Peace is stronger when more voices are brought into the light. Women remain underrepresented in decisions on peace, security and conflict prevention, despite experiencing their consequences in distinct ways.

The SEA Women’s Leadership Conference brought together women leaders, policymakers, practitioners and emerging changemakers from across the region during Malaysia’s ASEAN Chairmanship. Through keynotes, panels and cross-border dialogue, participants exchanged perspectives, built connections and strengthened regional collaboration.

The conference supported the wider Women, Peace and Security agenda, including Malaysia’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security 2025–2030, which strengthens women’s participation and leadership across peacebuilding, prevention and national security.

It also marked the launch of the Regional Women Leaders Network, creating a platform for those relationships and that cooperation to continue beyond the event. The conversation begins in the room, but its impact travels across borders.

“The conference reminded me that peace and security are not distant policy conversations. They begin with whose experiences are heard, who has a seat at the table, and who gets to shape the decisions that affect our communities.”
Participant

The rules shaping our world do not always serve it equally. From conflict and unequal trade to debt, climate and access to technology, many global challenges reflect deeper imbalances in power — and in whose interests shape international decisions.

The Kuala Lumpur Conference on a New, Just and Humane International Order was convened to bring those inequalities into the light and ask what a fairer international order could actually look like. It was held with Third World Network and featured leading international voices including Jeremy Corbyn.

Through keynotes, panels and cross-border dialogue, participants examined major global challenges from a range of perspectives — international law and trade, debt, climate, technology and global governance. The aim was to move from critique to alternatives, connecting the ideas and the people who can carry the conversation into policy, institutions and wider movements.

 

“What challenged me most was the idea that the international order is not something we simply have to accept. We can question whose interests it serves — and imagine something fairer together.”
Participant