Comment archive

Friday, 21 Oct 2022
To Support Afghan Women Activists, Prioritize Local Knowledge over Numbers

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 ...

Friday, 2 Jul 2021
Power Sharing and Gender Equality

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 ...

Wednesday, 9 Jun 2021
Are Women the Solution to Violent Extremism?

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. ...

Tuesday, 5 Jan 2021
COVID-19 and the Law: Framing Healthcare Worker Risks as Women’s Rights Violations

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 ...

Friday, 1 May 2020
Armed Mothers in Militant Visuals

In Hamas’ 2004 poster of suicide bomber Reem al-Riyashi, she poses for the camera holding a rifle her in left hand and her son in the other. al-Riyashi killed four Israelis and herself in a joint Hamas and al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades bombing on the Gaza-Israel border. The Savior of the ...

Monday, 30 Mar 2020
Book review: In Plain Sight: Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict.

Gaby Zipfel, Kirsten Campbell and Regina Muhlhauser (eds), New Delhi: Zubaan Books. In Plain Sight: Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict,a collection of essays edited by Gaby Zipfel, Regina Muhlhauser, and Kirsten Campbell, offers a synthesis of the work by members of the International Research Group Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict ...

Monday, 4 Nov 2019
What Does Gender Equality Have to Do with Poverty and War? Everything.

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 ...

Monday, 25 Feb 2019
ISIS Women Hoping to Return Home Are Met with a Cold Shoulder from State Officials

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 ...

Friday, 23 Mar 2018
Measuring Women, Peace and Security

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 ...

Tuesday, 13 Feb 2018
Women’s Inclusion in the Peace Process in Mali

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 ...

Tuesday, 28 Nov 2017
A More Comprehensive Measure of Women’s Wellbeing

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 ...

Friday, 27 Oct 2017
“No backsliding” on Women’s Inclusion in Peace Mediation

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 ...

Monday, 3 Apr 2017
Peace Diplomacy: Finding Entry Points for Female Mediators

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 ...

Wednesday, 21 Sept 2016
Women, Peace and Security?

The Norwegian government had lofty ambitions to implement UN Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security in Faryab Province in Afghanistan. However, attempts to realise these ambitions were half-hearted. The role of the gender adviser became a political alibi for the Norwegian Provincial Reconstruction Team’s haphazard efforts to implement the ...

Monday, 11 May 2015
Women’s Empowerment in India

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 ...

Wednesday, 19 Nov 2014
Global Aspects of Women’s Political Participation

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 ...

Tuesday, 18 Nov 2014
Peace Processes Need Women

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 ...