Women and Power-Sharing in Peace Processes
04 November 2020, 03-04 pm CEST
Professor Christine Bell
Professor of Constitutional Law
The University of Edinborough, Edinborough Law School
While considerable attention has been given to how to support women to engage with constitutional reform, transitional justice, and security sector reform, there has been much less academic and policy attention given to how owmen can engage with power-sharing mechanisms. However, because agreement over how power is to be held and exercised by those at the heart of the conflict tends to affect all other issues on the negotiating table, it is vital for women to engage with power-sharing proposals. This lecture sets out the various contexts in which different forms of political power-sharing are established in peace process to indicate the challenges, strategies, tactics and alliances for women who are not at the centre of the conflict as well as other groups.
Prof Chrstine Bell, FBA, FRSE is Assistant Principal (Global Justice), and Professor of Constitutional Law, School of Law, University of Edinburgh. She is the Principal Investigator and Director of the Political Settlements Research Programme (PRSP). Her research interests lie in the interface between constitutional and international law, gender and conflict, and legal theory, with a particular interest in peace processes and their agreements.