COURSE: Course E058: Women, Peace and Security
Course E058: Women, Peace and Security
21 May-1 July 2014 (E05814) | Register for this course
Instructors: Corey Barr and Nicola Popovic
It is now recognised that conflict prevention, recovery and peacebuilding cannot succeed if half the population is excluded. Conflict prevention, peace agreements, post-conflict reconstruction, and governance is more effective when women are involved and when their needs and priorities are taken into account. Documents such as the UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security (1325, 1820, 1888, 1889 and 1960) outline concrete actions to be taken by the international community and respective Member States to address women, peace and security issues. These include actions to increase women's participation at all levels of conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and peacekeeping initiatives; the protection of women and girls during armed conflict; and the prevention of gender-based violence.While normative global, regional and national frameworks have increasingly been developed over the last decade, the comprehensive implementation of the resolutions remains the greatest challenge. Conflict prevention, peace negotiations, peacekeeping missions and conflict resolution mechanisms often ignore women's voices and fail to address the needs of women.This e-learning course provides participants with an understanding of how a gender lens is critical to all elements of peacebuilding, conflict resolution and recovery work, initiatives and policy. It outlines the normative framework around women's rights and peacebuilding, security sector governance, approaches to transitional justice, security policy making and awareness raising on women's and gender issues. This course uses weekly case studies to illustrate how the normative framework has been put into practice in different regions of the world. Finally, the course takes a critical look at the implementation of the women, peace and security resolutions, including gaps that that make a comprehensive, realistic and effective response to gender, peace and security issues challenging in field as well as in the global discourse. Participants will critically analyse international interventions on peace and security from a women's rights perspective.The certificate course involves approximately 30 hours of reading, on-line working groups, webinars, quizzes, a writing assignment, and interaction among students and the instructors, and is offered over an six-week period. The course will integrate active and participatory learning approaches within activities and assignments, with an emphasis on reflective and collaborative learning. The maximum number of course participants is 25. Students who successfully complete the course will receive a Certificate of Participation. It is also possible to audit the course.
Course outline:
Week 1. Introduction to women, peace and security
Week 2. The normative framework around women, peace and security
Week 3. The 3 P's of women, peace and security: participation, prevention and protection
Week 4. Implementation of the women, peace and security agenda at the international, regional, national and local levels
Week 5. Challenges and lessons learned in implementation
Week 6. Tools and ways forward
Course instructors:
Corey Barr is Program Associate at Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) where she works on the organization's distance learning program and self-directed e-courses. Previously, Corey worked as an independent consultant on gender, peace and security issues during which time she worked at the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women and subsequently UN Women. Corey has also worked on gender, security, humanitarian affairs and human rights with the International Action Network on Small Arms, the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University, Mercy Corps, Amnesty International and the International Service for Human Rights. Corey holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University. She holds a university degree from Hampshire College.
Nicola Popovic is an independent consultant on gender, peace and security. For almost 10 years, she has worked with institutions such as the United Nations (UNDP, UNW), civil society organisations (including Cordaid, DCAF, FOKUS, GNWP, and International Alert), foundations (Heinrich Boell Stiftung) and academia. Nicola has developed comprehensive gender peace and security programmes in different geographic regions and overseen projects in countries such as the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Liberia, and Zimbabwe. Currently, she focuses on projects around capacity development and monitoring and evaluation. Nicola holds a B.A. in State Studies from the University of Erfurt (Germany), a Master of Law in International Peace Support Operations from the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, and a postgraduate diploma in Human Development and Peace Education.
Who should apply:
The course is intended for human rights/women's human rights/humanitarian staff of INGOs, NGOs, UN officers intergovernmental and government agencies, women's advocates and feminists, university students of international law, international relations, politics and other areas practitioners who want to learn about peacebuilding and it gender dimensions. The course is also intended for staff members of UN specialised agencies who want to learn more about gender equality and women's empowerment in post-conflict settings. Participants should have a good written command of English and have high competence and comfort with computer and Internet use. The number of participants is limited to 25 per course. HREA aims to ensure equal gender and geographical distribution across the selected participants. It is also possible to audit the course.
Costs:
Tuition fee for participants: US$ 575; tuition for auditors: US$ 215.Payments can be made online by major credit cards (Discover, MasterCard, Visa), PayPal and bank and wire transfer. Bulk rates are available.
Registration: Register for this course (page opens in new window)