Decades of research show that conflict has a disproportionate impact on women and girls. Whether faced with sexual and gender-based violence during war, or sidelined from transitional institutions in its aftermath, women continue to struggle for equal recognition and participation in peace and security processes. International and domestic legal frameworks are important tools in advancing women’s protection and agency. Law can offer innovative solutions for preventing and prosecuting gendered harms during conflict, as well as opening opportunities for women’s participation in post-conflict transitions and relief and recovery efforts. Panelists discussed how legal frameworks have been, or should be, used to prevent and address sexual violence, and create more equal post-conflict societies.
Sophie Huvé is the 2017-2018 Hillary Rodham Clinton Law Fellow with the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. She received her LLM in International Legal Studies at Georgetown University Law Center, with a certificate in International Human Rights. Her current research looks at the use of UN Sanctions in combatting sexual violence in conflict.
Naomi Cahn is the Harold H. Greene Professor of Law at The George Washington University Law School. She has written numerous law review articles on family law, feminist jurisprudence, and reproductive technology. She is the author of several books, including The New Kinship (forthcoming 2012); and Test Tube Families: Why the Fertility Market Needs Legal Regulation (2009) and On the Frontlines: Women, Gender, and the PostConflict Process (2011) (with Professors Fionnuala Ni Aoláin and Dina Haynes). Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and The New Yorker, and she has appeared on numerous media outlets.