Women Shaping Global Peace in Multilateralism: A Peace Is All of Us Intergenerational Dialogue and Summit

September 23, 2025 |  4:30 to 6:00 p.m. (ET)
UN Women HQ, 19th floor Conference Room
220 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017

This event will take place in-person and be livestreamed.

The world stands at a critical crossroads marked by escalating conflict, shrinking civic space, and a sharp rise in authoritarianism and militarization. As these crises deepen, public trust in peace as a viable path forward is eroding.

Yet women continue to show us that peace is possible—by focusing on what works: gender equality, women’s empowerment, demilitarisation, and investment in local solutions. However, despite women’s essential leadership, their contributions as peacebuilders, first responders, and community leaders remain systematically overlooked, undervalued and underfunded.
That legacy now reaches a pivotal moment: 30 years since the Beijing Declaration boldly proclaimed that women’s rights are human rights; 25 years since the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 underscored the critical role of women’s full participation in peace and security; and 10 years since the establishment of the United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), created to make these commitments real by delivering direct, flexible funding to women-led organizations in fragile and conflict-affected settings.

2025 should be a celebration of the progress achieved by states, civil society, and multilateral actors. Yet, instead of celebration, we face a renewed urgency: to reaffirm that peace has been proven through women’s engagement and leadership, equal rights, de-militarisation and investment in localisation.

That’s why WPHF is launching the “Peace Is…” campaign: to reignite belief in peace and mobilize support for the women and their allies building it.

At the heart of the campaign, the Summits will take the form of intergenerational dialogues that bring together key stakeholders across sectors and generations. They serve as a platform to show that peace is not only possible, but it is already being achieved in communities worldwide through multilateralism, climate resilience, economic empowerment and social cohesion. Peace is not a relic of the past; it is being built and sustained every day, and we all have a role to play in finding inclusive solutions to conflict and crisis. The summits will also offer an opportunity to demonstrate how global commitments have been, and can continue to be, transformed into sustainable realities.

NEW YORK CITY

The Peace is Summit NYC will be hosted on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly to spark an urgent and hopeful intergenerational dialogue on peace, grounded in the legacy of feminist movements and the leadership of youth activists. By centering what works—gender equality, demilitarization, and local solutions—the event seeks to mobilize new public support for feminist peacebuilding ahead of the landmark anniversaries of 2025 and counter the growing perception that peace is unattainable/war is inevitable.

Hosted in partnership with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the NYU Center on International Cooperation (CIC), the United Nations Foundation (UNF), and UN Women.

This event is part of a global series of intergenerational gatherings spotlighting the transformative power of women shaping global peace  in multilateral spaces.