Elena Stavrevska
Kroc Institute Visiting Research Fellow
Over the years, scholars have problematized the notions of justice and peace, and the critical importance of addressing structural injustices in preventing future conflicts and setting the basis for sustainable peace. This has included gendered injustice that feminist scholars of transitional justice have often highlighted. A further notable attempt to bring to the fore the role of women in peace processes has been made with the adoption of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and the Women, Peace and Security agenda.
Despite these advances, little research has been done on the socioeconomic status of women in post-war societies beyond them being recipients of help, despite the fact that these societies are also very poor. Moreover, there are no studies that offer an intersectional perspective and account for experiences and inequalities that are informed by more than a sum of different categories. By looking at how perspectives on peace and justice, introduced through peace agreements and translated to institutional and policy forms, affect the lives and subjectivities of women in ethnicized, racialized, and classed ways, Stavrevska’s research attempts to address that gap.
In this lecture, Dr. Stavrevska will present preliminary findings research and data analysis from the Peace Accords Matrix and the Women and Peace Agreement Database, along with narratives of everyday lived intersectional realities of peace and justice for rural women in Bosnia. By connecting peace agreements and women’s lived experiences of justice, the research highlights the understanding of justice at the core of sustainable peace. To that end, it not only tackles an important gap in both transitional justice and peace and conflict literature, but it also offers and argues for a more nuanced understanding of peace and justice, which is at the heart of long-term stability, conflict resolution, and security.
Free and open to the public.
Originally published at kroc.nd.edu.