THE main problem for peace negotiations is that not enough women are involved, Baroness Ashton of Upholland has said. “With men sitting round the table deciding the lives of women, nothing changes. We must find ways to engage people who are most affected.”
She was addressing the audience for the Westminster Abbey Institute’s panel discussion “The Search for an Ethical Peace”, on Tuesday.
Reflecting on the early conversations in the aftermath of the war in Syria, she said that she and Hillary Clinton had been part of the talks, and that they had been speaking on behalf of Syrian women who were “outside the doors”.
Chaired by the ITV international-affairs analyst and former BBC world-affairs correspondent Rageh Omaar, the panel consisted of Lady Ashton, the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams, and a former Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Carter.
The panel discussed leadership, ethics, and the practical challenges of seeking peace in turbulent times.
When asked about previous mistakes in negotiations, Lady Ashton joked: “How long have you got?” The panel agreed on the importance of humility and respect.
Sir Nick, speaking about previous peace talks in Afghanistan, said that the former United Nations diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi “had not been allowed to have the Taliban around the table, and so it had been “not an inclusive group”. This, he believed, had led to further conflict a few years later.
Lady Ashton agreed: “We have to remember the fact that in conversations about peace, you’re not going to be speaking with your friends [and that if you] assure the safety of your enemy, you assure your own safety.”
Lord Williams described a question about the importance of children’s education as “music to my ears. . . The ethos of education is that children should constantly be encouraged to do good things together, whether that be sport, music, travelling.”
Lady Ashton referred to the Somalian Civil War, which had gone on for 22 years and where “the President instituted a new slogan for old and young people: give up your guns and go to school”.
She said that it was vital to “give the next generation the opportunity to remember the past, to worry about the missing, to mourn the dead, and to build a new life”.
She said that she was passionate about education, because it helped countries to grow and develop, and that this was particularly important for civilians.
Lord Williams said that, in peace negotiations, “you have to take faith with you, a faith that something other than mutually destructive conflict is possible and necessary.”
“In scripture, we find God saying ‘I set before you life and death’. It is fundamental to try to get people to acknowledge a desire for some kind of homecoming. We must nourish the courage to take risks, of crossing boundaries towards peace.”
The panel agreed that the priority for ethical peace must be to stop people from being killed, and to think of a more sustainable future.