Workshop on Inclusive Mediation to Sustain Peace

GRÓ GEST is organizing and hosting a workshop on Inclusive Mediation to Sustain Peace that will be held on Wednesday 17 November 2021 in Reykjavík. The workshop is about how to better support women’s access to peace processes globally and is organized in collaboration with the Nordic Women Mediators network Iceland, Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) in Finland and Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) in Sweden, funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers through NIKK.

The workshop takes place at the Culture House in Reykjavík and is led by Dr. Catherine Turner, Associate Professor at Durham Law School and Deputy Director of the Durham Global Security Institute, and Dr. Marsha Henry, Associate Professor at the Department of Gender Studies and a founding member of the Centre for Women, Peace and Security at the London School of Economics.

The aim of the workshop is to explore how to divert from the traditional structure of peace processes, and to re-envision peace mediation methods, designing mechanisms for women’s participation beyond the traditional mechanisms. Women’s access to peace processes is severely limited despite years of active advocacy from Women, Peace and Security actors even though research demonstrates that effective inclusion of women increases the likelihood of sustainable peace.

The workshop is a side event to the Nordic Women Mediators (NWM) annual meeting 2021 hosted by NWM Iceland and GRÓ GEST from 17-19 November. The Nordic Women Mediators is a network of women from the five Nordic countries who have professional expertise relevant to conflict mediation, peacebuilding and negotiations. Its mission is to enable Nordic women mediators and peacebuilders to advance the inclusion and meaningful participation of women in all phases of peace processes in order to contribute to achieving and sustaining peace.