HE[R]EAL – Her Reality: Women Combatants' Journeys from War to Peace - Thursday

The years 2025 and 2026 mark a convergence of milestones in women, peace, and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR): the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security; the 10th anniversary of Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security; the 20th anniversary of the Inter-Agency Working Group on DDR; and the 20th anniversary of the UN Integrated DDR Standards. These anniversaries provide a timely opportunity to reflect on progress made, and on the work that still lies ahead.

Despite important advances, women and girls associated with armed forces and groups often remain absent from dominant accounts of armed conflict and are still a minority among participants in DDR programmes.

Their stories, however, reveal complexity: shaped by experiences of gender-based violence, stigma, entrenched gender norms, disability, and economic marginalisation — but equally defined by resilience, agency, and strength. HE[R]EAL seeks to reclaim DDR through women’s lived realities of armed conflict and reintegration, making visible what has too often been overlooked.

Organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA), the exhibition will be launched in Geneva, New York and other locations, accompanied by a curated digital platform and Action Talks held between 2025 and 2026.