Syrian activists protest for inclusion at Geneva II conference in Switzerland, 2014

In March 2011, civilian protests against the ruling Assad regime resulted in violent government suppression and a Syrian civil war. Primarily, civilians suffered the fallout of conflict between the government and armed resistance groups, many of whom formed rivalries with one another. Three years later, with no end of war in sight and only one unsuccessful UN conference in 2012, a peace envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, intended the 2014 Geneva II conference to facilitate a transitional government agreement between the Syrian government and its opposition. The agenda notably excluded both civil society and women.

Eleven days before the Geneva II conference, UN Women – a UN sub-organization focused on gender equality – hosted a two-day conference from 11 January to 12 January. Around 50 Syrian women convened to discuss strategy to secure inclusion in Geneva II, to share experiences, and to establish a list of demands. The activists organized their demands on three tiers: the overall strategy plan for ending the civil war, the negotiations structure, and women’s involvement in peace processes. The latter tier was the focus of this particular campaign, although the activists were also driven by the broader grand strategy of obtaining a ceasefire and democratic government. Lakhdar Brahimi, UN-Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria, attended the womens’ conference on 11 January, and he agreed to meet with them again on 14 January to review the conference’s Outcome Document.

On 13 January, UN Women released a press statement created by the women at the conference. Their demands were multi-level, but their priority was to pressure the UN to uphold Security Council resolutions 1325, 1820, 1888, 1889, 1960, 2106, 2122; to guarantee at least 30% representation of women during the entire negotiation process; to include women's and civil society groups participation as observers in negotiations; to ensure that women are present in the transitional government process, including the constitutional drafting committee and drafting of election law; to appoint a Syrian gender advisor to the mediation team; and to ensure that negotiating parties adopt the Outcome Document. Their longer-term objectives were to obtain a ceasefire, lift the siege on humanitarian aid, and guarantee equal citizenship to all Syrians regardless of ethnic identity. 

The Syrian National Coalition agreed, after much internal debating, to attend the Geneva II talks. In the end, 58 members supported attendance, 14 opposed, and 44 had already withdrawn from the vote. Several members were not enthused due to their beliefs that the conversation would go nowhere; others believed that attending the talks would further lower their approval by Syrian rebel groups.

Despite Brahimi’s attendance at the UN Women conference and nominal statements on the importance of the female perspective, he failed to secure any women a role beyond observer, which meant that the women representatives could only observe, and not engage in, negotiation discussions at the UN conference. In response, the Women Lead to Peace coalition organized a five-day summit. This coalition consisted of multinational women’s and civil society groups, such as the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), CodePink, and MADRE. Following coordination meetings the day prior, the official summit began with an alternative peace talk at the Geneva Graduate Institute on 21 January. Eighty women gathered, several of whom shared their experiences with gendered peace negotiations in Northern Ireland and Bosnia. The event was live-streamed for maximum exposure, although no mainstream media outlets attended, and very few embassy or UN staff came. 

On 22 January, from 10am to 12pm, Women Lead to Peace staged a demonstration in front of the media/delegate entrance of Montreux Palace, while the official UN negotiations commenced inside. The participants carried banners with signs that read, "Guys, Put Down Your Guns!" "No Peace Without Women at the Peace Table" "Aid, Not Weapons” and “Save Syria.” Some women wore black veils and white masks to create imagery of death and mourning; others displayed mock gravestones. The coalition organized a banner drop and street theater as well.

While the 11 to 12 January conference had involved primarily Syrian activists, by 20 January, participants included Nobel Peace Prize laureates Mairead Maguire (Northern Ireland) and Shirin Ebadi (Iran), as well as former U.S. diplomat Ann Wright. At this point, the demonstrators had garnered significant international attention and the vocal endorsement of U.S. journalist Chris Hedges, U.S. author Alice Walker, and U.S. actress Geena Davis. 

On 24 January, the Women Lead to Peace participants rallied in front of Geneva’s UN headquarters and delivered a mass petition to Brahimi and Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General. During the official peace negotiations, the campaign did succeed on a few fronts. The campaign sent ten Syrian women  as delegates to meet with UN officials, while the WILPF facilitated a meeting between activists and Samantha Powers, U.S. delegate to the UN. 

Although some peace representatives engaged in peripheral conversations with negotiators, only five women were present at the official negotiations. Two women were part of the Syrian National Coalition, and the other three provided technical assistance. The few women who sat at the table ultimately represented opposition to the Assad regime, not the non-violent and gendered perspective championed by Women Lead to Peace. Upon the conclusion of the Geneva II conference, most state actors and delegates acknowledged that they did not succeed in reaching an agreement or making significant progress towards a peace resolution. The campaign did not succeed in any of its goals besides securing more female observers.