UN chief urges end to women’s exclusion from peace talks

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called for urgent action to ensure women participate fully in peace negotiations, receive adequate funding and are protected from rising violence in conflict zones worldwide.

Speaking during an open debate of the UN Security Council in New York on 27 October 2026, Guterres said that 26 years after the adoption of Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, significant gaps remained between international commitments and their implementation.

He said women continued to be excluded from peace talks, while organisations working to promote peace faced funding shortages and women and girls experienced increasing violence.

“Women’s participation is not merely symbolic. Peace processes are much more likely to last when women participate actively in driving them forward,” Guterres said.

He outlined three urgent priorities: ensuring women are represented at peace negotiations, increasing financial support for women-led peacebuilding organisations and ending violence against women and girls.

According to Guterres, women must be involved in every stage of peace negotiations, with their concerns reflected in agreements and decisions affecting communities emerging from conflict.

In 2025, women accounted for only five per cent of negotiators across 57 peace processes worldwide. Fewer than one in five peace agreements referred to women, girls, gender-related issues or sexual violence.

Guterres explained the continued exclusion of women was unacceptable and called for mandatory targets and standards to ensure their meaningful and equal participation.

The UN chief also urged governments and international partners to increase financial support for women-led organisations working in conflict-affected areas, including those assisting displaced populations.

He warned that declining development assistance was undermining protection services and preventing grassroots organisations from sustaining their activities.

The situation has been compounded by rising global military expenditure, which reached approximately $2.9 trillion in 2025, according to the UN.

Guterres called for accountability for perpetrators of violence against women and girls, including conflict-related sexual violence and attacks targeting women peacebuilders, human rights defenders and humanitarian workers.

He also urged the removal of barriers preventing women delivering humanitarian assistance from carrying out their work.

More than 110 countries have adopted national action plans to implement the Women, Peace and Security agenda, but Guterres warned that escalating conflicts threatened progress.

Citing Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, the Sahel and Myanmar, he said the UN verified more than 9,700 incidents of conflict-related sexual violence in 2025, adding that the actual number was likely higher.

“Equality is not a dream. It is a decision,” Guterres said, urging governments to translate commitments into action through peace negotiations, political processes, budgets and policies.

UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous told the Security Council that women remained largely absent from peace negotiations despite decades of international commitments.

She said nearly 80 per cent of peace processes underway in 2025 had no women participating at the negotiating table.

“After 26 years of commitments, it cannot be defended that nearly 80 per cent of peace processes underway last year took place without a single woman at the negotiating table,” Bahous said.

She added that none of the 13 ceasefire agreements reached in 2025 comprehensively addressed issues affecting women and girls or prohibited sexual violence.

Research by UN Women also found that 61 per cent of women’s organisations operating in conflict settings were experiencing worse financial conditions than a year earlier, while 45 per cent had enough funding to sustain their operations for no more than six months.

Bahous urged countries to allocate at least 15 per cent of official development assistance to conflict-affected countries towards gender equality, including at least one per cent for women’s organisations.

Afghan women’s rights activist Tamana Zaryab Paryani told the Security Council that women and girls in Afghanistan continued to face restrictions on education, employment and participation in public life.

Speaking remotely on behalf of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, Paryani recounted her arrest and detention by the Taliban following her activism.

She described how Taliban forces raided her home in Kabul in 2022 while she was with her three sisters, an incident she recorded on her phone.

“We hear statements. We hear people expressing their concern. But Afghan women need action, not words,” Paryani said.

She urged the Security Council to place women’s rights at the centre of decisions on Afghanistan and ensure accountability for violations.

A 2026 UN report on Women, Peace and Security also found that more than 37,000 civilians were killed in conflicts in 2025, with women and girls accounting for one in four civilian deaths.

The report further estimated that about 750 million women and girls lived within 50 kilometres of conflict zones, an increase of 40 million in one year.

It maintained that verified incidents of conflict-related sexual violence had nearly quadrupled between 2022 and 2025, highlighting the growing risks facing women and girls worldwide.