Across Conflict Lines: Women Mediating for Peace. 12th Annual Colloquium Findings

This paper draws on discussions from The Institute for Inclusive Security's 12th Annual Colloquium “Across Conflict Lines: Women Mediating for Peace,” held from January 9 to 21, 2011. Twenty-one female mediation experts from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin
America and the Middle East exchanged views on advancing women's inclusion in mediation and ensuring gender-sensitive processes and agreements. Participants discussed how to increase the prevalence of female mediators, enhance communication and cooperation with women and civil society during negotiations, and how to augment attention to women's priorities and needs in talks. They developed and endorse the specific recommendations for creating more inclusive peace processes at the end of this document. The Institute for Inclusive Security put together the following synthesis of participants' perspectives; their collective expertise provides important insights into the need for improved mediation to create durable peace.