Beyond War: Women Transforming Militarism, Building a Nonviolent World

   •    May 20, 2013

This article was originally published by OpenDemocracy.

Next year will mark the centenary of the start of the “war to end all wars”. Watching television news today, you might conclude that humanity is doomed to repeat its bloodiest century. But watching the trends, you would see a very different picture – a picture that shows the key role of women in decreasing violence worldwide.

A full decade after United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security was unanimously adopted, the striking absence of women from formal peace negotiations reveals a troubling gap between the aspirations of countless global and regional commitments and the reality of peace processes.

It is not as though able, trained and experienced women are not available. There are in existence registers of scores of qualified women in 32 conflict areas, from Iraq to Uganda – women highly trained and experienced – who are not yet being recruited to serve in official prevention processes, mediation or post conflict reconciliation. The Institute for Inclusive Security includes The Women Waging Peace Network, a network of more than 2,000 women peacemakers from conflict areas around the world, ranging from Colombia to Congo, Lebanon to Liberia, Sri Lanka to Sudan.

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