The United Nations Security Council, a body responsible for international peace and security, adopted on 31 October 2000 the Resolution 1325 “Women, peace and security”. The Resolution 1325 is the first Security Council Resolution that deals specifically with the influence of war on women and girls, and the contribution of women to conflict resolution and sustainable peace. The particular significance of Resolution 1325 lies in that it calls on increasing the participation of women in decision making processes, preventing conflict, post-conflict processes, peace negotiations and peace support operations.
The Resolution points to the special needs of women and girls during war conflict, the need to protect them, as well as prevent and penalize sexual and any other form of violence against women. Adopting Resolution 1325 is particularly important if we consider the fact that the nature of war has changed in the last few decades, and that civilians are increasingly exposed to war operations. Women and girls engage in war, and raping women and girls around the world has become an important instrument of war and one of the methods of extreme torture. Risk of various contagious diseases, notably HIV-AIDS is an important problem of countries in conflict, as women and children are often raped to spread infectious diseases onto them.