This episode of the Lawyering Peace podcast focuses on one of the most crucial pillars of peace building in Ukraine: gender equality and the central role of women in shaping a just and durable peace.

Dr. Paul R. Williams speaks with Dr. Khrystyna Kit, chairwoman of the Ukrainian Women Lawyers Association JurFem and expert adviser to the Prosecutor General’s Office on conflict related sexual violence. Drawing on more than fifteen years of legal practice and advocacy, Dr. Kit explains how JurFem promotes gender sensitive legal reform, advances survivor centered approaches to justice, and works with judges, prosecutors, police, and lawmakers to ensure that responses to gender based and conflict related sexual violence reflect the needs and agency of survivors.

Together Khrystyna and Paul explore why women’s participation in decision making is a precondition for sustainable peace, not a symbolic add on. The conversation examines the systemic underrepresentation of women in negotiation and security spaces, the evolution of Ukraine’s National Action Plans under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, and the risks of pursuing a quick peace that sidelines accountability, reparations, and human rights. Dr. Kit outlines how peace processes can be redesigned to include women’s rights organizations, survivors, community leaders, and Ukrainians abroad, and why solidarity between Ukrainian civil society and international partners is essential for securing survivor centered justice and preventing a return to violence.

Can an investment fund become a cornerstone of peace?

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul R. Williams speaks with Henry Scott, a partner at Milbank and a leading authority on international project finance, about the United States Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund, a first of its kind vehicle jointly launched by Washington and Kyiv.

Henry explains how this groundbreaking framework blends in-kind equity, strategic finance, and critical minerals access to drive Ukraine’s recovery. The conversation unpacks the Fund’s hybrid capital model, the role of the US International Development Finance Corporation, safeguards for Ukraine’s sovereignty, and the agreement’s potential to become a global template for development partnerships.

🎧 A timely deep dive into how law, finance, and political will can align to rebuild a nation and why this agreement could reshape the way post conflict reconstruction is funded.

What happens when a nuclear power plant becomes a battlefield?

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul R. Williams speaks with Dr. Dmytro Koval — Co-Executive Director of Truth Hounds and Associate Professor of International Law at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy — about the weaponization of Ukrainian nuclear infrastructure in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

Drawing on Truth Hounds’ groundbreaking report “In a Nuclear Prison”, Dmytro unpacks how the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant — the largest nuclear facility in Europe — has become a site of coercion, forced collaboration, and state-sponsored impunity. The episode explores the blurred lines between civilian and military actors, the role of Rosatom, and why international law must evolve to confront “nuclear terrorism by proxy.”

🎧 A sobering, urgent conversation on legal accountability, nuclear safety, and the need for a 21st-century Geneva Convention for nuclear infrastructure.