OCTOBER 2004: WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY

• 4th Anniversary Index •

For UNIFEM's online October calendar, visit: http://www.womenwarpeace.org/

UNHQ: Panel on Afghanistan: Women's Roles in Peacebuilding and Reconstruction
NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, American Jewish World Service, Women for Afghan Women
12:30-2pm, CCUN, 12th floor

Featuring Guest Speaker: Professor Sakena Yacoobi, Afghan Institute of Learning
Professor Sakena Yacoobi is President and Executive Director of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), an internationally recognized Afghan women’s non-governmental organization. AIL provides teacher training, health services and education to women and children. Professor Yacoobi and AIL jointly received the 2004 Women’s Rights Prize of the Peter Gruber Foundation for furthering the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. She is co-founder and Vice-President of Creating Hope International, a U.S. non-profit organization. 

Discussant Mr. S.K. Guha, Senior Programme Officer, UNIFEM

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UNHQ: Panel on "Sudan - Women's Voices from the Frontlines"
Organized by the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, Supported by the Inter-agency Working Group on Women, Peace and Security
1:15-2:45pm, UN Plaza 2 (DC2) Room 1282
(44th Street between 1st and 2nd avenue)
If you do not have a UN pass – please meet in the lobby of DC 2 at 1:00 pm.

Featuring Guest Speakers:

Ms. Awut Deng Acuil: Ms. Awut Deng Acuil is a co-founder of the Sudanese Women’s Association in Nairobi and the Sudanese Women’s Voice for Peace. Ms. Acuil worked with the New Sudan Council of Churches to establish conflict resolution initiatives and peace agreements between clashing Sudanese groups. Ms. Acuil was the secretary of information for the West Bank Peace Council in the Bahr el Ghazal region and was awarded the InterAction Humanitarian Peace Award. for her efforts in building peace and women’s rights in Sudan. Ms. Acuil has been a member of Woman Waging Peace since 1999.

Ms. Eiman Abu Al-Gasim: Ms. Eiman Abu Al-Gasim is an activist for women and children's rights in Darfur. At this time, she works through the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM). She has established the Darfur Women's Relief and Rehabilitation Agency, an NGO focusing on the psychological rehabilitation of raped women and children, and the implementation of educational programs for youth. She is a member of the executive board of the Darfur Relief and Documentation Center, an NGO based in Geneva. Over the past several months, Ms. Al-Gasim has completed a large number of interviews in the international media in order to draw attention to the violations facing women and children in Darfur.

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Canada: Workshop "10 Years After: Lessons from Rwanda for the Women, Peace and Security Agenda
Organized by the Conflict and Development Programme, Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia
Sponsored by CCHS, IDRC, CIDA
October 24-26, 2004
By invitation only

Ten years after the 1994 Genocide of one million Rwandans, efforts to rebuild Rwanda have resulted in some remarkable gains toward gender equality. For example, the September 2003 national elections catapulted this small African country into first place for gender parity in representation in parliament (48.8 percent). Significant changes in the Constitution, legislation and inheritance laws have also been realized.
Women have spontaneously formed associations and organizations to help each other cope and in doing so, represent an important new voice in their communities and country.

The workshop will bring together a cross-section of Rwandan women and men involved in collective reconstruction - including child head of households, widows who volunteer in their communities, leaders of women's rights associations, and political leaders - to reflect upon their varied work and life experiences.

Civil society members from the Great Lakes Region are also invited to exchange experiences and lessons learned. African and Canadian researchers will work together with participants to analyze what has changed in terms of gender relations and roles in Rwanda, how this has happened, and the relationship of each to the state and international community.

On the basis of this analysis, the workshop will provide a critique of, and recommendations to the international community and its commitment to implement Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (or SC 1325).

Workshop Objectives

1. Recognize the survival, coping and livelihood strategies of men and women in post-genocide Rwanda;
2. Begin to assess the relationships between the Rwandan state and civil society;
3. Begin to assess the impact of gender-equality peace-building initiatives on the lives of grass-roots women and men in Rwanda;
4. Exchange regional lessons learned and advocacy strategies on addressing gender-related harm;
5. Critique assumptions embedded in SC 1325 on basis of the Rwandan experience and develop policy recommendations.

Approach

SC 1325 commits governments and UN agencies to a set of policy actions to promote the role of women in conflict prevention, peace building and post-conflict reconstruction, as well as recognizes the particular forms of harm women endure during conflict.

Passed in October 2000, the Resolution has been followed up by a number of important studies, action plans and initiatives. Nevertheless, few specific case studies exist to illustrate the relevance of SC 1325 to the experiences of everyday women.

Although 1325 was introduced only in 2000, six years after genocide, the workshop believes much is to be learned from the Rwanda experience. Despite the colossal humanitarian emergency facing the country, Rwanda quickly moved into a developmental approach to peacebuilding, of which gender equality policies were an important focus. Both the Rwandan state and multi-lateral organizations played an active role in facilitating these programmatic and policy related changes.

This workshop starts from the assumption that the best way to improve international or state-led interventions on gender equality in transitional settings is to start from the experiences and engagement of women and men themselves. In the spirit of taking a 'human-centred' approach then, the workshop is designed to learn from the memories, views and opinions about the past, present and future of genocide survivors. For more information on this methodology, please read the workshop concept paper.

This conference is by invitation only. For more information please contact Erin Baines, Research Director erin.baines@ubc.ca.

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