As the nature of conflict evolves, new questions are being asked about how individual safety and the rights of civilians are affected. Who is responsible for protecting the human right to bodily integrity in a globalised world? How is the transformation of warfare in the technological, political and strategic realms affecting the individual rights of civilians and combatants? Given the increasing prominence of the human rights regime and its associated institutions, the tension between human security and state interests raises the question of responsibility and obligation within an increasingly complex international system. In order to bring light to these issues, STAIR’s upcoming edition will include articles addressing the connection between inter-state and domestic violence along the India-Pakistan border, the boundaries of combatants’ moral responsibility toward civilians in conflict through the perspective of Michael Walzer’s ‘morality of risk’, and patterns in the reporting of sexual violence in conflict situations such as in the case of Myanmar. The upcoming edition of STAIR will include feature articles and interviews from scholars and practitioners working on topics such as feminist foreign policy, refugee studies, and male-targeted sexual and gender-based violence. In so doing, STAIR intends to emphasize the magnitude and complexity involved in tackling the challenges faced, as well as capitalizing upon the agency harbored, by individuals in armed conflict.

The event will be followed by a wine and snacks reception.