GAT organised two seminars in 2013, exploring the links between gender, law, and citizenship. The seminars were timely given the central role that citizenship has occupied in the negotiations for a peace settlement in Cyprus. Recognising that forms of citizenship around the world are premised on highly gendered concepts of personhood and state, GAT invited two eminent thinkers on the topic in an effort to sketch out the parameters for making the citizenship clauses of an eventual agreement more gender-sensitive.  Both seminars were open to the public and a number of policy-makers were invited especially to exchange thoughts and ideas. The seminars were co-sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and PRIO Cyprus Centre. 

 

The first of these seminars took place on 28 September under the title "Gender and the Law: Debating Citizenship Reform in Cyprus". The seminar was addressed by  Jacqueline Stevens who spoke about the connections between citizenship, gender inequality, nation-state ideologies, and private property. These were then analysed from local perspectives in relation to Cyprus and the region, with presentations by Doğuş Derya, Floya Anthias, and Maria Stratigaki. 

 

The second seminar followed on 6 December and hosted Dora Kostakopoulou. The seminar targeted experts and practitioners in the fields of gender and legal reform in Cyprus. The focus of the event were the links between gender and citizenship in situations of multiple and intersecting jurisdictions. The EU was approached as a particularly pertinent case study and case law and legal debates discussed on the basis of the Cyprus situation.