On 19 May 2022, Women without Borders (WwB) organised a side event at the thirty-first session of the UNODC Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Dr. Edit Schlaffer, Founder and Chair of WwB, moderated the event, which included remarks from three speakers representing countries in crisis: Dr. Nadia Al-Sakkaf (Yemen), Ms. Mariia Ionova (Ukraine), and Dr. Orzala Nemat (Afghanistan).

Each of these trailblazing women presented an overview of the current situation in their home country, provided examples of the resistance and resilience of women and women’s organisations, and made strong calls to action to the international community. The session concluded with a brief panel discussion on how war has shaped activism and women’s movements on the ground and on what we need to be doing internationally to ensure that countries that have been in crisis for extended periods of time are not forgotten and pushed to the wayside when new conflicts break out around the world.