There are no mentions of or specific actions towards disarmament.

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