Kessous Resolution : Femina Pax
Diplomatic negotiations: quotas for women to promote peace
With Guila Clara Kessous, UNESCO artist for peace and Director of the International Forum Femina Vox
And the participation of institutional representatives from countries supporting the resolution
MANIFESTO
How can we justify that in peace processes, women represent on average only 13% of negotiators, 6% of mediators, and 6% of agreement signatories, while women and children nonetheless make up nearly 80% of
displaced populations?
How can we act effectively for conflict resolution when half of humanity is absent from negotiation tables and conference rooms?
It is against this invisibilisation of women in peace processes that Guila Clara Kessous, UNESCO Artist for Peace, presented a resolution at the PeaceTalks last September. She calls for a mandatory quota of 30% women at diplomatic negotiation tables. The resolution will be officially presented at the 61st session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, next March. A strong proposal that invites women to be actors of their own destiny and, moreover, strengthens the likelihood of
successful negotiations.
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To discuss this topic, the Swiss Press Club is honored to welcome Guila Clara Kessous for a press conference. A leading figure, Director of
Femina Vox — the international forum dedicated to women’s rights — and Vice-president of UNF, she holds a doctorate under the direction of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel and has also taught at Harvard University.
SUPPORT
Mr. Bruno Fuchs
President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French National Assembly
Father of three and a keen sportsman (Haut-Rhin champion in the 110-metre hurdles), Bruno Fuchs was born in Colmar in 1959. Haut-Rhin is his homeland and that of his family since 1689.
From 1983 to 1999, he worked as a journalist for TF1, France 2 and France 5. From 2000 to 2017, he was an entrepreneur. In 2014, he founded the think tank “L’Observatoire du Long Terme”, which specializes in the analysis of long-term political and economic issues.
In Alsace, he is actively involved in a number of key issues for the region, including the revival of Alsace through the European Collectivity of Alsace, everyday security and the strengthening of police forces in Mulhouse, healthcare through the defense of the SOS Mains unit and the preservation of hospital capacity at Émile Muller Hospital, as well as environmental protection, notably the Stocamine site and the reconversion project of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant site.
Highly approachable, his constant exchanges with citizens, institutions, local authorities and the business community enable him to relay citizens’ concerns to national decision-making bodies.
He is also deeply committed to the non-profit sector. Having served for several years as President of the Colmar-based association “Contact Plus”, which works to promote employment and social inclusion, he founded in October 2020 a new association, “Réinventons Local”, a citizen-project incubator aimed at identifying local initiatives with citizens and creating the conditions for them to bring these projects to life themselves.
At the National Assembly, he is a member of the parliamentary group Democrats and Related Democrats, serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and previously sat on the Committee on Cultural Affairs and Education. Committed to strengthening the Francophonie, he is General Delegate of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie.
Mrs. Corinne Lepage
French lawyer and politician
Corinne Lepage is a renowned French lawyer and politician committed to the protection of the environment.
She holds a doctorate in law and graduated from the Institute of Political
Studies in Paris.
Over the past 40 years, Corinne Lepage has been committed to the
environment in various ways.
A renowned lawyer, she defended the victims of the Amoco Cadiz oil spills (1978). The Huglo-Lepage firm and the Breton communities won their case and thus created a world first in environmental law, which opened the way to stronger protection for communities that were victims of serious pollution. The Erika and Grande-Synthe cases are also successes that
have left their mark on environmental law.
After a mandate as a local elected official in 1989, in 1995 she responded positively to Alain Juppé's proposal and became Minister for the Environment until 1997. During her mandate she was responsible for the LAURE law on air pollution and the rational use of energy. In 1997, thanks to a firm and sustained position on her part, she obtained the non-restarting of the Superphénix nuclear reactor and a moratorium on GMOs. She will become an MEP from 2009 to 2014 and will be the first vice-president of the European Parliament's Committee on Health and Environment.
After the creation of the Cap 21 party in 2000, she founded and chaired the environmental party Rassemblement citoyen - Cap 21 in 2014, which she still chairs today.
From 1975 to 2011, in parallel to her professional and political activities, she pursued a teaching career at the Paris Institute of Political Studies for 30 years as a lecturer and then professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, but also as a lecturer at several universities.
She is the author of some thirty books on environmental law and political essays of a general nature or relating more specifically to environmental issues. She has also published several hundred articles in French and European journals.
Finally, she is very involved in community life. In addition to the Association des amies de la Déclaration Universelle des Droits de l'Humanité (ADDHu), which she created and has chaired since 2015, she currently chairs WECF, the justicepesticide association, and the Mouvement des entrepreneurs de la nouvelle économie (MENE).
Mrs. Sanam Naraghi Anderlini
Principal architect of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.
Sanam Naraghi Anderlini is Founder & CEO of ICAN the international Civil Society Action Network- heading a global network of over 85 women-led peacebuilding organisations in 42 conflict-affected countries. As a principal architect of the UN Security Council resolution 1325 and the Women, Peace and Security agenda in 2000 she has trained hundreds of UN personnel and in 2011 was the first Senior Gender and Inclusion Mediation Expert on the UN Standby Team, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini has pioneered bringing women’s perspectives into high-stakes peace processes worldwide. A leading scholar-practitioner, she is author of Women Building Peace: What they do, Why it Matters; With nearly 30 years of experience across regions from Syria, Palestine and Yemen, to Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Nigeria and Sudan, she brings unparalleled expertise bridging grassroots peacebuilding and high-level diplomacy.”
For her contributions to International Peacebuilding and Women’s Rights, Sanam was awarded an MBE by the late Queen Elizabeth II
Mrs. Nanette Lafond-Dufour
Women's Forum for the Economy and Society President
Nannette Lafond-Dufour is Chief Impact Officer of Publicis Groupe. Taking
on this newly created global role 1 year ago, Nannette is responsible for
driving immediate impact across the Groupe’s long-term ESG
commitments. These include Publicis’ ambitious SBTI-approved climate
goals, its concrete Equity & Impact action plans, as well as its flagship
initiatives like the Working with Cancer pledge and the Women’s Forum
for the Economy & Society, where she also serves as President.
Previously, Nannette was Global Chief Client Officer at McCann
Worldgroup. She provided strategic and operational oversight for all of
McCann Worldgroup's global and regional clients. She managed end-to-
end communications capabilities, ensuring that clients received the
resources vital to their business success.
Nannette also inaugurated the role of Global Chief Sustainability Officer.
In addressing McCann Worldgroup’s environmental footprint across 100+
countries, Nannette partnered with clients to meet urgent sustainability
goals and led the team which enabled McCann’s responsible stewardship.
She set vision, drove strategy and the change management required to
transform the company’s operations and culture to achieve its ambitious
sustainability goals.
In her 30+-year career, Nannette has been responsible for planning and
executing global brand platforms for L’Oréal, P&G, J&J, Nestlé, Pepsi,
Philips Electronics, and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals among others.
Named to Advertising Age’s “Women to Watch” list, which recognizes
trailblazing women in advertising, marketing and media, Nannette isrenowned for strong client relationships, measurable results, deep
business acumen, and collaborative leadership.
Dr. Aurora Martin
Vice President of the International Institute for Human Security and Global Chair of the G100.
Dr. Aurora Martin is a leading advocate for gender equality and human rights, serving as Vice President of the International Institute for Human Security and President of Womanity for All. A dedicated academic and expert on gender-based violence and intercultural dialogue, she has taught at major universities across Europe, the United States, and Asia.
She has held senior advisory roles within Romania’s national institutions for equality and anti-discrimination, and her international recognition grew further after receiving a U.S. State Department Fellowship in 2016. This experience inspired her to launch the Mobile Museum of Modern-Day Slavery in 2019—an innovative EU initiative raising awareness about human trafficking in Romania, Moldova, and soon the broader Balkan region.
Appointed Global Chair for Intercultural Dialogue within the G100 network in 2022, Dr. Martin has earned numerous awards for her contributions to peace, security, and women’s rights, including distinctions from the Women Economic Forum and honors from the Romanian and Egyptian governments. She was also granted a Doctor Honoris Causa by Rai University in New Delhi.
Featured in WomanScape and author of 12 multilingual books, Dr. Martin continues to influence global conversations on gender equality. Her work is widely recognized as a powerful example of how women-led initiatives advance peace, security, and social justice.
Mrs. Mette Laursen
Founder & CEO of LinKS
Mette (Mellie) Laursen is Founder and CEO of LinKS, a pioneering alliance-builder operating at the intersection of politics, science, business, and society. For more than 25 years, she has led LinKS in educating and convening senior decision-makers across public and private sectors through partnerships with the world’s leading institutions, including The Wharton School and INSEAD, shaping leadership mindsets to address complex global challenges.
A trusted strategic advisor and global ambassador, she has worked with top executives, ministries, courts, and multinational corporations, while also spearheading international initiatives such as The Chairs’ Agenda, a global platform co-created with ambassadors from over 20 nations to advance women’s leadership and resilient governance.
With a career spanning executive management, board leadership, diplomacy, and public service—from the Ministry of Finance to Ernst & Young, BLOX Global, and numerous honorary and royal appointments—Laursen brings rare expertise in building alliances that bridge national interests and global ambition. Her work consistently connects high-level decision-making with long-term societal impact, positioning her as a leading architect of cross-sector collaboration in Europe and beyond.
Mrs. Carolyn Handschin-Moser
Vice President of Women's Federation for World Peace
Carolyn is Vice- President of Women’s Federation for World Peace-, International, overseeing program development throughout the 22 National Chapters in Europe. She is often invited to speak at conferences, including at government and European institutions on the cross-cutting issues of women, future leadership, peace and sustainable development. Before becoming the Director of the United Nations Offices for WFWPI, she led the advocacy team at the United Nations in Geneva for 18 years, focusing on peace and human rights through the empowerment of women and girls, their relation to nation-building and protection of the family.
Her concern for youth led her to found the WFWPI-UN Internship program in Geneva in 2005, where she is still the Director. Over 40 young women and a few young men from 3 continents have graduated from that program that has often encouraged their decisions to further their studies in the areas of human rights, diplomacy and advocacy- or just in understanding how to think and act like a global citizen. She has been the co-coordinator of the Middle East Women’s Conference Series for 17 years, having held 5 of those events at the UN in Geneva where up to 60 women from though-out the Middle east could sit together with government, UN and civil society experts and practitioners to discuss the many challenges and opportunities for peace through women’s participation.
Ms. Handschin is also co-founder of the Geneva Interfaith Intercultural Alliance youth Model UN Interfaith Council Program. This project held a series of 7 conferences at the UN in which a team of youth representatives of various faiths could debate pressing issues and make recommendations (in consensus) to the UN, governments and interfaith fora.
She is a writer and journalist, contributing to various publications, including the UNESCO on-line Encyclopedia. She has been the Editor in Chief of the WFWP UN News since 2014. She has 7 children, 3 granddaughters and a supportive husband that are a resource, inspiration and sometimes, a measure for her work.
CONTRIBUTIONS
Dr. Aurora Martin
Vice President of the International Institute for Human Security and Global Chair of the G100.
Good evening, distinguished representatives, members of the press,
Let me begin with a reality that fundamentally reshapes how we must think about peace and security.
During the First World War, civilians represented 5% of the victims;
during the Second World War, 50%. In the conflicts of the 1990s, civilians accounted for 90% of the victims.
This trend continues today.
In the war in Ukraine, civilians have borne the overwhelming cost of the conflict, and women and children represent nearly 90% of those displaced.
This is not incidental. It reflects the nature of contemporary warfare, where conflicts are no longer confined to frontlines, but unfold within societies themselves—in homes, in communities, and in everyday life; where societies themselves become the battlefield.
And this reality forces us to say clearly: the place of women is not only in the category of “vulnerable populations.” They are not merely victims of conflict. Women are central actors in its social, cultural, human, and political consequences - and therefore, they must be central to its resolution.
This is precisely why the call for a minimum 30% quota of women at diplomatic negotiation tables is not symbolic. It is strategic, it is operational, and it is urgent.
We already know this from the UN Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, which affirms that sustainable peace is impossible without women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation in all stages of conflict prevention, resolution, and peace building. And yet, 25 years later, women remain dramatically underrepresented in negotiations.
From an intercultural dialogue perspective, this exclusion is not only unjust—it is ineffective.
This absence weakens peace processes.
Peace negotiations are, at their core, intercultural processes. They involve competing narratives, historical memories, identities, values, and lived experiences. Women often operate at the crossroads of these dimensions—as community mediators, educators, caregivers, economic actors, agents of social cohesion, and transmitters of cultural continuity.
Excluding them means excluding entire layers of social intelligence from the negotiation process.
Intercultural dialogue is not about polite exchange—it is about listening across difference to produce workable solutions. It is about increasing the quality, legitimacy, and effectiveness of decision-making. And diversity at the table is not an obstacle to peace; it is one of its strongest conditions.
What does this mean in concrete terms? It means moving beyond rhetorical support and toward institutional guarantees:
It means guaranteeing women’s presence through enforceable quotas,
It means recognizing women not only as participants but as negotiators and decision-makers,
It means integrating gender-sensitive and culturally informed expertise into peace processes,
It means holding institutions accountable for implementation, not just commitment.
Within the G100 Global Women Leaders, we strongly support this shift—from visibility to responsibility, from inclusion as principle to inclusion as practice. I would like to acknowledge Dr. Harbeen Arora for creating such a global platform capable of advancing this structural change, and Dr. Guila Clara Kessous for advancing a resolution that translates long-standing UN principles into a concrete political mechanism.
Finally, I would like to thank the members of the press. Your engagement is crucial. By amplifying these discussions, you help ensure that women’s participation in peace is no longer treated as optional, as exceptional, or symbolic—but as indispensable.
Peace today demands new actors, new perspectives, and new courage. It demands inclusion and realism.
Women are not asking to be included in peace processes.
They are essential to making peace possible.
Thank you.
Mrs. Nanette Lafond-Dufour
Women's Forum for the Economy and Society President
Ladies and Gentlemen Ambassadors, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I come from the corporate world. And there, one thing is no longer up for debate: when women are at the table, organizations perform better. They are better governed. More innovative. More resilient.
The numbers speak for themselves. Boards that are truly gender-balanced outperform in governance, sustainability, and strategy. And when women hold 30% of the seats, the effect becomes visible, measurable, undeniable. MSCI All Country World Index reports that such companies achieved cumulative returns 18.9% higher than those below the 30% threshold. (MSCI, 2024; International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, 2024).
Why? Because they question blind spots, bring a different perspective on risk, and a long-term vision. And because they represent half of society and have the right to be part of the decision-making process.
If this works in business, why wouldn’t it work to build peace?
At the Women’s Forum, we have long worked on feminist diplomacy and the role of women in conflict zones. We brought this to the G7 in Berlin in 2022. And here too, the data is clear: when women participate in peace negotiations, agreements are 35% more likely to last at least fifteen years. This is not symbolic. It is a proven result. (Council on Foreign Relations).
Representing 52% of the world population, it is only logical to let women address the issues that anchor peace in reality: education, health, reconstruction, access to resources, and the fight against sexual violence. Everyone deserves to talk about the daily lives of populations where peace is won or lost.
And yet, in 2025, they still represent only a minority in UN-led peace processes. In 2023 only 9.6% were involved in peace negotiations. (United Nations. “Women, Peace and Security).
Why? Because of persistent patriarchal norms, because of threats, violence, and lack of funding that keep them from being where they should be.
But let’s be clear! As crises multiply, as women remain the first victims of armed conflicts… we need them at the negotiation table!
This is not about political correctness. This is not about quotas. This is about pragmatism, risk management, and stability! Gentlemen, you will not achieve peace alone!
That is why I am proud to stand today alongside Guila Kessous, a former Women’s Forum Rising Talent, and to support this resolution.
Because it is not only necessary, it’s urgent! And above all: it has been awaited for far too long!
Thank you!
Mrs. Carolyn Handschin-Moser
Vice President of Women's Federation for World Peace
Thank you Guila, for inviting me, and for your friendship, dedication and high work ethic.
No Peace Without Women: A Global Campaign led by Women and Youth, but for all of humanity
Launched at the UN in Geneva just after the outbreak of war in Ukraine, with the full knowledge that conflict is preventable, and leadership is critical.
Called prominent women leaders: First Ladies, UN entity heads, former head of government and NGOs, including my NGOCSW Geneva to ACT while our indignation was highest. ….hosted by WFWPI and IAFLP
Advocates for women worldwide to unite in calling for an end to war and aggression as an accepted behaviour,
Remembering that women leaders, and mothers are the perfect leaders for this. With or without a title, we train for and often solve aggression and conflict at work and in their families
Remembering we’re building upon successful campaigns in history of women’s solidarity in resolving enmity, and rebuilding, Red Cross, Dresden, Liberia, and so many unreported.
We have incredible tools we have to work with, :Cultureof Peace, UDHR, SDGs, CEDAW
What we cannot lose- and for that we need each other, with the same focus and life and death awareness that wars carry
Women around the world join forces to resist war, and cooperate for healing, lasting peace,and the preservation of human dignity-?.
We women have to begin by forgiving and creating peace among ourselves.
The secret to our success as peace leaders is our awareness of the personal tragedy of war, and the concern for our children, and the future generations.
We worried how to make this campaign a global one, and found ourselves being pulled together with other networks, of like-mined women, each with unique short term goals, but in solidarity for our vision for peace and co prosperity.
Thank you Guila for Pax Femina, and other growing partnerships such as with my NGO Committee on the Status of Women in Geneva, and the signature Campaign of G100 Women, that should all harmonise and stimulate more solidarity.
The NPwW campaign continues to gain momentum, having held 5 international and regional conferences, also in the Balkans— with UN, government and local support,
But the goal is encircling the globe with an unstoppable force, where women’s voices and good practice models are respected and become the norm- where girls grow up knowing that their contribution to peace and human development is needed.
Thank you again, Guila!