Women's voices fading from peace talks

For decades, the UN pushed to include women in peace negotiations and postwar rebuilding. Now that progress is reversing as warlords and conservatives find new ways to exclude them from discussions about war and peace.

“Wars exact a heavy toll on women and yet, too often their voices and concerns are pushed to the margins of global peacemaking.”

Colombia showed what inclusion looks like

Colombia's peace agreement brought in civil society groups including women's organizations to discuss rural reform, governance, and accountability for sexual violence. The result was a more durable agreement grounded in local legitimacy.

Recent talks exclude women entirely

Sudan's peace talks, negotiations with China, and Gaza's Board of Peace have all featured all-male negotiating teams. Women's representation has become less visible in daily diplomatic practice.

Ceasefire deals ignore sexual violence

None of the thirteen ceasefire agreements reached in twenty twenty-five prohibited sexual violence. This represents both a moral failure and a practical loss, since women often hold political networks that men do not.

Why diplomacy became narrower

Battlefield stalemates pushed diplomats toward minimalist ceasefires focused only on stopping fighting. Complex conflicts left less room for longer-term goals like political representation.

Sudan talks treat gender as impossible

Diplomats describe gender as a non-starter with Sudan's warring factions, who want to avoid accountability for sexual violence. Negotiators are pursuing only a basic ceasefire while postponing broader questions.

“Diplomats with involvement and knowledge of the Sudan talks describe gender as a "non-starter" with the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces.”

Syria's parliament excludes women

Syria's new parliament has only twenty-two women out of two hundred seven seats, falling below the twenty percent quota and far short of the thirty percent target that civil society and the UN recommend.

Trump administration opposes diversity

The Trump administration has made opposition to diversity a defining feature of its foreign policy, rejecting quotas and portraying diversity as weakness. This stance reinforces minimalist peacemaking with only elite male negotiators.

“Senior U.S. officials have portrayed diversity as a weakness and linked traditional markers of masculinity, such as testosterone levels, to the ability to effectively deter battlefield threats.”

Women organize peace from the ground up

In Sudan, women who worked in political resistance committees created Emergency Response Rooms to address protection, health care, and psychosocial support. They negotiate humanitarian access and mediate local disputes outside formal peace talks.

Diplomats must reconnect with communities

High-level negotiators should remember that peace must be made with people who have the legitimacy and relationships to sustain societies through war. Diplomats need to stay connected to grassroots peacemaking efforts.

“Peace must be made not only by and for the belligerents in a conflict but also with and by people who have the legitimacy and relationships necessary to sustain societies through war and into peace.”