Peace in the South Caucasus: Feminist Perspectives on R2P & WPS in Karabakh

Following decades of violence and insecurity in the region, the military seizure of the region of Nagorno Karabakh by Azerbaïdjan on September 19th resulted in the forced exodus of its entire ethnic Armenian population.

While over a 100,000 fled to neighbouring Armenia, this situation of geopolitical importance has been, in the words of Human Rights Watch, been ‘lost in the multi-crisis’.

Join regional experts in a bilingual (English and French) hybrid conversation to learn about the role and importance of bringing R2P and WPS to the forefront of analysis in seeking ways to alleviate and deter escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis.

Moderator

Anoush F Terjanian: Anoush Terjanian, PhD, is a Fellow of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC) at the University of Ottawa, following renewed Governor-in-Council appointments on the Governing Council of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and Founding Director of the US Social Science Research Council’s “Anxieties of Democracy” program in New York City. An alumna of Canada’s Parliamentary Internship Programme, and a former G-7 Summit Officer in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Ottawa, Dr Terjanian is the author of Commerce and Its Discontents, re-issued in paperback by Cambridge University Press. She was born on unceded Algonquin Anishnaabeg land of grateful immigrants to Canada, and has lived and studied in Egypt, the UK, France, Italy, and the US.

Panelists

Sheila Paylan (@SheilaPaylan). Sheila Paylan is an international human rights lawyer and former legal advisor to the United Nations across countries and regions for more than 15 years. Now based in Yerevan (Armenia), she regularly consults for a variety of international organizations, NGOs, think tanks and governments, and has published extensively on the subjects of international justice, self-determination, and the doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P).

Bénédicte Santoire: Bénédicte Santoire is a PhD Candidate and Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Ottawa, Canada. She researches and teaches in the areas of feminist international relations theories and feminist security studies. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in the post-Soviet space, more specifically in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and Armenia.