Peace Agreements in 2024: Insights from the PA-X Peace Agreements Database

Abstract

The agreements recorded in the PA-X Peace Agreement Database and Dataset in 2024 show a clear disconnect between agreement-making (in Colombia, primarily) and some of the deadliest active armed conflicts (e.g., Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Palestine, where there have been no formal, written, and public agreements in 2024. Additionally, for two years in a row, the PA-X data record no new interstate and intrastate comprehensive peace agreements. In total, there have been 43 new peace agreements signed in 2024. However, they have been dominated by the talks between the Government of Colombia and Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), representing more than half of the newly signed agreements at all levels of armed conflict (23 of 43, or 53%). There have been seven local agreements in 2024 that we know of and are publicly available, from processes in Colombia, Papua New Guinea, South Sudan, and Yemen. 31% of interstate and intrastate peace agreements reached in 2024 included at least one provision referencing women, girls, gender or sexual violence. Although this is an increase on gender provisions in 2023 (20%), and part of a positive trend since 1990, 31% is roughly in line with annual proportions since 2018, which have ranged between 20-30% of peace agreements. However, most of these references to women, girls, gender or sexual violence in 2024 have been found in agreements in Colombia.