The percentage of women participating in peace negotiations is decreasing, according to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, despite evidence that indicates that such agreements are more enduring when women are present.
Only with equal representation of women in leadership and participation, we can build stable, peaceful societies, said the top UN official in a tweet on Sunday, October 23.
The latest UN Secretary-General report demonstrates that the women, peace, and security agenda is further away than ever from realizing its objectives against a backdrop of escalating violent conflicts and the rollback of generational gains in women’s rights.
The report makes clear that the abrupt decline in world peace and security is resulting in untold suffering, with women and girls in countries with active conflicts particularly impacted.
Women are being persecuted for speaking out or for simply being female in many countries where violent extremist groups and military actors have taken power through violent means and rescinded commitments to gender equality, according to the report.
Afghanistan, where the Taliban have closed girls’ secondary schools, forbade women from exposing their faces in public, and limited their ability to leave their own homes, according to the report, represents one of the most egregious examples of the regression of women’s and girls’ rights.
