The United States Institute of Peace (USIP), the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute North America (SIPRI North America) have convened a group of scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and military and civil society actors to examine the issue of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict settings, identify gaps in knowledge and reporting, and explore how to increase the effectiveness of current responses to such violence.

The goals of this three-day global symposium are to:

  • Take stock of current sexual and gender-based violence policies and programming lessons of national governments, civil society organizations, and international organizations;
  • Exchange information among researchers, policy makers, and practitioners about the latest research efforts related to causes, scope and patterns of sexual violence;
  • Strengthen the community of knowledge and practice beyond disciplinary and state boundaries;
  • Identify how to improve research and documentation capacity and new areas for research and policy action.

It is the explicit aim of the global symposium to include findings from the latest academic research, as well as insights from practitioners working in conflict and post-conflict situations, including civil society actors, the military, and police. The symposium will also launch the Young Scholar network--aimed at supporting PhD candidates and recently minted PhDs in their research and the dissemination of research results to the practitioner and policy communities.

As a co-host of this important event, PRIO has been represented in the steering committee by Deputy Director Inger Skjelsbæk. She will lead two panels at the symposium with Kim Thuy Seelinger from the Human Rights Center at University of California Berkeley. Senior Researcher at PRIO Ragnhild Nordås will speak at a panel on methodological challenges and Director Kristian Berg Harpviken will speak at a reception hosted by PRIO at the symposium.

The symposium gathers more than 200 participants and is by invitation only.

You may still participate, however, by watching the live webcast of the event beginning at 8:30am EDT on February 14, 2013 at http://www.usip.org/webcast

For a full overview of participants, panels, sponsors and organizers, please follow this link.