The Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship is based on the principles of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 which “reaffirms the role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflict, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction, and stresses the importance of their equal participation in all efforts for the promotion of peace and security”.

The seven-day fellowship is held three times a year in Edinburgh, and has so far involved over 360 women from 33 different countries across the world. By bringing together women activists from a range of conflict affected countries the Fellowship facilitates sessions focussing on conflict resolution, mediation, reconciliation and dialogue methodologies with an emphasis on inclusivity and sustainable conflict resolution. The Fellowship also includes workshops on personal self-care strategies for those living in conflict areas and involved in conflict-based work.

The Fellowship is held in Edinburgh and Traquair House in the Scottish borders. Beyond Borders Scotland aims to promote Scotland as a place for cross cultural dialogue and learning – a small nation promoting peace, equality and it’s own identity. The unique setting of Traquair House builds upon its over 900 years of history. For centuries it has been a sanctuary at the heart of cross-border conflict and remains a symbol of freedom, democracy and safety. Beyond Borders Scotland uses Traquair and Scotland as a safe space for discussion and debate that facilitates cross-cultural exchange, dialogue and reconciliation.

One of the three programmes is held in August, and includes time spent at the Beyond Borders International Festival. The programme during this week includes a particular focus upon the use of the arts (in various forms) as a peacebuilding tool, which welcomes participants who are working in the arts in some way as they carry out their work in peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

In 2020/21 the Fellowship Programme was adapted to take place online as a result of COVID-19. In November 2021, a Fellowship took place immediately following COP26 in Glasgow and focussed upon climate change, gender, and conflict.

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Objectives

The programme recognises the underrepresentation of women in peace negotiations despite women being the largest group to be affected by conflict. The fellowship therefore focuses on meaningful women’s participation in peace processes and more widely in other sectors, gender sensitive peace negotiations and conflict analysis and ensuring the sustainability of peace negotiations through inclusivity and gender sensitive negotiations and policies.

The Fellowship aims to:

• Provide expert guidance in mediation, conflict resolution, reconciliation and constitution building.
• To explore methodologies and frameworks for promoting the role of women in peace-building processes, and identifying and utilising entry points to those processes.
• To put women at the foreground of peace processes and to facilitate a platform for discussing the importance and challenges of the equal and meaningful participation of women in peace processes and more widely in society.
• To provide a space to share experiences in relation to UNSCR 1325, women’s roles in peace processes, gender equality and the impact of conflict on women.
• To raise awareness of the importance of personal self-care and provide workshops covering different self-care practices.
• Discuss advocacy strategies on inclusivity, gender equality, and feminist values that can be incorporated into the fellows work.
• To facilitate a model forfeiture collaboration with each other and with their existing networks, and to map a project plan for creating and sustaining an alumnae network.

Practical based guidance and workshops are utilised rather than overly academic, theoretical and abstract approaches. Practical frameworks and strategies are discussed as well as their implementation and how they could be used in different settings and tracks of peace building. This allows the fellows to connect their learning experience with their work back in country. The programme facilitates peer to peer learning providing a safe space for fellows learn from each other through sharing experiences, ideas and challenges faced in their different contexts. The connections established during programmes continue to be crucial in the implementation of future fellowship programmes. The Fellowship continues to build sustainable networks of fellows from the MENA and South Asia regions and facilitates local and inter-regional networks and collaboration.

The programme builds upon the pilot run in 2015 with Syrian, Iraqi and Yemeni fellows, which established the need for a fellowship of this type, and also demonstrated the utility of bringing together female peacemakers from different conflicts. In 2016, the fellowship was officially launched through a partnership between the United Nations and the Scottish Government, supported by Beyond Borders Scotland, which brought 10 members of the Syrian Women’s Advisory Board of the Office of the Special Envoy to Syria to Scotland for four days of talks, including a two-day conference at the Scottish Parliament.