UN Women Official Calls for Women's Role in Gaza Peacebuilding Efforts
(MENAFN) Women must have a meaningful voice in efforts to build peace in Gaza, a senior UN Women official said, pointing to lessons learned from Colombia's landmark peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
"For places like Gaza, for places that are suffering the scourge of the war, we need to ensure that women’s voices are part of peacebuilding," Belen Sanz Luque, UN Women’s regional director for Europe and Central Asia, said on the sidelines of the 9th Istanbul Mediation Conference.
Reflecting on her time as a UN Women representative in Colombia during negotiations with the FARC, Sanz stressed that lasting peace involves more than stopping the fighting. Women affected by conflict must have opportunities to take part in negotiations, shape political decisions and contribute to carrying out peace agreements.
Established in 1964, the FARC was a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization that developed from rural peasant movements amid widespread land inequality and political exclusion in Colombia. Its conflict with government forces and paramilitary groups continued for more than five decades, resulting in extensive displacement and human rights violations.
Following four years of negotiations that began in 2012, the Colombian government and the FARC reached a historic peace agreement in November 2016, opening the way for the group to disarm and enter civilian politics.
"What we learned in Colombia is that it was critical that women’s leadership was part of the peacemaking table," Sanz said.
"For places like Gaza, for places that are suffering the scourge of the war, we need to ensure that women’s voices are part of peacebuilding," Belen Sanz Luque, UN Women’s regional director for Europe and Central Asia, said on the sidelines of the 9th Istanbul Mediation Conference.
Reflecting on her time as a UN Women representative in Colombia during negotiations with the FARC, Sanz stressed that lasting peace involves more than stopping the fighting. Women affected by conflict must have opportunities to take part in negotiations, shape political decisions and contribute to carrying out peace agreements.
Established in 1964, the FARC was a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization that developed from rural peasant movements amid widespread land inequality and political exclusion in Colombia. Its conflict with government forces and paramilitary groups continued for more than five decades, resulting in extensive displacement and human rights violations.
Following four years of negotiations that began in 2012, the Colombian government and the FARC reached a historic peace agreement in November 2016, opening the way for the group to disarm and enter civilian politics.
"What we learned in Colombia is that it was critical that women’s leadership was part of the peacemaking table," Sanz said.
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