Women are not taking part in the largest high-level political negotiations currently taking place to end crises around the world.
Not a single woman is taking part in the talks taking place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, aimed at ending Sudan’s brutal conflict.
Women who were excluded from the Doha Agreement on Afghanistan continue to be excluded from subsequent international conferences on the country’s future.
The fate of Gaza and Palestine, and the release of the Israeli hostages, is being negotiated primarily between the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, and sometimes (but not always) parties of Palestinian origin.
Only A woman rode Haiti’s new Transitional Council.
The United States should press for a change in this pattern and to include women in the negotiations. The Biden administration is participating in all of these negotiations. Formal Strategy It seeks to “encourage and support the preparedness and meaningful participation of women around the world in conflict and crisis decision-making processes.” But it’s not at all clear that the U.S. is fighting to bring women to the table.
That’s not very strategic. United Nations WomenWhen women are involved, peace agreements, a form of high-level negotiation, are 35 percent more likely to last 15 years or more. This is not only an issue of gender equality, but also an issue of increasing the chances of sustainable peace.
Women in Sudan are enduring hell. Over a year ago, war broke out between two of the country’s generals and the armies they command. In this conflict, Women are being killed, raped, enslaved and forced into marriage They suffered various abuses, including being denied access to life-sustaining assistance (even though they were children). Darfur, Massalit women and their families targeted — have been killed on ethnic grounds, subjected to sexual violence, forcibly displaced and forced to flee their homes.
Sudanese women have been excluded from all political processes surrounding this conflict, despite having suffered direct violence against them. The 2023 Jeddah Process, sponsored by the United States and Saudi Arabia to reconcile the warring parties, excluded civilians, including Sudanese women leaders. Their absence is all the more conspicuous given that Sudanese women have relentlessly organized against the war, condemned widespread violations, responded to the enormous needs of civilians, and have intimate knowledge of the dynamics of the conflict.
In other high-level talks between the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, and Sudan’s neighbors, women have been sequestered only as observers among the predominantly male negotiators. With few featured advocates and even fewer resources, Sudanese women’s groups have formed their own coalition to raise the issue directly. Concerns for the United Nations and the African Uniontrying to secure a seat at the table.
The US should ensure that the new talks in Jeddah include Sudanese women and provide funding to women’s rights groups. After 20 years of military operations in Afghanistan and investments in women’s rights, the US has left women’s rights out of its negotiations with the Taliban. The word “women” is not even on the negotiating table. Final Doha Agreement By 2020, the US had withdrawn from Afghanistan.
Shahrzad Akbar, former head of the Afghanistan Human Rights Commission, said he had warned U.S. officials about the harm of excluding Afghan women but was ignored.Let the Taliban dictate the terms of negotiations“They participated in a process that decided the fate of millions of Afghan women, but there was not a single Afghan woman at the negotiating table,” she wrote.
Not surprisingly, the Taliban immediately began stripping women and girls of their rights, barring them from many forms of employment, secondary and university education, and freedom of movement. Our colleagues at Human Rights Watch wrote: Heather Barr said: The bitter consequences of excluding women from political life: “When diplomats are ‘engaged,’ the focus is on counterterrorism, counternarcotics, business deals, or Hostage returnDespite Afghan women’s protests and voices of opposition, protecting their rights is rarely on diplomats’ priority lists.”
Far from learning from Doha, the exclusion of Afghan women continues. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has convened two “special envoy meetings” on Afghanistan, in May 2023 and February 2024. In the first meeting: Afghan women They were barred from official meetings and had to meet separately with cooperating groups of envoys.
The second time, three women were invited as part of a civil society delegation, but were only given two hours to meet with any delegations that chose to meet with them on the second day. The question remains whether this formality will be repeated at the next envoys’ meeting, scheduled for June, or whether the UN will follow suit. Its obligations To promote women’s full participation.
in Haiti, Women and Girls are routinely targets of sexual violence“This includes gang rape. Women experience a disproportionate impact of violence, which further limits their access to basic goods and services. As in Sudan and Afghanistan, women’s participation in political discussions about the country’s future is woefully underrepresented.”
When Haiti’s UNESCO Ambassador, Dominique Dupuy, was named as a candidate for the new Presidential Transitional Council in late March, she Got off In the end, the nine-member Transitional Presidential Council consisted of only eight men and one other person, Regine Abraham, who sat as a non-voting observer. Haitian feminist organisations Ensure that at least 30 percent women are included in this new transitional government.
The key countries involved in Haiti’s political transition to a new democratic government are the United States, Canada and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). These countries should demand women’s representation.
Finally, the end of the fighting in Gaza, the release of the Israeli hostages, and the future of Palestine are all being decided by men at the highest levels. Israel’s war cabinet is all-male, as is the team of US officials leading the various negotiations. There are no women in high-ranking positions in the Arab countries involved, such as Saudi Arabia. Yet on October 7, Israeli women were killed, sexually assaulted, and held hostage by Palestinian militant groups linked to the military wing of Hamas.
The Gaza Ministry of Health has announced that Israel will launch a military response in Gaza. as a result Israel’s involvement in the murder of 9,800 Palestinian women Illegal blockade and Using hunger as a weapon of war It affects women In a specific and devastating way. Unless women’s voices are meaningfully included in discussions about the region’s future, it is unlikely to be successful.
In all high-level political negotiations that will determine the future of communities and people, the United States should, in accordance with its legislative commitments, make women’s inclusion a condition of its participation, sponsorship, support, and funding.
The Biden administration can set an example by appointing women to the diplomatic team that engages with the warring parties in Sudan, the transitional government in Haiti, the Taliban, and all parties in the Gaza dialogue.
The lack of women in political negotiations is not going to go away. A favorable deal for Ukraine may be struck in the coming years. This is just one of many examples where women should be key participants.
Including women at the negotiating table should not be an afterthought or something we can only hope to do. We make up half the world’s population. We are the decision-makers and civil society leaders. We know what our communities need.
Stop seeing us as victims and stop speaking for us. Stop blocking our seats.
Nicole Widersheim is Washington deputy director at Human Rights Watch.
