3 Case Study: The Role of Women in the Colombian Peace Process

In 2016, the Colombian Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as the FARC, signed a peace agreement that ended the armed civil conflict. The armed conflict lasted fifty years and resulted in the death of 220,000 people and the displacement of almost seven million people. Women’s participation on both sides of the negotiating table and in civil society led to the success of the peacemaking effort. When the negotiating first began in Cuba in 2012, only one woman held the role of a negotiator, however, this can be misleading when it comes to the involvement of women. Although women were originally not heavily involved in the negotiating, they were active in civil society as “Colombian women have accompanied and advanced the peace process, shaped public opinion, supported a negotiated solution to the conflict, generated analysis and organized inputs, and built their capacity to engage,” (Bouvier, 2016). Furthermore, throughout the peace process women were actively taking advantage of every opportunity to participate in civil society conferences, working groups and research initiatives. The biggest change to women’s involvement in the formal negotiations came after the National Summit of Women for Peace in October of 2013. The summit was organized by nine women’s organizations that all represented different ethnic, regional and cultural backgrounds. In attendance were over 450 representatives from Colombian women’s organizations who came together in Bogota. At the end of the conference the women put forth three demands: that the negotiating parties reach an agreement, that women be included at the table, and that women’s needs, and interests be considered during the process. The summit was incredibly influential as it led to the opening for women to serve as plenipotentiaries on the government peace delegation. Women’s participation also started to grow within the FARC and by February of 2015, more than 40% of the FARC delegation in Cuba was women. Moreover, there were teams of advisors created for each of the substantive issues on the negotiating agenda, in which women dominated. Women held roles on major commissions and subcomissions and although these roles are not usually seen as important to the role of women in the peace process, they allow women to participate in a purposeful way.

Throughout the conflict and peace process women were also impactful in four different ways. The first way was through the ability of women to broaden the agenda. They were able to use their seats at the table to successfully include provisions in the agreement “on the rights of women, girls, and indigenous populations that sought to secure equal access to property for rural women, promote women’s political participation, create measures to prevent gender-based violence, and rebuke amnesty for crimes of sexual violence committed during the conflict,” (Council). The second way was by negotiating local ceasefires during the conflict. Women were able to improve the security of towns by negotiating the local ceasefires and by convincing guerilla fighters to lift roadblocks to allow for food, medicine or people to pass through. The third way that women were impactful was by increasing accountability. The demands made by women negotiators and civil society members led the FARC to take measures to ensure there was a peace agreement that included apologies for the victims and the release of child soldiers. Lastly, women were able to build public support. Organizations helped to build coalitions and rally public support. They were also able to repair relations in communities impacted by the conflict. Women were able to organize effectively to meet their goals which was incredibly influential in the peace process between the Colombian government and the FARC.