Bridging the GAPS invites thinkers and leaders across the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) sector to explore a more critical lens on gender, peace and security globally. With a constantly changing political landscape and shrinking civic space, it is more important than ever for WPS practitioners to have our views and norms examined and challenged. We hope to provide a platform for intersectional, anti-racist and feminist voices, inclusive of LGBTQIA+ people, disabled persons, displaced persons, Black, Indigenous and Brown communities to push us further in our thinking and make WPS stronger and more effective.
This is a blog hosted by Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS), with contributions from GAPS’s secretariat, network members, partners and the wider WPS community. It looks to approach WPS holistically and considers how the agenda intersects with other factors, such as economic insecurity, access to healthcare, education, queerness and migration.
Disclaimer: the views of the articles are that of the author, not the network or secretariat.
The new UK government must examine its role in fuelling anti-gender movements at the United Nations
Chiara Capraro- Gender Justice Programme Director (Amnesty International UK)
The UK has traditionally been a champion for gender equality in multilateral spaces. However, as the anti-gender movement spreads moral panic and influences policy, media and elections, the new UK government must reorient its actions to successfully strengthen multilateral consensus on human rights protections for women and LGBTI+ people. Read the full blog post.
Representation for representation’s sake
Sangeetha Navaratnam-Blair- Policy, Advocacy and Communications Manager (GAPS)
In 2024, around 1.5 billion people in over 60 countries will be voting in significant elections. Much of the world’s population will be looking on cautiously at the US election – an election that impacts so many people beyond the borders of the US and one which offers the potential of the first woman of colour US President, specifically one with Jamaican and Indian heritage. With this, discussions on representation naturally arise. Read the full blog post.
Moving beyond branding: what’s next for feminist foreign policy
Detmer Kremer- Policy, Advocacy and Communications Coordinator (GAPS)
If successfully harnessed, the current momentum and visibility of FFP can be used by civil society, states and other stakeholders to reinvigorate, evolve and link up existing gender architecture such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and WPS, which too often still operate in siloes. Of particular importance is that it can also allow for possible alliances between FFP states to enable coordinated and joined-up responses to the anti-gender movement. Read the full blog post.
Domesticating the Women, Peace and Security agenda: Imperatives for the UK
Toni Haastrup, University of Manchester
Domesticating the WPS agenda must be rooted in transnational solidarities. It must challenge the idea that the WPS agenda is irrelevant to the Global North and challenge the racialised hierarchies that exist in practices related to the agenda, including those that reinforce a division between the domestic and the international. The UK must pay attention to how transnational challenges are manifesting within its own borders, and also to how the UK internalises WPS implementation abroad. Read the full blog post.
Defending the Heart of the Earth
Alexia Lizarraga, Partnerships and Climate Fellowship Manager, Amos Trust
Across Mexico and Central America, women activists are at the forefront of a profound struggle. These are not just battles for climate justice or environmental preservation. They define themselves as land defenders —many of them indigenous and from rural communities—fight against extractive, agricultural, and industrial projects that threaten their lands, natural resources, and ways of life. Read the full blog post.