U.S. Plan Promotes Role of Women in Peace Process

President Obama has unveiled a new U.S. plan that promotes the role of women in keeping the peace and bringing more women to peace negotiations around the world. Roughly 30 other countries have instituted such plans since a 2000 U.N. Security Council resolution that required women’s rights be respected in peace negotiations. According to U.N. data released last year, women make up less than 10 percent of peace negotiators or mediators in world conflicts. A senior Obama Administration official said, “Our efforts at peacebuilding are stronger … when women—50 percent of the world’s population and more than 50 percent of the populations in some war-torn areas—have a say in how societies rebuild.”