International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament: a history of resistance in the peacebuilding

Two women holding children stand in front of a fence decorated with protest signs. The signs include messages about peace, disarmament, and environmental issues. © WILPF.

Celebrated on May 24, the International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament emerged in the early 1980s amid the tensions of the Cold War and the growth of the arms race. The date was driven by feminist and pacifist movements, especially in Europe, where thousands of women took to the streets to protest against militarization and the threat posed by nuclear weapons.

During that period, the international scenario was characterized by the political and military dispute between the United States and the Soviet Union, accompanied by the increase in the production and stockpiling of nuclear weapons. Faced with the real possibility of a nuclear war, women from different countries organized mobilizations, marches, and campaigns in defense of peace, denouncing the humanitarian impacts of armed violence and demanding alternatives based on the protection of life.

Over the decades, the International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament has become established as a moment to recognize the historical role of women in the promotion of peace and the defense of Humanitarian Disarmament. The date also reinforces the importance of women’s participation in debates and decision-making processes related to International Security, especially in a global scenario marked by armed conflicts, humanitarian crises, and different forms of violence.

However, even while leading important peace movements, women are also among the groups most affected by armed conflicts and armed violence. Wars and humanitarian crises often intensify existing inequalities, increasing situations of forced displacement, food insecurity, sexual violence, and difficulties in accessing basic services. Women and girls face specific impacts in conflict contexts, especially due to the persistence of gender inequality structures that make these populations more vulnerable to violence and exclusion.

"Conflicts and crises harm women and girls in ways far beyond sexual violence. [...] Girls are pushed out of school and forced into marriage. Women and girls lose livelihoods and access to land, and gain new caregiving responsibilities, often while struggling to get food and water. Displaced women and girls face barriers ranging from unsafe trips to camp latrines to unfair asylum procedures that fail to recognize gender-based persecution." (Barr, 2025)

In this context, on October 31, 2000, the United Nations (UN) Security Council adopted Resolution 1325, globally known as the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. The document recognizes the importance of women’s roles in conflict prevention and resolution, peace negotiations, peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations, humanitarian actions, and post-conflict reconstruction processes. Furthermore, it highlights the need to ensure women’s full and equal participation in all initiatives aimed at promoting peace and international security. The resolution also calls on States and United Nations bodies to increase women’s participation and incorporate a gender perspective into their peace and security policies and actions. Another central point is the appeal for parties involved in armed conflicts to adopt specific protection measures for women and girls against gender-based violence, especially rape and other forms of sexual violence.

Although the resolution represents a milestone, significant challenges to its implementation still remain. According to the 2025 Women, Peace and Security report presented by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, around 676 million women were living within 50 km of conflict zones, the highest number since 1990. The report also indicates that over the past two years there has been a significant increase in the number of civilian casualties among women and children, reaching a fourfold rise, while cases of sexual violence increased by 87%. Despite the disproportionate impacts of armed conflicts on women and girls, women’s participation in formal negotiation and Peacebuilding processes remains limited.

Historically, decisions related to international security, conflict resolution, and peace agreements have been conducted predominantly by men. According to the same report, in 2024, the vast majority of peace negotiations occurred without female participation; on average, women represented only 7% of negotiators and 14% of mediators involved in these processes.

The low participation of women in peace processes reflects an unfortunately predominant conception of International Security historically built upon masculinist perspectives that tend to prioritize military responses over investments in social welfare, diplomacy, and conflict prevention. This logic is concretely expressed in budgets: in 2025, global military spending reached US$2.8 trillion, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. This growth occurs alongside persistent deficits in health, education, and social protection, areas that directly affect the lives of women and populations in vulnerable situations.

In this sense, the feminist perspective proposes a reorientation: from security centered on the State and military force to security centered on people. This human security approach recognizes that threats such as poverty, gender-based violence, climate change, and lack of access to basic services are as urgent as armed conflicts, and that any peace agenda that ignores such dimensions will be incomplete.

May 24 serves as a reminder that, while global military spending reaches historic records, millions of women continue to live in conflict zones without access to basic services, without representation at the tables where the future is negotiated, and without adequate protection against the violence produced by wars. Thus, discussing peace and disarmament also means reflecting on inequalities, political participation, and the collective commitment to protecting civilian populations and building a culture of peace.

“When women move forward, and when disarmament moves forward, the world moves forward. Unfortunately, the same applies in reverse: setbacks in these areas impose costs for all.” (Dhanapala, as cited in Heyzer, 2003).

It is in this sense that Dhesarme believes in the construction of peaceful societies grounded, inseparably, in gender equality and diversity, values established in its statutes and reaffirmed through all of the organization’s activities and articulations. Humanitarian Disarmament, as part of the formation of Cultures of Peace, is therefore a fundamental instrument for guaranteeing Human Rights and also for combating the historical injustices deepened by armed conflicts and by militarized masculinist logic.

Written by: Larissa Parcianelo

Reviewed by: Fernando Fiala

References

BARR, Heather Barr. What Escalating Conflict Means for Women and Girls. Human Rights Watch, Nov. 2025. Accessed on: May 16, 2026.

HEYZER, Noeleen Heyzer. Gender, Peace and Disarmament. Disarmament Forum, Vol. 4, 2003.

United Nations. Security Council. Resolution 1325 (2000): Women, Peace and Security. New York: UN, Oct. 31, 2000. Available at: United Nations Women, Peace and Security Page. Accessed on: May 16, 2026.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2025. Stockholm: SIPRI, 2026. Available at: SIPRI Military Expenditure Report 2025. Accessed on: May 16, 2026.

WILPF. International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament. Available at: WILPF International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament. Accessed on: May 16, 2026.