UN: Excluding women from peace talks risks more conflict

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The head of the U.N. agency promoting gender equality  is warning that increasingly vast military expenditures and the exclusion of women from peace negotiations are risking renewed conflicts instead of promoting peace and stability. Sima Bahous told the U.N. Security Council Thursday that curbing military spending has been a strategic objective of the women’s movement for peace for many decades. But even as the COVID-19 pandemic was raging and the global economy was shrinking in 2020, worldwide military expenditures increased by 2.6% to nearly $2 trillion. She says evidence “clearly shows that high levels of military spending in post-conflict setting increase the risk of renewed conflict.”