The PRIO project “On Fair Terms: The Ethics of Peace Negotiations and Mediation” (FAIR) organized a workshop in Cyprus in partnership with the PRIO Cyprus Centre, PRIO Middle East Centre, and the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security, 19-21 October.
Doctoral candidates from all over the world attended PRIO's PhD-level course on Gender, Peace and Conflict.
Read the Gender, Peace and Security Update – September 2021 issue here.
On 9-10 September 2021, around 20 researchers met for a hybrid online-offline workshop to share their research on specific cases of ethical issues in peace negotiations and mediation. The workshop was part of the PRIO project 'On Fair Terms: The Ethics of Peace Negotiations and Mediation' (FAIR) and included both PRIO researchers and researchers from across the world.
The March 2021 issue of the PRIO Gender, Peace and Security Update is out now.
Read the Gender, Peace and Security Update – March 2021 issue here.
Julie Marie Hansen, Doctoral Researcher at PRIO, presented a paper at
the international conference ‘Social Media in Armed Conflict’ on 25-26 November
2020.
The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and the Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security (MIPS) invite submissions of abstracts for papers to be presented at the Social Media in Armed Conflict conference, to be held on 25-26 November 2020. The conference will focus on the broad theme of social media and digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) in armed conflict and peace processes, with a particular focus on Myanmar. The deadline for submitting an abstract is now 28 August, 2020 (extended, see submission details below).
The December 2019 issue of the PRIO Gender, Peace and Security Update is out now.
Read the Gender, Peace and Security Update – December 2019 issue here.
On 2 August, Julie Marie Hansen gave a talk about sexual violence in armed conflict at KSAS, Humanity Institute in Myitkyina, Myanmar. Hansen introduced current theories on the causes and consequences of conflict-related sexual violence, and an overview of efforts to prevent and mitigate the impact of this type of violence.
On 5 and 6 June, representatives from five Gender/Women, Peace and Security Centres and Institutes met in Oslo for a third annual consortium meeting. During the meeting the centres discussed joint activities and shared topics of interests. The representatives also attended PRIO's 60th Anniversary Week events.
In December 2017, the PRIO GPS Centre organised the Missing Peace Symposium 2017 on the topic 'Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict: Is Fighting Impunity the Only Game in Town?' This new PRIO Paper, authored by Anette Bringedal Houge, synthesises the perspectives from the symposium.
Read the PRIO Paper in full here.
The symposium is part of a larger collaborative effort called the Missing Peace Initiative, which is a joint project of PRIO, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Women In International Security (WIIS).
PRIO has long been a leader in researching gender-based violence in conflicts; this issue has been the subject of extensive research interest at PRIO. For that reason, PRIO researchers were thrilled to see the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize go to Dr. Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for their work combating sexual violence. We have compiled a list of PRIO-related publications and researchers relevant to this topic in anticipation of increased interest.
With so much attention on the destructive role of Facebook in Myanmar, Doctoral Researcher Julie M. Hansen points out the constructive side of Facebook by bringing in examples of how women in Myanmar use of the social media platform. She writes:
"The
spread of hate speech and misinformation online that incites real-life violence
are serious issues that deserve the media attention they have received, and the
tech community must prioritise finding a solution. Yet, for a fuller
understanding of the role of Facebook – which has become such a dominant tool in
Myanmar for information and communication that is almost synonymous with the
internet – we should also recognise the platform’s constructive side. And this becomes apparent when we look at how
the social media platform is used by women."
On 31 May to 1 June, Torunn L. Tryggestad, Julie M. Hansen and Linn Marie Reklev from the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security were in Prato, Italy for the annual consortium meeting of Gender/Women, Peace and Security Centres.
The December 2017 issue of the PRIO Gender, Peace and Security Update is now out.
The PRIO Gender, Peace and Security Update (GPS Update) is an electronic newsletter launched by the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security in response to growing interest among the public for information about gender, peace and security issues.
For any queries regarding the GPS Update, contact Julie Marie Hansen (julhan@prio.org).
From early 2018, Julie Marie Hansen will start a three-year doctoral research project studying the gendered impacts of social media on armed conflict and peacebuilding in Myanmar.
On 10 November 2017, the Nordic Women Mediators – Norway network met in Oslo to exchange first-hand knowledge from working in conflict resolution processes.
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 involvement of women in work to prevent and resolve violent conflicts still persist.
On 10-12 October 2017, twenty-six senior peace mediators met in Helsinki for the High-Level Seminar on Gender and Inclusive Mediation Processes, where they were trained in how to ensure women and gender perspectives are included in peace processes.
This was the eighth in a series of seminars that began in 2013 in order to generate more consultative processes by promoting women's effective participation and building inclusive, gender-sensitive mediation capacity at international, regional and national levels.
The September 2017 issue of the PRIO Gender, Peace and Security Update is now out.
Read the PRIO Gender, Peace and Security Update - September 2017 issue here.
The PRIO Centre on Gender Peace and Security is pleased to launch its new website.
Members from all five national branches of the Nordic Women Mediators (NWM) network are in Reykjavik, Iceland for a two-day working meeting.
The first issue in 2017 the PRIO Gender, Peace and Security Update is now out.
The lead story in this issue includes an interview with Sarah Douglas, Gender Advisor at the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office, about how the UN Peacebuilding Fund has managed to surpass the target for financing gender-specific projects.
The first of a new series of High-Level Seminars on Gender and Inclusive Mediation Processes will be held in Oslo this autumn.
The seminar will be opened by Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Børge Brende. He will be joined by Director of Policy and Meditation at the UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA) Teresa Whitfield, who will also be participating in the three-day seminar. Other participants will include high-level mediators, special envoys and mediation experts, including representatives from various UN agencies, national governments and international organizations as well as researchers and religious leaders.
On 26–28 May 2016, a delegation of Norwegian members of the Nordic Women Mediators network conducted a field visit to Cyprus. The purpose of the visit was for the delegation to meet and learn from various actors in the Cyprus peace process. It was also an opportunity for the delegation to share their own experiences from mediation in other peace processes.
The lead story in this issue of the GPS Update is Kaja Borchgrevink's research on women engaging in Islamic charity seen as 'development agents'.
The lead story in this issue of the GPS Update is the 15th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, including an analysis by Torunn L. Tryggestad, Director of the PRIO Centre and Gender, Peace and Security, of the Global Study on the implementation of the resolution.
Initiative backed by the Nordic governments aims to increase the number of women involved in international peace mediation efforts.
The lead story in this issue of the GPS Update is about the launch of a new PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security. In this issue you can also read about the most recent conference of the Missing Peace Initiatives which dealt with accountability for conflict-related sexual violence. As usual, the GPS Update also gives you an update on relevant seminars, reports and policy briefs, as well as a list of publications which might be of interest to our readership.