South Sudan Women Can Kickstart Peace Process

Sisters Matilda (left) and Sarah Rial speak to a remote participant in a conference about restoring peace in South Sudan, via Skype.

Women carry food at a food distribution site in Nyal, Unity State, April1, 2014. Women and children make up the majority of people displaced by the conflict in South Sudan.

Western Bahr el Ghazal Finance Minister Lilian Riziq tells a conference in Washington that women can play a key role in bringing peace to South Sudan, just as they have done in her state.

Women carry the body of a civilian killed in the center of Malakal, Upper Nile State in South Sudan, Jan. 21, 2014.

Sarah Rial, organizer of the conference in Washington, D.C. on May 24-25, 2014, says the time is ripe for women to take a lead role in restoring peace in South Sudan.

South Sudanese women, displaced by the fighting, collect garbage in a camp for displaced persons in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) compound in Juba, February 19, 2014.

The executive director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (third from left) said during a visit in February to a U.N. base in Juba where thousands of people have sought shelter from unrest in South Sudan that women should be given a bigger role in the peace process, and they and children are bearing the brunt of the conflict.