Engendering Sustainable Peace: Toward a Victim-Centric, Gender Aware and Culturally Sensitive UN Peacekeeping Framework

Hybrid Event Registration

Date: Monday, February 12, 2023 | Time: 12:00-1:30 PM Eastern Time (EST)
Location: National Democratic Institute (NDI), 455 Massachusetts Ave NW, 8th Floor, Board Room, Washington, DC 20001

Proposals for a standing United Nations (UN) peacekeeping body – often referred to as a UN Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS) – have percolated for decades in order to prevent armed conflict and atrocity crimes, protect civilians at extreme risk, ensure prompt start-up of peace-keeping operations, and provide immediate humanitarian assistance in emergencies. However, these discussions have not always engaged with some of the uncomfortable aspects of previous peacekeeping operations, including the failure to adhere to a “do not harm” principle, in particular toward vulnerable women and girls. With the UN Summit of the Future on the horizon and the People’s Pact for the Future is developing apace, UNEPS and similar proposals are gaining support from civil society and States. This panel discussion aims to ensure that such initiatives draw from past experience as they look to the future.

This Q&A panel discussion – hosted by Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS) and the World Federalist Movement/Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP)  – will draw on lessons learned from past and current UN peacekeeping operations to explore why and probe how all current United Nations permanent peace force proposals should apply a gender sensitive approach.

Keynote & Moderator 

Augusto Lopez-Claros, Executive Director of the Global Governance Forum, Senior Fellow at the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and former Director of the Global Indicators Group in DEC of the World Bank (In-person)

Co-moderator: Rebecca A. Shoot, Executive Director of Citizens for Global Solutions (In-person)

Panelists

• Valeria Babără, Legal and Advocacy Officer, Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice (Remote)
• Madeleine Rees, OBE, is a British lawyer and current Secretary General of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, as well as a visiting professor at UCLA (USA) and LSE (UK), and whistleblower in the Bosnia UN human sex trafficking scandal  (Remote)
• Maj. Alistair Plimmer (Ret.), Senior Commander of the Bougainville Truce Monitoring Group (Remote)
• Lauren Van Metre, Ph.D. Director, Peace, Climate and Democratic Resilience National Democratic Institute (In-person)
• Alyn Ware, Interim Executive Director, WFM-IGP; Global Coordinator, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (In-person)

Resources

UN Security Council 2008 Resolution 1820
Gender, Peace and Security
Global Governance and the Emergence of Global Institutions for the 21st Century, pp 131 – 180
They Came Together Not to be Silenced Report
Soldiers Without Guns – Women of Bougainville
Ensuring Participation Of Women In Peace And Disarmament
Political and Peacekeeping Affairs of the UN
US Civil Society Working Group’s Recommendations for the Forthcoming US Strategy on Women, Peace and Security
Confronting Misconceptions: The Axiom of UN Women in War Zones

About the Organizers

Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS) is a non-governmental, non-profit, non-partisan membership-based organization that for more than 75 years has brought together a diverse collective of individuals and organizations with a common goal of a unified world predicated upon peace, human rights, and the rule of law. From championing ratification of the UN Charter upon our establishment in 1947 to supporting creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) 25 years ago to advocating for global instruments to confront today’s enduring challenges of war and climate degradation, CGS recognizes that true progress is a generational enterprise. 

World Federalist Movement – Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP The World Federalist Movement/Institute for Global Policy (WFM/IGP), established in 1947, is a non-profit organization registered in the USA and the Netherlands. Guided by its vision of a just, free, and peaceful world, WFM/IGP works to promote the rule of law and global governance of transnational issues including those related to peace, human rights, and the environment. Our vision is a just, free, and peaceful world, where humanity and nature flourish in harmony, while our mission is to create more effective, transparent, and accountable global governance leading to democratic world federation.