How can women move from being disproportionately affected by conflict to becoming central architects of peace?

Patricia Elias is a French-Lebanese international lawyer, senior gender expert and humanitarian, with extensive experience in governance, rule of law, gender equality, and women’s political participation and leadership. A former UN Women Senior Advisor for the Arab States, she has worked across humanitarian and international policy settings and is the founder of Avenir Liban. Her advocacy now includes No Peace Without Women and G100 Government and Ministerial Advocacy for lasting peace.

In this episode of The Listening Commons, Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Patricia Elias explore women’s indispensable role in peacebuilding, diplomacy, political leadership and post-conflict reconstruction.

Drawing on her UN Women experience and international advocacy, Elias examines what it takes to translate UN Security Council Resolution 1325 from international commitment into meaningful implementation.

The conversation addresses gender-based violence in conflict, the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan, civic education, the role of faith communities, women’s political participation, institutional reform within the United Nations, and why sustainable peace requires women not merely to be protected, but to have meaningful participation in shaping decisions.

The central question: Can peace truly be durable when women are absent from the tables where peace is negotiated?