Increasing the Number of Women Mediators in Peacemaking Initiatives

Mediation refers to one or more individuals facilitating a negotiation among disputants to help them try to resolve, to their satisfaction, an issue or issues of concern. There is increasing interest in using mediation in a wide variety of circumstances (e.g., divorce, child custody, family disagreements, small claims issues, business matters, community problems, environmental issues and intrastate violent conflicts). Although professional women mediators in many countries are often involved in certain kinds of mediations as mediators or as members of mediation teams, this is not always the case. Examined here is the fact that few women mediators are involved as lead mediators or members of mediation teams in conflict zones areas that are often large, involve complex issues and have been, or continue to be, violent. This article first discusses the concepts of inclusive peacebuilding and inclusive peacemaking.1 This is followed by a short discussion about mediation, and then further information is provided about women mediators. Finally, suggestions are made to increase the number of women mediators in complex, large-scale conflicts.

Peacebuilding can occur before, during and after conflict. It includes approaches such as prevention; promotion of stability and justice; capacity building; humanitarian assistance; establishment of peace zones; reconciliation; peacekeeping; and informal as well as official peacemaking.

Inclusive Peacemaking
Peacemaking has been defined (Fisher et al. 2000:14) as 'interventions designed to end hostilities and bring about an agreement using diplomatic, political and military means.' The inclusion of the word "military" seemingly alludes to violent conflicts, while the word "diplomatic" probably refers to intrastate or interstate conflicts that would require national and/or international diplomatic approaches. The term "peacemaking" is usually used in relation to conflicts that are large, violent and systemic, often involving factions and affecting a community, nation or region, but the term also has been used for disputes involving individuals and/or small groups. The definition needs to cover activities as varied as peacemaking in the Navajo Nation of the US (e.g., Nielsen, Zion and Hailer 2018); John Winslade's (2009: 560) discussion of his mother as a peacemaker with his father and the peacemaking activities of young children and chimpanzees (Verbeek and Peters 2008).
Peacemaking is defined here as interventions that are based on principles --such as equality, harmony, inclusion and restorative justice --that aim to end difficulties between parties and bring about an agreement. This definition covers violent intrastate conflicts as well as disputes involving individuals. Inclusive peacemaking means that peacemakers will see that any peacemaking process is all encompassing with all perspectives being represented, and that peacemakers and their teams will represent a variety of backgrounds. IJCJ&SD 70 www.crimejusticejournal.com © 2020 9(1) Peacemaking in relation to intrastate violent conflicts is usually complicated and difficult. Some of the approaches used in the "official" peacemaking processes are well known -e.g., third-party mediation; official and unofficial diplomacy; negotiation or bargaining -while others -e.g., problem-solving workshops, citizen diplomacy, economic incentives, mediation training, conflict transformation education, attention-getting activities -are less well known. Women peacemakers often are involved in activities that are associated with and have led to peace negotiations (informal peacemaking). 2 Women also may be participants in peace negotiations and lead mediators or members of lead mediation teams facilitating peace agreements (formal peacemaking).

Mediation
Mediation 3 is a rights-based, humanistic and creative process in which one or more impartial individuals help parties (disputants) discuss an issue or issues that concern one or more of them, with their consent (Fritz 2014b:3). For a mediation to occur, the parties must agree to allow a third party (the mediator or mediation team) to be involved, and recognize that the third party does not have the authority to make a binding resolution (Wilkenfeld et al. 2019). The mediation process is sometimes referred to as facilitated negotiation. Rights-based mediation takes into account everyone's human rights. A rights-based approach means that the mediation is concerned with achieving at least a minimum standard of wellbeing for parties, and those they represent, as a right of all people. Mediations should not undermine the interests of the vulnerable. A broad definition of "humanism" is used in regard to mediation. Humanistic mediation extends beyond being anthropocentric (human centred) and biocentric (moral consideration for all living things) as it also includes respect for the natural environment. In terms of mediation being "creative", mediation can generate new concepts, ideas or associations. Creative thinking requires openness, listening, risk-taking, trust, and collaboration. Mediations are creative as well as rights-based and humanistic; they should allow and encourage all these characteristics in order to foster new analysis and decisions.
The mediator or mediation team establishes an open, trusting setting in which parties are encouraged to discuss facts as well as their personal feelings about the issue or issues that brought them to the discussion. After all parties have been identified and included, mediation is usually conducted as a flexibly-structured process and can be free flowing or more controlled.
Stage models are often used by mediators when working with disputes and conflicts. The stages are often not distinct and will differ depending on factors such as culture, mediator choice, party preference, type of mediation and complexity of the situation. In a complex situation such as a violent intrastate conflict, mediation can occur at any point beginning with the earliest point of a developing conflict. This complex kind of mediation may have moved from negotiating rather limited ceasefire agreements to involving many levels and many stakeholders to manage ceasefires as well as the root causes of the conflicts (Inclusive Peace & Transition Initiative n.d.) Many of the mediation stages may occur before an actual discussion of the central issues takes place. A great deal of time in the early stages may be spent identifying who will take part in the discussion and the procedures and processes that will be used. Several peace processes may be going on at the same time, and they may be introduced at different stages with different kinds of agreements made as a process continues (Chinkin 2003). If the outcome of any process is an agreement, it would be shaped by the parties and satisfactory to them.
The word 'inclusive' is being increasingly used by authors writing about mediation, including international mediations in areas of armed conflict (e.g., Dudouet et al. 2018;Jayasundara-Smits 2018). This is due to a number of factors, including that in 2009, the Council of the European Union adopted a "Concept on Strengthening EU Mediation and Dialogue Capacities" that aimed for both mediation and dialogue to be holistic and inclusive (Dudouet et al. 2018: 1 Development (United Nations 2015), as well as the fact that inclusivity is stressed in three 2015 UN review processes (Dudouet et al. 2018:3).
The UN has issued strong statements about the need for mediation and taken some action. The push for mediation has included the establishment of a Standby Team of Senior Mediation Advisers. The Standby Team (UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs n.d.) is: … a service of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) administered by the Mediation Support Unit (MSU) of the Policy and Mediation Division (PMD). It is a specialized resource that can be easily deployed on a temporary basis into the field to provide technical advice to UN officials and others engaged in prevention diplomacy or mediation … Team members can be deployed individually or in small groups.
Team members can be advisers about topics such as the design and conduct of mediations, constitution design, security, gender, inclusion, power-sharing and wealth-sharing. These advisers are provided at no charge to requesting parties. In 2018, team members provided advice in the Central African Republic, Yemen and South Sudan (UN Secretary-General 2018) and, in 2019, advice was offered to Afghanistan, South Sudan, Papua New Guinea and Syria (UN Secretary-General 2019b).
In August 2018, UN Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the UN Security Council and said the UN must be 'bold and creative' in supporting mediation (United Nations Security Council 2018: 2). He noted: War is becoming increasingly complex-and so is mediating peace … Conflicts around the world drag on for years and decades, holding back development and stunting opportunities. Comprehensive peace agreements are becoming more elusive and short-lived. Political will wanes; international attention drifts. The Central African Republic, for example, has suffered overlapping national and local conflicts for decades. Yet some 15 peace agreements have been signed there since 1997.
Mediation is now a developed professional field in many countries. 4 There are many degree programs, training opportunities as well as certification possibilities. While mediation is a profession, the word "mediator" is sometimes used in a much more general way to refer to those involved in many different kinds of peacebuilding activities (Inclusive Peace & Transition Initiative n.d.). Someone who might not have the skills and experience might be involved in some way in trying to resolve a problem and the term mediator might be used for that person. This article is about professional mediators, those with considerable training, well-developed skills and a great deal of experience.
A professional mediator or mediation team trying to help resolve large-scale conflicts should have substantial training in mediation and be very experienced in dealing with large-scale conflicts. Unfortunately, "high-level" mediators often are chosen by political appointment on the basis of diplomatic standing rather than their mediation skills and experience (Economic & Social Research Council et al. 2018). 5 Professional mediators should be expected to make a difference in the design, participation and outcomes of these kinds of conflicts. There is very little literature discussing or evaluating the effectiveness of mediation, 6 much less comparing professional mediation to other mediation efforts. It certainly seems worthwhile to try professional mediation for dealing with large-scale intrastate and interstate conflicts, as just, lasting settlements have been very difficult to obtain. 7 IJCJ&SD 72 www.crimejusticejournal.com © 2020 9(1)

Women Mediators
Institutionalised patriarchal and militarised systems are continuing barriers to women's effective participation in conflict reduction processes (UN Women 2018). Women are under-represented or not represented at all even when international rules/standards indicate that women should be centrally included in official peace proceedings. It has been found, however, that women's participation as signatories in post-war peace negotiations contributes to the quality as well as the durability of peace (Krause et al. 2018). The researchers concluded that 'including women directly in peace negotiations with voice is not only a matter of justice but also of effectiveness, quality, and sustainability of peace' (Krause et al. 2018: 985). Women should be signatories, but they also must be included as high-level mediators. 8 Since 2010 Even with all the endorsements of mediation and the organizational support for women mediators, there is a very low number of women who are involved in international mediation efforts. Recent studies that analysed the major peace processes between 1992 and 2017 concluded that three per cent of mediators were women, that 3 per cent of the witnesses and signatories were women and only 9 per cent of the negotiators were women ( conducting shuttle diplomacy, facilitating discussions, acting as formal witnesses and being signatories. While the authors classified 36 women as mediators, others would not consider some of these positions necessarily as mediators (though the roles might be part of something that mediators would do), and there is no information about how many had considerable training and experience as mediators. While most of the organizations mention mediation or mediator in the title of the network, those involved often could be characterized as peacebuilders working on conflict prevention, resolution or reconciliation in a variety of ways rather than as groups of professional mediators. A representative of one of the networks indicated that the network did not know how many of its members are professional (well-trained and experienced) mediators.

Networks of Women Peacebuilders and Mediators
There are many positive comments about the establishment of these women mediation groups (Poutanen, personal communication 2019, March 11). The general thought and hope is that they will be effective in increasing the numbers of women involved in all stages of the conflict intervention process. According to Mahmoud (2018 para. 3), 'FemWise-Africa, 12 not unlike other newly created women mediators' networks, has rightly put emphasis on unleashing the leadership potential of women at the community and grassroots levels who tend to be the custodians of peace, even amid devastation. ' Mahmoud (2018 para. 4) goes on to say 'it is critical, however, that efforts like FemWise-Africa go beyond celebrating the heroic efforts of these local mediators and utilize their knowledge and expertise to influence 'track 1' 13 mediation processes both at the national and global levels.' IJCJ&SD 74 www.crimejusticejournal.com © 2020 9(1)

Advice for Mediators
Advice about mediation processes 14 as well as the inclusion of women is available for those selected as mediators and for all those involved in conflicts (e.g., parties to a conflict, community organizations, governments, individual citizens). Some of this advice, however, does not appear to be directed to professional mediators. For example, here is an example of advice given during a UN Security Council meeting in 2018 (para. 13) 'Timing is important said Switzerland's delegate.
Mediation must be attempted when the time is right for settlement.' And Katia Papagianni (2011), head of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue's Mediation Support Programme, has written that mediators have to understand that they have to 'build robust political processes and not simply "strike deals"… and they should resist drawing up hastilydrafted, and unrealistic, agreements.' Youssef Mamhoud (2018) indicated that: Mediation is still operating on an old paradigm of two or more parties coming together -either willingly or under duress -under the auspices of disinterested third parties, with the hope of reaching an agreement that is often sealed by a public handshake (para. 5).
A question needs to be raised about what kind of mediators are being given this advice. It seems that this advice is directed to those appointing high-level mediators to deal with complex conflicts and to those who have been selected as lead mediators, when those being selected as lead mediators are not professional mediators. Professional mediators -those with extensive training, high-level skills and considerable experience -would not need this kind of advice.
If professional mediators are not being selected to address track 1 deliberations in conflict or post-conflict zones, what can be done to increase the appointment of professional mediatorsboth women and men? And is there special advice needed to increase the appointment of professional women mediators?

Suggestions for Improving the Situation
The following suggestions are among many excellent ideas (see, for instance, Chinkin 2003 andTurner 2018) to increase the number of and support for women who may be selected as lead mediators: 1. Committed leadership at all levels (e.g., community, nation, international, regional) must call attention to the problem of so few professional women mediators and put appropriate quotas in place. Male leaders, including traditional and religious leaders (Lorentzen, Toure and Gaye 2019), need to be spokespersons and take action on issues of women's inclusion. 2. Women's regional networks have been formed including, for example, the Nordic Women Mediators Network, FemWise-Africa and the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network). The networks have continued discussion about developing additional networks as well as an alliance of regional women mediator networks. These networks need to be influential on the national and international levels in addition to their important local and regional work. The networks need support and promotion; they already have requested support for training women mediators. groups -need to offer mediation training, mentorship and traineeship opportunities to women so that more women may become professional mediators. 5. Seminars and training (Lorentzen, Toure and Gaye 2019: 27) about inclusive peacebuilding at all levels need to be offered to men and women, particularly those 'who are not active in associations and organizations, work in public offices or belong to a social elite.' It could be particularly important to include the family members of professional women mediators, as well as those training for this role, to increase support for the mediation work. Sessions need to include information about all relevant legal support for this effort, including UN Security Council Resolution 1325 15 and its supporting resolutions. 6. If the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation is holding a board meeting, consider adding one or more representatives of professional mediation organizations to take part in all or part of the discussion. 7. There need to be gender advisers in any offices that deal with conflict facilitation or mediation. 8. Mediations should include addressing problems facing women (e.g., personal safety, inclusion in peace processes, land reform, ownership of property, central inclusion in all major areas of a society). 9. Gender needs to be included in post-conflict needs assessments, and there should be gender budgeting and audits. Professional mediators would know to make this part of any agreements, but additional training in these areas is always helpful. 10. Funding to support women's participation at various levels of a mediation process (including post-conflict activities) may be required. For instance, some or all women may not have personal resources to travel, participate in mediation processes and/or monitor an agreement. 11. There needs to be a continuing analysis of why mediation processes (including the role of professional mediators) are effective or not effective (Mahmoud 2018).

Conclusion
In August 2018, UN Secretary-General António Guterres ended his remarks to the UN Security Council by saying: As the conflict landscape has changed, so has our understanding of what constitutes an effective mediation process. Innovative thinking on mediation is no longer an option; it is a necessity. I urge you to commit to more effective use of mediation as a tool to save and improve the lives of millions of people around the world (para. 30).
Hasn't the time come for the UN, heads of state and leaders of regional governmental organizations to put more trust in professional mediation practices? Isn't it time for professional mediators -women as well men -to be lead mediators? Shouldn't these professionals be running the process rather than being, in some cases, advisers to those who were selected to be mediators by heads of state, but are not professional mediators?
As Mahmoud (2018:1) noted, 'today's conflicts involve a lethal mix of state and non-state actors whose world views and ideologies do not easily lend themselves to a mediated settlement.' It is true that professional mediators will not necessarily develop a comprehensive peace settlement that is just and endures, but the chances of that happening -in full or in part -can be increased by having professionals leading the high-level mediations.
We are beyond the time where we need to keep saying that women's groups must speak up, demand or lobby for change. They have already done so. The UN has put a number of important support mechanisms in place for mediation, but we now need to use stronger words than Member States being "encouraged" or "urged" to change. Government and UN leaders must act now. If IJCJ&SD 76 www.crimejusticejournal.com © 2020 9(1) there is still a distrust of professional approaches, using professional mediators to design and implement processes for resolving smaller disputes and conflicts in a specified geographic region can help build trust in professional processes.
It is time for professional mediation and time for the inclusion of quotas for professional women mediators. These could be important components of the 'effective use of mediation' called for by the UN Secretary-General (2018).