Monday 8th February

Radical Homemakers

Shannon Hayes, 8 February 2010
Rediscovering and reshaping a world in which husbands were house-bound and families were free, what are the skills and virtues needed for a life of radical voluntary domestic simplicity?
Friday 5th February

Schools and sex abuse in Sierra Leone

Annabel Symington, 5 February 2010
Humu Tavawallie went to school for an education, but was forced into sex with her teacher to pay for her exams. This is an all too common problem in Sierra Leone, and entrenched social attitudes make it difficult to tackle, writes Annabel Symington
Monday 1st February

Meeting in monochrome: women and the Afghanistan conference

Sara Mojtehedzadeh, 1 February 2010
The picture said it all; an expanse of suits broken only by Hillary's blonde bob floating in their midst. The London Conference on Afghanistan gave birth to sweeping statements and soaring ambitions. But were they, in the end, as flat as those grey rows of suits?
Friday 29th January

Negotiating with the Taliban: the view from below

Deniz Kandiyoti, 29 January 2010
While the only official woman delegate in the Afghan mission to the London Conference pleaded that women’s rights must not be sacrificed on the altar of security concerns, women’s rights activists who had also travelled to London brought their own message

Britain and genocide

Martin Shaw, 29 January 2010
The official annual commemoration of a century of genocide and its victims should be accompanied by a responsible awareness of Britain’s own historical record, says Martin Shaw. (This article was first published on 27 January 2009)
Wednesday 27th January

CEDAW: designed to be used

Jane Esuantsiwa Goldsmith, 27 January 2010
CEDAW is not just a wish list from which politicians in the UK can ‘pick-n-mix’ when drawing up their shopping lists of “things to do about women”. Jane Esuantsiwa Goldsmith argues that in the run up to the general election it is an instrument we can use to call our politicians to account.
Tuesday 26th January

Politics, race and the recession

Phoebe Griffith, 26 January 2010
During a recession British politicians need to listen to civil society and think carefully about how they debate race.

Violence and democracy in Bolivia

Carolina Gottardo and Maria Eugenia Rojas, 26 January 2010
Dr Ana Maria Encina’s election earlier this month as mayor of Santa Cruz is a sign that Bolivian women are not going to be deterred by the increasing levels of violence directed at them as they run for public office.
Thursday 21st January

War: justifiable or simply catastrophic?

Diana Francis, 21 January 2010
The global phenomenon of war distorts our ongoing attempts to build peace in conflict after conflict and in many different ways. Diana Francis looks at some of the evidence and asks if war can be justified
Monday 18th January

Is gender a universal category? The double edged sword of identity politics.

Jameen Kaur, 18 January 2010
Jameen Kaur reports on the three day conference on ‘Women Deepening Democracy: Transforming Gender Equality. From Groucho Marx to a Revolution Fund – and beyond.

Deepening democracy by building gender equality

Anne Marie Goetz and Rob Jenkins, 18 January 2010
The conference on 'Women deepening democracy' held in New Delhi last week examined what can be done to tackle the gender-specific double standard encoded into the DNA of political liberalism
Thursday 14th January

Stress, quarrels and neglect: the 'normal' polygamous family

Masjaliza Hamzah and Norami Othman, 14 January 2010
A large-scale study currently underway across Malaysia uncovers proof that polygamy harms everyone involved: from emotionally scarred children, to wives who think they’d be better off as single-parent households, and even husbands who admit “I wouldn’t recommend it for my son; it’s quite stressful.”
Tuesday 12th January

Peace process in Mindanao

Paul Clifford, 12 January 2010
How does conflict transformation work? Peace advisers have a particular range of skills which must be adapted and applied to circumstances that are always unique. But even where local, national and international ngo’s are involved, the transformation has to be brought about by the people themselves
Monday 21st December

Beyond stalemate: replacing the vicious with the virtuous circle

Diana Francis, 21 December 2009
What is conflict transformation? How do you begin to approach the mutual hurt of conflict embedded in systems and culture? There are many strands to a challenging and delicate process. Here are some of them

The challenge of moving from war to peace

Bridget Walker, 21 December 2009
One of the challenges in this set of unseen and unsung practices is how to make it visible and strengthen its advocacy without destroying its impact. Conflict transformation work not only deserves but needs a wider audience
Friday 18th December

Nuanced agency in local-international peacebuilding:

Stefanie Kappler, 18 December 2009
In attempting to secure nonviolent transformation as a bottom-up mechanism, ‘uncomfortable voices’ may be ignored in favour of those more palatable to the peacebuilders. This is at the least a missed opportunity

A Welcome to Diana Francis’ reflections: Conflict Transformed

Paula Green, 18 December 2009
This new generation missed out on the US civil rights movement, where nonviolent direct action was employed brilliantly and strategically in the service of change. Now it’s time for all of us to respond to the ultimate challenge of how warfare dominates our discourse

Last but not least: CEDAW and family law

Cassandra Balchin, 18 December 2009
When injustice in marriage and the family is such a pervasive experience for women and girls, why is family law largely invisible as a global policy issue? What are the prospects for last to no longer remain least?

What will it take to realise our vision of a just and equal world?

Emily Esplen, 18 December 2009
After thirty years of CEDAW, gender equality is at a vital juncture. How can we progress towards a just and equal world through such tumultuous times? Emily Esplen calls for a radical democratisation of political spaces, and the fashioning of new, inclusive alliances for justice

Making human rights for women a reality

Lee Waldorf, 18 December 2009
There has been a critical shift from CEDAW being an aspirational international document, to its gender equality standards becoming entrenched in national constitutions, laws and policies around the world. Lee Waldorf reflects on how and why this has happened.
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