[News] Women as peacebuilders

[FNX Magokiler]

The spiral of violence that drags the conflict between Israel and Palestine that increased weeks ago with the terrorist massacre of the Islamist militia of Hamas and the Israeli counterattack, led me to reflect on the invisible role of women in the scope of political justice, social and economic in the different wars existing in the world today.

Almost 23 years have passed since the agenda of the United Nations Organization Women, Peace and Security (known as resolution 1325), urged the international community that it was not enough to just focus on the dynamics that underlie the conflict to manage the peace processes that guarantee a safe environment; but the need to include the perspective and contribution of women in them.

To accept this proposal, women worked in networks that crossed borders, holding hundreds of meetings before achieving the institutionalization of demands and action plans in the field of peacebuilding with a gender perspective. These efforts ended with the commitment of the member states of the United Nations organization.

Since the incorporation of the agenda, another 10 resolutions have been established. Among them, one that mentions the creation of a special representative of the Secretary General on sexual violence in these conflicts.

Despite all the efforts made by women to integrate the gender dimension, during all these years, they have been absent in most peace processes.

 

 

If we talk with figures, we can say that among the main peace processes produced between 1992 and 2019, only an average of 13% of the negotiators, 6% of the mediators and 6% of the signatories were women (Council on Foreign Relations 2022).

What factors prevent women from being recognized and participating in peace processes? Consulting literature for this column, I came across analyzes by authors such as Sanam Anderlini, Birgit Brock-Utne and Peter Wallensten, who show that elitist power structures led by men lead to resistance and the perpetuation of sexism, to a masculinized perception. that the gender perspective does not fit into conflicts and wars or that peace processes are not the place to discuss gender issues.

On the other hand, a construct that seems very interesting to me is the one that is related to the woman-peace/man-war dichotomy, installed in the international regulatory framework that leads, in addition to biases and stereotypes, to conclude that it is men who are who mostly exercise violence and, therefore, are better equipped to resolve the conflict. An idea that would reinforce that peace processes are events of masculinized elites, so the participation of women is almost irrelevant or merely testimonial.

 

https://elpais.com/chile/2023-11-06/las-mujeres-como-constructoras-de-paz.html