"Women Are Key to Peace" Campaign starts in Ukraine

Including women in peace and security brings better outcomes. The evidence is clear: having women at the peace table generates greater buy-in and strengthens accountability for implementation. Women’s participation also makes peace more durable because, with their input, agreements go beyond the realm of power to the realities of people. Peace processes involving women as witnesses, signatories, mediators and negotiators showed a 20% increase in the probability of a peace agreement lasting longer than 2 years, and a 35% increase in the probability of a peace agreement lasting 15 years. In addition, when women are involved, protests are more likely to remain nonviolent.

Since the adoption of the Resolution on 31 October 2000, there has been a substantial increase in the frequency of gender-responsive language in peace agreements and the number of women, women’s groups and gender experts who serve as official negotiators, mediators, or signatories.

However, despite the important role of women, they are often kept out of the political and negotiation processes in Ukraine. The “Women Are Key to Peace” campaign is designed to raise awareness of women’s role in peacebuilding, as well as to tell the real stories of those women who find themselves at the epicenter of conflict.

Nine videos telling these stories, will be broadcast on 1+1, ICTV and STB TV channels. Women at the center of the stories – doctors, teachers, businesswomen, military veterans, civic activists, leaders of self-help groups and social rehabilitation centers – are leaders who have found effective solutions during the conflict and now help others.  

To continue implementing the Women, Peace and Security agenda, on 28 October 2020, the Ukrainian Government approved its’ second National Action Plan for the period of 2021-2025, outlining new goals and objectives for women’s participation.

The “Women Are Key to Peace” campaign will run until November 31. You can follow its development on the project’s website, as well as on UN Women and partner websites and social media.

The campaign is realized by UN Women with financial support from Norway, Sweden, Canada, Denmark and the European Union.

Contact person for media inquiries:

Kateryna Lytvynenko, Advocacy and Communications Specialist, UN Women

kateryna.lytvynenko@unwomen.org

+38 (050) 425 7921