WPS Resource Center
A tool for academics and practitioners interested in gender and conflict.
Moving Mountains
Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, Afghanistan has faced a grim confluence of crises—a failing economy, widespread poverty and famine, rampant human rights abuses, and a total erasure of the rights of women and girls. Devastating earthquakes and the deportation of Afghans from Pakistan have further compounded the challenges facing the country. The Taliban appear…
Pathways to Education for Afghan Women and Girls
This month, Afghanistan’s schools opened for the start of a new academic year, but Afghan girls remain excluded from the classroom. The Taliban’s ban on girls’ education has lasted over a year and its implications are dire. Without the promise of a secondary education, increases in forced child marriage, gender-based violence, and depression disproportionately affect…
Exploring the Links between Women’s Status and Democracy
From democratic backsliding in Tunisia, Ethiopia, and Hungary to the rise of far-right coalitions in Israel and Italy, threats to democracy are accelerating worldwide. At the same time, antidemocratic forces are rolling back women’s rights as a central part of their patriarchal-populist agendas. That democratic backsliding and backlash against women’s rights are occurring simultaneously prompts…
Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Through Multilateral Sanctions
The UN Security Council displays a troubling lack of action concerning reports of systematic conflict-related sexual violence. One of its worst failures is its disregard of the Myanmar military’s pattern of brutality and violence, both before and after the military’s coup d’état in February 2021. The Tatmadaw is responsible for the vast majority of sexual…
WPS Index: Reforming Family Law
This report was produced in collaboration with Women’s Learning Partnership (WPL), an international non-profit organization, a partnership of 20 autonomous women’s rights organizations located throughout the Global South promoting women’s leadership, civic engagement, and human rights. This paper draws on WPL’s anthology of family law case studies, Feminist Advocacy, Family Law and Violence against Women,…
Can the Women, Peace and Security Agenda and International Humanitarian Law Join Forces?
This report explores overlaps and synergies between International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda, specifically the protection and participation pillars of WPS. A summary of initial findings was presented in a policy brief of the same name in December 2020: Can the Women, Peace and Security Agenda and International Humanitarian…
Human Rights
The following is material to consider for your syllabus related to: International Law Peacekeeping Race in International Relations The Global Human Rights Regime Women’s Rights and Gender in International Relations Women, Peace and Security: please also visit our WPS Resource Center for nearly 2,000 articles, books, and documents related to gender and security. Specifically, there…
Beijing+25: Accelerating Progress for Women and Girls
Beijing+25: Accelerating Progress for Women and Girls is a roadmap to advance global gender equality authored by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security (GIWPS), with support from The Rockefeller Foundation and in collaboration with Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton. Marking the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, which took…
How are the Domains of Women’s Inclusion, Justice, and Security Associated with Maternal and Infant Mortality Across Countries?
In SSM – Population Health, GIWPS’ Jeni Klugman and Jennifer Parsons collaborate with UCSD researchers to examine how women’s autonomy and empowerment in their homes, communities, and societies at large have been shown, through many direct and indirect pathways, to be associated with maternal and infant health. A novel global measure—the Women, Peace, and Security…
Financial Inclusion and Intimate Partner Violence: What Does the Evidence suggest?
In the peer reviewed journal PLOS One, GIWPS’ Dr. Jeni Klugman and co-authors explore financial inclusion, an area of growing global interest in women’s empowerment policy and programming. While increased economic autonomy may be expected to reduce the prevalence of intimate partner violence, the mechanisms and contexts through which this relationship manifests are not well…
Reducing Sexual Abuse and Exploitation in UN Peacekeeping Missions
Sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by United Nations (UN) peacekeepers is a critical issue. The UN has had a zero-tolerance policy in place since 2003 and has made data on SEA allegations in peace operations publicly available since 2007. This data reveals that peacekeeping missions with civilian protection mandates account for over 95 percent of…
Election-Related Violence Against Women in Nigeria
“The 2014-2015 election period in Nigeria is creating unrest and concern over increasing rates of election-related violence against women. 2014 was reportedly “the most violent year” for women in Nigeria, in large part due to Boko Haram’s targeted kidnapping of and attacks against women and girls. They are also known to have coerced women and…
