When: April 12th, 1pm
Where: Online - register here
Hosted by Gender Studies - University College Dublin, School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice.
Speakers: Dr. Catherine Turner & Professor Aisling Swaine
Chair: Krisna Ruette-Orihuela
The UN Security Council’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has dominated global approaches to advancing women’s rights in peace and security. Over time the agenda has become characterised by a binary approach that treats women either as agentic leaders participating in public life, or as passive victims in need of protection from sexual violence. Absent from this approach has been conceptual and practical consideration of the connections between the participation and protection ‘pillars’ of the agenda. In this seminar, the ways that participation, protection, and their inter-relationship have evolved through the WPS resolutions will be explored. Research on protection concerns arising for women in leadership roles in Northern Ireland will be used to illustrate the significance of the connections between the two pillars. The synergies, gaps and productive tensions that must be anticipated as attention at the UN turns to the protection concerns of those in leadership in conflict-affected contexts will be discussed.