Why should women be involved in Peace processes?

The importance of including women and women’s voices in peace negotiations, transitional bodies and in long-term political processes is increasingly accepted. Research shows that women are deeply committed to peace building and post-conflict reconstruction and have a unique perspective and a solid understanding of the needs of their communities. Women tend to have more inclusive leadership styles, which promote consensus in negotiations. Women are skillful at working across divides whether they be religious, ethnic, political or cultural. Women have access that men do not (for example, to other women) are seen to be less threatening and tend to be influential within their families and communities.

The Angola case study suggests that women have been and continue to be excluded from peace and security operations around the world. While women still struggle to get a seat at the table in elected bodies such as local councils and parliaments, they find it even harder to be present when it comes to participation in peace and conflict negotiation processes. Women's participation in peace negotiations remains ad hoc, not systematic. In 24 major peace processes, women made up 8% of negotiators, 3% of mediators, and 2.5% of signatories.  No women have been appointed Chief peace mediators in UN-sponsored peace talks, but in some talks sponsored by the African Union or other institutions, women have joined a team of mediators. A recent positive case is that of H.E Madam Graça Machel of the Republic of South Africa, who served as one of the three mediators for the Kenyan crisis in 2008. 

Pre-negotiations: When a peace negotiation was announced for 2010, women activists in Afghanistan organized a dual advocacy approach: lobbying the government while simultaneously conducting a public appeal to the international community to support their efforts for representation. This combination of internal and external pressure kept the issue of women’s participation visible and ultimately led to their inclusion in the process. 13 women leaders were invited to join the government delegation a year later at the Bonn Conference and women comprised nearly 50% of the Civil Society Forum. Negotiations: After months of successful advocacy that eventually led to peace negotiations in Liberia, women’s groups took advantage of their observer status to agitate for their concerns. While they maintained external pressure through mass actions like marching on foreign embassies, inside the talks they submitted declarations and appealed to delegates. Women’s groups produced a declaration that summarized their demands and hopes for the process and then famously barricaded delegates at the site of the talks until a peace accord was signed. Post-negotiations: In Fiji, the first female-led community radio station was set up so that rural women could receive information on human rights, share opinions and report problems. This has enabled more than 6,000 women to address their peace and human security priorities in radio programs and broadcasts in rural centers. 

Sexual violence exacerbates conflict and perpetuates insecurity in the wake of war. It holds entire communities’ hostage, and has an economic, social, cultural and inter-generational impact, notwithstanding the emotional and psychological injury. The numbers are absolutely staggering, horrifying, and sad. For example, 250,000–500,000 women and girls were raped during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. 20,000–50,000 women and girls were raped during the war in Bosnia in the early 1990s. Combatants sexually attacked 50,000–64,000 internally displaced women in Sierra Leone during the civil war that raged throughout the 1990s. It is estimated that more than 200,000 women and children had been raped over more than a decade of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Moreover, this trend continues as the current raging war in the Great Lakes Region in 2025 persists. Nusreta Sivac, herself raped by guards at a concentration camp in Bosnia, helped to collect testimonies from other women who had suffered similar crimes. She and her colleagues presented this information to the investigators at the International Tribunal for War Crimes in Former Yugoslavia. As a result, rape is classified as a war crime under the International Law.  Nevertheless, the situation remains grim. Out of 300 peace agreements for 45 conflict situations in the 20 years since the end of the Cold War only 18 had addressed sexual violence in 10 conflict situations: Burundi, DRC, Sudan/Nuba Mountains, Sudan/Darfur, Philippines, Nepal, Uganda, Guatemala, and Chiapas. In 2007, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon emphasized that; “...in no other area is our collective failure to ensure effective protection for civilians more apparent…than in terms of the masses of women and girls, but also boys and men, whose lives are destroyed each year by sexual violence perpetrated in conflict.” 

It is important to note that women are increasingly found in the category of combatants, either by choice or through force. Women are also a more common site in so-called irregular armies, rebel forces or terrorist groups operating within a country. While women have a relatively long history of serving in official “uniformed” armies in their countries, they were until recently confined to non-combat roles such as nurses, clerks or other support positions. Women have fought or are fighting alongside men in civil wars in countries such as Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor, Liberia, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Some women in Liberia were forced to join but others took up arms after being raped by government soldiers, feeling that fighting was the only way to protect themselves from future harm. Much media attention has been devoted to the plight of child soldiers but only recently it was established that about 40% of them are girls. The assumption that girls and women are always victims of war has meant that they are often ignored or underserved in peace processes. For example, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) processes are often ill equipped to deal with women and girls, who are often the hardest to reintegrate into their communities. Perceptions about appropriate roles for women are changing and an increasing number of countries are allowing women in front-line combat roles and/or as fighter pilots. In Africa, we have witnessed women in high-ranking positions like in Kenya and Nigeria to name but a few. 

Not surprisingly, the involvement of women and coverage of women’s issues in truth and reconciliation processes has often fallen short. Women have been involved as witnesses but, in many cases, the focus of their testimony was on violations committed against male family members. This has often been the case because of a narrow definition of violations that occurred during active fighting and/or in the public sphere. Women were relegated to the role of witnesses and not seen as victims despite having suffered violations in the privacy of their homes, violations such as sexual violence. As such, the experiences of women have largely been ignored. This is, in part, because many Truth and Justice Commissions (TRCs) have taken a “gender-neutral” approach that ultimately discriminated against women.  

For example, Ayumi Kusafuka conducted research and found that “South Africa’s gendered past was never substantially addressed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)... the TRC’s treatment of gender was in part constrained by its ‘gender-blind’ mandate, which ignored the different experiences and interests of men and women…While interventions by women’s groups and activists led the Commission to take up gender in ad hoc ways, such as through the Special Hearings on Women, the engagement of the TRC with gender remained limited. By contrast, the TRC in Sierra Leone took up gender from the beginning, from the naming of its commissioners where 3 out of 7 were women, to the inclusion of sexual abuses, to its mandate, which was interpreted as requiring it to focus on “women’s gendered experiences.” The TRC also included a gender focus on every section of its final report. 

A few different opportunities for engagement such as National action plans; shadow reports; awareness building; consultations; workshops; and training negotiators contribute to gender analysis reports. According to the organization Peace women, “National Action Plans offer a tool for governments to articulate priorities and coordinate the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 at the national level. NAPs serve as a guided national policy document that can capture the diverse set of government bodies and stakeholders tasked with security, foreign policy, development and gender equality.” Beyond activism around and participation in NAPs, civil society groups can also help to build awareness of the importance of including women in peace processes and security operations. CSOs can use media such as the internet or the radio to help build awareness and advocate around 1325. Radio broadcasts can be an effective method of reaching large audiences and are often the forms of media that is most accessible. For example, the International Women’s Tribune Centre (IWTC) created a series of radio programs called Women Talk Peace. This program uses varied formats including features, dramas and short radio spots to communicate information about UNSCR 1325, as well as other international conventions and legal mechanisms relevant to women in conflict situations. 

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) monitors the implementation and enforcement of CEDAW by reviewing national reports submitted by the State parties every four years. While official reports are developed and presented by the government of the country in question. Non-governmental organizations are free to submit what are known as alternative or “shadow reports.” Sometimes these reports simply confirm the information included in government reports, however, at times, they provide contrasting or supplemental statistics and data. Representatives from these organizations can also attend open meetings of the Committee, including the constructive dialogue with States parties presenting their official reports. In addition, the Committee holds informal consultations with NGO representatives to obtain and clarify country-specific information. By engaging in these activities, NGOs promote accountability on the part of their governments. 

In conclusion, peace is inextricably linked to equality between women and men and development, and women’s full participation in all efforts for the prevention and resolution of armed conflicts is essential for the promotion and maintenance of peace and security. 

Dr. Leah Barasa (Ph.D)

EASF Head of Civilian Component