Women, Peace and Security Initiatives: Middle East/West Asia

International Rescue committee Campaign: Help Iraqi Families

Millions of innocent Iraqis have been forced to flee horrific violence: a girl whose father was killed in stray crossfire, a traumatized boy who watched his schoolmate blown to pieces by a hidden bomb, a teacher whose son has been kidnapped.

We can help them by adding our voices together. This pledge is a joint campaign of the International Rescue Committee, the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, and other partner organizations responding to the needs of Iraqi families who are displaced or affected by violence in Iraq.

To read and sign IRC petition, please click HERE

Rabat Appeal for the Regional Campaign Equality without Reservation

Despite recent advancements in the women's movement in many Arab countries, flagrant discrimination and violence continue to be perpetrated against
women in both the public and private spheres throughout the region.

In June 2006 human and women's rights organizations from throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region came to together in Rabat, Morocco to launch the "Rabat Appeal for the Regional Campaign Equality without Reservation."

The campaign calls for the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) by Qatar, Somalia, and Sudan.

To read more about the campaign, please click HERE

Stand With Afghan Women & Girls
As the international community and the Afghan government gather in Paris on June 12 to review the effectiveness of aid investment in Afghanistan, women from parliament and civil society gather as a single voice to stress the need to put concrete action behind promises in safeguarding women’s human rights and promoting their full participation as equal partners in building a peaceful Afghanistan.

To read the full statement, please click HERE

SUPPORT IRANIAN WOMEN on June 12 Day of Solidarity
Iranian women's rights activists are calling for international support in observance of the June 12, 2006 demonstrations.

Sign the "One Million Signatures" campaign petition calling for an end to discriminatory laws against women such as men's uncontested right to divorce, polygamy, and child custody.

Please read the "Statement in Support of Iranian Women" and send your personal or organizational support for the women’s rights activists who are fighting for their basic human rights against all odds.

To read the petition statement (avalaible in english and persian) and further information about the campaign, please click HERE

To visit the 'One Million Signatures' website, please click HERE

International Compact with Iraq in sweden : kvinna till kvinna's foundation seminar

At the International Compact with Iraq (May 29) government representatives and the UN will discuss what the international community can do to support the rebuilding of Iraq, including strengthening the respect for human rights and democracy.

The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation’s seminar will broaden that discussion further with valuable information and experience from inside Iraq on the situation for women, as well as what civil society can do for democracy and the respect of human rights in Iraq.

For more information about the event, please click HERE

FOLLOW THE women's 2008 Pedal for Peace in the Middle East (may 3-14)
Nearly 400 women representing more than 30 nationalities will arrive in Beirut on 2nd May for the fourth 'Follow the Women' bike ride, which winds through Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine.

For more information about the campaign, please click HERE

Mothers call for Mother’s Day boycott of Israeli settlement-builder Leviev
In Bil’in and Jayyous, Leviev (one of Israel’s wealthiest businessmen) with partner Shaya Boymelgreen are building settlements on village land despite intensive nonviolent protest campaigns mounted by the two Palestinian villages against the construction.

For more information about the campaign, please click HERE

May 2008: Sweden to host international UN conference on Iraq
The conference, which is planned for the end of May, aims to clarify the support of the international community for Iraq's development, and for the central role assigned to the United Nations by Security Council Resolution 1770. The detailed plan for the conference will be discussed with Iraq, the United Nations and other partners.

For more information, please click HERE

Kvinna till Kvinna has published an opinion piece in one of the biggest morning papers in Sweden. Both Iraqi Women Network and Kvinna till Kvinna have sent a letter to Swedish Prime Minister Reinfeldt demanding that women rights activists shall be invited and that women’s rights and security be high on the agenda.

To read IWN letter, please click HERE
To read Kvinna till Kvinna letter, please click HERE

Campaign of Solidarity with Women Resisting U.S. Wars and Occupation
'An Open Letter to All Feminists: Statement of Solidarity with Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim Women Facing War and Occupation'
by Piya Chatterjee and Sunaina Maira

To read the letter, please click HERE


The Global Campaign: ‘Stop Stoning and Killing Women!’
Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) is launching the Global Campaign ‘Stop Stoning and Killing Women!’ to end the persistent misuse of religion and culture to justify killing women as punishment for violating the ‘norms’ of sexual behaviour as defined and imposed by vested interests.

This Campaign is inspired by and grows out of women’s struggles in their own locations to combat various manifestations of this phenomenon, for instance in Pakistan, Indonesia, Iran and Nigeria.

The Campaign will support and enable women’s rights advocates, national and transnational women’s movements to resist those forces which politicize and mis-use culture and religion for subjugating women and the abuse of their human rights.

For more information, please click here

Claiming Equal Citizenship: The Campaign for Arab Women’s Right to Nationality
The Women’s Learning Partnership joins with regional partners in the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf to call for:
-Legal reform enabling women to confer their nationality to their husbands and children without condition
-Full implementation of reformed nationality laws and equal access to these laws for all women
-Recognition of women as equal citizens in all areas of life

For more information, please click here

Bahrain: An appeal from the Women's Petition Committee to the king of Bahrain
This is an address to His Majesty, King of Bahrain, on behalf of Ghada Jamshir, Chairwoman of the Women’s Petition Committee, regarding the faliure of the Supreme Council for Women(SCW) to promote the rights of women.

For more information please click here

The Global Fund responds to middle east crisis
The Global Fund extends their solidarity to the people of Lebanon, Palestine and Israel whose lives, safety and wellbeing are being compromised by the current security and humanitarian crisis. While the Global Fund does not conduct direct relief efforts, they are actively awarding funds to grantees in the region who are responding to the humanitarian crisis. They are informing all affected grantees that they may use any moneys from open grants to address the current situation.

For more information please click here

IWC Call for Immediate Action
As Israeli, Palestinian and International women leaders and activists, members of the IWC, dedicated to the goal of ending the occupation and achieving a just and sustainable Palestinian-Israeli peace based on a two-state solution, committed to the respect of international law, human rights and equality, we are alarmed at the escalating use of force and violence that threatens to destroy all options for creating a humane future for ourselves and our children.

For full statement please click here

Urgent Call to Stop Spiralling Middle East Violence
August 3, 2006 - Statement by Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM; Convenor, International Women's Commission for a Just and Sustainable Palestinian-Israeli Peace (IWC)

For full statemnet please click here

FIRE marathon broadcast "Voices of Resistance" features women's perspectives on Middle East conflicts
August 2, 2006
Women’s voices and perspectives in reaction to the military aggression in Lebanon, Palestine and Israel will be the focus of a marathon live broadcast via Internet entitled, “Voices of Resistance” on Friday, August 4, produced in Spanish and English by FIRE – Feminist International Radio Endeavour/Radio Internacional Feminista in Costa Rica. The 8-hour live broadcast, which begins at 10 am (Costa Rica/RMT) will be repeated three times during a 24-hour streaming schedule. Listeners may tune in by going to the FIRE website at: www.radiofeminista.net. FIRE is also inviting audience members to write or call during the program to express solidarity with women in the Middle East conflicts. For each email, FIRE will send $5 to women’s organizations that work in those conflict zones; and $10 for each phone call.

For more information please click here

Arab NGO Network for Development Calls upon its friends and supporters all around the world
Today, July 30th, another massacre was committed in Lebanon: More than sixty civilians, among them 37 children, were killed by Israeli bombs while they were sleeping in shelters in the village of Qana. They died not very far away from the mass grave holding the bodies of 106 civilians burned by a previous Israeli attack in April 1996 inside a shelter provided by a UN battalion

For full statement click here

Appeal letter from Peacewomen across the globe
19 July 2006
On behalf of all the International Coordinators and Board Members of Peace Women Across the Globe(formerly 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005), we join the International Women’s Commissionfor Just and Sustainable Peace, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, other humanrights and women’s rights organizations, and the wider international community in demanding the end to allmilitary operations and violence in Gaza, Lebanon, and Israel

To read the full letter click here

INTERNATIONAL PEACE BUREAU CALLS FOR RAPID DEPLOYMENT OF
DIPLOMATS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
We cannot bear to watch the continuous carnage. We cannot bear to hear the screams of children. We cannot bear to stand by as the United Nations and the G 8 abrogate their responsibilities to stop a war that should never have been started.

To read the full statement click here

Civilians in Gaza in need of protection
July 2, 2006 (Kvinna till Kvinna)
13 Agencies call for immediate and unobstructed access to provide for basic human needs in Gaza.
For common statement click here

End the Suffering of Palestinian Women
Women are paying a high price in the ongoing conflict. Among the thousands of deaths, hundreds of women have been killed by Palestinian armed groups and by Israeli forces. All government authorities have a duty to protect the rights of women. Amnesty International calls on both sides to recognize their respective responsibilities to end the suffering of Palestinian women. Take Action with Amnesty International

Palestinians decry 'honour killings'
June 13, 2005
Several hundred Palestinian women have held a silent protest in the West Bank town of Ram Allah, demanding legislation to protect women from so-called honour killings. For full story, click here.

The Occupation, patriarchy, and violence against women
May 12, 2005
Within a period of a month, five women, Shadia Jidawi from Tulkarem, Yusra Al ‘Azamy from Gaza, Faten Habash from Ramallah, Rudaina Shukirat (pregnant 8 months), and her sister, Amany Shukirat from Jabal Mukaber, were killed for challenging patriarchal norms. For press release visit Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling.

Campaign Training Schools
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)
Middle East and North Africa Division
2004 – 2005
NDI, in cooperation with the International Republican Institute (IRI), implemented the first in a planned series of three campaign training schools for women activists in Doha, Qatar from Feb. 14 to 18, 2004. Partners in Participation: Al Khalij Women's Campaign Initiative brought together 52 participants from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen to share with them tools and strategies for mounting viable political and advocacy campaigns in their home countries. Recognizing that elections are not on the horizon in some countries and that in others women have neither the right to vote nor to stand as candidates, the Institutes did not seek to guarantee the immediate success of women at the ballot box. This flagship program aimed, rather, to expose Gulf women to their peers in order to create a network of like-minded individuals committed to substantive democratic change. Similar initiatives are planned for Amman, Jordan and Sana'a, Yemen in late 2004 and early 2005. For more information on this an other NDI programs, please visit www.ndi.org

UNSC 1325 Women Peace and Security Future Perspectives Arab Regional Workshop (Click here for full description)
Featured in ENGENDERING PEACE, International Alert’s Gender and Peacebuilding Programme Newsletter, Spring 2004
The Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement was founded on the principle that women can and should be more visibly represented in all aspects of Peacebuilding because their participation has been proven to enhance the outcome. With this in mind, the movement organized the workshop on ‘The Road to UNSC 1325: Women. Peace and Security, Future Perspectives’ on the 29th and 30th may, 2004 in Mirage City, Cairo. This first internationally collaborative symposium organized on UNSC 1325 was initiated from within the Arab world, participants were selected with a ratio of 30:70 International to Arab participants respectively, the facilitators and all, except three speakers were drawn from the region. The participants were drawn from 22 Arab countries, two from Africa and two from United Kingdom. Funding was provided by UNIFEM, UNDP, the World Bank and the Centre for Arab Women’s Training and Research (CAWTAR). International Alert’s Gender and Peacebuilding Programme staff facilitated a session and shared stories as part of a panel on Sharing Stories.

Second Arab Women’s Summit: “Arab Women….A New Vision”
November 3-4, 2002
The Second Arab Women’s Summit aimed to alter the stereotype of Arab and Muslim women, to transmit a message of peace as the region faced political tension, and to look into the challenges and aspirations of women in the region. Several round tables were held to address diverse women’s issues, such as, women and human rights, women and education and women and leadership. To read the full report of the Second Arab Women’s Summit click here. For more information visit the National Commision of Lebanese Women.

Extraordinary Summit of Arab Women
November 11-12, 2001
During the two-day meeting, women from the Arab world reviewed the progress made towards the full implementation of the resolutions adopted in the First Arab Women’s Summit. Particularly, the Extraordinary Summit reached one major achievement towards establishing an Arab Women Organization, an autonomous entity within the appendage of the Arab League, enjoying financial and administrative independence, and aiming at advancing the status of Arab women through ensuring their effective participation in nation-building and enhancing life conditions for women throughout the Arab world. To read the full report of the Extraordinary Arab Women’s Summit click here. For more information visit the National Commision of Lebanese Women.

First Arab Women’s Summit
November 18-20, 2000
Women from the Arab world came together for the first time to call for the elimination of legal and traditional obstacles that kept Arab women out of public and political arenas. The First Arab Women’s Summit was organized by the Arab League, the Egyptian National Women’s Council and the Hariri Foundation-Lebanon. More than 400 women, including First Ladies, parlamentarians, researchers and community leaders, share their visions about women’s role in the Arab world. Among all their recommendations, mustered in the Cairo Declaration, they call for adopting policies to combat poverty, particularly, its implications on women, adopting the principal of equal opportunities for women and men in relation to education, training, literacy and access to health services, supporting women's right to work and access to decision making and to political participation, and creating a Arab Women’s Organization. To read the full report of the First Arab Women’s Summit click here. For more information visit the National Commision of Lebanese Women.

Feminine Rights Campaign
1999-2000
The Women’s Court: The Permanent Court to Resist Violence Against Women launched the Feminine Rights Campaign aiming to end juridical violence against women. The campaign calls to achieve equality between men and women as to the divorce standards in the Arab region. The general objective was to sensitize public opinion and the various decision makers in the Arab region, about the judicial injustice to which women are subject to. The Feminine Rights Campaign was launched in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. For further information please visit The Women’s Court: The Permanent Court to Resist Violence Against Women.

Campaign Against “Honor Killings”
The Arab Women Solidarity Association, concerned by the apparently rising numbers of "honor killings" of women and adolescent girls, launched a campaign to support regional and local groups and individuals to stand against this traditional practice, especially in the Middle East and North Africa. To read reports on honor killings click here. For more information visit the Arab Women Solidarity Association.