This event will mark International Women’s Day by bringing together diverse legal, policy, and other practitioners, including local and international civil society, working to advance women’s rights globally and in Minnesota. The event will focus on the role of the women, peace and security agenda in addressing the broad terrain of complex conflict situations, including ‘new’ and long-standing conflict contexts.  Here a broad array of issues will be addressed including the cyclical nature of armed conflict, the ways in which both contemporary international and non-international armed conflict engage the WPS agenda.  More particularly, the event will address the challenges of inclusion for women in conflict and peace processes, the ways in which women are harmed directly and indirectly by conflict and the impact of counter-terrorism measures on women’s human rights, including in addressing the targeting of human rights defenders and civil society that advocate for the realization of women’s rights.