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ABSTRACT: This article evaluates women's representation in the 2019-20 peace negotiations and the extent to which their interests are reflected in the Juba Peace Agreement. With East Sudan as a case study, this article explores women peacebuilders' experiences at and around the peace table in Juba. Building on interviews conducted in 2021, this article argues that women's inroads to the peace negotiations were tokenistic. Women's substantive representation was hampered by the structure of the peace talks, which were divided into different geographical tracks. In a patriarchal context such as the East, this track model did not provide a de facto political space for women to exercise meaningful influence. As cultural norms in this region domesticate women, the women from the East did not enter the talks with a political track record and they were isolated from important support networks. Added to that, the article suggests further that tokenistic inclusion may even lead to backlash effects as female negotiators have to bear the responsibility for a peace agreement that resulted in tribally charged conflict.
Keywords: Juba peace process, eastern Sudan, UNSC Resolution 1325, women and youth peacebuilders
INTRODUCTION
UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1325 emphasizes the participation of women in peacebuilding. Despite the growing international awareness that women's inclusion strengthens the legitimacy of peace processes and fosters durable peace, they remain largely excluded from formal peace negotiations (Krause, Krause, and Bränfors 2018; Tripp 2021). Exclusion of women from the peace table represents the historical trend in Sudan, including in the most recent Juba peace talks that culminated in the Juba Peace Agreement (JPA) in 2020. Women gained 10 percent representation in the official negotiations thanks to women's movement mobilization, after their initial complete exclusion (Sudanese Women Rights Action 2020). With East Sudan as a case study, this article builds on original interviews with female peacebuilders conducted in 2021. The article argues that eastern Sudanese women's inroads to the peace negotiations were based on a tokenistic approach that hampered their substantive contribution. The article identifies three interrelated factors that may help explain why eastern female peace negotiators became "tokens of peace."
First, the structure of the talks impacted women's opportunities to influence them (Sabala 2017). The Juba peace negotiations were divided into tracks that represented five...