From the private to the public sphere: new research on women's participation in peace-building

Despite the United Nation's landmark Security Council Resolution on women, peace and security in 2000 which highlighted the importance of women's participation in peace-building, only one in 40 peace treaty signatories over the last 25 years has been a woman. Yet evidence from non-government organisations and women's rights organisations shows that women are active agents of peace, resolving conflicts at all levels of society with little or no recognition. This article discusses new research which tracks women's roles in building peace at local levels in five conflict-affected contexts: Afghanistan, Liberia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sierra Leone. The article highlights the significance of violence against women as a barrier to peace-building, and explores how and why women's exclusion and marginalisation from peace processes tends to increase the more formal the processes become. The article uses two case studies of women's rights organisations in Afghanistan and Nepal to illustrate the research findings and demonstrate how communities can mobilise to promote gender equality and fulfil women's rights.     

Disability and conflict: exploring how the peace process in Northern Ireland assesses and addresses the needs of persons with disabilities

This article suggests that attempts to address the needs of persons with disabilities in the post-conflict setting have been largely characterized by a medicalized understanding of disability. In so doing, it neglects an assessment and comprehensive attempt to address the impact of structural and cultural violence on the opportunities and quality of life of persons with disabilities. Accordingly, the article suggests an elicitive approach to post-conflict efforts informed by the social model of disability to better assess and address the needs of persons with disabilities in a post-conflict society.     

Implementation of Transitional Justice Initiatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Need for an Inclusive Approach

The main objective of the paper is to examine the relationship between various transitional justice mechanisms established in the aftermath of the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995 and recent reflections on political and social instability in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). With this objective, the post-conflict peace-building initiatives are analyzed for their crucial role in the establishment of peace and reconciliation, while recognizing that responses to the peace building initiatives have shown difference from one society to another. BiH is the country where transitional justice mechanisms such as the establishment of local courts and ad hoc tribunals, truth and reconciliation commissions, providing reparations for war victims and institutional reform process have been only partially applied. This demonstrates an obvious need for an inclusive approach that brings all four transitional justice mechanisms together, not as opponents but rather components of each other. In this article, transitional justice mechanisms such as local courts and international ad hoc tribunals, truth and reconciliation commissions, reparation initiatives and institutional reform processes are analyzed in the post-war context of BiH and their methods of implementation are comparatively examined. The study also provides a brief overview of the implementation of transitional justice initiatives as peace building efforts in BiH together with possible future developments.