UN Women official calls for women’s role in Gaza peace talks

UN Women Regional Director Belen Sanz Luque called for women's meaningful inclusion in Gaza peacebuilding during the 9th Istanbul Mediation Conference, drawing on her experience as the agency's representative in Colombia during negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), she told Anadolu. "What we learned in Colombia is that it was critical that women's leadership was part of the peacemaking table," Sanz said. She emphasized that sustainable peace requires more than ending hostilities, noting that women affected by conflict must participate in negotiations, influence political decisions and help implement peace agreements.

Founded in 1964 as a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group emerging from rural peasant movements amid deep land inequality and political exclusion, the FARC fought government forces and paramilitaries for five decades, causing widespread displacement and human rights abuses. After four years of negotiations beginning in 2012, the Colombian government and the FARC signed a historic peace agreement in November 2016, paving the way for the group's disarmament and transition into civilian politics. The 2016 agreement addressed structural inequalities including unequal rural development, access to resources and political participation, and included more than 100 provisions on gender equality and women's rights, Sanz said.

Gender Sub-Commission model

A key feature of the Havana peace talks was the creation of a Gender Sub-Commission in 2014, which reviewed the agreement from a gender perspective and helped incorporate women's rights into its provisions. The process also included consultations with women's organizations and victims of the conflict, offering lessons on ensuring women participate meaningfully in peace negotiations. However, challenges remain in implementing its provisions, Sanz added, noting that "there were many lessons learned, but everything that we were able to support during that peace process was due to the very strong leadership of Colombian women."

Global participation crisis

Applying these lessons to Gaza and Sudan requires supporting women's organizations at the community level so they can elevate their voices, Sanz said. "Lessons learned to bring to examples like Gaza or Sudan imply that we need to support the women's organizations, the women's groups that are at the community level so that they can be elevating their voices," she said. She noted that "we need to understand how the conflict affected women directly," stressing that consequences of conflict must be "addressed, recognized and alleviated." Grassroots networks are vital for reflecting community suffering and directly shaping peace decisions, she emphasized, with UN Women working directly with local networks to build trust among women from opposing political groups and strengthen their access to justice and public institutions.

Despite international commitments under UN Security Council Resolution 1325 adopted in 2000, the first major international mandate acknowledging women's central role in peace and security, commitments have yet to translate into meaningful participation, Sanz said. Only 5% of peace agreements in 2025 featured women as negotiators, she told the conference. "This is incredibly concerning," she said, adding that pledges and commitments exist but lack mechanisms to enforce them. She cited evidence indicating that peace agreements are 35% more likely to be implemented successfully and sustainably when women and civil society participate, emphasizing that for Gaza, women's involvement cannot end when an agreement is signed. "Once there is an agreement signed, they are part of the signature of the agreement, but that is not the end of the game," she said. "That is actually the beginning of sustainable peace."