Women, Peace and Security: Refugee women with Dr Aiko Holvikivi and Dr Audrey Reeves

Summary: 31 October 2020 marks 20 years since resolution 1325 was passed by the UN Security Council on Women, Peace and Security (WPS). In a special three-part podcast series, we’re celebrating this landmark achievement by looking at how the WPS agenda can support women’s struggle for better inclusion and representation in matters relating to international conflict and peace, over the next 20 years. In this episode, we explore how Women, Peace and Security (WPS) could be leveraged to address the plight of refugee women and girls at Europe’s borders. Experts working in WPS, Dr Aiko Holvikivi (LSE) and Dr Audrey Reeves (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) argue that in the wake of Europe’s so-called refugee crisis, the whole notion of who is affected by conflict and insecurity, and where those people are, is increasingly under challenge. They state that overlooking women refugees reveals the ‘colonial underbelly’ of the WPS agenda; its tendency to think that conflict-affected people are ‘over there’, not ‘over here’. By identifying these women as worthy of international attention, protection and inclusion under the WPS agenda, we can unsettle the colonial thinking that still sticks to a range of WPS-inspired policies.