Gender-Responsive Ceasefire and Justice for Women in Sudan
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/05/17
Aya Chebbi, Founder and President of the Nala Feminist Collective, explains the urgent launch of a 2025 petition demanding a gender-responsive ceasefire in Sudan, led by Sudanese feminists. She describes how sexual violence is weaponized systematically by armed groups to terrorize and destabilize communities. Chebbi outlines strategies to pressure warring factions, including enforcing arms embargoes, freezing assets, and leveraging regional diplomacy. She emphasizes the need for local feminist leadership in peace negotiations, sustained international support for grassroots efforts, and parallel mechanisms for justice through hybrid tribunals and survivor-led initiatives to ensure accountability without delaying peace processes.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What inspired the Nala Feminist Collective to launch this petition in 2025?
Aya Chebbi: This petition was born out of a sense of urgent necessity and profound solidarity. As the violence in Sudan intensified, we witnessed Sudanese women from grassroots activists to global advocates, raising alarms that were tragically ignored. The devastating silence surrounding the widespread rape, abduction and brutalization of women and girls in Sudan compelled us to act.
Nalafem, as a Pan-African collective dedicated to advancing the political leadership of African women, established the Nalafem Sudan Taskforce. This platform for collective action is Sudanese feminist-led, multigenerational, coalition mobilizing political, diplomatic and international pressure for an inclusive, gender-responsive ceasefire process in Sudan and ensuring taskforce members reach critical decision-making spaces, from the African Union to the United Nations. The taskforce initiated this petition to demand an immediate ceasefire, center the experiences of survivors and insist on women’s leadership not as an afterthought to peace, but as an essential precondition for it.
Jacobsen: How is sexual violence weaponized against women and girls in Sudan?
Chebbi: Rape in Sudan is not a random occurrence, it is a deliberate tactic. Armed actors are employing sexual violence to terrorize communities, dismantle social structures and exert control. Tragically, women’s bodies have become battlegrounds in this conflict, particularly in Darfur and within displacement camps, where impunity is rampant and justice is consistently delayed or denied. The pervasive use of sexual violence as a weapon of war is one of the most pressing and horrifying realities of this crisis. Women and girls are enduring abductions, rape, starvation, displacement and systematic erasure. These are not unintended consequences, they are calculated strategies of war. The limited humanitarian access and the international community’s silence only exacerbate this climate of impunity.
Jacobsen: What strategies could persuade the Sudanese Army, RSF, and armed groups to agree to a peace deal?
Chebbi: A combination of sustained pressure and meaningful incentives is essential. This includes enforcing existing arms embargoes, freezing assets and actively denying political legitimacy to any parties that obstruct peace efforts. Simultaneously, it’s crucial to leverage the influence of regional actors and offer viable humanitarian corridors, as well as transitional justice frameworks that provide face-saving exit strategies while ensuring accountability for their actions.
Jacobsen: How do we enforce the African Union’s “Silencing the Guns” initiative and UN Security Council arms embargo?
Chebbi: Enforcement requires genuine political will, far beyond mere declarations. The AU and UN must commit to investing in independent monitoring mechanisms, imposing sanctions on violators and suspending trade and aid relationships with any states that facilitate the flow of arms. Additionally, civil society organizations must be adequately resourced to actively track and expose violations.
Jacobsen: What barriers prevent adequate aid delivery?
Chebbi: Access is severely impeded by ongoing violence, excessive bureaucratic hurdles and intentional obstruction. Warring factions are deliberately targeting aid convoys, manipulating logistical processes and restricting the issuance of humanitarian visas. These bureaucratic obstacles and security risks are stifling critical life-saving efforts.
Jacobsen: How can international donors and governments overcome these logistical hurdles?
Chebbi: International donors must prioritize funding for locally based feminist groups that are already operating on the ground and deeply embedded within their communities. It is also necessary to find ways to bypass obstructive regimes and invest in flexible, rapid response mechanisms, such as the civilian-led Emergency Response Rooms. In addition, diplomatic pressure must be consistently applied to secure ceasefires specifically in areas designated for aid delivery.
Jacobsen: Research indicates peace agreements with women’s participation are durable. How can Sudanese women and feminist leaders sit at the negotiating table?
Chebbi: Indeed peace agreements are 35% more likely to last at least 15 years when women are meaningfully involved in their creation. Ensuring the meaningful participation of women requires making their inclusion a non-negotiable condition. Quotas alone are insufficient, there must be structural guarantees and dedicated funding to support feminist delegations. The international community must move beyond token gestures of including women and instead actively resource them as lead negotiators and recognized experts on peacebuilding. We have members of the taskforce who are experts yet denied a seat at many tables and closed door meetings that can facilitate pathways to peace.
Jacobsen: What mechanisms ensure perpetrators of war crimes are held accountable without delaying the peace process?
Chebbi: Implementing hybrid tribunals and transitional justice models can allow both peace and justice to progress in parallel. Initiatives such as truth commissions, survivor-led documentation efforts and reparations programs can commence even before formal trials begin. Accountability should not be seen as an obstacle to peace, but rather as a fundamental cornerstone upon which a lasting peace can be built.
Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Aya.
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