The 2005 Peace Building Cyberdialogues on UNSCR 1325: Linking New York, Kampala, Monrovia, Oslo, Dili, Bougainville, Bangkok and more

The International Women’s Tribune Centre, in collaboration with partner organizations, is planning to convene two, possibly three cyberdialogues that will bring the voices and views of women on issues of peace and security to the attention of government officials at the national and international level.

Drawing upon the experiences of women from different world regions, a major focus of the cyberdialogues will be women's efforts to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and analysis of the gaps and challenges in the implementation process.

Where and When
The cyberdialogues will take place during the 10th International Forum convened by the Association of Women1s Rights in Development (AWID) to be held from October 27-30, 2005 in Bangkok, Thailand. At this event, which is expected to draw over 2,000 participants, academics, policymakers, and programme planners from around the world, IWTC will host a cyberdialogue, an interactive workshop using Internet voice chat and/or audio visual teleconferencing to connect women attending the Bangkok conference with the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security at UN headquarters in New York and with women involved in peace building processes in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Europe. Screens and speakers will be set up in Bangkok and other cyberdialogue sites to allow for greater audience participation. At the present time, 6 to 8 dialogue sites are being considered. If time and facilities allow, two cyberdialogues will be held during the AWID Forum.

The cyberdialogues will be linked to the UNSCR 1325 October anniversary activities in New York organized by the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security. The overall thrust is to provide women working on peace building issues at the national and community level with the rare opportunity of engaging in a dialogue with policymakers working at the international level.

IWTC will work closely with the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security and other partner organizations to formulate key questions that will move the discussion forward. The role of women as key participants in the reconstruction process will be highlighted as well as issues and obstacles encountered in the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution (SCR) 1325. Time permitting, attention may also be directed towards experiences in working with other new legal mechanisms relevant to women in the post-conflict and reconstruction process such as the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court.

The 2005 Peace Building Cyberdialogues will employ a variety of interactive techniques to engage women at the community and country level with policymakers and advocacy groups at the international level. A key feature of the project will be collaboration with community radio broadcasters in each of the dialogue sites to ensure that the issues discussed are re-packaged for use at local level and, working with other media practitioners, put in motion an information multiplier effect.

Using Community Radio to Ground 1325 and Extend the Cyberdialogue Discussion
Community radio broadcasters will play a key role in all phases of the global-local cyberdialogue experience. In the weeks leading up to the event, community radio broadcasters in each of the discussion sites will broadcast a programme explaining the significance of UNSCR 1325 to women at community level, announce the forthcoming dialogue (when and where and how to participate), and include some interactive component to elicit community participation.

During the actual cyberdialogues, the discussions will be recorded and edited to produce English language radio programmes that will then be dubbed into local languages and aired in community radio stations, most of whom are members of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC). The radio programmes will ensure wider outreach for the outcomes of the cyberdialogues and will contribute to raising awareness of UNSCR 1325 and how women can use this resolution at community level. The radio programmes produced out of the cyberdialogues will also be made available in downloadable MP3 format on the websites of the cyberdialogue partners.

The radio programmes and cyberdialogues are key components of IWTC's larger multi-media programme intended to put new legal mechanisms into the hands of women at country and community level. IWTC is currently in discussion with partner organizations to explore other means of capturing and extending discussion of issues raised during the dialogues beyond the event itself.

from: Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, Senior Programme Associate, International Women's Tribune Center (IWTC)

For the "1325 Australia" website, please visit: http://www.1325australia.org.au/html/nunews.html