Symposium on Gender in Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice

poster announcing the symposium on Gender in Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice

On 4 May 2018, 1.15–6pm, a symposium on Gender in Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice is organised in the Senatssaal of the Kollegienhaus, Universitätsstraße 15, in Erlangen. The symposium will consider issues of gender in peacebuilding and transitional justice practice and discourse from interdisciplinary, feminist, intersectional and postcolonial perspectives. Gina Heathcote (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) will provide the theoretical frame of considerations of gender and participation within these processes. After a short coffee break, three case studies will provide insight into different local and regional experiences: Silke Studzinsky who acted as legal counsel at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia representing, among others, survivors of sexualised violence will talk about the experiences with the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. Khanyisela Moyo (Ulster University) will discuss the situation and participation of women in postcolonial Zimbabwe, and Sari Kouvo (University of Gothenburg) will speak about the peacebuilding processes in Afghanistan. The symposium aims at questioning and complementing the hegemonic mainstream discourses by highlighting critical and peripheral voices and analyses.

Programme (pdf)

13.15 – 13:30
Welcome and Introduction

13.30 – 14.30
Gender and Agency in the Peace Continuum: From Peace Building to Lasting Peace
(Gina Heathcote, SOAS University of London)

14.30 – 15.00
Coffee break

15.00 – 18.00: Gender in Local and Regional Transitional Justice Processes
Case study 1: Access to justice for survivors of sexualized crimes in the context of the trials at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal
(Silke Studzinsky, Lawyer, formerly at the Victims Participation Office at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers)
Case study 2: Gender and Transitional Justice: Conceptualising Women’s Political Participation in postcolonial Zimbabwe between 2008 -2018
(Khanyisela Moyo, Ulster University)
Case study 3: Tell us how this will end? Gender, Conflict and Justice in Afghanistan
(Sari Kouvo, University of Gothenburg)