Gender, Conflict, and Peacebuilding

October 2023 marks 23 years since the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. An additional 9 resolutions have since been adopted. This agenda is the first time in the UN’s 50-year history that women’s experiences and particularly their contributions to the promotion of peace and security in contexts of violent conflict, closed political space and rising extremism is acknowledged. It is also the first time that the need for women’s protection was noted strongly. The resolution marks a clear watershed in the evolving efforts to promote human security as a normative framework for the international community. Although the primary focus is on women, the emerging discourse has drawn increasing attention to the need for gendered analysis – i.e., addressing the conditions/experiences of women, men, intersectionality - in conflict and peacebuilding. The agenda has been prescient for understanding and addressing conflict and insecurity in recent decades. Yet with the abandonment of Afghan women during the US negotiations with the Taliban, and the outbreak of the Ukraine war, the WPS agenda and related human security and peacebuilding agendas of the international system have been under severe strain. 

This intensive 2-day seminar (14 hours) & online review/teamwork will provide an overview of the evolving field of gender, peace and security.  Drawing on empirical research and practice, the modules will address the following issues:

• Historical and geopolitical evolution and context in which the WPS and GPS fields have arisen;
• Attaining SCR 1325 and the expansion of the WPS policy agenda with attention to subsequent resolutions and key pillars of this agenda – notably women’s participation in peace and security, protection issues, peacekeeping and conflict prevention including conflict related sexual violence.
• Implications of the Afghan withdrawal, Ukraine conflict, rising authoritarianism and extremisms on gender, peace and security issues.
• Gender analysis and the practical application of a gendered lens to key mediation, security and peacebuilding and security processes.
• Experiences and lessons from women’s peace coalitions and women’s contributions to peacebuilding including countering/preventing violent extremism
• Discussion of Sexual violence in conflict
• Women and peacekeeping including issues of sexual exploitation and abuse