Take a Seat for Peace: Women and Children at the Table
Peace cannot be negotiated without women — and it cannot be sustained without children.
On this International Day of Non-Violence, I ask a simple but urgent question: how can we honor non-violence when half of humanity—and the youngest among us—remain absent from the tables where peace is decided?
For decades, the United Nations has emphasized the importance of women’s participation in peace processes through Resolution 1325 and its follow-ups. Yet women still account for only 13% of negotiators, 6% of mediators, and 6% of peace agreement signatories between 1992 and 2019. Meanwhile, women and children comprise nearly 80% of displaced populations and are among the most affected by conflict. Children, in particular, are still treated as collateral damage— “cannon fodder”—rather than as rights-holders whose voices deserve protection.
I have witnessed this reality up close. In my work with children through art therapy programs in war zones, I met children who could not speak, paralyzed by shock. Some were asked to take up arms at the age of four. Others were haunted by violence they could not process. With paper and paint, they tried to speak the unspeakable—but their silence often screamed louder than words ever could. These children were present in conflicts but absent from the decisions that shaped their lives.
This is not only a moral failure—it is a strategic one. Research shows that when women participate meaningfully in peace processes, agreements are 35% more likely to last at least fifteen years. But peace will never endure if the rights of children are ignored, if they are still made invisible in negotiations, or treated as expendable.
In my role as UNESCO Artist for Peace, Vice-President of the Union Nations Federation, and director of the “Femina Vox” International Forum, I have advanced a resolution advocating a minimum quota of 30% women in all official peace negotiation delegations. This is not an end in itself but a crucial first step toward parity, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Yet women alone cannot bear this responsibility. Children must also have a voice at the table. We need a designated defender of children’s rights—someone whose mandate is not symbolic but active: they must arrive at negotiations with the authority and immediate resources to preserve children from violence, ensuring they are not the first victims of a war they neither want nor understand. Including a representative who speaks explicitly for children ensures that peace agreements protect their lives, dignity, and futures, rather than perpetuating cycles of trauma. I presented the resolution on women’s inclusion at the United Nations PeaceTalks in Geneva on September 10, before over 400 participants. The response was overwhelmingly positive, signaling that civil society and diplomatic circles expect women to move from spectators of peace to full-fledged actors. This vision aligns with initiatives such as the Sarah and Hajar Accords, launched in April 2023, which show that women-led civil society initiatives can create innovative and inclusive reconciliation frameworks. Opening the door is not enough. Women and children must be empowered and represented. That is why I stress the urgent need for programs in negotiation, leadership, public speaking, mentorship, and self-confidence for women—and, critically, why children must have someone officially at the table defending their rights and arriving equipped to immediately protect them from the violence of war.
Excluding women and children is not symbolic—it is a political and moral failure. Including them makes peace more legitimate, more durable, and better equipped to address the differentiated needs of populations affected by conflict.
Every year, on October 2, we honor the International Day of Non-Violence. But the promise of non-violence flickers if it is not protected by many hands. Peace is fragile, collective, and requires multiple voices, perspectives, and experiences. It is time to say what too many diplomats still resist: peace cannot be negotiated without women—and it cannot endure without children, who deserve someone at the table speaking solely on their behalf, with the resources to protect them from violence they did not choose and cannot comprehend. Take a Seat for Peace: Women and Children at the Table.
