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41. The Future of Mass Atrocities and Atrocity Prevention: Report from the 2020 Sudikoff Interdisciplinary Seminar on Genocide Prevention

Author:
Lawerence Woocher and Jonathan Strauss
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Abstract:
This report compiles essays from several leading experts who participated in the seminar series. We asked them to reflect on one or more key themes and offer recommendations for research and/or policy initiatives that could help current and future leaders address mass atrocities. The collection of essays reflects the breadth and diversity of issues that are likely to affect mass atrocities and their prevention over the next decade. Reflecting on changes in the distribution of political power and weakening anti-atrocity norms, Scott Straus identifies four significant challenges for the atrocity prevention agenda. Dara Kay Cohen highlights an often-neglected factor--sex and gender inequalities-- and argues that it is likely to worsen over the next decade in ways that will exacerbate risks of mass atrocities. Roudabeh Kishi discusses how monitoring and early warning initiatives must adapt to changes in the information environment and the changing nature of atrocities. Dismas Nkunda focuses on how COVID-19 has affected civil society efforts to address mass atrocities. Finally, Jennifer Welsh discusses war crimes, “extreme atrocity,” and political barriers to effective prevention—three key issues for the prevention of mass atrocities over the coming decade.
Topic:
Civil Society, Politics, War Crimes, Inequality, Norms, Atrocities, COVID-19, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

42. Gender, Law, and Security: Selected Student Research from the Project on Gender and the Global Community, 2019-2020

Author:
Barbara Buckinx, Beth English, Jake Gutman, Seoyoung Hong, Mikaylah Ladue, Katrin Lewis, and Liza Paudel
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:
Who is the ‘self’ in self-determination? Feminist scholars and activists have long noted that, when self-determination means primarily non-interference in the internal affairs of a governing body, practices and traditions through which men dominate women can flourish. In order to fully realize the promise of the concept of self-determination, it is therefore best understood in both collective and individual forms. Women across the world have long sought to influence and shape the nature of their own lives, with a gendered understanding of power and how hierarchies of power are not only created and maintained, and perpetuate inequalities, but also how they can potentially be reorganized and remade. In this spirit, the research agenda and related activities of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination at Princeton University’s Project on Gender in the Global Community (GGC) uses gender as a primary lens for analysis and starting point for broader dialogues about sustainable development, state building, economic and political participation, negotiation and mediation, peace, and security. The GGC Student Fellows Program, inaugurated during the 2017-18 academic year, has been an integral complement to this work. Building on student interest in the GGC project and modeled on the successful student fellows program organized as part of LISD’s Project on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations (PORDIR), a dedicated student cohort of Princeton students ranging from first-year undergraduates to Ph.D. candidates and postdocs, were selected through a competitive application process. Over the course of the 2019-20 fellowship year, GGC fellows pursued independent, academically rigorous research, a sampling of which is presented in this publication. In December 2019, they presented their projects alongside peers from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs during a joint student research day. The papers in this volume include the written output of this independent work, which represents a variety of disciplines and methodologies and reflect the range of work undertaken by GGC students throughout the year.
Topic:
Governance, Law, Self Determination, Influence, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

43. Women and Children First

Author:
Elena Habersky
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:
School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:
Women and children migrant voices, especially after the pandemic, must be amplified in discussions around the Global Compact, which aims to bring world governments in line with good and safe migration governance.
Topic:
Migration, Governance, Children, Women, Humanitarian Crisis, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

44. Centring Gender and Power in Evaluation and Research: Sharing experiences from Oxfam GB’s quantitative impact evaluations

Author:
Sarah Barakat, Alexia Pretari, and Jaynie Vonk
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Bringing a feminist intent to research, monitoring and evaluation practices leads to defining these as tools to contribute to transforming the lives of women, girls and non-binary people, and to bringing about social justice. This has meant putting gender and power at the centre of our practice, which has in turn shaped the technical choices made specifically in quantitative impact evaluations. This paper focuses on describing how these technical choices, as well as ethical considerations, are changed by this feminist intent. The paper also presents the lessons learned and questions raised along the way, which may be useful for MEAL and research practitioners, as well as programme managers. How can we bring intersectionality to the fore? What does it mean to go beyond the gender binary? How can this work be transformative?
Topic:
Women, Feminism, LGBT+, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

45. The Ignored Pandemic: The Dual Crises of Gender-Based Violence and COVID-19

Author:
Rowan Harvey
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Gender Based Violence (GBV) is a global pandemic existing in all social groups across the globe, yet it has largely been ignored in the COVID-19 response and recovery plans. It is evident that the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified GBV, including domestic violence and intimate partner violence amongst other forms of violations, but the investments in GBV prevention and response are dramatically inadequate, with just 0.0002% of the overall COVID-19 response funding opportunities going into it. Barriers to achieving gender justice, such as harmful social norms, continue to exist, but progress made since the start of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign show that there are solutions, and feminist activism has been a driving force for progress on eliminating gender-based violence.
Topic:
Gender Based Violence, Violence, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

46. Not in This Together: How supermarkets became pandemic winners while women workers are losing out

Author:
Anouk Franck and Art Prapha
Publication Date:
06-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Inequality is worsening and exploitation of women is endemic across the global economy. While inequality of power and value was already deeply unfair before the pandemic, it has now reached shocking proportions. COVID-19 has cost global workers $3.7 trillion in lost income, and women and young workers have been hardest hit, as they are often found in the most insecure and lowest-paid jobs. Few places reveal this trend more clearly than supermarket supply chains. In stark contrast to the escalating human misery brought by the pandemic, the supermarket sector has largely been the standout winner of the crisis. Senior executives, the largest institutional investors, and mostly wealthy shareholders of global supermarkets continue to be rewarded with business-as-usual high compensation and dividends. In fact, during the pandemic, publicly listed supermarkets distributed 98% of net profits to their shareholders via dividends and share buybacks. Meanwhile, workers and producers, especially women, across the globe – the people we call ‘essential’ or ‘frontline’ workers – have seen their incomes stagnate or even fall, while their rights continue to be violated.
Topic:
Inequality, Pandemic, COVID-19, Labor Rights, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

47. Shining a Spotlight: A critical assessment of food and beverage companies’ delivery of sustainability commitments

Author:
Emma Fawcett and Suzanne Zweben
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
From 2013 to 2016, Oxfam's Behind the Brands campaign called on the world’s 10 biggest food and beverage companies to adopt stronger social and environmental sourcing policies and spurred significant commitments on women’s empowerment, land rights and climate change. Now, as the coronavirus pandemic worsens inequality and food insecurity around the world, we assess whether the companies have taken meaningful steps to implement the commitments they made in response to the campaign. In this report we find that while companies have taken action at the global level, progress stalls in translating those approaches to countries and through supply chains. There are positive examples and innovations happening in key sourcing countries. But key blockages must be addressed – including by providing the right incentives, disclosing suppliers and supporting suppliers to take up the agenda – to create change at scale.
Topic:
Environment, Food Security, Land Rights, Supply Chains, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

48. A Digital Social Contract That Safeguards Democracies and promotes Women's Rights Is Urgently Needed

Author:
Lucina Di Meco
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Turkish Policy Quarterly (TPQ)
Institution:
Transatlantic Policy Quarterly (TPQ)
Abstract:
Globally, women leaders online face relentless abuse, threats, and gendered disinformation campaigns, enabled by the lack of regulation on social media platforms causing women to become discouraged from entering public leadership and allowing anti-democratic regimes to silence critics and undermine women’s political participation. In Turkey, proposed social media reform allowing government regulation based on poorly defined definitions of disinformation coupled with the backsliding of women’s rights movements are providing a breeding ground for gendered disinformation. A small window has opened to show the responsibility of platforms for not acting sooner to address the harms their products cause on women, and democracy. We must take advantage of this moment by highlighting what the evidence demonstrates, shaping the global conversation on online harms against women.
Topic:
Women, Democracy, Gender, and Digital Space
Political Geography:
Global Focus

49. Teaching the WPS Agenda in a Changing Security Landscape: Women, Peace and Security Curriculum Consortium

Author:
Erin Cooper
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Our Secure Future
Abstract:
UN Security Council Resolution 1325 was unanimously supported in 2000. Twenty years in, even with such broad ranging support, progress towards the goals of Women, Peace and Security (WPS) has been slower than expected. In Canada and the United States, there is a legal mandate to incorporate Women, Peace and Security in the military and civil service sector, but implementation has been met with many challenges. Trainings and educational programs on WPS are created in silos such as academia, military, government, etc., and are often ad hoc. WPS and gender-based analysis must be mainstreamed throughout the entirety of the defense sector. Professional military education (PME) was identified as a key area to target to ensure a broader knowledge base and application of the WPS agenda. Key Findings: Introduce gender analysis/gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) early in the career of military and civil service members, treating it as a core capacity integrated throughout all levels and aspects of training and education; Start with the gender assessment of a situation to mainstream gender at the beginning of a decision-making or project design process; Integrate gender analysis/GBA+ and the WPS framework in operational military planning and training scenarios as taught by PME; Prioritize cross-pollination between PME, academic institutions, and policymakers for successful integration across the field; “real-world” applications, curriculum design, terminology/vocabulary, research, and theory should all inform each other; Ensure frequent consultation with civil society to design, monitor, and evaluate implementation of strategy and commitments; Professionalize the field with regular convenings and budget support that demonstrate institutional commitment to gender analysis/GBA+ and integration.
Topic:
Security, Armed Forces, WPS, Civil Servants, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

50. Women, Peace & Security, and the Digital Ecosystem: Five Emerging Trends in the Technology and Gender Policy Landscape

Author:
Sahana Dharmapuri and Jolynn Shoemaker
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Our Secure Future
Abstract:
While technology offers immense potential for humanity, the digital ecosystem has also revealed a darker side - and it is closely intertwined with gender inequality. From lack of participation and access to gender-based bias, harassment, and abuse, women’s experiences in the technology space and with digital platforms are often amplifying inequalities. These issues are not central priorities for technology leaders or policymakers, much like other facets of society. There are pockets of attention on gender dynamics, but they are siloed from one another, and this has prevented a full picture of the landscape or its broader implications. Despite some calls for values-driven or human-centered technology development, and for embedding human rights into technology policy, international policy frameworks that underscore human rights and gender equality are largely missing from the conversation. The proliferation of disinformation, targeting of women political candidates, or marginalized groups such as LGBTQ+ communities on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms, are repeating patterns and events in the digital ecosystem that have significant consequences for society. We were able to identify these system failures as repeating events that affect at least 50% of technology companies’ end-users--and half of the world’s population. For policymakers, the costs of ignoring these trends could lead to new technology, peace and security structures, processes that weaken core human rights, and gender equality norms and obligations around the world.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Women, Digitalization, WPS, Bias, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus