E-News January 2016: Syrian Women's Inclusive Participation in Peacebuilding

It’s how women civil society participate in the Syrian peace talks – not if
By: Barbro Svedberg, WILPF Crisis Response Director

As Syria moves into its 5th year of unimaginable civilian suffering and conflict, a new round of Syrian peace talks has initially been scheduled to begin in Geneva on the 25th of January. Regardless of when the peace talks will begin, the question is no longer if women should participate in the peace talks but how.

The need for women’s wider participation in peace processes can no longer be perceived as a mere normative demand; in fact, recent studies have shown that including women in peace processes increases the probability of reaching a long lasting peace agreement by 35 percent. Thus, there is strong correlation between women’s inclusion
and higher likelihood of reaching agreements, and that shatters common assumptions claiming that women’s inclusion may negatively impact the course of peace processes.

It is also important to indicate that ensuring a higher number of women involved in peace processes is not sufficient on its own; it is essential to combine it with meaningful participation and stronger influence of women on the process in general.

WILPF are engaging closely  with Syrian women civil society organisations and peace builders and are strongly supporting initiatives to ensure Syrian women civil society will be represented in Geneva and available to participate when the opportunity are made available to them.

WILPF strongly believes that mediators, Member States, and the United Nations must exert pressure on – and guarantee that – all warring parties of the Syrian conflict and stakeholders ensure women’s inclusion in the process is equal and meaningful. We also urge the international community to effectively support and technically enable women’s groups in Syria in positively influencing the peace process.

How can Syrian women civil society best influence the process of the peace talks? As part of WILPF’s ongoing work to strengthen women’s participation and rights in Syria, we would like to take this opportunity to bring attention to the following key demands that have been developed by Syrian women peacemakers:

• At the negotiating table: ensuring 30% women’s quota across all negotiation delegations, the setup of an independent women-only delegation, the inclusion of an independent civil society delegation, with a 50% women’s quota.
• With mediators and supporters directly engaged in the negotiations: by increase women mediators to get a gender-balanced envoys and teams and in the International Syrian Support Group, increase women’s participation among member state delegations
• Formally-attached to the negotiations: officially-endorsed civil society consultative forum, 50% women’s quota and officially-endorsed broad-based public consultations inside and outside of Syria with women’s participation
• In addition strengthen and increase support for the informal processes around the negotiations: by ensuring women’s participation in track 2 initiatives, support advocacy campaigns, lobbying at the national/international levels, ensure mass-mobilization efforts to build movements, including media and online social media campaigns and support to grassroots initiatives and organized campaigns.

Women must be represented at all levels in the process, and women’s rights upheld.

Join us! Let us not recreate the mistakes of the past.  Ask your government what it is doing to ensure that Syrian women have a seat at the table. Demand UN processes ensure women’s substantive inclusion. Only together can we move from violence to a political solution, and sustainable peace through a democratic and inclusive process.