Concern with the use explosive weapons in populated areas has increased over the last few years, due to the severe harm caused to civilians and the wider community.

However, the debate has so far not sufficiently highlighted the specific impact that explosive weapons have on women.

This publication seeks to draw attention to some of the unique impacts on women that explosive weapons have when used in populated areas.

The publication argues that it is important to ensure that women affected by the use of explosive weapons receive the same assistance and legal protection as men, and that they are seen as active agents of change rather than only as victims.

The report is part of Reaching Critical Will's work to highlight the impact of weapons on women and the importance of a strengthening a gender perspective in disarmament and arms control in order to ensure inclusive security and prevent all human suffering.

The report briefly describes explosive weapons and the legal tools available to assess their use, focusing in particular on legal documents that support greater inclusion of gender analysis and women's participation. The second part of this paper gives an overview on how explosive weapons specifically affect women and why a gendered analysis of the impact of explosive weapons use in populated areas is needed.

You can download the full report as a pdf here.

After more than a decade of an international intervention and close to the proclaimed second post-2014 transition phase, women's political participation remains precarious and volatile in Afghanistan despite inroads made. Regardless of violence and discrimination faced by society and politicians, women participate at all levels of Afghan society and politics – as voters, candidates, lawmakers, council members, ministers, governors, bureaucrats, civil society activists, members of the security forces or the judiciary. Many women parliamentarians were reelected and became more experienced as lawmakers; others moved from civil society or provincial councils into national politics, trying to make a difference for Afghanistan's people, in particular women. Discriminatory attitudes among key power-brokers, opinion- and decision-makers, continuously high levels of insecurity and threat along with a decreasing political interest and will of national and international key actors to support gender policies and women's political mainstreaming are some of the key obstacles identified.
Women activists and lawmakers demand due diligence for promises made, inroads built, spaces carved out and steps to be taken to ensure a more peaceful post-2014 Afghanistan. For them, their sociopolitical struggle as lawmakers needs to be supported by responsible intervention and transition actors – be it within Afghanistan's political system and during peace negotiation processes or at regional and international levels.

For the full Report download here.

This book demonstrates that gender is a key component of conflict and peace discourse. The marginalization of women in conflict and peace is all pervasive. Kashmir is a mirror image of this global scenario. Kashmiri women aided the militant movement in significant ways though they did not take part in direct combat. They played key roles to sustain and nourish the movement - as protestors, protectors and motivators, and facilitators. Their experiences of participation in the conflict, however, remain subdued by the dominant masculinist discourse. Kashmiri women are excluded from the militancy discourse as contributors as well as from peacemaking discourse as stakeholders. The study interrogates theory and practice of women's participation in conflict and argues that changed gender-roles during conflict do not necessarily revolutionize socially ascribed norms. The book also examines the experiences of women in sustaining conflict to make a case for their due place in negotiating formal peace.