Research

This is a joint research project, looking at 'Prevention and Accountability of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) in United Nations Peace Operations'. The project is led Dr Ai Kihara-Hunt Associate Professor, the University of Tokyo (Principal Investigator) and Dr Marsha Henry Associate Professor, London School of Economics (Co-Investigator) Read more

The ‘Displacement and Women, Peace and Security in Iraq’ project looks at the gendered dimensions of conflict-related displacement with a particular focus on displaced women. It seeks to contribute to developing the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in conflict-related situations.

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The ‘Displacement and Women’s Economic Empowerment in Iraq’ project seeks to examine the effects of conflict-induced displacement on women’s economic empowerment in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq by focusing on their livelihood needs and opportunities.

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War is a gendered phenomenon. While gender differential impacts of war have been widely studied, there is still a gap in our understanding of how gender is constructed in the context of ‘new wars’ (as defined by Kaldor, 1999).  

In 2017 the Centre hosted the ‘Gender and New Wars’ workshop, bringing together emerging work on the formation, contestation and transformation of gender relations in new wars. Over two days 26 presentations were made in eight panels: Gendered Tactics of New Wars; Gender, International Law and Foreign Policy; Women Perpetrators and Combatants; Care and Political Economy; Culture and Identity; Men and Boys in New Wars; Gender and the War on Terror. Several papers arising from the workshop have been published in Stability journal.

Research across conflict contexts documents specific risks, needs and protection gaps for some children born as a result of conflict-related sexual violence. One key risk is the gendered, intergenerational phenomenon of stigma. Despite this evidence, such children remain marginalised in post-conflict national and international policies, laws and programmes. Led by Joanne Neenan and undertaken in 2017, this research examined stigma and broader human rights challenges children born of CRSV may face and the adequacy of “post-conflict” policy and legal responses.

As part of the project, fieldwork was undertaken in Uganda and Colombia, and the Centre convened an interdisciplinary workshop bringing together participants from academia, civil society, government, non-governmental organisations and the United Nations to explore critical conceptual and empirical questions relating to children born of war and stigma, with the goal of bridging the academic-policy “divide” on these issues.

• Read the Report: Closing The Protection Gap for Children Born of War: Addressing stigmatisation and the intergenerational impact of Sexual violence in conflict (June 2018)

Over 18 months in 2017 and 18, the Centre for Women, Peace and Security operated a Strategic Network on Gender Violence Across War and Peace. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Network aimed to advance understanding of the continuum of violence framework by focusing on four country situations: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, Lebanon and Sri Lanka. Read more.