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7 Mar 2024
  • Photo of Lina Ekomo, who is active in the fight for women’s leadership in peace processes. In 2022 she made remarks to the UN Security Council as a representative of the civil society in the Central African Republic. She spotlighted the non-inclusive nature of many national peace initiatives, warning that women cannot continue to be excluded from substantive discussions on issues affecting their lives, their communities, and their country. Photo by UNPeacekeeping
    Lina Ekomo is active in the fight for women’s leadership in peace processes. In 2022 she made remarks to the UN Security Council as a representative of the civil society in the Central African Republic. She spotlighted the non-inclusive nature of many national peace initiatives, warning that women cannot continue to be excluded from substantive discussions on issues affecting their lives, their communities, and their country. Photo: UNPeacekeeping

Women’s participation in peace processes is not only a right, it's the way to lasting peace

Women have a fundamental right to participate in peace negotiations and decision-making that affects them, their families, and the futures of their countries. There is also evidence that their inclusion makes a peace agreement more likely to succeed and contributes to longer lasting peace. Despite this, women’s participation in peace processes has remained low globally. Negotiating parties continue to regularly exclude women, and women continue to face entrenched barriers to direct participation.

Peacekeeping missions are working to change this in conflict settings around the world, promoting the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women in peace processes. Their work includes providing capacity-building to women leaders and using good offices with officials at the local and national levels to support the role of women in the negotiation, implementation and monitoring of peace agreements.

Below are just a few examples of the impact peacekeeping is having on women’s participation:

  • In South Sudan, which has been facing violence since December 2013, the peacekeeping mission is working to ensure women are included in efforts to resolve conflict and promote reconciliation. In 2015, Alokiir Malual made history as the only woman to have signed a peace agreement in South Sudan. In 2018, with support from the UN, she was one of 7 to sign a revitalized agreement. And in 2022, UN peacekeeping helped ensure 41% of participants in local peace initiatives were women.
  • In Cyprus, where a political settlement to the conflict has yet to be reached, the peacekeeping mission has helped bring women together from the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, leveraging shared traditions to forge new connections and help overcome the decades-old divide. To allow new and often underrepresented perspectives and voices to emerge, the mission supported a peacebuilding program providing youth, and in particular young women, with skills on inclusive peacebuilding.
  • In the Central African Republic, where efforts are being made to end violence that resumed in 2012,  the mission has been supporting the inclusion of women in local committees for peace and reconciliation, helping them reach 35% in 2023, a 15% increase since 2019. The mission also provided technical and institutional support to women's organizations that resulted in the establishment of 12 “Circles of Peace”. Through these circles, 300 trained women work for the promotion of peace and social cohesion within their communities.

Despite this work, a global backlash against women’s rights has seen gains threatened.  The contribution of women and girls to peacebuilding continues to go undervalued and under-resourced. The world has seen how the exclusion of women from peace processes contributes to instability, but their exclusion persists.

In his New Agenda for Peace, UN Secretary General António Guterres calls on us to “dismantle the patriarchy and oppressive power structures which stand in the way of progress on gender equality or women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in political and public life.” This is central to achieving long-lasting peace, a need growing more critical by the day: the number of women and girls living in conflict affected countries reached 614 million in 2022, a 50% increase over 5 years. March 8th marks International Women’s Day. On March 8th, and every day, we must stand in solidarity with women and support their integral role in fostering and protecting peace.