Discover SoJust

Kirsten Van Houten holds graduate degrees in International Development Studies from the University of Ottawa and Dalhousie University. She also holds a B.A. Combined Honours in Human Rights and Law from Carleton University. She recently completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Winnipeg and the University of Guelph and holds adjunct faculty appointments at the University of Guelph and the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. Her research focuses on the contributions of local actors to peacebuilding and human rights in policy and practice. She is currently the Principal Investigator on a SSHRC Insight Development Grant that explores the contributions of women with disabilities to peacebuilding.

Kirsten also has extensive professional experience working in international development and human rights with Canadian civil society organizations and political parties. Through this work she has collaborated with local peacebuilding, development and human rights leaders in South Africa, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Philippines and Palestine.

Ph.D. International Development Studies, the University of Ottawa (2019).

M.A. International Development Studies, Dalhousie University (2011).

B.A. Combined Honours Human Rights and Law, Carleton University (2008).

Finding Their Place: The Contributions of Women with Disabilities to Peacebuilding

This project received a SSHRC Insight Development Grant from 2024-2026

This study seeks to better understand how women with disabilities are engaged in peacebuilding processes within different spaces ranging from the international to the local level. It will focus on how this engagement has evolved alongside broader inclusivity norms in peacebuilding practice and explore how women with disabilities have contributed to this evolution in policy and practice through advocacy efforts.

Canada, Local Peacebuilders and Human Rights Defenders

This long-term ongoing project explores how Canada engages with local peacebuilders and human rights defenders. It has collected data on the implementation of Voices at Risk: Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders in the Philippines and inspired an edited volume on the human rights and peacebuilding nexus. In the future, additional research will be undertaken that explores how both the Government of Canada and Canadian civil society organizations engage both groups more broadly.

Translating Interests and Negotiating Hybridity: The Contributions of Local Civil Society Organisations to Peacebuilding in South Kivu

This project received a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship from 2014-2018

This doctoral thesis project explores the role of three local civil society organisations in representing and addressing local needs in hybridized peacebuilding processes in South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. To do so it examined how local CSOs contribute to peacebuilding efforts, as well as who and what influence those contributions. Further, it considered the potential reach of such interventions at the community, provincial and national levels.

Edited Volumes

• Van Houten, K. & Neve, A. (2025) Hand in Hand? Canada at the Human Rights and Peacebuilding Nexus. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Donais, T., Edgar, A. and Van Houten, K. (2024). Peaceful, Just, Inclusive: SDG 16 and the Global Governance of Violence. Routledge.

Book Chapters

• Van Houten, K. (2025). “Canada and the Human Rights and Peacebuilding Nexus” in Van Houten, K. & Neve, A. (eds.) Hand in Hand? Canada at the Human Rights and Peacebuilding Nexus. Palgrave Macmillan. 
• Van Houten, Kirsten (2024). “Civil Society in the Democratic Republic of the Congo” in, Julien Bobineau / Philipp Gieg / Timo Lowinger (eds.) (Forthcoming): Landeskunde Demokratische Republik Kongo, Berlin: Frank & Timme (Translated and Published in German).
• Van Houten, Kirsten and Ross, Sarya (2024). “Access to Justice, the Rule of Law and SDG 16: From Normative Struggle to Evolution” in Peaceful, Just, Inclusive: SDG 16 and the Global Governance of Violence, Donais, Timothy, Alistair Edgar & Kirsten Van Houten (eds.) (2024) Routledge.

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

• Van Houten, Kirsten (Accepted: Forth Coming). “State-Civil Society Relations in the Development and Implementation of Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders” Canadian Journal of Human Rights, 12.2. 
• Van Houten, Kirsten (2020) “Present Yet Unaccounted For: Women in Civil Society Peacebuilding in South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” Peacebuilding, 8(2) p.240-255. (Published online: 2019).
• Van Houten, Kirsten (2018). “The In-Between: Local Civil Society Organisations and their Community-Based Structures in South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo” Journal of Civil Society 14 (2) 116-134.
• Van Houten, Kirsten “Armed Violence Continues to Plague DRC Amidst Government Call for a MONUC Pull Out,” Arms Control Africa, vol. 2, issue 4, 2010.

Popular Publications

• Kirsten Van Houten and Laura Mac Donald (March 2021). Falling off the Map: Whither Cooperation Canada’s Regional Working Groups?  https://www.mcleodgroup.ca/2021/03/falling-off-the-map-whither-cooperation-canadas-regional-working-groups/?fbclid=IwAR3hz6Dk3vGhee_6kxADkPPgRuntpQy8wVGfQNvECwY4jImhuqUl6sFoM10
• Kirsten Van Houten and Em Mijares (June 2020). Integrating Human Rights into Canada’s International Response to COVID-19: https://www.mcleodgroup.ca/2020/05/integrating-human-rights-into-canadas-international-response-to-covid-19-2/ 
• Maysam Zaaroura & Kirsten Van Houten “An act of care: reframing global efforts to contain COVID-19” May 13, 2020: https://www.hilltimes.com/2020/05/13/an-act-of-care-reframing-global-efforts-to-contain-covid-19/247836?utm_source=Member+-+Hill+Times+Publishing&utm_campaign=49b293a0d1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_05_13_10_00&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_207adb2c89-49b293a0d1-91064897&mc_cid=49b293a0d1&mc_eid=61391a85f9 
• Stephanie Bacher and Kirsten Van Houten (April 2020). Supporting African-Led Responses to COVID-19: https://www.mcleodgroup.ca/2020/04/supporting-african-led-responses-to-covid-19/ 
• Kirsten Van Houten, “The glass ceiling remains to be shattered for women in peace and conflict-prevention efforts” May 29, 2019: https://www.hilltimes.com/2019/05/29/the-glass-ceiling-remains-to-be-shattered-for-women-in-peace-and-conflict-prevention-efforts/201682 

Board Member – Propeller Dance (2023-)

Food Bank Volunteer – Dalhousie Food Cupboard (2020-)

Member-McLeod Group(2020-2023)

Student Member – Human Rights, Research and Education Centre (2016-2020).

National Campaign Coordinator – The Just Minerals Campaign (2014-2016)