Monthly Action Points (MAP) for the Security Council: October 2025

Colombia

Civilians in Colombia, particularly rural, Afro-descendant and Indigenous people, have experienced a sharp uptick in violence and displacement since the start of 2025, with both state and non-state forces perpetrating femicide, abductions, enforced disappearance, extortion and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Council members must prioritize the protection of human rights defenders (HRDs) and peacebuilders in particular, as Colombia remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for HRDs and social leaders: so far in 2025, 117 HRDs and social leaders have been assassinated, with women, Afro-descendant, Indigenous and LGBTIQ HRDs particularly at risk. Migrant women and girls also face increased risks of SGBV and additional barriers to accessing essential services.

The Security Council should:

• Renew in full the mandate of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia (UNVMC) as contained in Resolution 2754 (2024) and continue to call on the UNVMC to prioritize implementation of outstanding provisions of the 2016 peace agreement, notably gender provisions, the Ethnic Chapter and land reform, in order to ensure more equitable and effective access to justice for historically marginalized communities.
• Demand the full, equal, meaningful and safe participation and respect for the rights of diverse women, youth, LGBTIQ, Afro-descendant, Indigenous and rural communities in implementation of peace agreements and negotiations with armed actors.  
• Call for all actors, including the ELN and FARC dissidents, to protect civilians and immediately end the use of violence, including SGBV. Call on the Government of Colombia to design and implement an effective, rights-respecting security and justice policy.
• Demand an end to all forms of intimidation, attacks and reprisals against HRDs, peacebuilders, civil society leaders and peace agreement signatories, and for all perpetrators to be held accountable. Call on the UNVMC to regularly report on the situation of all HRDs to the Security Council. Urge the adequate implementation of the Comprehensive Programme of Safeguards for Women Leaders and Human Rights Defenders and measures to integrate a gender perspective in the work of the National Protection Unit.
• Continue to support the work of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), including the ongoing Macro Case 11 on conflict-related sexual and reproductive violence, as well as follow-up to the recommendations of the Truth Commission’s final report. Call on the Government of Colombia to effectively enforce JEP judgments.
• Call for all briefings and updates by senior UN officials to integrate gender-sensitive conflict analysis, including the needs of women in relation to violence on the basis of their identities and against former combatants and social leaders.

Israel / Palestine

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since October 2023 — which Palestinian, Israeli, international and UN experts, including the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), have concluded amounts to genocide — has killed over 65,000 Palestinians (likely a severe undercount), injured over 167,000, and forcibly displaced 90% of Gaza’s population multiple times. Israel’s order to further displace over one million people from Gaza City will further worsen the immense suffering, exposing civilians to further violence and forcing them into already over-crowded and under-resourced territories. Palestinians in Gaza, including one million women and girls, face a humanitarian catastrophe and ongoing famine as a result of Israel’s continued bombardment and denial and blockage of aid. Attacks on healthcare facilities and providers have decimated health infrastructure, violating Palestinian women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights — with pregnant and postpartum women at particular risk — and their rights to life, health, human dignity and non-discrimination. SGBV risks are heightened for women and girls in displacement sites, and they are largely unable to access menstrual products, clean water and hygiene facilities. Israeli laws banning the operations of UNRWA and restricting operations of international NGOs further threaten relief and civil society efforts. Israeli government efforts to control and militarize aid distribution violate international law and humanitarian principles, exclude and endanger Palestinian women and girls and risk further entrenching the starvation, forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza. 

Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank since January 2025 have displaced over 40,000 Palestinians and disrupted access to basic services, including sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care for about 232,000 women and girls, and access to education and livelihoods. Since 7 October 2023, at least 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli state or settler violence, some of which may amount to extrajudicial killings. Arrests of Palestinians have also surged, and Palestinian detainees, including women and girls, face torture, including sexual violence, in detention.

The Security Council should:

• Demand an immediate, full and complete ceasefire in accordance with Resolution 2735 (2024), and an immediate end to violence and repression in the occupied West Bank.
• Demand all parties comply with their obligations under international law, including immediately stopping all attacks on civilians, civilian infrastructure and humanitarian actors. 
• Demand Israel’s immediate compliance with all provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to prevent genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, including by allowing full humanitarian access into Gaza. All Member States must uphold their obligations to prevent, suppress, punish and not assist in the commission of acts of genocide.
• Demand an immediate end to the forcible transfer of civilians and to all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the OPT, including immediate cessation of Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank.
• Demand immediate, safe, unhindered and expanded humanitarian access into and throughout Gaza, as required by Resolutions 2728 (2024) and 2720 (2023). Demand respect for core humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality, and reject any proposed aid modalities that do not adhere to these principles.
• Call on Israel to repeal legislation banning UNRWA and lift restrictions on NGOs and civil society organizations.
• Demand an immediate halt to military assistance and the transfer of arms and other equipment or items, including jet fuel, to Israel while there is risk that they are used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international law.
• Demand the humane treatment and immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and all arbitrarily detained individuals, in accordance with international humanitarian law.
• Urge all parties to cooperate with independent, impartial investigations, including the COI on the OPT, to monitor, collect and verify evidence, and report on human rights violations and abuses, including gender-based crimes, committed by all parties on and since 7 October in Israel and the OPT. Call for all justice and accountability efforts to be human rights-based, survivor-centered and non-discriminatory and designed and implemented in partnership with survivors.
• Call on all Member States to take immediate measures to implement the findings of the July 2024 ICJ advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation.
• Demand respect for the rights of diverse Palestinian women, including women human rights defenders (WHRDs), activists and journalists, and demand their full, equal, meaningful and safe participation in building peace and shaping post-conflict recovery.

Libya

Women continue to be marginalized from political processes in Libya; for example, no women are included in the 6+6 Committee responsible for drafting electoral laws, and women comprise only 16.5% of parliamentarians. Politically active women in Libya, including WHRDs, journalists, peacebuilders, political candidates and activists, are frequently targeted due to their work, through both online harassment, hate campaigns and threats of violence, and through arrests and abductions, arbitrary detention and torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, perpetrated with impunity by both state and non-state actors. Civic space continues to be restricted by repressive laws and decrees, including restrictions on using the word “gender,” and through intimidation and reprisals. These actions both prevent women’s groups from carrying out their work, including in humanitarian contexts, and deny women’s fundamental rights to full, equal, meaningful and safe participation in public and political life.

The Security Council should:

• Renew in full the mandate of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) as contained in Resolution 2755 (2024), and request that UNSMIL prioritize all activities related to the protection and promotion of women’s rights, including monitoring and reporting on reprisals against WHRDs and politically active women, and providing necessary support to those at risk. Member States should call for all existing gender advisor and women protection adviser positions to be retained, and commit to funding these positions in the UN Fifth Committee. 
• Demand women’s meaningful and safe participation in formal, substantive and specific roles at every level of the peace process and implementation of the political roadmap, recalling the 30% quota established by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum. 
• Call on UNSMIL and the government of Libya to integrate a gender perspective into security sector reform, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration efforts and ceasefire monitoring arrangements. In addition, call for ceasefire monitoring arrangements to meaningfully include women monitors, address conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and regularly and meaningfully consult with women-led and women’s rights organizations.

Women Peace and Security

In the forthcoming open debate on women, peace and security, Security Council members must commit to:

• Defending the centrality of gender equality and the full scope of human rights of diverse women and girls in peace and security across the entirety of the Council’s work, without exception.
• Demanding women’s full, equal, meaningful and safe participation in all peace processes, with the target of 50%; and including explicit language demanding women’s participation in all outcome documents, mandates of peace operations and public statements.
• Swiftly and publicly condemning any attacks against women and LGBTIQ HRDs, peacebuilders, civil society and all those active in public life; consistently implementing a zero-tolerance approach to any form of attack, intimidation, retaliation or reprisal against diverse women for their political participation, human rights and humanitarian work, peacebuilding activities or cooperation with the UN; ensuring a safe and enabling environment in which women and LGBTIQ HRDs, peacebuilders and civil society leaders are protected and supported and their legitimacy is recognized; and eliminating any restrictions or barriers to their work.
• Implementing a comprehensive, human rights-based and survivor-centered approach to GBV prevention and response; and ensuring access to quality, accessible and non-discriminatory health care and comprehensive support, including a complete range of SRH care, psychosocial support, legal services, access to justice, reparations and livelihood support. Reparations regimes should provide guarantees of non-repetition by addressing underlying forms of gender discrimination, excluding amnesties for CRSV and facilitating women’s meaningful participation in peace processes and post-conflict society building.
• Providing direct, accessible, long-term and flexible funding to local women-led, women’s rights and LGBTIQ organizations.
• Ensuring gender-responsive justice and accountability for violations of international law, including gender-based crimes, and actively supporting the gender-progressive, survivor-centric and intersectional development of international law, via existing instruments as well as new initiatives such as the Draft Articles on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity.