Presentation Information
[i4CY8toL-03]Business-Led Women’s Empowerment and Mental Health in Post-Conflict Societies
*Mari Katayanagi1 (1. Professor, International Peace and Coexistence Program, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University (Japan))
Keywords:
Women's Empowerment
Since the end of WWII, the international community has steadily developed norms to achieve peace, including numerous human rights treaties, leading many to believe that the world is progressing toward a more just and humane order. Yet today this expectation faces a profound and alarming setback. A politician of a major power openly denies the importance of international law (Baio 2026), resorts to the use of force, and employs weapons whose environmental destruction remains impossible to fully measure. Blocking humanitarian assistance to civilians in conflict zones can cause deliberate starvation (Conley & de Waal 2019). Such conduct, particularly armed conflicts carried out in disregard of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, severely undermines human health.
This presentation examines how armed conflict violates human rights—especially women’s right to health—how justice is pursued in response, and how women themselves embody resilience. Although the author has long advocated a human rights–based approach (HRBA) to peacebuilding (Katayanagi 2017), recognition of this approach is limited in peace studies, unlike in development. If peace is understood, in line with the concept of positive peace, as a condition in which all people equally enjoy their fundamental human rights, then peacebuilding can be defined as the effort to create such a society.
Conversely, armed conflict frequently entails grave and systematic human rights violations. The right to health is compromised through injury and death caused by attacks, malnutrition and famine due to blocked aid, disease resulting from deteriorated sanitation, and sexual violence used as a weapon of war, whose victims are overwhelmingly women. Transitional justice is therefore essential to uncover the truth, identify causes, and prevent recurrence, though it does not always heal physical or psychological wounds.
UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) recognises both women’s distinct suffering in conflict and their role as agents of peace. Economic independence offers one path to recovery. For example, women who survived ethnic cleansing have built businesses based on traditional handicrafts, cooperating across ethnic divisions (Katayanagi 2026). Such empowerment restores dignity and mental health, enabling women to realise justice on their own terms and to grow into entrepreneurs who can ultimately contribute to planetary health.
This presentation examines how armed conflict violates human rights—especially women’s right to health—how justice is pursued in response, and how women themselves embody resilience. Although the author has long advocated a human rights–based approach (HRBA) to peacebuilding (Katayanagi 2017), recognition of this approach is limited in peace studies, unlike in development. If peace is understood, in line with the concept of positive peace, as a condition in which all people equally enjoy their fundamental human rights, then peacebuilding can be defined as the effort to create such a society.
Conversely, armed conflict frequently entails grave and systematic human rights violations. The right to health is compromised through injury and death caused by attacks, malnutrition and famine due to blocked aid, disease resulting from deteriorated sanitation, and sexual violence used as a weapon of war, whose victims are overwhelmingly women. Transitional justice is therefore essential to uncover the truth, identify causes, and prevent recurrence, though it does not always heal physical or psychological wounds.
UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) recognises both women’s distinct suffering in conflict and their role as agents of peace. Economic independence offers one path to recovery. For example, women who survived ethnic cleansing have built businesses based on traditional handicrafts, cooperating across ethnic divisions (Katayanagi 2026). Such empowerment restores dignity and mental health, enabling women to realise justice on their own terms and to grow into entrepreneurs who can ultimately contribute to planetary health.
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