Jurist UN report finds women still excluded from formal peace processes

[Dadparvar]

A UN report published on Monday revealed that in the international community, women are still largely excluded from activities involved in peacemaking and security.

The report analyzed the rising number of conflicts globally and their effect on women. International conflict rates are the highest they have been since 1946, and roughly 676 million women lived within 50 kilometers of an active conflict zone in 2024–the highest number since the 1990s. Rising violence has displaced over 60 million women and girls at-risk of gender-based violence, and conflicts between 2022-2024 have killed four times the number of women compared to conflicts from 2020-2022.

Amid this concerning trend, experts highlighted the lack of women represented in formal peace talks. Data from 2024 suggests that only 7 percent of negotiators, and 14 percent of mediators, in formal conflict resolution settings were women. This contrasts with representation seen in grassroots peace efforts. The report cites a 2020 study’s findings that, of 38 grassroots peace efforts analyzed, 27 included women’s groups.

Experts noted the success of these grassroots efforts and the pivotal role women played in resolving multiple conflicts:

Despite women’s exclusion in most formal peace efforts, women play key roles in local peacebuilding. For example, women peacebuilders in Ethiopia, Liberia and Kenya influenced peace processes and agreements at local, regional and national levels… In the Sudan, UN Women supported the formation of a coalition of women peacebuilders…contributing to their indirect participation at the peace talks in Geneva… In Côte D’Ivoire, local women…deescalated inter-community conflict in the Cavally region, leading to the signing of a local peace agreement and the designation, for the first time, of women as guarantors of its follow-up.

Experts called their research a “call to action” and pressed world leaders to incorporate more woman-leaders into formal peace talks over the next five years.

The UN initiated its Women, Peace and Security agenda in 2000, which recognizes the the distinct impact that conflict has on women and girls and emphasizes the crucial role that women play in peace processes. In the 25 years since, the report noted that percentages of women’s participation in peacemaking and security activities has risen, but recent conflicts have put that increase in jeopardy.

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