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22 April 2020, New York, USA Zoom Workshop - The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in collaboration with Columbia Law School, hosted a workshop focused on Gender Equality in Peace Building and Conflict Resolution, emphasizing the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals 5 &10, pertaining to Gender Equality and Reducing Inequalities through efforts on increasing gender parity. This activity is supported with funding allocated from the Swedish International Development Agency’s (SIDA) contribution to the UNITAR Strategic Framework Fund and hosted at the United Nations Headquarters. The course was attended by 150 participants that joined remotely through zoom.
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Mr. Marco Suazo, UNITAR New York’s Head of Office, delivered the opening remarks, welcomed participants, and introduced the workshop’s facilitator - Professor Alexandra Carter, Director of the Columbia Law School Mediation Clinic; and her co-collaborators Jessica Barragan, Jacquellena Carrero, Jamie Chang, Audrey Chao, Jeeyoon Chung, Henry Guerra, Idun Klakegg, Oliver Kwon, Alex Li, and Nadia Yusuf. The workshop began with Professor Aleandra Carter discussing the necessity of having women in peacebuilding through her mention of several scholarly theories, including those of Economic and Social Inclusion. Following, professor Carter innovatively found a way pf involving participants through the Zoom group chat for input regarding their ideas concerning the importance of having women in diplomacy and peacebuilding.
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Next, her co-collaborators led the discussion on gendered differences in Self-Advocacy, followed by outlining different strategies to promote gender equality. After noting the different methods of furthering multi-gendered voices into legitimacy, the participants and facilitators reflected on the personal barriers preventing such advocacy, and how one can successfully apply the skills learned from the workshop into their daily work environments. Then, Professor Alexandra Carter engaged with participants on how to strategically ask open (as opposed to closed) ended questions for effective resolutions, as well as closing the lively session with the importance of allyship in fostering an inclusive environment.
Lastly, the participants reflected on the different tools they were excited to put into practice from the presentation. By the end of the session, participants reached an understanding concerning the importance of gender equality in peacebuilding, and resolving conflicts while finding methods of working through gender inequalities.
Closing remarks were made by Mr. Marco Suazo, and the facilitators thanked participants for attending the workshops over the course of the series and announced the next event will be taking place on the 5th of May 2020 focusing on “Asking the Right Questions” for more information and the video on the sessions please check https://alexcarterasks.com/unitar-columbialaw/