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This report highlights the importance of states complying with their obligations under international human rights law in their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, in particular those with respect to the rights of women and girls as set out in the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Failure to undertake a gender analysis in policy and decision-making with respect to temporary emergency measures to contain the spread of the virus has resulted in variable impacts across different communities and on women within those communities who have experienced disproportionate disadvantage and harm. A gender analysis, therefore, must be carried out, taking into account other intersecting factors that impact women's lives such as their race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and able-bodiedness. As the only specific category of women explicitly protected by a separate provision in CEDAW, the situation of rural women provides a useful illustrative case study to show how rurality can operate to create additional disadvantage and contribute to intersectional discrimination. The report examines the position of women in rural areas and the impact of pandemic-related policy responses on their (1) right to adequate living conditions and related right to livelihood; (2) right to security of person; (3) right to healthcare, including reproductive health services; and (4) right to participation in political and public life. Ultimately, the report shows how state failure to comply with the CEDAW obligations has resulted in foreseeable and preventable violations of women's rights and draws recommendations from the lessons learned.

In developing a feminist analysis of postwar political economic practices and institutions, my contribution builds on previous Critical Perspectives forums in following Cynthia Enloe's call (2015, 438) to make sense of people's gendered political lives while embracing their "messiness" and Rahel Kunz's (2017) argument for placing life stories at the center of analysis. It focuses on the everyday life of female petty traders involved in the coping economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), including those working at the (in)famous Arizona market in Brčko. By taking postwar gendered everyday experiences seriously, my contribution highlights the need for a gender-just, holistic approach to designing postwar reparative justice measures, labor market interventions, and integration of coping economic practices.

This article examines the incorporation of intersectional perspectives – using intersectionality as theory and method – into the Women, Peace and Security agenda. We conduct a content analysis of the ten Women, Peace and Security resolutions and 98 current Women, Peace and Security national action plans. The analysis shows that intersectionality has been integrated into the Women, Peace and Security agenda to only a limited extent, despite more recent trends towards referencing the term in policy documents. Even where intersectionality or intersectional concerns are referenced, these tend to reinforce hegemonic categorisations based on sex difference. We therefore argue that policy and practice ought to incorporate intersectionality in its view of both power and identities, as well as in its organising frameworks, and thereby take into consideration how intersecting systems of power affect lived experiences for groups and individuals, their access to justice, and their ability to exercise agency.

As the 20th anniversary of the passage of S/RES/1325(2000) approaches, the achievements of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda and efforts to carry forward this vision in the context of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) are rightfully celebrated. However, the transformative potential of the WPS Agenda has not fully materialised. Solutions to problems clearly and consistently articulated in the ten WPS UNSC resolutions (UNSCRs)1 are not being implemented. In a shifting global context characterised by growing uncertainties and power asymmetries, climate and geopolitical precarity and diminishing political leadership – in which civil society engagement of the UNSC involves increased risks in terms of security and resources – there is a question as to the value, the terms and the goals of continued engagement of the UNSC. ; Elena B. Stavrevska's contribution was supported by the below mentioned ERC grant