Gendered Peace

The project is sub-divided into three streams comprising several interlinking, free-standing projects:

1. Women and Peace / Women and Security

This stream creates the space to interrogate understandings of both ‘peace’ and ‘security’ from different viewpoints (including, but not limited to, philosophy, history, legal theory, gender studies, economics, international relations) to craft an enriched gender sensitive reading of what is implicated by both concepts under international law.

2. Gender and Contemporary Forms of Violence 

This stream is founded on the premise that without a deeper understanding of gender in contemporary forms of violence, neither conflict prevention nor peacebuilding can be fully secured.

3. Gender and Peacebuilding 

Informed by feminist political economy scholarship, this stream (which brings together experts from law, economics and international relations) will investigate women’s lives in post-conflict environments to explore alternative conceptions of peace, and to develop new gender-sensitive models that align with lived experiences.

 

• Visual Communications and Feminist Methodologies in Researching Peace

  05.2022

  This panel explored filmmaking and visual communication as a feminist methodology in seeking a gender-just peace. Panelists shared their experiences of using film to centre women’s experiences in conflict and peacebuilding and discussed how it offers a participatory methodology that allows for people to speak and be heard for themselves. 

  You can watch the recording here.  

• Intersectionality in Times of Crisis

  05.2022 

  This panel explored the importance of intersectional considerations, from multiple perspectives, especially in times of crisis and in regard to gendered peace. 

   You can watch the recording here. 

• Feminist Political Economy and Peace: An Interdisciplinary Workshop

  03.2022  

  Feminist political economy is uniquely placed to examine the continuum of violence, the connections between different forms of violence and inequalities, and equally importantly, to imagine peace otherwise. This workshop brought together people from different disciplines working on centring feminist political economy, broadly understood, in our gendered understandings of violence and peace.   

   Please link to this concept note/programme document: here.

• Gendering Peace Education: In-between Dialogue, Difference and Dissidence
  10.2021
  
  Shweta Singh asks is the trajectory of peace education about paying attention to the ‘politicization of experiences’, and re-centering our gaze to the language of dialogue, difference and dissidence?
  
  You can watch a recording of the event here.
• Rethinking peace education in a time of endless wars
  10.2021
  
  Professor Dianne Otto aks what does ‘peace’ mean to us, and to our students, in today’s world of endless wars? How can we explain why the project of ‘universal peace’, so ardently dreamed of by the ‘peoples’ of the United Nations in 1945, has failed so profoundly?
  
  You can watch a recording of the event here.
• Crisis as an Opportunity for Transformative Change
  10.2021
  
  Co-hosted with the Women’s International Peace Centre, this event launched the second edition of their Feminist Peace Series magazine. The 2nd edition focuses on how women and, in particular, feminist peace activists are responding to the direct and indirect consequences of Covid-19 and elaborate on the practical and theoretical implications for feminist peace.
  
  You can watch a recording of the event here.

• Call for Abstracts: Feminist Political Economy and Peace: An Interdisciplinary Workshop
  
  The purpose of this workshop is to bring together people from different disciplines working on centring feminist political economy, broadly understood, in our gendered understandings of violence and peace.
  
  Deadline for abstracts 5 December 2021. 
  

  Read the full call.  

• Women, Peace and Security in International Law by Christine Chinkin
  03.2021
  
  This event launched Christine Chinkin’s book on Women, Peace and Security and International Law (CUP, forthcoming). Commentators—Eyal Benvenisti, Hilary Charlesworth, Radhika Coomaraswamy, Monica Hakimi, Mary Kaldor, Karen Knop, and Keina Yoshida— gathered to discuss Professor Chinkin’s new book with the author and interested participants.

• The Law of War and Peace: A Gender Analysis book launch
  
  The Law of War and Peace: A Gender Analysis offers a cutting-edge analysis of the relationship between law, armed conflict, gender and peace. This book, which is the first of two volumes, focuses on the interplay between international law and gendered experiences of armed conflict. It provides an in-depth analysis of the key debates on collective security, unilateral force, the laws governing conflict, terrorism and international criminal law.
  
  This event was co-hosted with The School of Law and Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex. 

• Gendered Peace: the legacy of the Tokyo Women's Tribunal

  12.2020

  The project held two events to launch the documentary "The International Women's Tribunal: Gender Just Peace". The documentary commemorates the anniversary of the Tribunal by acknowledging it as a significant landmark and exploring its legacy. The launch of the documentary was accompanied by two panels of speakers who have been involved in the work of the Tribunal and feature in the documentary.

• Stories from feminist peace archives and how to find them
  Co-hosted with the LSE Library and chaired by project Research Officer Dr Sheri Labenski, this event brought together three speakers to tell some of the fascinating stories from their archives that cover the theme of feminist peace. 

  You can watch a recording of the event here.

• Transformative Peace and National Action Plans: Yemen’s story 
  06.2020
  
  With the war in its sixth year, the panellists explore both the potential of and gaps in Yemen’s NAP during these uncertain times and draw on examples from similar contexts.
  
  Watch the event recording here.

• The Importance of Recognising Alternative Experiences in Armed Conflict
  22.11.2019
  
  This event brought together different perspectives on alternative experiences in armed conflict in order to show the importance of including multiple strands of feminist thought within international and domestic legal spaces. Ultimately,  without the inclusion of these nuanced perspectives, on the lived experiences of armed conflict, we cannot achieve transformative reconciliation and peace. 

• Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp: foreign relations law from the ground up 
  24.09.2019

  Professor Karen Knop spoke on what can we learn from the Greenham Women's situated struggle and the legal ecosystem it generated about the nature of foreign relations law, where it ‘takes place’ and what a feminist vision might look like.

• Feminist Judgments In International Law
  19.09.2019

  This event celebrated the launch of the book  Feminist Judgments in International Law , followed by a discussion about what the feminist project of rewriting and reimagining contributes to feminist methodologies and, more specifically, to work on peace.

• Peace Workshop
  18.09.2019

  Team members held a Peace Workshop to facilitate a dialogue among scholars, activists and practitioners on what constitutes peace and how to secure these visions in the contemporary global political climate. The workshop supported knowledge exchange and creation across disciplines and between professions to challenge the siloes that can occur in peacebuilding and to develop strategies to build and maintain peace. You can find the concept note for this workshop here.

• Trafficking workshop
  29.05.2019

  Participants at this workshop explored the role of CEDAW and the WPS agenda in combatting and preventing trafficking, as well as prevention mechanisms in the context of migration. 

• Women and Weapons workshop
  16.05.2019

  This workshop, held in Geneva, explored how international law might be more effectively harnessed to further feminist disarmament goals and further peace. You can find the concept note for this workshop here. 

• Women’s Peace Activism: Iran, Iraq and Syria
  03.05.2019

  Women’s involvement in peace activism has a long history and spans across the globe. Yet, all too often, these accounts remain hidden or silenced by mainstream narratives. This event was part of a series of public conversations that seek to surface alternative histories and perspectives and, by doing so, prompt different questions and identify solutions to further peace and security for all.

  This event was co-hosted with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). You can read more about the event here.

• What does a gender perspective bring to Crimes Against Humanity, Genocide and War Crimes
  02.05.2019

  This event marked the launch of the Gendered Peace project. You can listen to the podcast from the event here. 

• Workshop - Commissions of Inquiry
  21.01.2019

  This workshop brought together a group of international scholars, practitioners and experts to explore how Commissions of Inquiry (CoI) and other fact-finding missions might more effectively integrate a gender analysis into their work and outputs. You can read the concept note for the workshop here. 

  Read the blog that came from this workshop: Integrating a gender perspective into commissions of inquiry.

• Give Peace a Chance
  22.01.2019

  The LSE Library hosted project investigators Professor Christine Chinkin and Dr Louise in conversation with WILPF Secretary General Madeleine Rees. 

  You can find Christine Chinkin's reflections on this conversation here.

Twenty years ago, the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery took place in Tokyo, Japan. The documentary "The International Women's Tribunal: Gender Just Peace", commemorates the anniversary by acknowledging the Tribunal as a significant landmark and exploring its legacy.

The documentary is a reminder of the collective shame on the part of states that to this day have done little to deliver justice. But it is also a story of when women, confronted by the catastrophic failure on the part of states to secure a gender just peace, took action. It is a model of what is possible when international law is applied through a gender lens and the transformative potential of international law.

Watch the documentary here. 

• Christine Chinkin - Plenary guest speaker
  10.2022
  
  Project Principal Investigator Christine Chinkin was a plenary guest speaker, giving at talk titled 'The next 100 Years of International Law' at the ABILA, International Law Weekend in New York City.
  
• Christine Chinkin - Plenary guest speaker
  10.2022
  
  Project Principal Investigator Christine Chinkin was a plenary guest speaker, giving at talk titled 'States in emergency: a feminist approach' at the London Conference on International Law.
• Christine Chinkin - Panellist
  05.2022
  
  Project Principal Investigator Christine Chinkin participated as a panellist during the WILPF webinar: 'The price of inaction: Can the UN Security Council save Ukraine and save itself?'. You can watch a video of the event here
• Christine Chinkin - Panellist
  05.2022
  
  Project Principal Investigator Christine Chinkin was a panellist, giving a talk titled 'Contemporary Challenges to Women, Peace and Security' at Ulster University. You can watch a video of the event here
• Christine Chinkin - Lecturer
  02.2022
  
  Project Principal Investigator Christine Chinkin gave a lecture at the Shrivenham, Défense Academy, titled 'WPS and Human Security'. 
• Christine Chinkin - Lecturer
  02.2022
  
  Project Principal Investigator Christine Chinkin gave a lecture at the Queen Mary University of London, titled 'WPS and International' Law . You can watch a video of the event here.
• Christine Chinkin - Lecturer
  12.2021
  
  Project Principal Investigator Christine Chinkin gave a lecture at the University of Sydney, titled  'WPS and International Law'.
• Christine Chinkin - Keynote speaker
  10.2021
  
  Project Principal Investigator Christine Chinkin was the keynote speaker with a talk titled 'Women's Access to Justice: Moving closer to full ratification and implementation of the Istanbul Convention' at the Council of Europe. Read her remarks here
• Christine Chinkin - Keynote speaker
  10.2021
  
  Project Principal Investigator Christine Chinkin was the keynote speaker with a talk titled 'The Comfort Women in the Courts of the Republic of Korea: the Last Throw of the Dice?' at the International Conference on Women's Rights and Peace, Seoul. You can view details of the conference here
• Christine Chinkin - Panellist
  05.2021
  
  Project Principal Investigator Christine Chinkin was a panellist at the  CUNY School of Law conference: Paths to Legal Accountability for Lead Poisoning, A global panel on demanding remedy for victims and preventing future harm. 
• Christine Chinkin: Conference rapporteur and concluding remarks
  05.2021
  
  Council of Europe Conference "Gender equality and the Istanbul Convention: a decade of action"
• Christine Chinkin, Advice to Special Rapporteur on VAW for report
  04.2021
  
  Project Principal Investigator Christine Chinkin Advice to Special Rapporteur on VAW for report: Rape as a grave and systematic human rights violation and gender-based violence against women.
• 10th International Conference of Museums for Peace
  09.2020
  
  Project Principal Investigator Christine Chinkin was the plenary speaker, giving a talk titled "Gender Justice & Gender Peace", at this event on 'The Role of Museums for Peace in Conveying Memories for Generations to Come', jointly hosted by Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto University of Art and Design, Kyoto Seika University and Ikenobo College.
  
  You can view details of the conference here. 
• Where are the Words? Report launch with WILPF
  07.2020
  
  Research Officer Elena B. Stavrevska launched her co-authored report Where are the Words? In an event hosted by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
  
  You can watch a video of the event here.
  
• Peace Brigade International webinar: Women's Rights During the Pandemic
  07.2020
  
  Project Principal Investigator Prof Christine Chinkin chaired this discussion that contextualised the rise in gender-based violence during the current pandemic and looked at how women human rights defenders are responding.
  
  You can watch the webinar here. 
  
• 20 Years After Implementing and Going Beyond the Palermo Protocol
  29 - 30.06.2020
  
  Project Principal Investigator Prof Christine Chinkin participated in two sessions at this webinar, convened by the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons. 
  
  You can watch the sessions here. 
  
• Justice for the Rohingya: The Role of Canada. An international virtual roundtable of experts
  05.2020
  
  In May 2020, Professor Christine Chinkin participated in a roundtable on 'Justice for Rohingya: The role of Canada', where panellists and participants were invited to define the term “justice” broadly to include recognition and respect for internationally protected human rights including truth, accountability, reparation and other restorative measures, guarantees of non-repetition, prevention of impunity, and other remedies for individuals and groups subjected to violations of their fundamental human rights.
  
  You can find the summary report of the roundtable here. 
  

• Draft General Recommendation on trafficking in women and girls in the context of global migration: Written Comments 
  05.2020
  
  Following the CEDAW Committee's call for comments on their draft recommendation on trafficking in women and girls in the context of global migration, Prof Christine Chinkin and Keina Yoshida (LSE) and Gema Fernandez (Women's Link Worldwide) submitted their comments.
  
  Comments from States, NGOs and other stakeholders can be found online here. 

• LSE Forum for Philosophy: Peace
  02.2020
  
  Speakers, including co-Prinicpal Investigator Lousie Arimatsu, explore the meaning of 'peace' in LSE's Forum for Philosophy. Peace is highly valued, but how is it achieved? Why are some periods in world history relatively peaceful compared to others? What, if anything, can be done to ensure peace now? Are there limits to what we are justified in doing to ensure peace? Is pacifism a justified response to war? We discuss the history, ethics, and politics of peace. 
  
  You can listen or watch the discussion here. 

• Information & communciation technologies (ICTs), women’s human rights and the WPS agenda
  12.2019
  
  Led by Canada, the interplay between the UN Security Council's WPS agenda and ICTs was discussed during the intersessional consultative meeting of the UN Open Ended Working Group (OEWG) in December 2019.  The briefing note shared with States on this topic can be read here.

• Workshop on Advancing Reparations for Survivors of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence
  31.10.2019 - 01.11.2019

  Research Officer Elena B. Stavrevska participated in the workshop on advancing reparations for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, organised by the International Organisation for Migration and the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, which took place at the UN headquarters in New York on 31 October and 1 November 2019. As part of a panel composed of academics and researchers, Elena reflected on the need for an intersectional approach both in understanding vulnerabilities and in developing reparation programmes in conflict-affected societies.  

  In her remarks, informed by the work on the ‘Gendered Peace’ project, she argued that only through a gender-sensitive and intersectional approach to conflict-related sexual violence can an environment that centres plurality of survivors be nurtured and a transformative reparations programmes, paving the way for non-repetition, justice, and long-term peace, be created. 

  Read Elena's blog "Enter intersectionality: towards an inclusive survivor-centred approach in responding to conflict-related sexual violence"

• Security Council Arria formula meeting - Trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation in (post-) conflict situations
  25.10.2019

  Primary investigator Professor Christine Chinkin addressed the Security Council Arria formula meeting on trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation in conflict and post-conflict situations, calling for the express integration of trafficking into the WPS agenda in order to strengthen the councils work on preventing SGBV and VAW and girls in conflict and post-conflict contexts.

  You can watch a video of the full meeting, including Professor Chinkin's address, here.

• U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission (CSC) Rountable 
  09.2019
  
  Louise Arimatsu partcipated in an expert rountable with the CSC. CSC was established in 2019 and its mission is to develop a strategic approach to defending the United States in cyberspace against cyber attacks of significant consequence. The CSC will produce a public report detailing a comprehensive strategic approach with specific policy recommendations for implementation by the U.S. government. You can read the full report here. 

• Women and Girls in Yemen 
  05.2019

  The International Rescue Committee hosted a closed panel event with Care International. The Centre's Lousie Arimatsu and Rasha Obaid spoke at the event. 
  
  Read the blog "Yemeni activists pay the price for their political agency". 

• Voices of Yemen 
  05.2019

  Louise Arimatsu joined the UN Special Envoy on Yemen and the Women's Advisory Group at the workshop hosted by LSE's Institute of Global Affairs. 

  You can read more about the work of the Women's Advisory Group here. 

• Legal Protection of Those Forcibly Displaced 
  02.2019
  
  Co-hosted with Garden Court Chambers, the Centre launched the reportProtection of Women and Girls in Refugee Camps examining the core international human rights obligations of States toward non-citizen refugee women and girls who live in camps within the State’s territory and/or jurisdiction. 
  

• Making International Law Work for Women Post-Conflict
  26.11.2018
  
  Louise Arimatsu and Christine Chinkin were commentators at this two-day workshop organised by the Open University Law School to explore new perspectives on international law, women and post-conflict situations. Read more about the workshop here. 
  
  You can also read Keina Yoshida's Working Paper presented at the workshop "The Nature of Women, Peace and Security: Where is the environment in WPS and where is WPS in environmental peacebuilding"

• "Women, Peace and Security: Tackling Violence against Women in the Contemporary World?"
  30.11.2018

  Principle Investigator Professor Christine Chinkin gave the Walther Schücking memorial lecture at the Walther- Schücking –Institute for International Law, University of Kiel, Germany titled 'Women, Peace and Security: Tackling Violence against Women in the Contemporary World?'. 
  
  The text of this lecture has been published as an article in the German Yearbook of International Law (vol. 61): here. 

• Committee Against Torture
  04.12.2018

  Christine Chinkin made a presentation to the UN Committee against Torture, Cruel or Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on Human Trafficking as Torture

• Is Remote Warfare Working? 
  17.09.2018

  On September 17th 2018, the Remote Warfare Programme brought together a distinguished panel at Fyvie Hall to discuss the political, legal, and military implications of remote warfare. The Remote Warfare Programme's Director Emily Knowles chaired the event. The discussants were Professor Patrick Porter, Professor Michael Clarke and Dr Louise Arimatsu. 

  You can listen to the podcast from the event here. 

• Feminist Revisions 
  06.2018
  
  Christine Chinkin and Louise Arimatsu participated in an expert roundtable on feminist revisions to the draft Crimes Against Humanity Convention, hosted by the Centre. 
  
  You can read more about the International Law Commission's work here.  

• Closing the gender gap by 2030: lessons from Japan and the UK 
  27.06.2018

  Louise Arimatsu spoke at the event discussing the current status of the gender gap in each country, what policies and programmes have been implemented, what challenges still exist and future recommendations.

  You can read the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation annual report here. 

   

 

Part of the Gendered Peace project is to support interdisciplinary discussion around the project's core themes and we welcome blog contributions that contribute towards this discussion. To read our Gendered Peace blogs and submit your idea for a blog please see our Call for Blogs.

The European Research Council funded project Gendered Peace has recently entered into a partnership with The Brilliant Club. The Brilliant Club is a UK non-profit organisation that encourages pupils from underrepresented backgrounds to access university education.  This partnership has resulted in the creation of a course entitled: Gender and Peace. This course specifically links the areas of gender, feminism and international law to understandings of peace. The course is currently being delivered to KS4 pupils in the London area and is being developed into a KS3 course to be listed on The Brilliant Club’s permanent catalogue of courses.

One of the main aims of the Gendered Peace project is to engage a wide variety of participants in order to develop new ideas on peace and gender. Creating a course on peace that directly works with school age pupils is extremely important to the project’s work, as it allows us to both disseminate the insights we have garnered from our own research and incorporate new insights gained from the pupils themselves. The current KS4 course has been met with enthusiasm by pupils and has revealed the ease with which pupils identify the importance of the relationship between gender, international law and peace.