A peace process is the set of sociopolitical negotiations, agreements and actions that aim to solve a specific armed conflict. describing it as "a mixture of politics, diplomacy, changing relationships, negotiation, mediation, and dialogue in both official and unofficial arenas."
Other specific elements of peace processes include exchanges, confidence-building measures, humanitarian corridors, peace treaties and transitional justice.
Criticism
Edward Luttwak argues that conventional wars should not be interrupted before they could burn themselves out and the preconditions for a long-lasting peace are established. Stable peace settlement is possible only with the exhaustion of belligerents or the decisive victory of one side. "Hopes for military success must fade for accommodation to become more attractive than further combat," but premature ceasefires prevent belligerents from exhaustion and let them rearm their forces. That in turn prolongs war and leads to further killings and destruction.
Women's participation
According to Neville Melvin Gertze of Namibia, speaking at an October 2019 meeting of the United Nations Security Council, peace agreements that are the result of negotiations including women are 35 percent more likely to last at least 15 years than those which are the result of men-only negotiations. At the same meeting, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stated that women were excluded from peace processes, attacks against women human rights defenders had increased, and only a "tiny percentage" of funding for peacebuilding was given to women's organisations.
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