Despite their consistent contributions to conflict prevention, dialogue, mediation support, and peacebuilding at all levels, women remain largely excluded from formal mediation and negotiation processes, which continue to be dominated by political and military elites. This exclusion persists even as the broader peace mediation landscape grows more complex. In this challenging environment, women and the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda face mounting pressure to justify their relevance and continued presence in mediation spaces.

In a panel discussion at the Geneva Peace Forum, practitioners will draw on first-hand experience across different conflict contexts to identify concrete strategies, mechanisms and institutional innovations that have effectively bridged the gap between women's grassroots influence and their inclusion in formal processes.

The session's central question is how the informal influence and power women exercise can be translated into formal impact within mediation and peace processes, particularly at a moment when the broader peacebuilding framework itself appears stalled in formal settings. 

The panel will be followed by three parallel workshops.

The session is organised by Switzerland's Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and Swiss Women in Peace Processes (SWiPP).

Redner:innen

• Suayan Barón Melgarejo, head of our Colombia office, will be joined on the panel by Tetiana Kyselova, associate professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and Tahani Abbas, human rights defender and activist in Sudan.

• Tim Enderlin, head of the Peace and Human Rights Division at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland (FDFA) will make the introductory remarks.

Weitere Informationen und Anmeldung

Weitere Informationen zu diesem Panel-Gespräch (Englisch).

Eine Anmeldung ist obligatorisch.