Looking at Peace Through Women's Eyes: Geneder-Based Discrimination in the Salvadorean Peace Process.

Abstract

An assessment of international legal norms on the rights of women and men to equal treatment reveals that the Salvadoran Peace Accords discriminate based on gender, promoting in­equality between women and men. Five different sets of factors create barriers to women's full and equal enjoyment of El Salvador's peace: ideological, legal, structural, participatory, and budgetary. By excluding women from education, techno­logical assistance, land, and agricultural credit, the Peace Accords have far-reaching financial, political, legal, and psy­chological implications that affect women and their depen­dents. El Salvador's cautionary lesson makes it clear that gender-related issues must be addressed explicitly at an early stage of any peace process. Remedies for gender-based dis­crimination need not be created in a void. Over the last half­ century, international legal norms have buttressed the case for gender equality. Future peace accords should incorporate these norms, and reduce the obstacles preventing women from enjoying peace.