Presenter urges Security Council to boost women’s participation in peace talks

At a United Nations Security Council session hosted by Colombia, a presenter said gender equality and women’s empowerment are “among the most powerful approaches to achieving peace,” and urged states and mediation actors to adopt concrete targets and reporting on women’s participation in talks.

The presenter told the Council that the women, peace and security agenda — adopted more than two decades ago in Security Council resolution 1325 — is supported by repeated studies and firsthand experience. “This is neither speculation nor ideology. It is empirically robust,” the presenter said, arguing that including women improves the likelihood that peace agreements hold.

The speaker cited recent statistics to show a narrowing UN role in mediation and uneven inclusion of women: the United Nations led three peace processes last year compared with about 14 fifteen years ago, and UN-led processes featured between 16% and 23% women’s participation over the past five years. The presenter warned that those trends, combined with new mediation actors, risk sidelining the UN and further excluding women from high‑level negotiations.

Highlighting specific conflicts, the presenter said women are frequently absent from talks even where they bear the highest costs of war. The presenter noted that no Sudanese woman had taken part in certain negotiations, that rounds of talks in Ukraine featured only men, and that similar exclusion has appeared in fragile ceasefires in Lebanon, Palestine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The presenter called on Council members and others to join a common pledge launched by the Secretary‑General less than two years earlier and to “endorse the target of a minimum one‑third of women’s representation,” citing the CEDAW parity goal reflected in General Recommendation 40. The presenter also urged routine reporting at Security Council and WPS meetings on the gender composition of talks and the measures taken for women’s direct inclusion.

Turning to community-level work, the presenter said UN Women’s recent survey found about 85 women‑led organizations in Sudan engaged in community mediation, countering hate speech and de‑escalation, and cited work with more than 200 women’s organizations in Afghanistan that negotiate with local authorities and deliver psychosocial support. The presenter added that roughly 80% of women peacebuilders in Lebanon had contributed to responses without external funding, underscoring a resource gap for local women‑led efforts.

The presenter pointed to UN Women’s role in the Havana peace agreement as an example of impact at multiple levels and said that the agreement — which ended roughly 50–52 years of conflict — reinforced the value of gender‑inclusive approaches. The statement closed with an appeal for sustained support to Colombia’s peace efforts and a broader call to prioritize gender equality in diplomacy.

The presenter concluded by urging action: join the Secretary‑General’s pledge, endorse the one‑third representation target, and routinely report on inclusion measures. No vote or formal decision was recorded during the statement.