The Cyprus Peace and Negotiation Processes: Lessons from the Colombian Peace Process and Women’s Involvement

Abstract

The Cyprus and Colombian conflicts have had a significant impact on women, as well as children, who are mostly under women’s influence for the greatest part of their infancy; and early childhood. However, the level of women’s participation in formal peace negotiations is different in either country. This study answers the questions of how women have participated in the high-level negotiation process in the Cyprus conflict when compared to their Colombian counterparts and why the Colombian women’s efforts have been more successful than the efforts of the Cypriot women. This paper adopts a comparative method to evaluate and analyse Colombian and Cypriot women’s participation in the peace process. Secondary data sources and reputable websites are utilised. This paper argues that even though there are differences in the cultures and contexts of the two peace processes, the peace and negotiation processes in Cyprus have some lessons to learn from the Colombia peace negotiation model.