In December, WIDE ANGLE and the Ford Foundation brought together an international group of leaders in human rights and globalization issues for a panel discussion on the changing nature of war, and particularly on the role of women in conflict and post-conflict societies. Watch the videos below to hear from the panelists.

PAUL VAN ZYL is a co-founder and the Executive Vice-President of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), an organization which assists countries pursuing accountability for past mass atrocities or human rights abuse. From 1995 to 1998, he served as executive secretary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. In tandem with his work at the ICTJ, Mr. van Zyl serves as director of New York University School of Law’s Transitional Justice Program, and teaches law both in New York and Singapore.

Mr. van Zyl discusses the imperative of “giving women a voice” in order to identify and solve problems in conflict and post-conflict areas. Citing his work with Morocco’s Truth Commission van Zyl explains the significant strides made in justice and reparations for all, after women were included in the dialogue.

KATHI AUSTIN is an internationally recognized expert on arms trafficking, peace and security, and human rights. For 18 years, she has carried out original and in-depth field investigations pertaining to the illegal trade in weapons, illicit trafficking operations, illegal resource exploitation, transnational crime and terrorism. She has documented conflicts spanning Africa, Latin America, East and Central Europe, and South Asia. Ms. Austin will be played by Angelina Jolie in an upcoming film about her life.

Ms. Austin talks about how the nature of war has changed in the last twenty years and describes her first-hand observations of the arms trafficking industry and the notorious international criminal, Viktor Bout.

ZAINAB SALBI is the founder and CEO of Women for Women International, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing women survivors of conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to self-sufficiency. Over the last 15 years, Women for Women International has supported over 150,000 women, directly enabling many to transform themselves from victims to active citizens in some of the most challenging environments including eastern Congo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

An Iraqi native who arrived in the U.S. at age 20, Ms. Salbi talks about the ever-looming threat of bombs and gunfire during her childhood as the Iran-Iraq war raged.

ASATU BAH-KENNETH is the Deputy Inspector-General of Police for Administration in Liberia, and has served with the Liberia National Police (LNP) for two decades. Ms. Bah-Kenneth founded Liberian Muslim Women for Peace, is president of the Liberian Female Law Enforcement Association, and serves as second vice president of the board of Women NGOs Secretariat of Liberia. She is also a member of the International Chiefs of Police Association.

Ms. Bah-Kenneth discusses the transformation of the role of women, particularly Muslim women, during the war in Liberia.

PATRICIA VISEUR SELLERS From 1994 until 2007, Patricia Sellers was the Legal Advisor for Gender and a prosecutor at the Yugoslav and the Rwanda Tribunals for the United Nations. In 2007 Ms. Sellers was a Special Legal Consultant to the Gender and Woman’s Rights Division of the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights where she developed the legal strategies that led to the successful prosecutions of rape as a war crime, sexual violence as an act of genocide and rape as torture.

Ms. Sellers discusses landmark holdings from the Rwandan tribunals which address violence against women, sexual intimidation and rape, and held that rape could be prosecuted as a crime against humanity. These holdings are significant in that they set precedent for holdings in current and future international criminal tribunals.