Kate Paarlberg-Kvam

Colombia’s 2016 Peace Accord is a groundbreaking example of how to include women and a gender focus in negotiations and peacebuilding. This achievement is the result of years of advocacy by Colombian women, with the support of the international community. To claim a role in the peace process, Colombian women effectively made use of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which mandates that UN member states increase women’s participation in peace and security efforts and take gender and gender-based violence into account when making decisions about armed conflict and its resolution. Colombian women’s strategic use of 1325 produced an accord that both reflects and extends beyond international dialogues on Women, Peace, and Security.

Resolution 1325 was adopted 18 years ago, the result of a concerted effort by women activists around the world. Several NGOs, including groups in New York, Dakar, and London, came together to advance the Beijing Platform for Action that emerged from the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995. They were supported in particular by member states in the Global South, and propelled by Namibia’s May 2000 Windhoek Declaration calling for attention to gender in the design of peace support operations. While 1325 and subsequent WPS (Women, Peace, and Security) resolutions have been criticized for their limitations, they nonetheless have served as a powerful tool.

CIAT, Mark Koester, Momentcaptured1, Neil Palmer / Flickr

Rebecca Gindele and Carolina Serrano

The inclusion of a gender perspective and specific gender-related commitments in the text of the Colombian Peace Accord is an important step toward strengthening women’s meaningful participation in the building of peace. The Accord text includes a record number of commitments relating to women’s participation and the advancement of women’s rights. These gender provisions commit the Government of Colombia, FARC, and all relevant actors involved in the implementation of the Accord to ensure that the process includes a focus on women’s rights and women’s participation. These commitments seek to achieve equality of rights between men and women and guarantee affirmative measures to promote equal and active participation of women in the implementation of the accord.

Louise Olsson and Madhav Joshi

To determine the quality of peace, it is important to evaluate if men and women experience the same peace process differently. As recently stated by the UN Secretary General, the systematic monitoring of peace agreement implementation is fundamental to the strength and durability of peace. We argue that this means collecting high-quality gender disaggregated data, and utilizing an inclusive methodology that seriously engages both women and men.[1]

Inclusivity and systematic monitoring are at the core of the Kroc Institute’s Peace Accords Matrix Barometer Initiative in Colombia. The Barometer methodology applied to the Colombian Peace Accord implementation process represents the first real-time monitoring of a comprehensive peace agreement.

A key element of the Barometer methodology is engaging key stakeholders in the Colombian peace process who are promoting women’s rights and gender representation and participation. A total of 20 organizations in Colombia were consulted or involved in developing the methodology for assessing the implementation of gender-related provisions.