U.N. Security Council calls for female leadership ahead of terrorist violence

Nations on the United Nation’s Security Council recently called for women to play a bigger role in politics in Colombia, where terrorist violence continues to ravage communities despite a 2016 peace deal that nominally ended decades of civil war.

This call comes days after a new report from Spanish think-tank Alianza Por la Solidaridad-ActionAid warned that 1,493,270 women in Colombia have been displaced by gender-related violence since the signing of the 2016 peace deal.

The UAE’s ambassador to the UN Lana Nusseibeh reported that women who fought in the conflict still struggle to find jobs and play a role in Colombia's postwar society.

“While there's been an increase in women former combatants’ participation in productive projects to support their reintegration, their active and meaningful participation in economic reintegration still faces some challenges,” Nusseibeh said. “Further progress must be made, given that the economic inclusion and empowerment of women is critical to building economies, which in turn ensures a long-lasting peace.”

Norway’s UN ambassador, Mona Juul, said the United Nations body should push for Colombian women to have seats at the table.

“Norway, the UAE and Albania come together under the shared commitment to prioritize the women's peace and security agenda during our terms on the Security Council,” said Juul, adding that women could use positions of power to “urge the full, equal and meaningful participation of women leaders in the implementation of the Colombian peace accord.”

Violence in Colombia was expected after a 2016 peace deal between the federal government and the country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), but guerrillas and criminal gangs continue to cause chaos in pockets of the South American nation – especially along the country’s border with Venezuela.

According to a 2018 report released by Colombia's National Centre for Historical Memory, more than 260,000 people — mostly civilians — died from violence during six decades of guerrilla conflict in Colombia. The report also found that most of the 80,000 people who disappeared were never found. More than 37,000 of those killed were victims of kidnappings, and nearly 15,700 were victims of sexual violence.

Nevertheless, the United States removed FARC —along with several other terrorist groups — from the list of foreign terrorist organizations late last year.

According to Colombia’s human rights ombudsman Carlos Camargo, one community activist, environmentalist, or human rights activist was killed in Colombia every 60 hours last year.

Colombia's internal conflict has stretched over nearly 60 years and caused more than 260,000 deaths.