Women's peacemaking and peacebuilding in lebanon. (c2017)

Abstract

This thesis seeks to identify the factors that influence the role women played in the peace process, both during the conflict and in the immediate post-conflict period (1990-1995) in Lebanon. It maps examples of women’s contributions to peace processes from across the world and identifies key factors that influenced those contributions before analyzing those factors in order to better understand the Lebanese context. The analysis is based on a thorough literature review and semi-structured interviews. The thesis shows that while women in Lebanon were absent from the formal peace process, they did contribute to the informal peace process at the grassroots level—albeit not enough to make much of a change. The thesis concludes that the level of women’s empowerment is a main driver for the increase of women’s participation in peace processes at the national level.