On the Frontlines ─ Gender, War, and the Post-Conflict Process

Gender oppression has been a feature of war and conflict throughout human history, yet until fairly recently, little attention was devoted to addressing the consequences of violence and discrimination experienced by women in post-conflict states. Thankfully, that is changing. Today, in a variety of post-conflict settings--the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Colombia, Northern Ireland --international advocates for women's rights have focused bringing issues of sexual violence, discrimination and exclusion into peace-making processes.

In On the Frontlines, Fionnuala Ni?? Aoli??in, Dina Francesca Haynes, and Naomi Cahn consider such policies in a range of cases and assess the extent to which they have had success in improving women's lives. They argue that there has been too little success, and that this is in part a product of a focus on schematic policies like straightforward political incorporation rather than a broader and deeper attempt to alter the cultures and societies that are at the root of much of the violence and exclusions experienced by women. They contend that this broader approach would not just benefit women, however. Gender mainstreaming and increased gender equality has a direct correlation with state stability and functions to preclude further conflict. If we are to have any success in stabilizing failing states, gender needs to move to fore of our efforts. With this in mind, they examine the efforts of transnational organizations, states and civil society in multiple jurisdictions to place gender at the forefront of all post-conflict processes. They offer concrete analysis and practical solutions to ensuring gender centrality in all aspects of peace making and peace enforcement.

Fionnuala Ni?? Aoli??in concurrently holds the Dorsey & Whitney Chair in Law at the University of Minnesota Law School and a Chair in Law at the Transitional Justice Institute (Belfast). She was a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard Law School, and Associate-in-Law at Columbia Law School, Associate Professor of Law at the Hebrew University and co-founder of the Transitional Justice Institute at the University of Ulster. Ni?? Aoli??in has been active in human rights and women's rights issues in Ireland and internationally throughout her academic career.

Dina Francesca Haynes is Professor of Law at New England Law | Boston. She has previously taught at Georgetown Law Center, American University's Washington College of Law and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Prior to teaching, Haynes was a practicing international human rights lawyer in a variety of positions and has worked on human rights, human trafficking, gender, and post conflict reconstruction issues in Chad, Botswana, South Africa, Rwanda, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia and Romania.

Naomi Cahn is the John Theodore Fey Research Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School. She has written numerous law review articles and several books in the areas of family law, international law, and feminism. Professor Cahn is co-chair of the Women in International Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law, and a member of the Yale Cultural Cognition Project.