Participation

Letter prepared for the recent Security Council visit to Sudan, and signed by hundreds of women's organizations and networks including those in Darfur, Nuba Mountains, Eastern Sudan and South Sudan.

The letter was prepared with support from UNFPA and the UNMIS Gender Advisor's office, with input by other UN agencies.

Bineta Diop, Executive Director of Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS), has just returned from a solidarity and fact finding mission to eastern Chad along with seven other prominent women including Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Benin singer Angelique Kidjo.

Femmes Africa Solidarité and its partner World YWCA successfully organised a Panel and a series of high level meetings for 6 Sudanese women in Geneva, 12 March to 18 March, 2008.

The women met with UN Delegates, foreign government ministers, ambassadors, NGO's, UN Agencies, the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rghts Situation in Sudan, Ms Sima Samar, and a broad spectrum of key contacts regarding Women in Darfur.

At the official opening of the National Council of Women's training for women candidates and campaign managers yesterday, Australian High Commissioner Patrick Cole, highlighted that advancing women's participation in the political sphere was one step towards investing in Solomon Islands' women's collective demonstration of their sense of responsibility, honesty and capacity to lead: "It is time for the women of the Solomon Islands to step

African women attending the 7th African Regional Meeting on the Review of the Dakar and Beijing Conferences (Beijing + 10) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 6-14 October, 2004, expressed satisfaction with the efforts of the African Union (AU) and NEPAD to ensure that all their policies, programmes and practices are inclusive and engendered.

Starting from May 2002, village level elections were held around Eritrea. In the months running up to the elections, the National Union of Eritrean Women organized a campaign to promote electoral awareness in Eritrean society in general, and among women in particular.

Campaign leaders were trained and equipped with instruction materials. During the campaign women were encouraged to run in the elections.

On the International Women's Day for Peace and Disarmament, ISIS-WICCE called for reflection rather than celebration in Uganda, the Great Lakes Region, Africa, and the world as a whole.

Last Thursday, November 30th, we re-launched the Blue Ribbon, a symbol of a collective call to action in May 2000 (see background of the blue ribbon story below or online):

The "Peace Bikes" initiative is part of UNDP's larger sexual and gender-based violence programme which has trained over 700 women in peacebuilding, negotiation and conflict resolution skills.

A group of 50 women, made up of a Tutsi majority, from the organization Twishakira amahoro ("We want to have peace") in Musaga, a district in Bujumbura, joined and helped Hutu women members of the same organization living in Busoro, another area situated at the outskirts of the town in the Kanyosha region populated by a Hutu majority.