Women and peace: too few mediators to negotiate

“Too much testosterone on the international scene, since Angela Merkel left … Why not involve Angela Merkel, together with Turkey and Israel, to take the deal to a higher level?”. So he argued a few weeks ago the former French minister Ségolène Royalcandidate for the 2007 presidential elections. Just one of the many voices that have stigmatized the circumstance.

A negotiation has more chances of success

“A missed opportunity, first of all»Explains Loredana Teodorescu, president of Wiis (Women in International Security Italy), partner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in various initiatives. “Looking at the peace processes in which women appear among the negotiators – 13 per cent of international agreements signed between 2001 and 2019 according to UNWomen data, an offshoot of the UN -, it is possible to understand how much their participation is crucial for the success and sustainability of the results.

Studies say the deal is 20 percent more likely to last two yearsand 35 percent more likely to last for at least 15 years. Female participation is a guarantee for everyone, as well as a question of democracy and inclusiveness. If it is completely absent, half of the population is not represented ».

We need women leaders

What has been missing up to now in those long tables? “The images of those all-male delegations are truly distressing. There would be a need for women leaders, with negotiation experience and a broad mandate, within the parties involved, “she adds Catherine Turner, Professor of International Law at Durham University, expert in peace mediation.

Catherine Turner, Professor of International Law at Durham University, expert in peace mediation. Photo: ANSA / FABIO FRUSTACI

“However, it cannot be forgotten that in the ongoing conflict, war crimes, gender-based violence, violations of international treaties: in these circumstances conciliation is potentially dangerous, incorrect behavior would be rewarded “.

As Yaryna Grusha Possamai, professor of Ukrainian language and literature at the State University of Milan, points out, whom we learned about in television and in newspapers. “We cannot talk about negotiations without a ceasefire: the last meetings between the two delegations took place while the Russians bombed Ukrainian cities, blocking humanitarian corridors. More than negotiations, it was a farce.

An equal dialogue will not be possible if justice is not first done to the attacked, to the victims. A story that repeats itself: there is not a generation of Ukrainians that has not been scarred by Russian colonial policy. In my family, for example, my great-grandfather was shot by the “People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs“Because she asked for bread for her children, my grandmother grew up with the brand of” daughter of the enemy of the people “.

My parents – both literature teachers – sneaked away from Chernobyl two weeks after the accident (my mom was pregnant with me), while the Soviet government kept everyone in the dark. Today, like yesterday, hundreds of Ukrainian children will grow up with images of dead mothers of hardship to feed them, or raped by Russian soldiers. There will be a negotiation in the end. But first, justice must be done to those victims ”.

Women and Peace: Common Ground

But when everything seems lost, where do we start talking again? We asked Fatima Gailani, former president of the Afghan Red Crescent, one of four women admitted to the Doha peace talks for Afghanistan three years ago. «We start again from what both sides have in common: the roots, the history, the culture, the traditions. Remembering what unites, but which at a certain point the weapons have divided ».

Fatima Gailani, former president of the Afghan Red Crescent (right). At Expo2020 “Facing International Challenges Women”

Fatima remembers how much women are also important in informal relationships. “On the fringes of official negotiations with the Taliban, continuing the conversation in the garden over a cup of tea became easier. It was just a matter of sitting down and talking. And remember the young lives broken on both sides, the mourning of the mothers. From there the dialogue, however tiring, was able to restart. Because women are “natural” peacemakers in the home, in the family, in the village. To ignore their role in the 21st century, to exclude them from negotiations is simply wrong. Yet it happens in many Muslim countries as well as in the heart of Europe. Instead, look at the progress that has been made in Africa in recent years thanks to the work of peacekeeping by women ”.

Who actively contributed to peace

It is the site of UNWomen to list the latest examples in which female leadership has contributed to peace, from Bangladesh to the Central African Republic, from Georgia to Lebanon. «W hen there are also“ chairwomen ”in the negotiation spaces, the atmosphere changes» says Sanam Naraghi Anderlini. “There is more respect, a climate of mutual trust is established. I particularly remember the role of Federica Mogherini – then High Representative of the European Union for foreign affairs – in the agreements on the Iranian nuclear power plant. With her entry, the dynamics had changed positively.

The same thing can be said about the crisis in Yemen, where today women are increasingly involved in humanitarian aid, in the management of the covid emergency. Another historical example is the pacification between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. The agreements of Good Friday they were successful mostly thanks to the empathy and pragmatism of British Labor Mo Mowlam, Secretary of State for Northern Irelandwhich had managed to restart the dialogue starting with the most urgent reforms, from school to prisons to education ».

Women and Peace: Success and Humanity

A pacification considered impossible, given the traumas of the populations, the much blood shed: “His role was fundamental, thanks also to less traditional approaches, such as the time in which Mo threw his wig in the air” Catherine Turner remembers . “Yet that success is credited to British George Mitchell. You have to scratch beneath the surface to discover the importance of women in negotiations“.

More than visible, however, the role of the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, soldier mother who day after day informs Ukrainians (and the world) via social media about the humanitarian corridors that he manages with great efficiency, without forgetting humanity and tenderness. “Take care of each other and of Ukraine»He wrote after meeting a group of kids, in a post sealed by a heart. Many hope that she will also be there in the next crucial negotiations.

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