• Worldwide, the proportion of peace agreements with gender equality provisions increased from 14 to 22 per cent between 1995 and 2019.
• From 1992 to 2019, women averaged 13 percent of negotiators, 6 percent of mediators, and 6 percent of signatories in major peace processes.
• 7 out of every 10 peace processes did not include women mediators or women signatories.
• Women’s participation increases by 35 percent the probability of a peace agreement lasting 15 years.
• Peace agreements are 64 percent less likely to fail when civil society representatives participate.
• As 40 peace processes since the end of the Cold War show, when women were able to exercise a strong influence on the negotiation process, there was a much higher chance that an agreement would be reached.
• In cases of strong influence of women an agreement was almost always reached.
• In Israel and Palestine, only a handful of women have served as official negotiators and technical advisors in the last thirty years, and even fewer have had leading roles in negotiations.
• When women have participated in formal negotiations, they have been lauded as being critical to resolving impasses between parties.

This week’s Just the Facts comes from:

• “Facts and Figures: Peace and Security” from UN Women 
• “Fact Sheet: The Global Study on 1325: Key Messages, Findings, and Recommendations” from UN Women 
• “Israel and the Palestinian Territories Case Study: Current Peace Effort” from Council on Foreign Relations 

Learning More

• The United Nations’ 3-minute video “The Importance of Women in Peace Processes”
• Manal Omar’s “Women at the negotiating table – the missing piece in peacebuilding” at TEDxSanDiego on YouTube.
• Madeleine Reese’s “Gender, War and Peace” at TEDxLausanne.

To go deeper, we have an extensive list of Additional Resources at the bottom of this week’s entry and we’re developing a YouTube playlist on the subject.