Colombian women’s and feminist movements in the peace negotiation process in Havana:complexities of the struggle for peace in transitional contexts

Abstract

ABSTRACT The peace process with the FARC-EP has been recognized as pioneering for how it addresses gender issues. This was made possible by the action of feminist and women’s movements. This article analyzes the principle achievements of those movements during the negotiation process and identifies the challenges they face for the materialization of women’s rights. In doing so, we enter into dialogue with two theses from the literature about women and peace. The first argues that political pressure from movements is essential in order to increase women’s participation in negotiation processes; the second argues that neither the incorporation of women in negotiations nor the inclusion of gender considerations in agreements is sufficient to guarantee their implementation. Analyzing the Colombian case, we conclude that, along with political pressure, the recognition of these movements as key for peacebuilding and their accumulated political force were vital for raising their demands. Furthermore, the government in office’s position on peace and women’s right has important impacts on the incorporation and implementation of gender provisions. Along with the government’s political position, we identify other challenges: the delegitimization of women’s demands by characterizing them as promoting ‘gender ideology,’ the instrumental and depoliticized application of a gender perspective, the exacerbation of violence, the predominance of liberal visions of peace in dialogue with the state, hierarchical relations within these movements, and a certain level of disarticulation of diverse feminist struggles in the peace scenarios.