Women must lead as ‘artisans of peace’, Vatican tells UN

The Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the UN shared its perspective in a September 2 statement during a high-level forum on implementing the “Program of Action on a Culture of Peace”.

The annual forum – which has been held since 2012 and took place at the UN’s New York headquarters – furthers the aims of the UN General Assembly’s 1999 resolution to foster worldwide peace and nonviolence.

This year’s forum focused on the importance of women’s leadership in attaining that goal. The Holy See UN mission warned that “in the current international context, a culture of power is taking hold, normalising war and changing behaviour and relationships”.

With this dynamic overtaking “diplomacy based on respectful dialogue”, said the Holy See UN mission, “it is crucial to foster a culture of peace that challenges the current ‘culture of power’.”

“Women can and should play a much greater role in all these processes which are intended to heal societies fractured by violence and chaos,” the mission said in its statement.

The mission pointed to both the UN’s 1999 resolution on peace and to Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, quoting the Pope’s statement that it is “not enough to state simply that men and women have equal dignity and rights; it is necessary that this be reflected in concrete decisions, such as in laws, access to employment, education, social and political responsibilities, and the way society listens to and values women’s contributions”.

The Holy See’s UN mission added that, “It is only by closing this gap that women will have the possibility to become artisans of peace and guardians of life, thereby enabling a ‘culture of peace’ to restore trust among nations”.

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Women must lead as ‘artisans of peace’ amid ‘culture of power,’ Vatican tells UN (By Gina Christian/National Catholic Reporter/OSV News)