These panels (2 panels proposed as back to back events) explore various themes related to gender, security and development including the intersections between women, peace and security and human rights/LGBTQIA2S+; local indigenous perspectives on Peacebuilding, transitional justice, grassroots women's strategies for peace, and women's economic security.

This study critically examines the recent military escalations in the Middle East through a feminist lens. The research also explores intersections with broader issues such as climate change, aiming to provide a nuanced understanding of the complex dynamics in the context.

In this informal presentation I will introduce the main ideas behind my doctoral research project, centered on the post-peace deal developments in Colombia and its transitional justice (TJ) model. In 2016 the Colombian Government and the largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC) signed a peace deal ending 5 decades of internal conflict. In 2018, Duque, an opponent of the peace deal, was elected President and support for peace processes suffered, while the current left-wing government of President Petro won the 2022 elections on a pro-peace platform. Taking the impetus from these historic moments, I seek to investigate the extent to which promises for a transformative TJ have materialised since 2016. I question whether TJ processes in Colombia are a manifestation of bottom-up transformation or political rhetoric. I am also interested in comparing how implementation of peace processes is faring under the current (left-wing) government vis-à-vis the previous (right-wing) government. Finally, I seek to examine and discuss the role of the local (f)actors in the periphery vis-à-vis national (f)actors at the centre in influencing transformative change as I set to analyse the impact of the TJ processes from the eyes of women and marginalized Colombians in the periphery.

Scholars have criticized Western empowerment metrics like Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), the Gender and Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Inequality Index (GII) as elitist and Eurocentric. These metrics erase the invaluable work of African grassroots women’s organizations for women empowerment and present a truncated picture of (dis) empowerment.

In Ghana, major donor-funded and state-led women’s organizations dominate the women empowerment discourse while grassroots perspectives on women’s empowerment, which are more likely to represent the layered and intersectional realities of Ghanaian women, are pushed to the periphery. The purpose of my study is therefore to uncover Ghanaian grassroots organizations’ perspectives and theories on empowerment and how these influence their work on larger transnational discourses on the matter. This study will be an African feminist ethnographic study framed within the African (Black) Feminist Standpoint and Intersectionality theories that emphasize African women’s knowledge to decenter harmful hegemonic perspectives. Participants of the study will be two grassroots women’s organizations in Ghana, African Women Initiative (AFAWI) and Sirigu Women’s Organization for Pottery and Art (SWOPA). Data will be collected through participant observation, key informant interviews and document analysis.

The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda is, at its core, a human rights based agenda. WPS has focused on increasing the participation and protection of women (and increasingly LGBTQIA2S+ people) its peace and security activities. Protection and participation have, however, largely evolved as distinct pillars of WPS. This separation obscures the inherent connection between protection and participation, and specifically how the participation of women increases their risks and therefore need for protection. This is especially evident in the work of women human rights defenders and LGBTQIA2S+ human rights defenders, who often work in dangerous contexts to advocate for the rights of those most marginalized. Canada has made improvements, seen in its second NAP (and likely its pending third NAP), in recognizing the connection between protection and participation. However, specific references to women and LGBTQIA2S+ human rights defenders are sparse, there is little connection to the government’s other human rights defenders initiatives, and dedicated funding remains limited. This contribution will be in part based on a forthcoming (2024) co-authored book chapter.