Peace and Justice through a Feminist Lens: Gender Justice and the Women’s Court for the Former Yugoslavia"

O'Reilly, Maria. 2016. Peace and Justice through a Feminist Lens: Gender Justice and the Women’s Court for the Former Yugoslavia". Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 10(3), pp. 419-445. ISSN 1750-2977 [Article]

[img]
Preview
Text
RISB Final Manuscript Women's Court for GRO.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.

Download (821kB) | Preview

Abstract or Description

Post-conflict interventions to ‘deal with’ violent pasts have moved from exception to global norm. Early efforts to achieve peace and justice were critiqued as ‘gender-blind’—for failing to address sexual and gender-based violence, and neglecting the gender-specific interests and needs of women in transitional settings. The advent of UN Security Council resolutions on ‘Women, Peace and Security’ provided a key policy framework for integrating both women and gender issues into transitional justice processes and mechanisms. Despite this, gender justice and equality in (post-)conflict settings remain largely unachieved. This article explores efforts to attain gender-just peace in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). It critically examines the significance of a recent ‘bottom-up’ truth-telling project—the Women’s Court for the former Yugoslavia—as a locally engaged approach to achieving justice and redress for women impacted by armed conflict. Drawing on participant observation, documentary analysis, and interviews with women activists, the article evaluates the successes and shortcomings of responding to gendered forms of wartime violence through truth-telling. Extending Nancy Fraser’s tripartite model of justice to peacebuilding contexts, the article advances notions of recognition, redistribution and representation as crucial components of gender-just peace. It argues that recognizing women as victims and survivors of conflict, achieving a gender-equitable distribution of material and symbolic resources, and enabling women to participate as agents of transitional justice processes are all essential for transforming the structural inequalities that enable gender violence and discrimination to materialize before, during, and after conflict.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1080/17502977.2016.1199482

Additional Information:

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding on 31 August 2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17502977.2016.1199482

Keywords:

feminism, gender justice, international, local, Nancy Fraser, UNSCR 1325

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Sociology

Dates:

DateEvent
31 August 2016Published
25 January 2016Accepted

Item ID:

18856

Date Deposited:

02 Sep 2016 13:27

Last Modified:

29 Apr 2020 16:20

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/18856

View statistics for this item...

Edit Record Edit Record (login required)