Seeking Inclusion, Breeding Exclusion? The UN鈥檚 WPS Agenda and the Syrian Peace Talks | International Negotiation
May 19th, 2023 | In this article, Dr. Marie-Jo毛lle Zahar analyzes the Women鈥檚 Advisory Board (WAB) to the UN Special Envoy for Syria, a unique mechanism designed to include women in peace processes. Has the WAB fulfilled its objective? Based on ethnographic material, and primary and secondary sources, we argue that the WAB fostered a sentiment of exclusion among some of its members and of the broader spectrum of Syrian women鈥檚 organizations. The article further suggests that the WAB failed to meaningfully include women in the Syria peace process. The sources of these failures can be located in the process by which WAB participants were selected and the 鈥榩eacemaker鈥� identity that they were assigned. The limits associated with the process of selection and the substance of the women鈥檚 engagement are inherent to the way the UN frames and justifies women鈥檚 inclusion. The WAB, it concludes, should not be hastily replicated as a mechanism of women鈥檚 inclusion.
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