Feminisms in conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Mapping 'women's movement' currents in the unfolding discourse of the 'Peace, Security and Cooperation framework'

Key information

Date
Time
5:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Venue
Russell Square: College Buildings
Room
Kamran Djam Lecture Theatre (DLT)

About this event

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED

CANCELLED

Niamh Reilly, Director, Global Women's Studies, National University of Ireland, Galway

Much of what has been written about women and gender in the DRC conflict over the past decade has focused on the issue of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) as a weapon or tactic of war. Undoubtedly SGBV has and continues to be a major issue affecting many thousands of women and girls in the DRC, as well as men and boys. However, arguably, the predominance of quite reductionist accounts of SGBV, especially in 'global' feminist narratives of the conflict in the DRC, have been problematic, not least in crowding out local-national level articulations of women's movement perspectives and priorities. Seeking to shift the focus from 'women as victims of SGBV', this seminar explores a wider and more complicated horizon of feminist engagement and discursive practices in the DRC in the context of the ongoing, fragile transition from conflict to 'peace.' It accepts the premise that the patterns of SGBV in the DRC are an expression of profound social inequalities, as well a symptom of the conflict per se, and that greater participation by women in peace processes and peace building, among other things, is part of what it means to tackle the root causes of conflict. Arguably, the ways and the extent to which the post-conflict ‘opportunity’ to advance gender equality and women’s rights occurs, are integrally tied to the nature of women’s movement actors and activities in a given context and to their specific characteristics and modes of engagement with the State and other significant ‘state-like’ entities, including international entities and actors. Based on recent research on the presence of women's movement actors and the operation of gender in the implementation of the the Peace, Security and Cooperation (PSC) Framework for the DRC and region (Feb. 2103), this seminar posits a mapping of 'women's movement' currents in the DRC in the unfolding discourse of the PSC framework, with a focus on the nexus of local-national level and global level feminisms vis-a-vis the UN 'women, peace and security' agenda.

Niamh Reilly is a Senior Lecturer and co-director of Global Women's Studies at the School of Political Science and Sociology, National University of Ireland, Galway. She has published widely on transnational women's movements, feminist theory and gender and human rights. Her most recent book (with S. Scriver) is Religion, Gender and the Public Sphere (Routledge 2014). Her previous book, Women's Human Rights: Seeking Gender Justice in a Globalising Age (Polity Press, 2009) was selected as an 'Outstanding Academic Title for 2010' by the American Library Association/CHOICE. Niamh has many years' experience working with United Nations processes and non-governmental organisations internationally and nationally in Ireland. She has served as an independent expert on the Irish government's Department of Foreign Affairs' Standing Committee on Human Rights (1997-1999) and its Consultative Group to draft Ireland's National Action Plan on UN Security Council 1325 (2010-2011). From 2004 to 2005 she served as a gender expert for Amnesty International's Stop Violence against Women (SVAW) Campaign. Before joining NUI Galway in 2007, Niamh was a UK Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster, and a postdoctoral fellow in Women's Studies and Politics at the University of Limerick, Ireland. From 1989 to 1996 Niamh worked with the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, during which time she was responsible for the Center's international campaigns, including establishing the original annual '16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence' in its initial years and coordination of two popular tribunals on women's human rights at UN conferences in Vienna (1993) and Beijing (1995). Niamh has a PhD in Politics (Rutgers University), an LLM in Peace Operations, Humanitarian Law and Conflict (NUI Galway), an MA in Economics (University of Wisconsin) and a BA in Politics and Economics (University College Dublin).

Organiser: Dr Gina Heathcote

Contact email: gh21@soas.ac.uk

Contact Tel: 020 7898 4367