Women, War, and Peacebuilding in Colombia

As the Colombian government and the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) prepared to resume peace talks in Havana over the coming weeks, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a panel discussion on women, war, and peacebuilding in Colombia. Despite U.N. resolutions and guidance on women, peace, and security, women have been noticeably absent from Colombia’s peace tables. Their presence in other spheres of peacebuilding has been similarly marginalized, but is significant nonetheless.

The U.S. Institute of Peace, in collaboration with THIRTEEN and Fork Films, hosted a screening of the Women, War, and Peace Series film, “The War We Are Living,” by producer Oriana Zill. The documentary film traces the lives of two rural Afro-Colombian women as they lead their community’s struggle to resist forced displacement by a mining company and remain on their gold-rich lands in the southwestern Cauca region of Colombia. An expert panel following the film discussed the gender dimensions of the conflict and women’s roles in peacebuilding in Colombia.

"The War We Are Living" can be viewed from the PBS Women, War and Peace website.

View album full screen.

Watch the video of the panel discussion.

Listen to an audio recording of the panel discussion.

Speakers

• Kathleen Kuehnast, Moderator
  Director, Center for Gender & Peacebuilding
  U.S. Institute of Peace

• Oriana Zill, Producer
  CBS News and The War We Are Living

• Lorena Morales Vidal, Coordinator
  Legal Aid Program, Asociación Colectivo Mujeres al Derecho

• Virginia M. Bouvier
  Senior Program Officer for Latin America
  U.S. Institute of Peace