Conference / Meeting

The Role of Women in Peace Negotiations: Reflections on South Sudan

Guest Lecture Series
19 October 2021
Start time 
2:15 pm
Palazzo Paolo Prodi - Via Tommaso Gar 14, Trento
Room 001
Organizer: 
School of International Studies
Target audience: 
Everyone
Attendance: 
Free

Abstract

In recent years, women have become increasingly involved in peace processes all over the world. They serve as peacekeepers and are employed as humanitarians, mediators and observers. More importantly, there has been a growing awareness on the importance of their role as community members in peacebuilding processes and negotiation. In fact, however, their participation still faces many obstacles and, even in inclusive peace processes, women’s engagement can never be taken for granted. 
Building on the idea that women represent roughly half of any community, and that their engagement is vital for the sustainability of any peace process, through the case studies of Sudan and South Sudan, this guest lecture will focus on the role of women in the negotiation of peace at the national level, analysing the obstacles to their participation and the bottom-up strategies they employ to overcome these obstacles. 

Speaker

Sara Formisano, International Consultant in conflict prevention, peace building and gender

Bio

Sara Formisano is an experienced practitioner in the field of Gender, Human Rights, Peace Operations, Mediation and Conflict Management. She has worked for five years as an International Observer at the Ceasefire Transitional Security Arrangement Monitoring and Verification Mechanism in South Sudan for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). Building on a Political Science background, she obtained a post-graduate degree in Gender Rights at the Latin America Social Science Institute and one in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In 2020, she also graduated from the Institute for International Criminal Investigation at The Hague as an International Investigator on Gender Based Violence. Currently, she works as a consultant on conflict resolution and peace building for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research and the European Commission.