Women
War/Armed conflict
Peace/positive peace
Transitional Justice/Dealing with the Past
Decolonialism
By “women” we mean people who identify as female, including trans, inter and cis women. In addition, we stress the need to include the voices and experiences of people who were socialised or are on occasion perceived as women, such as trans men, nonbinary and agender people.
War is both a general term of common language, referring to a phenomenon of organised collective violence that affects the relations between states or the power relations within a society, and a legal term under international law (jus ad bellum and jus in bello). “Armed conflict” describes a state of hostilities that is not dependent on a declaration of war nor on the recognition of the existence of “war” by its parties. In other words, all wars are armed conflicts but not all armed conflicts are declared wars. According to relevant jurisprudence and the International Committee of the Red Cross, an armed conflict exists whenever there is resort to armed forces between States (“international armed conflict”). When protracted armed violence occurs between governmental authorities and organised armed groups or between such groups within a State, it is referred to as a “non-international armed conflict”. In the case of non-international armed conflicts, a certain threshold of intensity is required (isolated incidents, tensions or minor skirmishes are not enough). As a general rule, we use the term “armed conflict”. We use “war” when we want to emphasise our partners‘ views and demands and when this term is better understood by certain audiences.
(Source: International Committee of the Red Cross)
Peace encompasses social processes and forms of coexistence that are continually concerned with promoting positive living conditions for all people. The basis for this is a holistic understanding of “genuine security” that places people's basic needs, social justice and human dignity at the centre and goes beyond traditional notions of military security. These social processes build on the absence of direct and structural violence and armed conflict, promote equal economic security, political participation and access to resources and guarantee respect for human rights. In debates on definitions of peace, the distinction between negative and positive peace proposed by Johan Galtung has become widely accepted. While “negative peace” means the absence of armed conflict or direct physical violence, “positive peace” encompasses social justice and the creation of a culture of peace between people within and between societies.
(Quelle: Berghof Glossary 2019)
The terms Transitional Justice and Dealing with the Past are used synonymously today. They encompass the entire range of processes and mechanisms through which a society attempts to deal with the legacy of systematic violence during an armed conflict or authoritarian regime. Such processes include: criminal prosecution initiatives, truth-seeking through truth commissions, rehabilitation programmes, institutional reforms or a combination of these measures. These are long-term, ongoing processes that can span generations and aim to preserve the memory of the past, draw lessons from it and prevent systematic violence from recurring.
(Source: United Nations Secretary General, Guidance Note, 2010)
Decolonialism (as well as decolonisation) in international cooperation, humanitarian aid and peacebuilding refers to the deconstruction and dismantling of colonial and neocolonial ideologies, which regard the way in which the Global North thinks and evaluates knowledge as superior. The aim is the redistribution of power and resources that were not only accumulated by colonial powers during the colonial era – and from which they continue to benefit and which they continue to expand to this day. Furthermore, decolonialism aims to highlight and overcome the attitudes and patterns of behaviour that became entrenched during the colonial era. From the perspective of critics of colonialism – a position we share – decolonialism encompasses both a critical perspective and a practice that challenges the enduring legacy of colonial power in knowledge, politics and peacebuilding. Decolonialism and decolonisation call for the dismantling of dominant Western structures that marginalise local, indigenous and feminist knowledge and power. Instead, decolonialism centres the voices, experiences and leadership of those most affected by violent conflict and historical oppression.
PeaceWomen Across the Globe regards decolonialism as both a critical lens and a practice that challenge the ongoing legacies of colonial power in knowledge, politics and peacebuilding. It calls for dismantling dominant Western frameworks that marginalise local, indigenous and feminist knowledge and power. Instead, decolonialism centres the voices, experiences and leadership of those most affected by violent conflict and historical oppression.
Sources: Peace Direct: Race, Power and Peacebuilding, 2022; PeaceWomen Across the Globe "Guiding principles for decolonial peacebuilding", 2025.