Blog Posts
Posted by Sophie Mae Berman & Yelena Biberman on Friday, 21 October 2022
In July, the US Department of State launched the US-Afghan Consultative Mechanism in partnership with the United States Institute of Peace, Atlantic Council, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, and Sisterhood is Global Institute. As the Taliban continues to strip women and vulnerable groups inside Afghanistan of their human rights, the Mechanism intends to provide ... Read more »
Posted by Anna Marie Obermeier on Wednesday, 5 October 2022
Content Warning: This blog contains content related to sexual violence and sexual assault. The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is steeped in a culture of sexual misconduct. CAF leadership has allowed an environment of sexual misconduct to fester for decades, stretching from military colleges through every branch of the military. Thirteen ... Read more »
Posted by Nora Stai on Tuesday, 30 August 2022
International peace mediation has undergone many changes in the past decade. While its fundamental principles have remained the same, the increased digitalization of peace mediation coupled with the practical challenges of peacebuilding during a global pandemic has necessitated the introduction of digital tools and virtual platforms. These developments have accelerated ... Read more »
Posted by Louise Olsson on Tuesday, 21 June 2022
To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of the UN Security Council’s death have been greatly exaggerated. That does not mean to say that the legitimacy crisis is not real nor that the long-term trajectory – escalated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine – might not be terminal. The consequences for ... Read more »
Posted by Kelly Fisher, Nic Marsh & Erik Melander on Saturday, 4 June 2022
Two recent mass shootings in the U.S. have once again drawn attention to its high rate of gun violence and mass shootings. The sheer number of guns in the U.S. and the ease by which they can be purchased are undoubtedly parts of the explanation. What those factors don’t explain ... Read more »
Женщины – “неотъемлемая часть своей страны и её сопротивления”. С таким посланием Катерина Черепаха, президент организации “Ла Страда – Україна”, обратилась к миру в своём апрельском выступлении в Совете Безопасности ООН.. В своей речи она также подчеркнула возросшую незащищённость женщин и девочек в отношении угрозы похищения, пыток и убийства. Теперь ... Read more »
Жінки є «невід’ємною частиною країни та її опору» – з таким посланням звернулася до світу президент організації «Ла Страда-Україна» Kaтeринa Чeрeпaхa, виступаючи перед Радою Безпеки ООН у квітні. У своєму виступі вона також підкреслила високу вразливість жінок і дівчат щодо загроз викрадення, катувань та вбивств. Тепер ми знаємо, що жінки ... Read more »
Women are an “integral part of her country and its resistance.” This was the message that Kateryna Cherepakha, President of the organization La Strada-Ukraine, communicated to the world when speaking before the UN Security Council in April. Her speech also highlighted increased vulnerability of women and girls to the threat ... Read more »
Posted by Ragnhild Nordås on Monday, 11 April 2022
Sexual violence has not received much attention in the coverage of the war in Ukraine. However, reports of cases of sexual violence by Russian or pro-Russian soldiers are just starting to appear. Some human rights organizations in Ukraine have already warned about this risk. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba recently claimed ... Read more »
Posted by Lynn P. Nygaard, Dag W. Aksnes & Fredrik Piro on Sunday, 3 April 2022
Academic publishing, which has long been the stick by which academics measure their prowess, has been repeatedly shown to be yet another arena in which men consistently outperform women. Women produce fewer articles, collaborate less, and are cited less than their male colleagues. This is an established truth. Or is ... Read more »
Posted by Inger Skjelsbæk on Friday, 1 April 2022
Soldiers, refugees, victims, mothers: we must listen to stories about the women’s war in Ukraine. Five weeks have passed since the start of the war in Ukraine. Shocking images dominate television news broadcasts. Europe is experiencing its largest refugee crisis since World War II. Men aged between 18 and 60 ... Read more »
Posted by Louise Olsson & Anna Marie Obermeier on Tuesday, 29 March 2022
Inviting more women to brief the United Nations Security Council helps include them in decision-making on international peace and security. But despite progress, challenges remain. The Council must integrate recommendations from women’s voices into Council decisions. As the struggle over existing norms in multilateral systems has hardened, women’s rights have ... Read more »
Posted by Erik Melander on Saturday, 12 March 2022
The renewed Russian war of aggression against Ukraine is still raging on, and our thoughts naturally turn to the ways in which we can provide assistance and aid to both the defenders and the victims. If one simultaneously wishes to take an analytical look at the broader picture, there are ... Read more »
Posted by Lina Stotz, Johanne Rokke Elvebakken, Ingvill Constanze Mochmann, Inger Skjelsbæk, Sunniva Árja Tobiasen & Torunn L. Tryggestad on Sunday, 6 March 2022
A recent UN report published by the Secretary General in late January is one of the first to focus exclusively on women and girls who become pregnant as a result of sexual violence in conflict and on children born of war. The term ‘children born of war’ refers to children born ... Read more »
Posted by Torunn L. Tryggestad & Johanne Rokken Elvebakken on Tuesday, 23 November 2021
On Thursday 21 October, the UN Security Council held its annual debate on “Women, Peace and Security” (WPS). Under Kenyan presidency, all the UN member states had the opportunity to give statements on this topic, which has been a permanent feature on the Council’s agenda ever since October 2000, when ... Read more »
Posted by Louise Olsson on Wednesday, 10 November 2021
On October 21, the UN Security Council (UNSC) held its annual Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) under the presidency of Kenya, one out of ten members of the UNSC that was elected to serve by the UN General Assembly (a so-called E10 state). Kenya has joined forces ... Read more »
Posted by Natalie Azba on Friday, 2 July 2021
Since the rise of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda and the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325, power sharing has been widely used as a peace-building tool after civil conflict and is also key to the institutionalization of democracy. Power sharing arrangements have been instrumental to terminating civil ... Read more »
Posted by Jenny Lorentzen on Wednesday, 9 June 2021
Women can contribute to preventing and countering violent extremism, but the international community’s understanding of their contributions is lacking. Women are often expected to assume roles as deradicalizing councillors or informants, but depending on context, it may be unsafe and unrealistic to assume that women will take on such roles. ... Read more »
Posted by Madhav Joshi & Louise Olsson on Wednesday, 3 March 2021
One year ago, on February 29, 2020, the Doha Agreement was signed between the United States and the Taliban. This agreement outlines a process for a gradual withdrawal of foreign troops in Afghanistan, Taliban’s commitment to preventing the use of Afghan soil against the US and its allies security, and ... Read more »
A staggering 72 million children—17% of the 426 million children living in conflict areas globally, or 1 in 6—are living near armed groups that have been reported to perpetrate sexual violence against children. That means 3% of all children in the world are living at risk for sexual violence in ... Read more »
Posted by Kelly Fisher on Tuesday, 19 January 2021
On January 20th, 2021, Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States, marking the end of four tumultuous years. It would be an understatement to say that Donald Trump and Joe Biden are two very different leaders, and we can expect that there will be ... Read more »
Posted by Kristin B. Sandvik on Tuesday, 5 January 2021
Today, public health is ‘delivered by women and led by men’, with a glaring absence of women and nurses at the decision making table.[1] Globally, though women only make up 25% of those in healthcare leadership they make up the majority of healthcare workers (70%) and nurses (90%).[2] This exclusion skews the ... Read more »
The PRIO – GWPS Women Peace and Security Index is now available as a US edition, with scores for each of the 50 individual states and the District of Colombia.[1] With the US election today, highlighting ongoing struggles and gender-related conflicts, we ask; what does gender have to do with ... Read more »
Helga Hernes, interviewed by Kristian Berg Harpviken Helga Hernes coined the term ‘state feminism’ in the mid-1980s. At the time, suggesting that the state could be women friendly and an ally in the struggle for women’s rights was controversial. A decade and a half later, however, the term had become ... Read more »
Posted by Njoki Kinyanjui & Louise Olsson on Tuesday, 23 June 2020
Women are often on the periphery of formal peace and political solutions with limited decision-making power. We argue that the current COVID-19 crisis has spotlighted three critical elements affecting women’s participation which need to be tackled in the upcoming 20th anniversary of Resolution 1325, the first UN Security Council Resolution ... Read more »
Posted by Jacqui True on Thursday, 23 April 2020
This piece is part of our blog series Beyond the COVID Curve. COVID-19 has quickly changed everything from our daily routines, to the policies of governments, to the fortunes of the global economy. How will it continue to shape society and the conditions for peace and conflict globally in the near ... Read more »
“We cannot allow the invisibility of women in the area of peace and security to continue,” stated Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Søreide in her opening of the session on “Gender and Preventing Violent Extremism” in Amman, Jordan. Women are often “invisible” in analyses of violent extremism, whether ... Read more »
Posted by Wenche Iren Hauge on Monday, 25 November 2019
When women are victims of violence and rape in civil war – which happens sadly often – the media jumps at it. When men are victims of the same atrocities, we hardly hear about it. On the other hand, male military leaders are often referred to in the media. However, ... Read more »
Posted by Natalie M. Dyvesether on Monday, 4 November 2019
This year’s telethon in Norway, an annual event, raised over 225 million Norwegian kroner for CARE’s work in strengthening women’s rights. Gender equality and women’s empowerment aren’t just goals in themselves: achieving those goals will reduce poverty and lower the risk of armed conflict. Every day 830 women die due ... Read more »
The Women, Peace and Security Index is one of the most comprehensive measures of women’s well-being around the world. This collaboration between PRIO and the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) goes back to 2016. Funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Index ranks countries based ... Read more »
Posted by Cindy Horst on Wednesday, 28 August 2019
Inger Skjelsbæk, interviewed by Cindy Horst We focus a lot more on conflict than we do on what peace actually is. What is it that creates well-being? What is it that makes you feel at ease in your own skin, in your own life, in your own sociopolitical context? What ... Read more »
Posted by Sara E. Davies & Jacqui True on Thursday, 23 May 2019
Since 2012, April has been the traditional month of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) open debate to discuss the annual Secretary-General’s report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence. And while for the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) community it is always a major event on the calendar, with the prospect of ... Read more »
Hundreds of Mozambicans were killed and thousands made homeless recently by Cyclones Idai and Kenneth. Almost immediately, there were reports of a sadly familiar story: women being forced to trade sex for food by local community leaders distributing aid. Globally, international organisations appear to be grappling with the issue more seriously than before. Yet reports about ... Read more »
Posted by Sirianne Dahlum on Tuesday, 26 March 2019
New research reveals why and how women’s achievements are devalued compared to men’s, and how this damages women’s career paths. I am regularly asked questions about what it’s like to be a young woman in academia. Usually I find this surprising, in that I experience my own workplace as generally ... Read more »
Posted by Jacqui True, Yasmin Chilmeran & Melissa Johnston on Thursday, 21 March 2019
Known as one of the safest and most isolated countries in the world, New Zealand has experienced its darkest day, a terrorist attack perpetrated by a lone gunman against Muslim citizens in Christchurch in two mosques during Friday prayers. For us, in this antipodean part of the world, it is ... Read more »
Posted by Julie Ræstad Owe on Monday, 25 February 2019
The media has yet again turned its attention toward the women of ISIS. Currently ISIS only occupies one square kilometre of the so-called caliphate they once had, and as the final battles to regain former ISIS-controlled territory are unfolding, more and more ISIS fighters’ wives or widows have ended up ... Read more »
Posted by Louise Olsson & Theodora-Ismene Gizelis on Wednesday, 19 December 2018
Academics and policymakers can probably agree on the need for a more solid research base in order to effectively support the inclusion of women in peace processes. Our chapter in the newly released Oxford Handbook on Women, Peace and Security, argues that improving dialogue among scholars and practitioners requires acknowledging ... Read more »
This year, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to the Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege and the Iraqi human rights activist, and witness and survivor of human-trafficking, Nadia Murad. These two voices are an extremely important contribution to ongoing efforts to combat war-related sexual violence. We are among the ... Read more »
Posted by Ragnhild Nordås & Nelly Lahoud on Monday, 10 December 2018
The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad in recognition of their work combatting sexual violence as a weapon of war. This acknowledgement should serve as a rallying cry to end sexual violence in conflict — commonly perpetrated by non-state groups, but also states ... Read more »
Posted by Jacqui True & Sara Davies on Wednesday, 5 December 2018
#HearMeToo is the theme of this year’s 16 days of activism to end violence against women. Responding to this catch-cry, as researchers, there is much we can do to link analysis to a theory of change. Reports of sexual and gender-based violence can deliver protection to victims. But there is ... Read more »
Posted by Julie Marie Hansen on Monday, 12 November 2018
Facebook has been making headlines this year with what seems like scandal after scandal, from the Cambridge Analytica data breach to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifying in front of the United States Congress as a result. But perhaps one of the most serious scandals has been the social media platform’s ... Read more »
Posted by Louise Olsson & Madhav Joshi on Monday, 29 October 2018
“In 2020, the United Nations, Members States, regional organizations and civil society will mark the 20th anniversary of resolution 1325 (2000). The lead up to this milestone and the anniversary itself, provide important opportunities to highlight and appraise progress and revise strategies…” (S/2018/900, 2018). An upcoming event which sets the ... Read more »
On 25 October, the UN Security Council held its yearly meeting on women, peace and security. It has been 18 years since the Security Council adopted resolution 1325, which called on the UN and the international community to include women and their rights and interests in work toward peace and ... Read more »
Posted by Ragnhild Nordås & Elisabeth Jean Wood on Monday, 15 October 2018
As Islamic State forces swept through northern Iraq in 2014, they captured the city of Mosul and then attacked the nearby Yazidi people. Thousands of Yazidis were executed — and some 3,000 girls and women were kidnapped. Most were sexually enslaved. One of the two recipients of this year’s Nobel ... Read more »
Posted by Inger Skjelsbæk on Friday, 5 October 2018
The choice to award the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad is both timely and wise. The two Nobel laureates embody different dimensions of conflict-related sexual violence. Further, the prize comes at a time when we mark the one-year anniversary of the #metoo movement, when trust ... Read more »
Posted by Kristin B. Sandvik on Friday, 28 September 2018
In 2017, Latin America was described by the UN as the world’s most violent continent for women. The assassinations of women activists and community leaders have continued across the region in 2018. While the killing of Marielle Franco, a favela community leader, and the unraveling of government-private enterprise collusion in ... Read more »
The scholarship on law, conflict and suffering has for the past two decades been dominated by a moral and analytical concern with “women and children” and sexual violence. However, when we look up and do the body count out in the physical and political world – in the city and ... Read more »
Posted by Philip Verwimp on Friday, 22 June 2018
As of 2014, the Burundi government has pledged that children can continue their basic schooling until grade 9. The fertility impact of this new schooling policy is potentially strong. However, there are three important elements in this story that are less well understood: what will be the magnitude of this ... Read more »
Posted by Marianne Dahl & Jeni Klugman on Friday, 23 March 2018
Last week, GIWPS together with the International Peace Institute and the Government of Norway cohosted a discussion on linking the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Index to WPS in practice. The WPS Index, launched in October 2017 by GIWPS and PRIO at the United Nations, draws on recognized international data sources ... Read more »
Posted by Aseem Andrews & Torunn L. Tryggestad on Thursday, 8 March 2018
The recent #MeToo campaign was a watershed moment that has brought global attention to the issue of violence against women and has shown us how women continue to be objects of exploitation. Violence is manifested in so many different ways, from intimate partner violence, domestic violence, rape, honour killing to ... Read more »
Posted by Dorthea Hilhorst on Friday, 23 February 2018
The spreading “Oxfam scandal” will affect the entire humanitarian sector painfully. It brings into plain sight what observers of the internal workings of NGOs have known for a long time: NGOs have an organisational reflex of banning outsiders from their kitchen, and keeping their potentially dangerous secrets hidden. Abuses of ... Read more »
Posted by Jenny Lorentzen on Tuesday, 13 February 2018
Women have been marginalized throughout the Malian peace process and their inclusion has received little priority, contrary to UN Security Council resolutions on the involvement of women in peace processes. Although legislation and policy frameworks promoting their inclusion are in place, implementation is lagging behind. Despite difficulties in the Malian ... Read more »
Posted by Melanne Verveer on Tuesday, 28 November 2017
Despite major strides, women in many countries continue to face huge constraints in personal security, social and political inclusion, and legal protections that harm their wellbeing and hold back economies. The Index reflects a shared vision that countries are more peaceful and prosperous when women are accorded full and equal ... Read more »
Posted by Alicia Luedke & Jasmine-Kim Westendorf on Monday, 20 November 2017
The recent #MeToo hashtag and associated social media storm highlighted the extensiveness of sexual abuse and harassment and the exploitation of women and girls (and in some cases men and boys) by those in positions of power. It showed that the problem does not come down to a few “bad ... Read more »
Posted by Julie Marie Hansen, Kristin Lund, Laura Mitchell, Hilde Salvesen, Rita Sandberg, Elisabeth Slåttum & Torunn L. Tryggestad on Friday, 27 October 2017
Last week, Norway made history with Ine Eriksen Søreide becoming the country’s first female foreign minister. Even in relatively gender-equal countries like Norway it is still rare to find women holding top positions in the so-called “hard issue” sectors of foreign affairs and peace and security. Barriers to the full ... Read more »
Posted by Louise Olsson on Monday, 2 October 2017
The time for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize is coming up, and as identified by PRIO’s Director, there are many worthy laureates. 35 years ago, Alva Myrdal (1902-1986) received the prize for her work with nuclear disarmament – a question that has unfortunately resurfaced and is again a likely theme for the peace ... Read more »
On the night between 14 and 15 April, 2014, 276 girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram from their school in Chibok in Borno State in Northeastern Nigeria. The Islamist terrorist group does not believe that girls should attend school, and these girls were targeted precisely because they were in school. However, conservative views on gender and education is only ... Read more »
Posted by Ester E. J. Strømmen on Friday, 7 July 2017
Da’esh has stunned the world with its gross human rights abuses, gendered violence, and practices of sexual slavery, and yet, the organization has attracted a large amount of female recruits. Women who have joined Da’esh have been met with a storm of disbelief and gendered commentary, and have even been designated their own term – ‘jihadi brides’. A recent policy ... Read more »
Posted by Isak Svensson on Monday, 3 April 2017
The Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström has invested in a network of female mediators to strengthen women’s roles in peace and reconstruction processes. However, it is not just the supply of female mediators that is the problem, but the demand as well. Where can opportunities be found for women to ... Read more »
Posted by Jenny Lorentzen on Friday, 18 November 2016
While 2015 was in many ways a year of celebration for women’s participation in international politics, 2016 on the other hand seems to be a year of disappointments. What will happen to women’s participation and gender equality in foreign policy when Donald Trump becomes the next President of the United ... Read more »
Posted by Alisa Mujanic on Tuesday, 30 August 2016
The use of military force may reduce killings, but not necessarily sexual violence. On 19 June this year, the UN marked the very first International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. Meanwhile, women and men continue to be subjected to sexual violence on a daily basis in ... Read more »
Women are central contributors to peace processes. But the crucial roles that women play in transitions from war to peace are rarely acknowledged. The focus on the negotiating table and formal politics – the diplomatic aspects of conflict resolution – is a too narrow understanding of peace processes. Recent case ... Read more »
The Global Study on the Implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325. In the context of the UN and global governance, 2015 was truly ‘a year of reviews’. The Global Study on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (UNSCR 1325) was one of ... Read more »
Posted by Wenche Iren Hauge on Monday, 8 February 2016
The Potentials of Changing Gender Patterns. Both genders – female and male – can be actors as well as victims in armed conflict, depending on the context. Changed gender roles among ex-combatants of armed groups constitute a potential source of change towards more balanced gender relations in the larger post-conflict ... Read more »
Posted by Iselin Frydenlund on Thursday, 17 December 2015
Will Aung San Suu Kyi dare to engage in a direct confrontation with religious nationalism and insist that the new parliament reconsider Myanmar’s laws on
race and religion? Doing so could cost her dearly. Sexual violence Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) has been in a continuous state of civil war ... Read more »
Posted by Kristin B. Sandvik on Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Over the last decade, Colombia has been host to the world’s largest population of internally displaced people (IDP). In 2016, it is expected that the Colombian government and FARC will reach a peace agreement, marking the formal end of more than 50 years of civil war. It is widely recognized ... Read more »
Posted by Gudrun Østby on Thursday, 3 December 2015
I have just returned from two weeks in Congo. PRIO colleagues Ragnhild Nordås, Siri Aas Rustad and I held project meetings with our local partner. Most of our time in Congo, however, was spent teaching how to conduct research. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is often described as one ... Read more »
Posted by Kristin B. Sandvik & Kjersti Lohne on Wednesday, 2 December 2015
The politics of rape denunciation is fast becoming the politics of lobbyists, vendors and military manufacturers seeking access to new customers and markets. The recognition of wartime rape as a fundamental violation of international law has been a hard-fought victory. Ending rape and other forms of sexual violence in war ... Read more »
Last year the Congolese gynecologist Dr. Denis Mukwege was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, and he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several years in a row, frequently hailed among the favorites. Tomorrow the winner of the prize for 2015 will be announced. We think ... Read more »
The High Level week of the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly opened this week. Important issues will be debated and decisions made, which in turn will establish guidelines for the UN’s image and operations in the coming years. Next year’s election of a new Secretary-General is lurking in ... Read more »
Posted by Hilde E. Restad on Wednesday, 26 August 2015
In a now legendary 2008 Saturday Night Live skit, comedians Amy Poehler and Tina Fey opened the show by imitating Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and unsuccessful Democratic contender for the nomination Hillary Clinton, respectively. The skit could have been a harmless imitation game, with Fey and Poehler simply ... Read more »
Posted by Kristin B. Sandvik & Kjersti Lohne on Thursday, 13 August 2015
Earlier this spring, we debated a law professor who insisted that lethal autonomous weapons (LAWS) could clean up war. The professor posited that a war fought with autonomous weapons would be a war without rape. Taking humans out of the loop would, the argument goes, lead to more humane war. ... Read more »
Posted by Åshild Kolås on Monday, 11 May 2015
From participation to political agency Women’s empowerment and equal participation in political life is important at all levels of Indian society. Despite benefitting from reservations, women frequently experience obstacles when they participate in politics. However, to address women’s aspirations for political agency we should explore the emerging opportunities, and not ... Read more »
Posted by Inger Skjelsbæk, Nora Sveaass & Rikke Marie Gjerde Kvale on Wednesday, 6 May 2015
Assessing the therapeutic potential of criminal prosecution of international crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Over the past twenty years, the global community has shown a renewed commitment to the pursuit of international criminal justice. A hallmark development in this regard is the establishment of the permanent International Criminal ... Read more »
Posted by Inger Skjelsbæk on Tuesday, 21 April 2015
Imagine being at a dinner party with friends. Some you know from before and some are new to you. You are served a welcome drink, smile, and begin to greet the other guests. The conversation starts amicably with exchanges about the weather, where you are from, recent events and perhaps ... Read more »
Posted by Kristin B. Sandvik & Julieta Lemaitre on Monday, 13 April 2015
Based on extensive field research in Colombia, our new article “Beyond Sexual Violence in Transitional Justice: Political Insecurity as a Gendered Harm” examines political insecurity as a specifically gendered harm that must be addressed in the ongoing Colombian transitional justice process. In a previous blogpost we described the tragic plight ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Carling on Tuesday, 10 March 2015
(This post was originally published on Jørgen Carling’s personal web site.) Migration affects the lives of women in many ways. One subtle but critical mechanism lies in disputes over ‘who’ migrant women are. Migration researchers can play a role in making the battles apparent and showing how they matter. I ... Read more »
Posted by Helga Hernes on Wednesday, 19 November 2014
In the wake of World War II three major political trends have formed international development; the human rights revolution, the diffusion of democracy, and the growing acceptance of gender equality. All three trends have contributed to significant increases in women’s participation, representation and influence. Yet great contrasts persist in women’s ... Read more »
International peace processes are dominated by men and men’s perspectives. In general the approaches used have changed little in many decades. The focus is invariably on bringing the conflicting parties to the negotiating table, where their claims to power and strategic positions are renegotiated and defined. Amnesties for brutal attacks ... Read more »
Posted by Maimuna Mohamud on Tuesday, 14 October 2014
Somali women are often perceived as a homogenous social group perpetually living in destitution as victims of mutilation, sexual exploitation, famine, and war. Whilst we must not ignore atrocities committed against them, it is important to demonstrate that Somali women are not passive victims, and to not disregard a history ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Carling on Sunday, 3 August 2014
The population of the Philippines is surpassing 100 million in late July 2014. That’s a reminder of the country’s importance in global migration. Emigration generally has the strongest impacts in countries with relatively small populations, such as El Salvador, Armenia and Samoa. In fact, as the scatterplot shows, only five ... Read more »
Posted by Inger Skjelsbæk on Wednesday, 11 June 2014
A Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict is taking place in London on 10-13 June. World leaders are meeting to discuss ways of combating the use of sexual violence in conflict and of improving efforts to bring perpetrators to justice. This is a historic event. Never before have so ... Read more »
Posted by Ragnhild Nordås on Tuesday, 10 June 2014
Later this week, ministers from more than 140 countries, along with an estimated 1,500 invited delegates, are gathering in London for the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. The summit — the largest gathering of its type — is co-chaired by British Foreign Secretary William Hague and the ... Read more »
Posted by Maral Mirshahi on Tuesday, 1 April 2014
In January 2014 PRIO researchers Gudrun Østby and Ragnhild Nordås went on a two-week fieldtrip to Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, DRC. The main purpose of the visit was to launch the new collaborative project, “Female Empowerment in Eastern DRC”, funded by the Research Council of Norway. This project ... Read more »