This year marks the 20th anniversary of the signing of Ireland’s landmark Good Friday Agreement. This was a crucial step in the Northern Ireland Peace Process and solving contentious issues of sovereignty, civil and cultural rights, demilitarisation, justice and policing. Today, we’ll be putting the spotlight on Monica McWilliams, who brought the topic of women’s involvement in peace building and conflict resolution to the fore both at home and abroad.

Ireland’s premier, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced this week that the country will bring its “hard-won insights and practical lessons to the table” from the Northern Ireland Peace Process to the United Nations Security Council. “We learned that it takes two to fight, but many to make a lasting peace”.

While Northern Ireland has grown and solidified in strength during this peace time, the impact of Brexit on the stability of the peace process is increasingly at the front of local and national political agendas. Now more than ever, it is important to explore what differentiated this process from failed ones around the world, one of the most crucial elements of which was the role of women in ensuring a sustainable peace and promoting social cohesion.

Today we’ll be profiling Monica McWilliams, who co-led the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition (NIWC), which attended the intergovernmental negotiations and was Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.

When speaking to the British Council about women’s involvement she noted how:

“At the time, there were no women in public posts. However, women were very active in grassroots, community-based movements that crossed divides, including religion, which was not crossed by other groups. At that grassroots level, we created strong networks.”

McWilliams grew up in Kilrea, County Londonderry, and graduated from Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Michigan. In 1996, she founded the NIWC with social worker Pearl Sagar, a non-sectarian cross community political party and was one of the only two women able to attend the multi-party peace talks.

In an interview with Lyse Doucet, Monica reflected on her role among the male dominated  parties of the GFA:

“How could we be locked out…when we have been tramping the streets and the communities for 30 years and saving children from being killed … and then not to have any voice?”

Declining to comment on the unionist-nationalist dispute, the NIWC successfully introduced amendments on the agreement related to the inclusion of women in public life, special initiatives for young people affected by conflict and the promotion of a culture of tolerance.

The party also advocated for a Civic Forum for Northern Ireland, which was included in the Good Friday Agreement and set up in 2000, one of the first initiatives of its kind and successfully increasing civil society and public involvement in peace building.  

For her role in the Northern Ireland Peace Process, Monica McWilliams was jointly awarded the John F. Kennedy Library Profile in Courage Award in 1998 and the Frank Cousins Peace Award in 1999.

She was then elected into the Legislative Assembly in Northern Ireland for South Belfast in June of 1998. Between 2005 and 2008, She was full-time Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and was reappointed until August 2011. She is currently  a Professor of Women’s Studies and Associate Researcher at the University of Ulster

Having also an engaged role in global activism with women’s groups, Monica McWilliams helped train Syrian women peace negotiators and grassroots groups in Columbia. She has  commented on how peace activists can be role models when working abroad:

“When women see what other women with similar struggles have done, they see what is also possible for themselves. Women should be able to take their knowledge and skills to the mainstream”                                            

This year Monica McWilliams will be joining Oscar Guardiola Rivera and Tim Phillips  at the Beyond Borders International Festival, as they reveal how peace was built in Northern Ireland and consider the impact of Brexit.

More information on Monica McWilliams and women in peacebuilding can be found here. At this year’s festival we will also be exploring this topic with our Women In Conflict 1325 Fellowship Programme, with women from South East Asia.

The Festival will also be hosting UN Special Envoys to Yemen and Somalia, Martin Griffiths and Michael Keating as well as Head of OSE Syria Political Office Stephanie Koury; New York Times’ Jodi Rudoren as part of the award-winning Hard Truths exhibition which sheds light on the shocking humanitarian crises and political upheavals sweeping the world from Venezuela to Iran, amongst many other panels covering themes such as modern slavery, peace-making and women’s rights.