Gender, Conflict and Peacebuilding Research at PRIO

​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.

​The lead story in this issue of the GPS Update is an interview with Julieta Lemaitre, Associate Professor of Law at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá and PRIO Global Fellow, about a project studying the political and legal mobilisation of women’s organisations in Colombia. In this issue you can also read about another PRIO Global Fellow, Heidi Hudson, Professor of International Relations and Director of the Centre for Africa Studies at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, who visited PRIO during the first week of June. 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.

​​The lead story in the first 2015 issue of the GPS Update is a report from a conference on ‘Somali Women’s Civic Engagement: Past, Present and Future’ organized in Nairobi on 6 February by the GENSOM project. In this issue you can also read an interview with PRIO Senior Researcher Inger Skjelsbæk about a new project at PRIO entitled ‘Equal Peace? Women’s Empowerment and Multicultural Challenges in War-to-Peace Transitions’. You will also find reports from the launch of the new Norwegian National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, the fifth High-Level Seminar on Gender and Inclusive Mediation Processes, a seminar at PRIO on national action plans with the Institute for Inclusive Security, and PRIO Senior Researcher Torunn L. Tryggestad’s recent appointment to the 4th Advisory Group of the UN Peacebuilding Fund. 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.​

The fifth High-Level Seminar on Gender and Inclusive Mediation Processes will be held in Oslo from 24-26 March. The seminar is an initiative that started in 2013 for envoys, senior mediators and senior mediation experts. It is organized by the UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA), PRIO, Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), and the Governments of Norway and Finland. At PRIO, the seminar is one of the activities under the Gender, Conflict and Peacebuilding project led by senior researcher Torunn L. Tryggestad. Participation in the seminar is by invitation only.

​The last 2014 issue of the GPS Update is packed with reports from PRIO events that have taken place over the past three months. The lead story in this issue is on the Symposium on Women’s Rights and Empowerment in Afghanistan, which took place in Oslo on 23 November and was hosted by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with the Afghan and US authorities, PRIO, the Afghan Women’s Network, and Georgetown Institute of Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS). 

​​​The third 2014 issue of the GPS Update features an interview with Major General Kristin Lund who took office as Force Commander to the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) on 11 August 2014.

​​​The second 2014 issue of the GPS Update features a report on the event as well as some of the contested issues related to the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, including PRIO several PRIO researchers’ efforts to influence the debates that took place at the summit.