The use and the meaning of arms in armed conflicts

The main themes of the debate included:

• Where does the right to a weapon stop, where does the dominance of weapons begin?
• What are the values, where are the interests?
• What are the consequences when the state collapses?

The roundtable debate was moderated by Matthias Bruggmann, photographer, winner of the second Elysée Prize for a project on Syria.

Participants included:

• Katarzyna Grabska, social anthropologist, specialist in power relations, gender and generations in conflict situations, civil wars, exile and displacement. Senior Researcher at the Global Migration Centre in Geneva and Assistant Professor at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, The Netherlands.
• Robin Udry, Secretary General of PROTELL, Swiss Society for Liberal Law on Weapons
• Representative of the Small Arms Survey, in Geneva.

Women and arms in conflict

Katarzyna was first invited by the Museum of Contemporary Design (MUDAC) in Lausanne, Switzerland to contribute an article on gender, women, arms and armed conflicts ('Women and arms in conflicts', Ligne de mire Catalogue, MUDAC: Lausanne). The article was published as part of the catalogue that accompanies an exhibition Line of sight currently at the MUDAC. With ligne de mire, mudac focuses on the world of firearms, examining it through the lens of design and contemporary creation. The first exhibition of its kind in Switzerland, it addresses in a critical and targeted way our paradoxical relationship with these ambiguous objects that are both fascinating and repulsive, visceral and murderous.