Truth and Reconciliation Commissions and the Political Economy of Gender Justice: Discursive Power, Authority and the Subaltern

Project Information

GenderJust

Grant agreement ID: 706888

DOI

10.3030/706888

Project closed

EC signature date 18 April 2016

Start date 1 August 2017

End date 31 July 2019

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 195 454,80

EU contribution

€ 195 454,80

Coordinated by

THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GenderJust (Truth and Reconciliation Commissions and the Political Economy of Gender Justice: Discursive Power, Authority and the Subaltern)

Reporting period: 2017-08-01 to 2019-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project looks at the question of why international measures aiming at including women and their voices in transitional justice (TJ) mechanisms are so contested. This research aims at analysing the limitations of Gender Justice (GJ) initiatives in TRCs and resistances to them. My hypothesis is that these limitations can be explained by a double dynamics: a) GJ in TRCs is understood very narrowly, with a focus on measures to protect civil and political rights, forgetting socio-economic dimensions of justice, such as access to resources, compensations, jobs; and b) these norms are rarely reinterpreted and applied in new TRCs through the integration of women’s propositions and lessons learnt from previous TRCs. I challenge existing literature on transnational norm diffusion which falls into the trap of presenting two idealized norm-generating communities (i.e. offical TRCs and women’s advocacy groups) by offering a multidirectional approach that reflects on the diversity of views on both sides drawing on critical peace studies and a feminist theorisation of TJ. This approach also takes seriously the need for an intersectional analysis that will, for example, look at the composition of women’s advocacy groups (which women are represented here?). My aim is twofold: to problematize how those who elaborate global norms in the West and those who implement them on the ground commonly think about gender and justice and to extend our understanding of women’s rights beyond laws and policies to include the ways in which women publicly subvert and resignify gender norms in public spaces.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

2019. Martin de Almagro, M. and Ryan, C., “Subverting economic empowerment: towards a postcolonial-feminist framework on gender (in)securities in post-war settings”, European Journal of International Relations.

2019. Holmes, G., Wright, K., Basu, S., Martin de Almagro, M., Guerrina, R., Hurley, M., Chang, C. “Feminist Experiences of ‘Studying up’: Encounters with International Institutions”, Millennium, 47 (2): 210-230.

2018. Martin de Almagro, M. “Lost Boomerangs, the Rebound Effect and Transnational Advocacy Networks: A discursive approach to norm diffusion theory”, Review of International Studies, first view.

2018. Martin de Almagro, M. “Lost Boomerangs, the Rebound Effect and Transnational Advocacy Networks: A discursive approach to norm diffusion theory”, Review of International Studies, 4 (4): 672-693.

2018. Martin de Almagro, M. “Hybrid clubs: a feminist approach to peacebuilding in the Democratic Republic of Congo”, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 12 (3): 319:334.

2018. Martin de Almagro, M. “Producing Participants: Gender, Race and Women, Peace and Security”, Global Society, 32 (4): 395-414.

2017. Martin de Almagro, M. “Gender, UN Peacebuilding and Security”, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, Comparative book review of Gender Politics and Security Discourse: Personal-political imaginations and feminism in ‘post-conflict’ Serbia, by Laura McLeod. New York: Routledge, 2016 and Gender, UN Peacebuilding, and the Politics of Space: Locating legitimacy, by Laura J. Shepherd. Oxford: OUP, 2017.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The research objectives of the project, methodology and the obtained results will be available to the wider public through the establishment and regular update of a dedicated open access website by the ER, with its own Facebook page and Twitter account. This page will include both a scientific section (with presentations, working papers, etc. in which results will be exposed) and a more general section addressing non-specialists in the form of a blog. Relevant sections of this blog will be translated into French and Spanish so that the local communities studied have access to it. In addition, women organisations participating in the project will be informed of its aims and results at particular stages of the research, via dissemination events organised specifically for this purpose in collaboration with local universities. This will enhance collaborations with the local community and local universities and the research will be presented as an MSCA Ambassador. The UCAM’s Public Engagement team will help with the set up of a public engagement strategy.Transcripts and recordings of testimonies of TRCs are publicly available. Their study will contribute to the knowledge of these important documents on memory, history and international law and will improve proceedings regarding testimonies at future TRCs. Additionally, the candidate’s previous participation in oral presentations at public events on women and war at Brussels City Council and at Ted-x like events at the University are generally positively received. Dr Martin de Almagro will use similar events organised at the University of Cambridge, such as the Festival of Ideas and the University Open Days to disseminate knowledge on “GenderJust: the impact of international norms on transitional justice in local post-conflict communities.”

Gender Justice