Zagreb, July 14, 2023.
On Wednesday, July 12, 2023, in the Social and Cultural Center ‘Šesnaestica’, a member of our activist network, Karlo Vedak, held a lecture based on the knowledge gained during the course of the module ‘Feminist Peace and Security Studies: The Gendered Continuum of Peace-War’, which was held as part of the 14th International Summer School in Comparative Conflict Studies organized by the Center for Comparative Conflict Studies at the Faculty of Media and Communications of Singidunum University in Belgrade.
Karlo introduced the participants to the differences between feminist peace studies and feminist security studies, as well as basic terms important for understanding a gender and feminist-aware approach to transitional justice.
He also pointed out the importance of raising awareness of the understanding of war as dominantly masculine (due to the predominant position of men in the planning, implementation, and consequences of war), but which for its own purposes still requires the inclusion of women in various functions in the broadest sense - as health workers, sex workers, teachers, etc., but also as victims of rape and sexual violence. To a certain extent, it follows that it is important to bear in mind the diversity of the experience of women in war, which results from differences between women, but also from wars.
At the end, he presented three case studies that, from a liberal feminist perspective, show the importance of women's participation, i.e., the need for their better inclusion in decision-making spheres and peacebuilding (UN Resolution 1325), an example of how feminists were reacted to in the war atmosphere during the 1990s in Croatia ("The Witches of Rio") and a brief presentation of how Biljana Plavšić, the only woman convicted before the ICTY for war crimes, is (re)presented in the public space. Finally, some interesting topics were opened, such as the relationship between nationalism and gender or sports and war, which can become the topic of our future gatherings.
Karlo hereby opened a series of activities in which we will try to connect feminist, LGBTQ+, environmental, and other perspectives with the implementation of transitional justice mechanisms, and we are glad that we recognize the interests of our activists and create a space where they can develop, share knowledge, and discuss.
Project MLAD! is implemented with the financing of the Central State Office for Demography and Youth.
PHOTO: YIHR