ECP Notes on Conflict and Peace

ECP Notes on Conflict and Peace is a publication of the School for a Culture of Pau that addresses current issues and provides reflections on conflict analysis, conflict transformation and peacebuilding.

2025 marks the 25th anniversary of the adoption of resolution 1325 by the UN Security Council and the beginning of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, built over more than two decades through a huge collective effort by a multiplicity of feminist actors from the Global North and South. The agenda currently faces unprecedented challenges in an international scenario of growing armed conflict and willingness to use force to address conflicts, militarism, and patriarchal leadership and agendas. Peace negotiations, one of the tools that in recent decades seemed to consolidate as a frequent strategy for dealing with armed conflicts, is also at a crossroads. This publication analyses some of the progress and the challenges that persist in the field of negotiations and peace processes, considering the capacity of influence that the WPS agenda has had to shape this area of peacebuilding. It addresses issues such as the chronic under-representation of women in negotiations; effective participation and mechanisms for change; the hierarchical structure of negotiations and the obstacles women face in participating; the initiatives of women’s organizations in the promotion of peace with rights; the role of mediating actors; and the inclusion of the gender dimension and the feminist perspective in the text of the peace agreements resulting from the negotiations.

Download here.

On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda and in an international context of serious crises and interconnected structures of oppression, this publication highlights five challenges and problems the WPS agenda faces. These five dimensions are: growing militarism and military spending; the climate emergency resulting from an extractivist and predatory neoliberal capitalist model, and its gender impacts; the repression against women peacebuilders, human rights defenders and other civil society groups; the neglect of the prevention of armed conflicts and inclusive dialogue as ways of addressing conflicts; and the co-optation of the WPS agenda. This publication addresses the five challenges and incorporates recommendations on each of them.

Download here.

On 23 March, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on all parties in conflict around the world to observe a ceasefire that will allow us all to face the coronavirus pandemic, thereby facilitating the work of humanitarians accessing the most vulnerable populations affected by violence. The UAB Escola de Cultura de Pau (ECP) joins this call for a global ceasefire. In support of local and international efforts to build peace and respond to the pandemic, it documents below some of the situations of armed conflict or tension in which armed actors have answered the UN Secretary-General’s call, adopted other confidence-building measures between the parties or made important appeals at the start of the cessations of hostilities.
bungee run inflatable

Full text
Infographic
Subscriptions