Who gets a seat at the table: women, youth and cultural diplomacy

In this article

1. The commitments
2. Why participation matters for outcomes
3. The gap between commitment and practice
4. What young people told the UN
5. Culture as a tool of peace: the women of Liberia
6. Where cultural diplomacy changes the picture
7. The gap inside the cultural sector
8. Funding women’s peace work
9. Young people seeing the Silk Roads
10. What real participation looks like
11. A participation checklist for cultural programs
12. Key terms, discussion questions and FAQ

The case for women and youth in peacebuilding has been written into Security Council resolutions for years, but their presence at formal peace talks is still thin. The commitments are clear, and the latest figures show how far practice lags behind them.

This article sets out what the UN has promised, what the numbers show, and what young people themselves told the UN when it asked. It then looks at cultural diplomacy, a field where women and young people are already well represented, as one practical way to close part of the gap.

The commitments

On 31 October 2000 the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1325, calling for women’s equal participation in peace and security (Eurac Research). On 9 December 2015 it unanimously adopted Resolution 2250, the first resolution about youth, peace and security and nothing else.

Jordan sponsored Resolution 2250. It came a few months after the first Global Forum on Youth, Peace and Security in Amman, which gathered input from more than 10,000 young peacebuilders (IISD). The resolution asks member states to give young people real ways into peace processes and requested a progress study on what they contribute.

The Council has returned to the youth agenda twice since. Resolution 2419, adopted unanimously on 6 June 2018, calls for young people aged 18 to 29 to be included in peace processes and decision-making at all levels (UN Digital Library; UNSCR). Resolution 2535, adopted unanimously on 14 July 2020 and drafted by France and the Dominican Republic, was described by the UN Youth Envoy as the most action-oriented of the three; it also asks for regular reports on progress (UN Digital Library; OnuItalia).

Why participation matters for outcomes

Inclusion is a matter of rights, but there is also evidence that it changes results. A 2015 report by the International Peace Institute, drawing on an analysis by Laurel Stone, found that when women take part in creating a peace agreement, it is 20% more likely to last at least two years and 35% more likely to last fifteen years (International Peace Institute). UN Women’s 2015 Global Study on Resolution 1325 cites the same finding (UN Women).

The finding comes from one statistical analysis, and its authors acknowledge its limits. It shows an association, not proof of cause. Still, it is consistent with what practitioners report: agreements negotiated by a narrower group tend to leave out the concerns of people who then have little reason to support them.

The gap between commitment and practice

The UN Secretary-General’s report on women, peace and security looked at more than 50 peace processes in 2023 and found women in only a small share of formal roles (United Nations):

The longer trend isn’t much better. Between 1992 and 2019, women were 13% of negotiators and 6% of mediators in major peace processes. Even in talks the UN leads or co-leads, women made up 19% of mediators in 2023, mostly because negotiating parties left them off their delegations.

Inside the UN’s own mediation support teams, the figure was 40%. That contrast is worth dwelling on. It suggests the bottleneck sits with the parties choosing their delegations, not with any shortage of qualified women. The skills are there; the seats are not.

What young people told the UN

Resolution 2250 asked for a study of young people’s contribution to peace. The result, The Missing Peace, was published in 2018 under lead author Graeme Simpson. It drew on consultations with 4,230 young people, including groups that are usually overlooked, such as refugees, former gang members and young people in remote areas (Save the Children summary).

Its central finding is a mismatch. Young people are already preventing violence and building peace in creative ways, in conflict zones and in relatively peaceful places alike. Yet institutions routinely leave them out, and they are widely treated as a threat to be managed rather than as partners. The title makes the point: the peace that is missing is the one young people could help build if they were let in.

That finding matters for cultural organizations. Much of the creative peace work the study describes happens through music, art, media and community events, exactly the spaces cultural diplomacy occupies.

Culture as a tool of peace: the women of Liberia

The clearest example of women using culturally rooted methods to push a peace process comes from Liberia. In 2002, Leymah Gbowee founded Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, bringing Christian and Muslim women together to call for an end to the civil war (Nobel Prize).

The movement’s tools were ordinary and powerful. It began with Christian women praying for peace, and Muslim women joined after a meeting in March 2003. From 1 April 2003 the women gathered every day at a fish market visible from President Charles Taylor’s residence, where they sat, sang and danced for peace, dressed in white. On 11 April more than 1,000 women marched in Monrovia, and on 23 April Taylor received their statement and agreed to attend peace talks (Global Nonviolent Action Database, Swarthmore College).

When the talks in Accra stalled, Gbowee and nearly 200 women linked arms around the building to keep the delegates inside until they reached an agreement (Nobel Prize). The peace agreement was signed in 2003. In 2011 Gbowee shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkol Karman, for their nonviolent struggle for women’s safety and for women’s right to take full part in peacebuilding (Nobel Prize).

Prayer, song, dance, dress and public presence are cultural practices before they are political tactics. The Liberian women used forms of expression that everyone recognized and few could dismiss. That is cultural diplomacy at its most direct, practiced by people with no official title at all.

Where cultural diplomacy changes the picture

Cultural work looks quite different from formal diplomacy. UNESCO’s 2022 global report found that women hold 48.1% of jobs in culture and entertainment, while also warning that real gender equality in the sector is still a long way off. A UNESCO brief for the International Fund for Cultural Diversity adds that people aged 15 to 29 make up about 20% of the cultural and creative workforce.

This matters for peace because cultural programs reach the places where trust gets built long before anyone sits down to negotiate: schools, festivals, archives, concert halls. A young musician who has toured with peers from the other side of a border, or a woman who has led a cross-community heritage project, brings experience that a negotiating team could use. Our article on the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and other cases shows what that kind of experience looks like.

Young people at MONDIACULT 2025

At UNESCO’s MONDIACULT 2025 conference in Barcelona, nearly 50 young people from more than 40 countries met in a parallel space called Mondiayouth and wrote their own declaration, which was read out at the closing ministerial session (La Moncloa). It is a small step, but it put young people’s priorities in front of culture ministers from around the world.

Young researchers on the Silk Roads

The UNESCO Silk Roads Youth Research Grant, launched in 2021 with support from China’s National Commission for UNESCO, funds young researchers working on the shared heritage of the Silk Roads. That subject links Central Asia, the Caucasus and a good deal of the world beyond them. Research on shared heritage gives young scholars from neighboring countries a common subject, and often a reason to work together.

The gap inside the cultural sector

The cultural sector is not a model of equality either. UNESCO’s 2021 report Gender & Creativity: Progress on the Precipice found that women make up an average of 47% of workers in cultural and creative industries, based on a 2017 study of 72 countries. The 48.1% figure quoted earlier comes from a different UNESCO dataset, but both point the same way: women are well represented in the workforce.

Leadership is another matter. In France, according to the same report, women held 9% of director posts in the 100 largest cultural enterprises, compared with 44% in national public cultural institutions. Women made up 21% of performers at electronic music festivals in Europe and North America, and around 250 million fewer women than men use the internet, which shuts many out of digital creative work (UNESCO; WION).

For cultural organizations that want to strengthen women’s role in peacebuilding, the lesson is to look past headcount. The question is who directs, programs, curates and speaks for the institution.

Funding women’s peace work

Money reaches women peacebuilders more directly than it used to. The Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund was launched in February 2016 with the aim of channeling funds straight to civil society (UN Women). By mid-2025 it reported more than US$276 million mobilized for local women’s organizations, 1,910 civil society organizations supported and activity in 49 countries (WPHF). Cultural groups led by women are eligible partners in many of these programs, which is one more reason to document their peacebuilding work carefully.

Young people seeing the Silk Roads

UNESCO’s Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads photo contest shows how simple formats can involve large numbers of young people. Its first edition, in 2018, drew 6,625 entries from 100 countries (UNESCO). The 2026 contest, the eighth edition, was open to two age groups, 14 to 17 and 18 to 25, on the theme of living heritage along the Silk Roads (UNESCO Silk Roads photo contest). Asking a teenager to photograph the heritage of their own town, and then seeing it beside photographs from towns along the same route in other countries, is a quiet but effective lesson in shared history.

What real participation looks like

Being invited to one event is not the same as taking part. Based on the commitments above and the findings of The Missing Peace, cultural organizations can ask themselves a few questions:

1. Are women and young people designing programs, or only attending them?
2. Do participants include people who are usually left out, such as refugees or young people outside capital cities?
3. Do cultural exchanges lead anywhere, such as roles in policy, mediation or community leadership?
4. Are participation figures recorded and published, so that progress can be checked?
5. Are young people treated as partners with ideas, rather than as an audience to be educated?

A participation checklist for cultural programs

The commitments and evidence in this article translate into concrete design choices. Cultural organizations planning exchanges, festivals, residencies or heritage projects can use the following areas as a working checklist.

Recruitment

Open calls reach people who already know where to look. Reaching women in rural areas, young people outside capital cities or refugees usually means working through local partners, schools and community groups, and publishing calls in local languages.

Practical barriers

Travel costs, visa fees, childcare and lost income keep many people from taking part. Budget lines for these are often the single most effective inclusion measure a program can take.

Roles, not just places

Participants should be able to move into roles with real influence: curating, programming, mentoring the next group or representing the project in policy discussions. A program in which women and young people only ever attend has not met the standard set by Resolutions 1325 and 2250.

Safety

Young peacebuilders and women activists can face pressure or threats at home for working with people from the other side. Programs should discuss risks with participants and agree on how their names and images are used.

Data

Record who takes part, who leads and who returns, broken down by gender and age, and publish the figures. Without that, an organization cannot tell whether its inclusion efforts are working.

Key terms

Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda: The body of Security Council resolutions beginning with Resolution 1325 that calls for women’s participation in peace processes and their protection in conflict.

Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agenda: The parallel set of resolutions beginning with Resolution 2250 that recognizes young people as partners in preventing conflict and building peace.

Negotiator, mediator and signatory: A negotiator represents a party at the table; a mediator facilitates between parties; a signatory formally signs the final agreement.

Civil society organization: A non-governmental, non-profit group such as an association, foundation or community organization working for a public purpose.

Meaningful participation: Taking part with real influence over decisions, as opposed to token presence.

Questions for discussion

1. In your organization, how many women and people under 30 hold roles that shape programs or budgets?
2. What cultural practices in your community, such as music, ritual or public gathering, could carry a message of peace the way they did in Liberia?
3. Which practical barriers most often stop young people in your region from joining international exchanges?
4. How could a cultural program open a path from participation into formal mediation or policy roles?

Frequently asked questions

What is UN Security Council Resolution 1325?

Adopted on 31 October 2000, it calls for women’s equal participation in preventing and resolving conflict and in building peace.

What is Resolution 2250?

Adopted on 9 December 2015, it was the Security Council’s first resolution focused entirely on young people’s role in peace and security.

How many peace negotiators are women?

The UN reports that women were 9.6% of negotiators across more than 50 peace processes in 2023.

What is The Missing Peace?

It is the 2018 UN progress study on youth, peace and security, based on consultations with 4,230 young people, which found that young people are excluded from peace institutions despite their contributions.

How does cultural diplomacy support women and youth in peacebuilding?

It opens participation through education, arts and heritage programs, sectors where women and young people already make up a large share of the workforce.

Do peace agreements last longer when women take part?

An International Peace Institute analysis cited by UN Women found that agreements are 35% more likely to last fifteen years when women participate, though it shows an association rather than proof of cause.

Are there programs for young researchers in cultural heritage?

Yes. UNESCO’s Silk Roads Youth Research Grant, launched in 2021, supports young researchers studying the shared heritage of the Silk Roads.

Closing

The legal basis for women and youth in peacebuilding has been in place for a long time, and the participation figures still haven’t caught up. Cultural diplomacy won’t replace a seat at the negotiating table. It can, however, prepare the people, networks and trust that make that seat harder to refuse. For the economic side of the same argument, see why culture belongs in development policy.

Sources

• United Nations Security Council, Resolution 2250 (2015), UN Digital Library.
• IISD SDG Knowledge Hub, Security Council Adopts First-Ever Resolution on Youth, Peace and Security (December 2015).
• United Nations, item on women’s participation in peace processes, citing the Secretary-General’s report on women, peace and security.
• Eurac Research, No women, no peace: an interview on the 25th anniversary of Resolution 1325.
• Graeme Simpson (lead author), The Missing Peace: Independent Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security (United Nations, 2018). Summary via Save the Children Resource Centre.
• UNESCO, Re|Shaping Policies for Creativity: Addressing Culture as a Global Public Good (2022).
• UNESCO, Why invest in culture and creativity? (International Fund for Cultural Diversity, 2022).
• Government of Spain, La Moncloa, Ministers of culture from across the world claim culture as a human right in the final declaration of Mondiacult 2025 (1 October 2025).
• UNESCO, Silk Roads Youth Research Grant.
• UN Digital Library, Resolution 2419 (2018); UNSCR, Resolution 2419.
• UN Digital Library, Resolution 2535 (2020); OnuItalia, UNSC adopts third resolution on youth, peace and security (14 July 2020).
• O’Reilly, Ó Súilleabháin and Paffenholz, Reimagining Peacemaking: Women’s Roles in Peace Processes, International Peace Institute (June 2015).
• UN Women, Preventing Conflict, Transforming Justice, Securing the Peace: Global Study on the Implementation of Resolution 1325 (2015).
• NobelPrize.org, The Nobel Peace Prize 2011; Leymah Gbowee, Facts; Leymah Gbowee, Biographical.
• Swarthmore College, Global Nonviolent Action Database, Liberian women act to end civil war, 2003.
• UNESCO, Gender & Creativity: Progress on the Precipice (2021); WION, UNESCO reports persistent gender bias (4 June 2021).
• UN Women, Global Acceleration Instrument launch (February 2016); WPHF, Key results since 2016.
• UNESCO, Winners of the Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads Photo Contest; UNESCO Silk Roads photo contest, 2026 edition.

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