Gender, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding

Assessing the Contribution of Women to the Colombian Peace Process

Abstract

In Colombia, women have historically been excluded from formal peace processes, yet the 2016 peace agreement signed by the Colombian Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People’s Army (FARC-EP) is widely considered as the first comprehensive peace accord in history to fully integrate a gender perspective. How did women in Colombia navigate an exclusionary political environment to shape the 2016 peace process? Drawing on original case material, including interviews with key actors in the 2012-2016 Colombian peace process, this article analyses the approach of the women’s movement for peace. Engaging with academic debate on conflict resolution, women and peacebuilding, this article indicates a robust correlation between peace and local women-led initiatives to reduce inequality, thereby identifying an oversight in common conceptualisations of peacebuilding as a strictly post-conflict, post-accord process. This article illustrates the accumulation of women’s political agency in Colombia, arguing that the Gender Subcommittee and the gender-inclusive peace agreement, which emerged in 2016, are the fruit of their decades-long struggle.