Looking beyond 2020: Advancing women, peace and security in Eastern Partnership countries - Consultations with civil society organizations

As a follow-up to the UN Women's civil society organizations (CSO) consultative meeting on women, peace, and security (WPS) held in February 2020 in Istanbul, Turkey, a virtual CSO consultation was held on 16 December 2020. The consultations brought together CSOs, women peacebuilders, women mediators and women’s organizations, including young women from the Eastern Partnership countries to discuss women’s views and solutions at the forefront of decisions on WPS. Participants included their unique perspective from working with diverse groups of women and girls in their communities. 41 women’s organizations, peacebuilders and activists from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine came together for a series of consultations aimed at sharing views and highlighting solutions towards the WPS agenda in Eastern Partnership countries. The “Looking beyond 2020: Advancing women, peace and security” consultations were organized by the UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia and the UN Women Georgia Country Office.

As a result of the consultations, participants issued concrete and actionable recommendations to remove barriers to women’s meaningful participation in peace processes at the formal and informal levels. Drawing on the experience of different contexts, participants underlined the importance of ensuring safety for women human rights defenders and peace activists and discussed how women’s networks could be guided by feminist principles of peace to apply diversity and inclusion in all elements and levels of their work. Participants also expressed the importance of allocating more investment in women’s empowerment and gender equality principles, in conflict-affected settings.