Enhancing Women’s Participation in Peace Processes. Submission to the Global Study on Women, Peace and Security - Escola de Cultura de Pau

Women’s peace and security agenda has advanced notoriously in the last 15 years. The adoption of the seven UNSCR on this issue as well as National Action Plans and other regional tools have contributed to the political impulse the WPS agenda has acquired during this period. Nevertheless, there is a long way ahead before the objectives that were clearly set up in 2000 are fully accomplished. This submission will focus on the need to enhance and increase women’s participation in peace processes as these initiatives constitute one of the main collective efforts to put an end to armed conflict.

In spite of the international obligations that States and international organizations have, women continue to be absent or severely underrepresented in peace talks, but it is also worth pointing out that some peace talks that began with no women on the table have undergone important transformations leading to the inclusion of women. The existence of UNSCR 1325 has served in these cases as an important tool for the empowerment of women organizations that have been reinforced in their demands appealing to the States’ international commitments on gender equality and peace.

 

Country / Region: 
Spain
Thematic Focus: 
Participation
Peace Processes
Date of Paper: 
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Organization / institution website: 
Escola de Cultura de Pau
Contact person email: 
maria.villellas@uab.cat
Secondary contact person email: 
ana.villellas@uab.cat
Contact person phone number: 
+34 686 831 200
Secondary contact person phone number: 
+34 93 586 88 42
Responsible for submission: 
Maria Villellas Ariño, Escola de Cultura de Pau (School for a Culture of Peace)
Strategic recommendation(s): 

Escola de Cultura de Pau recommends that the Global Study on Women, Peace and Security:

  • Contains a wide set of women’s experiences of participation in different peace processes analyzing the mechanisms and dynamics that led to women’s inclusion.
  • Analyzes what concrete effects women’s inclusion in negotiations has had in those processes where they have been actively present and what have been the consequences of women’s exclusion in those where women have not had the chance to be present.
  • Calls the United Nations to make mandatory the inclusion of gender experts in all peace negotiations where the UN is taking part in whatever role.
  • Develops strategies for promoting that non-regular armed actors are offered and provided with gender training when engaged in peace talks. 
Paper / Document: 
PDF icon ECPSubmission-GlobalStudyWPS.pdf