UN Calls for Women’s Inclusion in Peace Processes

On Tuesday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet urged to enable strategies to secure the women's significant participation in pace processes.

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For the period between 1992 and 2019, only a slow percentage of negotiators, mediators, and signatories in major peace processes worldwide were women, stated Bachelet.

All that was before the pandemic crisis slashed the world, the current situation that women human rights defenders and prospects for women's full participation in shaping and building peace are facing is vastly worse, she said during the Security Council open debate.

"This harms all of us. Women's safe and meaningful participation is necessary to ensure a fuller range of action to bind society together and address not only the root causes of conflict but also its full impact, including gender-based violence and the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war" she added.

According to Bachelet, the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security requires consistent legislative laws for public recognition, adequate protection, and vastly increased strategic, flexible, sustainable, and targeted financing for women's civil society organizations, including women human rights defenders, and as well actions aimed to end the violence that so frequently is targeting women and girls seeking to lead movements for change.

"At the heart of Resolution 1325 and subsequent resolutions by this (Security) Council is the need for strategies that create inclusive and safe participation channels for women from all backgrounds, movements, and communities. Protection of their work, lives, and rights are central to this effort," she noted.

"The international community must stand united and push back against attempts to attack, silence, and criminalize women's rights to defend rights, participate in decision-making and express dissenting opinions," Bachelet added.