WPS and Women Mediators

It is often suggested that women mediators will bring different- soft - skills to mediation and that they will be catalysts to women's empowerment. Drawing on a series of interviews with women mediators in Northern Ireland, this seminar will focus on two things. First, it explores the skills that women felt they brought to their work, and second, it draws out the relationship between mediation and gender as perceived by the participants. What the results demonstrate is that while participants did not consider it the role of a mediator to advance a particular normative agenda through their work, this did not translate into a gender blind approach in practice.

Dr Catherine Turner is Associate Professor of International Law at Durham University, UK. She is the Deputy Director of the Durham Global Security Institute, where her areas of research and teaching expertise include international law, peace mediation, transitional justice and women in mediation. In addition to her academic work Catherine has extensive experience and a practitioner and trainer in mediation in Northern Ireland. She now specialises in training and facilitation in mediation and transitional justice to support women's participation in peace processes.

This event is part of the WPS@20 seminar hosted by the Ulster University Transitional Justice Institute to mark the upcoming 20th anniversary of the adoption of Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security by the United Nations Security Council.