2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the first United Nations World Conference on Women (Mexico City, 1975), a process that led to the creation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995). The Global Transformations and Governance Challenges Programme organised a roundtable to reflect on prospects for global women's rights today, particularly amidst geopolitical shifts and tensions, heightened nationalism and populism. As ever, our panel assembled perspectives from different disciplines and faculties.

The Global Transformations and Governance Challenges Programme hosts a range of international academic gatherings.

The Multistakeholder Global Governance (MGG) Project is a four-year project which explores how far, and under what circumstances, multistakeholder constructions of global governance operate well, in terms of having capacity, effectiveness, and legitimacy.

How can we deal with today’s global challenges in sustainable, peaceful, fair, democratic, and effective ways? How can global events such as geopolitical shifts, ecological changes, technological innovations, and pandemics be better governed? Addressing these complex questions requires innovative, multidisciplinary approaches and an open conversation between various stakeholders. To promote such conversations, the Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) program at Leiden University organized its first international conference on 8-10 June 2022 at Campus The Hague.

Amidst today’s armed conflicts, authoritarian governments, cyber-attacks, organized crime, economic insecurity, and ecological destruction, it can be hard to imagine peace. What do we mean by ‘peace’, beyond the absence of war? What kind of peace are we seeking? What makes people and society at peace? What path(s) can bring us to peace? This dialogue brings together leading thinkers who push us to get clearer and more creative about peace.