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Gender and Security Toolkit
have a range of tools at their disposal to exercise oversight over the implementation of
NAPs, including plenary debates, committee meetings, hearings, questions to government
ministers, officials or experts, and the production and examination of reports.
In many countries, parliamentarians are engaged in producing and examining reports on
the government’s implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. In the United
Kingdom, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Women, Peace, and Security was established
in 2006, bringing together parliamentarians, policy-makers and civil society and focusing
on the UK’s implementation of its Women, Peace and Security commitments. On an annual
basis, this group scrutinizes the government’s report on its NAP implementation, thus
strengthening parliamentary and public accountability.15
Questions and motions can be effective measures. Parliamentarians use questions to
respond to emergencies, current events and emerging priorities. For example, the German
Parliament interrogated the German federal government on sexual violence in international
missions a few months after Oxfam staff members were found to have sexually exploited
victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. A similar intervention was made in the Netherlands,
where in 2016 the House of Representatives tabled a motion during a plenary session
asking the Minister of Defence to ensure full-time gender expertise within the Ministry of
Defence and its operations, and to facilitate women’s participation in all its sections.
Parliaments can also use their budgetary power to oversee government spending for the
implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. In Canada, for example, the
parliamentary Standing Committees on Foreign Affairs and International Development
and on National Defence meet at least three times a year to examine the spending of
governmental departments responsible for the implementation of the Women, Peace and
Security Agenda. In 2018 this oversight meant that parliamentarians were able to question
the Minister of National Defence. Questions focused on the recruitment of women, the
commitments of the Ministry of Defence to peace operations, and its policies on the
elimination of harmful and inappropriate sexual behaviour within the military.16
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