Council of Europe calls for stronger women's participation in peace processes

On 9 June 2026, the Council of Europe’s Gender Equality Commission organised a conference in Strasbourg entitled "Women as architects of sustainable peace: removing barriers to gender-inclusive conflict resolution and peacebuilding", to address the persistent underrepresentation of women in peace negotiations and decision-making worldwide. 

Representatives from governments, international organisations, civil society and academia gathered to identify ways to remove the barriers that continue to limit women's participation in conflict resolution, peacebuilding and post-conflict recovery.

Opening the conference, Secretary General Alain Berset stressed that advancing gender equality is everyone's issue, linking the topic to the New Democratic Pact for Europe: "We all lose when women are excluded, anywhere, and from any part of our democracies."

Key contributions came from Pramila Patten, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on sexual violence in conflict, and from Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O'Flaherty. 

Particular attention was devoted to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, underlining the urgency of integrating a gender-equality perspective into responses to the conflict, as well as into recovery and reconstruction efforts.

The conference contributes to promoting Committee of Ministers Recommendation CM/Rec(2010)10 on the role of women and men in conflict prevention and resolution and in peacebuilding and feeds into international efforts under Resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security.