Emerging intersectionality in Peacebuilding: feminist perspectives in political subjectivities of Colombian women* in exile.

This paper analyzes the political subjectivities of Colombian women in exile within peacebuilding contexts. It explores the impact of the recent peace process and the Truth Commission in Colombia and how it enhanced the emergence of feminist narratives, practices, and subjective definitions for women in exile. Beyond casting refugee, migrant, and exiled women solely as “passive victims”, this study elucidates the political positioning of women* in exile as visible actors within intersectional frameworks. Intersectionality has emerged in peacebuilding scenarios through feminist peace initiatives from multiple political narratives. Drawing on recent discussions surrounding intersectionality in feminist peace movements, this work advocates for increased visibility of gender-based impacts in armed conflicts and supports the political participation of women* on the international stage. Simultaneously, gender mainstreaming has expanded to embrace intersectional perspectives in agendas and political subjectivities for women* in exile from Global South countries, emphasizing their participation from borderlands and incorporating decolonial perspectives in peacebuilding. International attention has focused on the Colombian peace process, with the feminist peace movement forming alliances to advocate for gender mainstreaming and increased political participation for women and LGBTIQ+ individuals. Beyond Colombia's borders, women activists in exile capitalized on the political opportunity to mobilize, emphasizing exile as a result of political persecution with gendered-differential impacts. This led to the formation of transnational groups like the Gender Group in the Truth Commission, amplifying the voices of women*, offering support, and serving as a platform for political positioning in collaboration with international and national actors as political subjects in borderlands. Exploring how forced migration shapes narratives in the political subjectivities of women activists, the paper delves into how Colombian women in exile have employed intersectionality as an analytical framework. This work aims to analyse their political positioning in their forced migration experience and how it influenced their political subjectivity while the mandate of the Truth Commission in exile (2016-2023). To accomplish this, this study relies on a feminist and multi-sited ethnography, tracing the activities of the Truth Commission's Internodal Gender Group in Geneva and Barcelona, as well as in digital political spaces.