EAST LANSING, Mich. — The war in Iraq and similar conflicts in other parts of the world have profoundly affected the lives of citizens – in particular, women – of the countries involved.
More than 130 educators, students and attorneys from 10 nations will gather at Michigan State University College of Law on Friday, Feb. 24, to examine the plight of these women during a one-day symposium titled, “Gender, War & Peace: Women in the Wake of Conflict.”
Participants are expected from Burundi, Cameroon, Germany, Ireland, Mongolia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Hosted by the law college’s Journal of International Law, the symposium will analyze post-conflict reconstruction, human rights and peace building from the perspective of women living in areas where armed conflict has taken place. By offering the event, the journal, one of more than 40 organizations managed by MSU Law students, seeks to encourage, and contribute to, the development of international law that demarginalizes women and ends violations against them.
Adrien K. Wing, Bessie Dutton Murray Professor at the University of Iowa College of Law, will present the keynote address on “Global Critical Race Feminism: A Perspective on Gender, War and Peace in the Age of the War on Terror.”
Additional panelists represent the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the International Center for Transitional Justice, the War Crimes Research Office at American University Washington College of Law, MSU College of Law, and law schools at City University of New York, University of Missouri, Seton Hall University and West Virginia University.
“This symposium looks at reconstruction issues through a gendered lens,” said Kristen Matha, executive editor of the journal. “The end of armed conflict does not signal the end of violations against women, and women’s experiences and priorities during and after war are unique.”
The symposium, to be held at the law college from 10 a.m.-7 p.m., is open to all interested parties. The registration fee is $65 and will be waived for students. Registration and details are available online at http://www.law.msu.edu/jil/gender.
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MSU College of Law was founded as the Detroit College of Law in 1891. The college affiliated with MSU in 1995 and moved to MSU’s East Lansing campus in 1997. The association between the two schools has led to a comprehensive interdisciplinary legal education program at the law college. Today, the college is one of only two private law schools to be affiliated with a research university.