Issue 17: June 2002

New project looks at role of women
and children after the fighting

UN University's Peace and Governance Programme has launched a new project to examine the needs of women and children in post-conflict societies. The project's first workshop – Women and Children in Post-conflict Peace Building – was held at UNU Centre in Tokyo May 26-27. 

Drawing from case studies around the world, the project will assess the most pressing issues that need to be addressed by local and external actors to secure a lasting return to acceptable economic, political, cultural, and educational conditions for women and children.

War-torn societies are marked by the traumatic disruptions of economic, political and social relations between communities and community members.  Wars exacerbate existing divisions ad create new ones.  In many cases, the nature of the political, economic and socio-cultural breakdown, particularly of diverse communities, makes it extremely difficult to re-create a sense of identity and belonging after the conflicts have ended.

Women, mothers, and children, being among the more vulnerable populations in conflicts, are particularly affected by the traumas of war in post-war societies.  While these vulnerable populations suffer because of their limited access to power, their interests continue to be underrepresented in post-conflict peace building efforts unless NGOs and international organizations involved in rebuilding war-torn societies take up their causes.

Albrecht Schnabel

The role of women and children in post-conflict societies has been a major concern of the work of the UN, regional organisations and the NGO community. This project attempts to provide a global, comparative, perspective of the challenges that face women and children in post-conflict peace building environments, to draw attention to and offer lessons about a more just inclusion of the needs and interests of women and children in rebuilding economic, political and cultural structures of society.

The project, co-directed by Dr. Albrecht Schnabel (UNU) and Dr. Anara Tabyshalieva (Institute for Regional Studies, Bishkek). will run to the end of the year with final results to be published next year. 

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