When War is Better Than Peace

This is a free event, but registration is required.

This talk will examine the realities and perspectives of a sample of 80 children born of conflict-related sexual violence within the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and currently living in northern Uganda. The talk will explore the multiple challenges that these children face in the post-war period including, rejection, stigma, violence, socio-economic marginalization, and issues of identity and belonging. Children underscored the profound violence and deprivation that they experienced while in LRA captivity. However, because of post-war marginalization and exclusion, participants individually and collectively articulated that, in some ways, wartime was better than peacetime. The implications of these findings will be discussed, particularly for long-term reintegration and reconciliation.  Multiple systems of support are needed to ensure the rights and protection of these children and importantly, to address young people’s perceptions that “war is better than peace”.

About Professor Myriam Denov

Dr. Myriam Denov is a Full Professor at McGill University and holds the Canada Research Chair in Children, Families and Armed Conflict (Tier 1). Her research interests lie in the areas of children and families affected by war, migration, and its intergenerational impact. A specialist in participatory and arts-based research, she has worked with war-affected children and families in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Her current research is exploring children born of conflict-related sexual violence in northern Uganda, Rwanda, and Cambodia.  Dr. Denov has presented expert evidence in court on child soldiers, and has advised government and nongovernmental organizations on children in armed conflict and girls in armed groups. She has authored/co-authored/co-edited nine books addressing the impact of war on children, including Child Soldiers: Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (Cambridge University Press).  She is the founding Director of Global Child McGill – a research group dedicated to children and families affected by war and migration.  Dr. Denov is the recipient of the 2020 SSHRC Insight Award, and the Killam Research Fellowship. She is a Trudeau Foundation Fellow, and Member of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Commonwealth Scholar.

This event is co-sponsored by the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies and the Transnational Justice Project.

A light lunch will be served at 12:00pm in the Centre Lounge, 2nd floor of the Canadiana Gallery. 

Please note that the location does not have a working elevator. If you are a person with a disability and require accommodation, please contact us at crimsl.communications@utoronto.ca and we will do our best to make appropriate arrangements.