MEDIA RELEASE #1 ON BEHALF OF THE WOMEN PEACE AND SECURITY COORDINATING COMMITTEE (FIJI)
November 28 2003 – (femLINKpacific)
Suva, Fiji Islands

The Chairman of the Bose Levu Vakaturaga/Great Council of Chiefs, Ratu Epeli Ganilau, will officially open a 5 day training workshop organized by the Women Peace and Security Coordinating Committee (Fiji) on Conflict Prevention and Early Warning at the Lagoon Resort, Pacific Harbour, on Monday 01 December at 1030am.

The training workshop, which is a joint government and NGO initiative, is designed to up-skill women peacebuilders, who are working at national and local level, as well as participants from the government sector, in particular the security sector, to:

- Strengthen their understanding and capacity on conflict early warning and prevention perspectives – particularly with regard to their work on gender equality and women’s human rights
- Strengthen the capacity of participants to provide gender equality and women’s human rights perspectives to mainstream prevention and early warning activities

“To date, many international agencies and some national agencies have gained most of their experience on post-conflict reconstruction; it is critical therefore for organisations to develop an understanding of how to strategize in other phases of conflict. A particular challenge is to build knowledge – within and outside the UN – on the gender and women’s human rights dimensions of early warning and conflict prevention. Current developments in the global and regional peace and security arenas mean that this is an opportune time for organisations in the Pacific region to begin to develop their own strategies towards early warnings and preventive measures / response” says the training workshop organizers.

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About the Women, Peace and Security Fiji Coordinating Committee (WPS Fiji):

On May 14, 2003 the WPS Fiji coordinating committee was established following a consultation with the Ministry of Women and a range of women’s groups and non government organizations, who have been consistently addressing “women and peace” issues, especially since the events of May 2000.

The WPS Fiji, like other coordinating committees established in the project countries of the UNIFEM Pacific Women, Peace and Security project for Melanesia, brings together women’s NGOs and the Ministry of Women to collectively work on the four objective areas of the programme.

These include:

Objective 1: To improve availability of data and analysis on the root causes of conflicts, the impact on women and their role in conflict prevention, resolution and post conflict peace building in the four project countries.

Objective 2: To strengthen the capacity of women and women’s groups in the four programme countries to play a role in conflict prevention, resolution and post conflict peace building at the national and regional level.

Objective 3: To promote a gender perspective in conflict resolution and peace building initiatives of governments, regional organizations and mainstream agencies.

Objective 4: To promote peace, tolerance and reconciliation linking with economic security issues through advocacy in the community and with the general public.

In order to effectively incorporate our work as WPS Fiji into the Fiji Government Women’s Plan of Action, the WPS Fiji CC works independently but reports to the Ministry of Women’s Task Force on Decision Making, which includes representatives of a number of our committee members, including ECREA, Soqosoqo Vakamarama, NCWFiji.

Members of the WPS Fiji committee include: the Ministry of Women (Chair), Soqosoqo Vakamarama I Taukei, National Council of Women Fiji, the Ecumenical Centre for Research, Education and Advocacy (ECREA), Fiji Women's Crisis Centre, Fiji Women's Rights Movement, Young Women's Christian Association, Pan Pacific South East Asia Women's Association - Fiji Chapter (PPSEAWA Fiji), Fiji Association of Women Graduates, Catholic Women's League, Stri Sewa Sabha, National Council for Disabled Persons.

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The Traning Workshop on Conflict prevention and early warning will be led by resource persons from UNIFEM New York:

Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini was born in Iran and moved to England as a young girl during the Iranian Revolution. She joined International Alert in 1996, and co-authored Civil Wars, Civil Peace: An Introduction to Conflict Resolution three years later. In 1997 she joined the Forum on Early Warning and Early Response (FEWER) as Managing Editor, and was involved in advocacy efforts relating to early warning, the development of an early warning manual and editing of numerous field based reports. In 1999 she was commissioned by UNIFEM, the UN Development Fund for Women to research and author Women at the Peace Table: Making a Difference. Throughout 2000 she was the Senior Policy Advisor on the global campaign Women Building Peace: From the Village Council to the Negotiating Table, advocating for the UN Security Council resolution on women, peace, and security. She has authored numerous other publications on conflict early warning and prevention, as well as the Ford Foundation report on Women's Leadership, Gender, and International Relations. She joined Women Waging Peace in January 2002 as the Director of the newly formed Policy Commission. The Commission is developing the first ever comprehensive field-based case studies on women’s contributions to peace processes. In July 2003, she conducted workshops on conflict prevention and advocacy in Iran. She is currently drafting a study on women’s contributions to security sector reform in South Africa. Ms. Naraghi-Anderlini holds an MPhil in Social Anthropology from Cambridge University and has twin girls aged 2.

Sarah Maguire has been an activist on women's human rights issues for decades - particularly on issues of violence against women and women's relationship to the legal system. She is an active member of a campaigning NGO in the UK on domestic violence and legal reform particularly relating to women who kill their violent male partners. Sarah qualified as a barrister in the UK in 1990, working in the fields of criminal defence, family and immigration and asylum law for 10 years before joining the UK Department for International Development (DFID) as Senior Human Rights Adviser. Currently, she is an independent human rights consultant, working largely with UNIFEM, DFID and others on issues of women's human rights, children affected by armed conflict and forced migration.

There will be an opportunity for media interviews on Wednesday 03 December.

Please direct your media requirements to WPS Fiji Secretary Sharon Bhagwan Rolls on 9244871

“Unless the moment is seized, the opportunity will pass. We are all advocates of Resolution 1325 and we must ensure that rhetoric becomes reality” (1325 Enews September 6 2002)

Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security was passed on October 31, 2000. For the text of the resolution please visit: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/sc/1325.html