Women’s Leadership at the Heart of Lasting Peace
Co-authored by Matthew Duckworth, Australian High Commissioner- designate; Andrew Patrick, British High Commissioner; Isomata Akio, Ambassador of Japan; Ambassador Siri Walt, Embassy of Switzerland, and Ramaaya Salgado, Head of Office, UN Women Sri Lanka.
On October 31, 2000, the UN Security Council adopted the landmark Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. Twenty-five years later, we find ourselves in a moment of reckoning. Conflicts once thought unthinkable have returned to the global stage. Wars are reshaping borders, displacing millions, and eroding hard-won rights. The world is learning again what women and marginalised communities in post-conflict societies have long known: peace is fragile when shaped by only one part of the population, and when responses to insecurity fail to reflect diverse realities.
Peace without Inclusion or Responsiveness does not last
Across continents, the toll of conflict is being measured not only in lives lost but in freedoms curtailed. Women face renewed threats to health, bodily autonomy, safety, and participation in public life. Each crisis reaffirms a simple truth: peace must include women’s safety, freedom, and leadership.
Yet, women remain underrepresented in global security and defence. While there has been some change over recent years, in 2023, only 13 per cent of defence ministers globally were women, and about 97 per cent of generals and admirals remained men. Women also remain underrepresented in global leadership around peace processes and peace building. Less than 10 per cent of peace negotiators and around a quarter of parliamentarians worldwide are women. This imbalance weakens peace efforts — evidence consistently shows that when women participate, peace last longer and recovery is stronger.
When the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325, its authors reminded the world that peace and security cannot be achieved through governance and negotiations that exclude women — that lasting peace depends on their equal participation and on protection and recovery measures responsive to their distinct experiences.
Sri Lanka at a Crossroads
Sri Lanka’s own history offers both caution and promise. Decades of conflict and multiple crises — economic, political, and environmental — have shown that progress without justice is fragile and that recovery without equality remains incomplete. The effects of conflict continue to shape daily life in many parts of the country, where displacement, loss, and insecurity persist. For women, these realities are compounded by distinctly gendered consequences — from unequal access to land, livelihoods, and reparations, to vulnerability to violence, stigma, and exclusion from decision-making.
Women have long been the backbone of resilience, sustaining families and communities, leading local peace and justice efforts, and rebuilding livelihoods amid hardship. Yet, despite their central roles, women remain largely excluded from formal leadership, reflected in persistently low levels of political representation at both national and local levels.
In 2023, the Government of Sri Lanka adopted its first National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security — a framework recognising both the need for women’s leadership in peace and security governance and the strengthening of protection, prevention, and recovery systems. At the Plan’s midpoint, the 25th anniversary of the Resolution offers a pivotal moment to renew commitment, close implementation gaps, and most importantly, to invest in and partner with the women whose leadership continues to shape Sri Lanka’s path toward peace and equality.
Why Feminist Leadership matters to Peace and Security
Female human rights defenders, feminist activists, and young peacebuilders across Sri Lanka are showing that inclusive and responsive leadership strengthens accountability, equality, and peace. Their work — often under-resourced and undervalued — tackles the root causes of conflict by confronting inequality, building trust, and supporting recovery. From leading truth-telling and memorialisation efforts in conflict-affected regions, to advocating for justice for survivors of sexual violence, to mobilising women’s cooperatives and local councils, they are the architects of reconciliation and resilience. Investing in their leadership is both a moral imperative and a strategic necessity.
Feminist approaches to peace and recovery emphasise participation, freedom, and protection. They demand decision-making spaces equally shaped by women and all other marginalised groups, and systems that guarantee rights, justice, and economic security. In Sri Lanka, women’s movements have long advanced inclusive peacebuilding, transitional justice, and community reconciliation. Their leadership not only drives recovery but helps prevent renewed cycles of violence by addressing the root causes of inequality and exclusion. Their vision expands peace itself — not merely as the absence of violence, but as the presence of justice, health, dignity, and opportunity for all.
Revitalising Peace, Redefining Power
As the world faces new forms of insecurity — from climate shocks to digital violence, economic precarity to democratic backsliding — the Women, Peace and Security agenda remains a blueprint for resilience. In Sri Lanka, reaffirming this agenda means embedding gender equality and human rights across governance, conflict prevention, humanitarian response, justice reform, and sustainable development.
This 25th anniversary is not just a commemoration, but a renewal of purpose — a chance to build a peace that is inclusive, rights-based, and forward-looking. Sri Lanka, with its rich history, resilience, and vibrant feminist movements, is well-positioned to lead the region in demonstrating that peace shaped by women’s leadership and informed by their experiences is more just, inclusive, and enduring.
Realising this vision requires sustained investment and commitment. The next phase of the Women, Peace and Security agenda must be accompanied by adequate national resourcing, institutional strengthening, and capacity-building — ensuring that commitments are matched by action. It also requires continued, open dialogue on the more complex and often sensitive dimensions of the agenda — including gendered violence, justice and accountability, and the integration of feminist perspectives into defence and security policy. Addressing these issues candidly and collaboratively is essential to strengthening the WPS framework and ensuring its continued relevance to Sri Lanka’s peace and security priorities.
The task ahead is clear: ensure that women are not only present at the table but shaping the agenda — from community peacebuilding to national policy, and from local reconciliation to global diplomacy.
When women lead — and when their security, rights, and voices are prioritised — peace lasts.
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