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More than two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the war continues to devastate civilian lives. Its impacts are not distributed equally: women, men, children, and displaced persons experience the conflict in profoundly different ways. Against this backdrop, civil society organisations (CSOs) have emerged as vital actors. They document atrocities, support survivors, and advocate for justice in spaces where international institutions often move slowly or remain inaccessible.
The Platform for Peace and Humanity (PPH), founded in 2016 and based in Slovakia, is an international civic association promoting humanitarian values through international law, which stands out as a key organisation operating at this intersection of justice and human rights. Since 2022, its Ukraine Programme has expanded to collect testimonies from victims and witnesses, engage in universal jurisdiction litigation, and build resources for legal practitioners in Central Europe. Taken together, these efforts embody a form of “documentation from below”: survivor-centred, grassroots, and acutely attentive to the needs of the most marginalised.
This reflection draws on an interview with Rastislav Šutek, Director of the Platform for Peace and Humanity, whose insights shed light on the organisation’s approach and on the broader significance of civil society engagement in contexts of conflict and accountability. Looking at the Platform’s work through the lens of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda reveals how its initiatives embody—both explicitly and implicitly—the pillars of participation, protection, prevention, and relief and recovery. This perspective also highlights the ongoing challenges of bringing gender and intersectionality into peace and justice processes in wartime Ukraine, and the broader lessons that may resonate beyond this conflict.
The Geopolitical and Normative Context
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not only a regional war but also a test of the European security order, NATO’s cohesion, and the credibility of international law. Powers across the globe have been drawn in through sanctions, arms support, diplomacy, and humanitarian relief. Within this geopolitical environment, human rights and gender justice risk being overshadowed by “hard security” priorities. At the same time, the war has revitalised global discussions about accountability, universal jurisdiction, and survivor-centred justice. Civil society, including feminist and human rights organisations, has become an essential intermediary—linking refugees’ lived experiences with mechanisms of international governance. Since the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, the WPS Agenda has aimed to integrate gender perspectives into peace and security policy. Its four pillars—participation, protection, prevention, and relief and recovery—have shaped national action plans and multilateral frameworks worldwide. Yet, as research by SIPRI and UN Women highlights, implementation remains uneven, often confined to rhetoric or militarised interpretations.
Ukraine stands out as the first country to have adopted a National Action Plan on WPS (2016–2020) while at war—renewing it in 2020. This unique experience testifies to the crucial role of civil society partnerships in adapting global frameworks to local realities.
Documentation from Below: Voices that Matter
The Ukraine Programme’s cornerstone is documentation. Collecting testimonies from refugees is not simply an evidentiary act—it is an assertion of dignity and memory. It communicates that survivors’ stories matter, that their pain will not be forgotten, and that their experiences may shape future justice processes. For marginalised groups—women subjected to sexual violence, children forcibly deported, or displaced persons navigating exile—such recognition is essential. Testimonies gathered today may underpin cases at the International Criminal Court (ICC), in national courts exercising universal jurisdiction, or within Ukraine’s own accountability mechanisms. Documentation also fosters solidarity. Survivors who share their stories often connect with others who endured similar experiences, forming networks of resilience. Trust-building, particularly around trauma and stigma, takes time but is critical to building communities ready to engage with justice systems.
This “documentation from below” enacts the WPS pillar of participation, empowering survivors—especially women—to become agents in shaping justice narratives rather than passive subjects of humanitarian concern.
Protection and Accountability: Addressing Gender-Based Harms
The WPS pillar of protection demands concrete mechanisms to address gender-based violence (GBV) and ensure survivor safety. The Platform’s work to document sexual and gender-based crimes contributes directly to this goal. As the team notes, such cases are among the hardest to document: survivors are understandably reluctant to speak, fearing stigma, retraumatisation, or disbelief.
PPH’s outreach initiatives counter this silence, emphasising that recognising sexual and gender-based harms within domestic and international law can strengthen prevention and accountability. The organisation has mapped how Slovak and Czech legislation safeguard victims and witnesses, ensuring that protection mechanisms are not merely theoretical but applied in practice. By grounding its advocacy in local law while drawing on international norms such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the Platform exemplifies how civil society can transform the WPS protection pillar from principle into practice—bridging the gap between advocacy and enforcement.
Participation and Outreach: Women’s Agency in Practice
Women’s participation in peace and justice processes is not limited to formal negotiations. It extends to documentation, advocacy, and community mobilisation. In PPH’s outreach events across Slovakia and Czechia, women and girls make up the majority of participants. These sessions explain accountability mechanisms, reparations processes, and the significance of testimonies. This work gives life to the WPS principle of participation, not as token inclusion but as empowerment. Yet challenges persist. Many refugees express scepticism about international law’s relevance or fear engagement with law enforcement. Building trust, therefore, becomes an act of resistance and transformation. The Platform’s approach—rooted in patience, dialogue, and motivational examples from other conflicts—helps shift perceptions. By amplifying refugee voices, it contributes to developing national practices with a victim-centred ethos, advancing justice for Ukraine and the global fight against impunity.
Prevention and Structural Change: Building Legal Knowledge
Beyond immediate accountability, PPH invests in prevention by equipping practitioners with the knowledge to prosecute war crimes. Its handbooks for Czech and Slovak prosecutors and investigators provide detailed guidance on universal jurisdiction and the domestic implementation of international crimes. English editions are forthcoming to widen access among global civil society networks. These resources are vital in states where legal practice is still evolving. By translating international law into local context, civil society enables institutional learning and strengthens long-term accountability frameworks. This legal literacy helps bridge the gap between global standards and domestic enforcement. As SIPRI has argued, WPS implementation depends on this “norm translation” from international frameworks to everyday practice. Prevention begins with knowledge—but endures only through institutional memory.
Relief, Recovery, and Reconstruction: Justice Beyond the Courtroom
The fourth WPS pillar, relief and recovery, calls for gender-responsive reconstruction and reparations. The Platform supports Ukrainian refugees in filing claims to the Register of Damage for Ukraine and in learning about the ICC Trust Fund for Victims. Many survivors show more interest in reparations than in prosecutions, underscoring that justice is not only punitive but restorative. Reparations processes validate harm and recognise survivor experiences. They also offer pathways to healing and socio-economic reintegration. Civil society plays a crucial intermediary role here—guiding applicants through complex systems while advocating for inclusive and transparent mechanisms. Recovery in post-war Ukraine will also require addressing environmental damage and socio-economic inequality. As highlighted by the WPS Helpdesk, environmental degradation and displacement disproportionately affect women, linking gender justice to climate and ecological justice. Recovery, therefore, must recognise that justice is not only legal—it is also social, economic, and ecological.
Intersectionality and Masculinities: Broadening the Lens
The Platform’s work recognises that gender intersects with other identities such as age, ethnicity, displacement, and disability. Cases of deportation of children, for instance, show how age-specific harms demand tailored accountability approaches. At the same time, the broader WPS debate increasingly calls for integrating masculinities perspectives—examining how war reshapes male identities and behaviours. Engaging men as allies in gender justice and peacebuilding is essential to dismantling entrenched patterns of violence and promoting shared responsibility. As feminist scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989) first theorised, intersectionality reminds us that gender never operates in isolation. The inclusion of masculinities and other identity lenses expands WPS from a “women’s agenda” to a holistic framework addressing how gendered power operates in conflict and recovery.
Civil Society: Bridging Global and Local Agendas
Civil society organisations like the Platform for Peace and Humanity are indispensable in translating WPS principles into tangible action. They operate between survivors and institutions, turning international commitments into lived realities. Yet their position is often precarious—constrained by limited funding, political pressures, and security risks. Protecting civic space and supporting women human rights defenders are therefore central to WPS implementation, as emphasised by the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security. Sustaining these actors requires long-term investment, flexible funding, and political recognition of their legitimacy.
The resilience of organisations like PPH mirrors that of women peacebuilders worldwide—from Bosnia to Sudan—who translate global norms into community-based practices. To amplify impact, civil society networks must collaborate transnationally, linking Ukrainian, European, and global feminist initiatives. Such partnerships can scale survivor-centred practices, share methodologies, and advocate collectively for accountability and reform.
Challenges and Lessons
The Platform’s work exposes broader systemic challenges that shape the pursuit of justice in wartime Ukraine. Judicial processes remain slow, with universal jurisdiction cases often taking years and depending heavily on political will. Data protection and ethical safeguards demand sustained resources to ensure confidentiality and prevent retraumatisation. At the same time, unequal participation persists, as the most marginalised survivors—whether disabled, rural, or from minority communities—often remain underrepresented. Civic space is also shrinking, with civil society actors facing threats, funding insecurity, and the risk of political co-optation.
Despite these constraints, PPH’s experience offers key lessons for global WPS practice: justice must centre survivors; gender perspectives must inform every stage of accountability; and civil society’s independence must be safeguarded. Each challenge reaffirms a simple truth: justice must be built with, not for, survivors.
Justice as the Foundation of Peace
The war in Ukraine is both a geopolitical crisis and a moral test. Amid destruction and displacement, civil society initiatives like the Platform for Peace and Humanity remind us that justice and peace are inseparable. Their “documentation from below” shows how local action can sustain global norms.
By connecting survivors’ testimonies with universal jurisdiction, by building trust in refugee communities, and by integrating gender and intersectional perspectives, the Platform embodies what the WPS Agenda strives for in practice. It shows that peace is not merely the cessation of violence but the construction of systems that honour truth, accountability, and dignity.
As Ukraine and the international community look toward reconstruction, ensuring that women and marginalised voices shape recovery will be essential. The promise of WPS will only be fulfilled if justice—grounded in survivor agency and civil society resilience—remains at the heart of peace.
Author Bio: Sofia Sutera holds an International Joint PhD in Human Rights, Society, and Multi-level Governance from the Human Rights Centre “Antonio Papisca” of the University of Padua (Italy). Her research focuses on Human Rights, International Peace and Security, and the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda. She holds a master’s degree in Law from the University of Padua and a second master’s in Global Politics and Societal Change from Malmö University (Sweden). She currently works as an Internationalisation Specialist at the University of Padua.
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