Women, Peace and Security Resources: Organizing for Conflict Resolution and Peace

WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY RESOURCES: WOMEN ORGANIZING FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND PEACE
Civil Society and NGO Reports, Papers and Statements | UN Documents and Reports | Government Statements and Reports | Books, Journals and Articles

Civil Society and NGO Reports, Papers and Statements

Mairin Iwanka Raya: Indigenous Women Stand Against Violence
International Indigenous Women’s Forum (FIMI)
This report reflects FIMI’s efforts to develop effective strategies to combat violence against indigenous women, and to bridge the gap between the global women’s movement and the international indigenous women’s movement. The report puts forward an indigenous conceptualization of gender-based violence. It reflects the fruitful result of efforts by indigenous women around the world, highlights promising practices in research, political mobilization, and community organizing and describes future challenges to guarantee that indigenous women have the right to live a life free of violence. This is a companion report to the United Nations Secretary-General's Study on Violence Against Women (Indigenous Women's Forum, 2006)

For complete report, please click here.

Feminist Resistance to War and Violence in Serbia
Lepa Mladjenovic and Donna M. Hughes, Frontline Feminisms, August 2007(Accessed)
The war in Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia resulted in terrible violence, much of which targeted women with rape, torture and death. Lepa Mladjenovic and Donna M. Hughes give a feminist perspective on war resistance in the midst of that horror.

Beyond Victimhood: Women’s Peacebuilding in Sudan, Congo and Uganda
International Crisis Group - Africa Report, 28 June 2006
Peacebuilding cannot succeed if half the population is excluded from the process. Crisis Group’s research in Sudan, Congo (DRC) and Uganda suggests that peace agreements, post-conflict reconstruction, and governance do better when women are involved. Women make a difference, in part because they adopt a more inclusive approach toward security and address key social and economic issues that would otherwise be ignored. But in all three countries, as different as each is, they remain marginalised in formal processes and under-represented in the security sector as a whole. Governments and the international community must do much more to support women peace activists.

For complete report please click here

A Culture of Peace: Women, Faith and Reconciliation
Marigold Best and Pamela Hussey, Published by the Catholic Institute for International Relations, 2005
Building a culture of peace is perhaps the biggest, the most complicated and the most important issue in the world today, ranging from the international scenario down to the smallest family unit – even down to each one of us. The importance of the issue is shown by the prominence given to it by every organisation working for true peace and development. CIIR is one of these. They agree too that, without the full participation of women, enjoying equal rights with men, there can be no real peace, no real development, no real reconciliation, in fact no real hope for the world.

Women Building Peace: Sharing Know-How, Assessing Impact: Planning for Miracles
Judy El Bushra with Ancil Adrian-Paul and Maria Olson, International Alert, June 2005
The issue of impact measurement in conflict transformation and peacebuilding work has gained a higher profile in the last few years as a result of several research and development initiatives. These initiatives have not addressed the issue of gendered impacts in any depth, nor have they reflected the specific circumstances of women's organisations engaged in peacebuilding. This report, based on a workshop on assessing impact, seeks to broaden the scope of peace and conflict impact monitoring by highlighting issues of concern to women, and by showing how these issues may enrich the field. It distils some of the experience and thinking of women's organisations engaged in peacebuilding on how - and why - they carry out impact assessment.

The Role of Women in Reconciliation and Peace Building in Rwanda: Ten Years After Genocide 1994-2004 - Contributions, Challenges and Way Forward
The National Unity and Reconciliation Commission, May 2005
This pioneering and groundbreaking work on the role of women in peace building and reconciliation in Rwanda, ten years after genocide was carried out in the field, between September and October 2004. It constitutes an overview of the best practices and success stories, challenges and the way forward with regard to peace building and reconciliation processes, with the view of enabling the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC) identify the gender gaps in its Policy and Programmes and undertake appropriate corrective measures in collaboration with other actors.

Forgotten Casualties of War: Girls in Armed Conflict
Save the Children, 28 April 2005
Save the Children is today calling on world leaders to better protect the large numbers of vulnerable and innocent girls whose lives are destroyed every year by conflict, with the launch a new report ‘"Forgotten Casualties of War: Girls in Armed Conflict". The report identifies a ‘"hidden army" of girls, some as young as eight, who are abducted against their will to live life in the army. The roles of the girls vary from being actual soldiers through to serving as porters, cleaners and cooks. Almost all are forced to serve as sex slaves or ‘"wives".

Naga Women Making a Difference: Peace Building in Northeastern India
Rita Manchanda, Women Waging Peace, Washington DC, Policy Commission, January 2005
This report chronicles the innovative approaches of Naga women who mediate among armed actors and mobile for peace and reconciliation across conflict divides, including their activities to sustain the ceasefire, strengthen the formal peace process, and encourage the pursuit of long-term stability in northeastern India.

Appeal Against Fundamentalisms: WLUML statement to the World Social Forum
Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), 21 January 2005
For more than two decades, women have identified one of the warning signs of fundamentalisms to be anti-women policies, whether it is the attacks on contraception and abortion in the USA and in Europe, or the imposition of dress codes and forced veiling and the attacks on freedom of movement and on the rights to education and work under Taliban-like regimes. Women have massively mobilized for Afghan women starving under their burqa or Nigerian women sentenced to death by stoning for sex outside marriage, while so-called religious laws were invading these countries.

The Kigali Declaration Of The Great Lakes Regional Women's Meeting
9 October 2004, Kigali, Rwanda
We, the delegates representing the core countries of the Great Lakes Region, namely Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia and the co-opted Republic of South Africa, assembled at the First Regional Women’s Meeting held in Kigali, Rwanda on 7 – 9 October 2004, as part of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region under the auspices of the African Union and the United Nations; Concerned, with the multi-dimensional conflicts in the Great Lakes Region, resulting in untold suffering of communities especially women and children and loss of human lives...

Women in Armed Opposition Groups Speak on War, Protection and Obligations under International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law: Workshop Report
Dyan Mazurana, Geneva Call and the Program for the Study of International Organization(s), Geneva, 26-29 August 2004
This report covers the key protection and obligations for women and girls in armed opposition groups under international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Drawing on the voices of the 32 women present from 18 armed opposition groups as well as previous relevant studies, the report then investigates the ways in which women and girls enter into armed opposition groups and their active participation within the groups. It documents and analyzes the ways women experience empowerment in armed opposition groups, and the ways they are disempowered. It examines the reasons girls under 18 years of age enter into armed opposition groups, their roles, and the threats to their rights and physical and mental integrity from forces both outside and within their armed group. The report then moves to cover key disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) issues raised by the women participants. It concludes with an investigation into the potential gains and obstacles facing women and girls within armed groups and those wishing to work with them in promoting and enforcing humanitarian and human rights law within armed opposition groups. Each section is followed by key lessons learned from discussions with women in armed opposition groups.

Gender and Peace-building in Africa
Kari Karamé (Ed.), Training for Peace Program, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)-Oslo, the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)- Durban and the Institute for Security Studies (ISS)- Pretoria, 2004

Rethink: A Handbook for Sustainable Peace
Kvinna Till Kvinna, 5 March 2004
We want to demonstrate how simple it is to make women become actors in the process of creating a sustainable peace. We also want to show how much there is to gain –for everyone –when women enjoy the power and the means to fully participate in processes of peace and reconstruction.

Women Building Peace: Sharing Know-How
Judy El-Bushra, International Alert, June 2003
This report aims to synthesise the findings to date of International Alert’s Women Building Peace: Sharing Know-how Project. It makes use of a varied set of project activities (including conferences, key-informant interviews, documentation from partner organisations, and the deliberations of the Sharing Know-how Workshop held in Oxford in November 2002) as well as a range of sources drawn from literature on the emerging theme of women and peacebuilding. The Oxford workshop brought together women peace activists from South Asia, South America, Africa, the Caucasus and the South Pacific, to identify, analyse and assess their conflict-resolution work as well as peacebuilding practices and strategies developed by women. The workshop looked at women’s understanding and analysis of conflict, their experiences of armed conflict and their responses to it.

Report on WILPF Australia’s Activities Related to Security Council Resolution 1325
WILPF (Australian Capital Territory- ACT) branch, Canberra, June 2003
Two years ago, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Australian Capital Territory (ACT) branch in Canberra began working on Resolution 1325. Over the past two years they have made presentations and conducted workshops at the local level and also at national and international conferences, representing the WILPF Australian Section. In addition, they have received a grant to develop educational /informational packages on Resolution 1325.

UNSC Resolution 1325: South Asian Women's Perspectives
Nicola Johnston, International Alert, June 2003
The South Asia consultation on Women, Peace and Security facilitated by International Alert (IA) forms part of the Gender Peace Audit Project of IA’s Gender and Peacebuilding Programme. It was the fourth consultation of its kind facilitated by IA. The preceding consultations were held in Nepal, the Caucasus and Nigeria in 2002. These consultations aim to bridge the gap between global policy and the practical realities faced by women in regional, national and post-conflict contexts. The outcomes of these consultations are disseminated to global and regional policy-makers for the development and refinement of international policies and practices relating to women, peace and security through the Global Policy Project (IA’s Gender and Peacebuilding Programme). The consultations generate and contribute to local, national and regional advocacy activities and strategies to address issues and concerns that affect women’s peace and security.

UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security: Two Years On Report
NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, 31 October 2002

NEPAD Reluctance to Address Gender Issues: an Analysis
Sara Hlupekile Longwe, 11 October 2002
This paper assesses whether NEPAD, The New Partnership for African Development, can provide the basis for action on issues of gender inequality, and therefore whether the newly formed African Union provides a new opportunity and mechanism for progress towards equal rights for women in Africa. The assessment of NEPAD's intention to address gender issues is analysed by looking at NEPAD as a planning sequence, from expression of principles and goals, through to the identification of the specific actions proposed to achieve these goals. The interest is to examine the attention to gender through the sequence of planning steps, looking specifically at the consistency of the logic in the treatment of gender issues as the planning sequence unfolds.

Women for Peace: A Call for Action
Sharm El Sheikh Initiative, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, 22 September 2002

Women's Roles in Conflict Prevention, Conflict Resolution and Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Literature Review and Institutional Analysis
Tsjeard Bouta and Georg Frerks, The Clingendael Conflict Research Unit, June 2002 Part I | Part II

New Bridges to Peace: Enhancing National and International Security by Expanding Policy Dialogues Among Women Conference Report
Women in International Security, April 2001
Forty women leaders from international organisations, the US Government, the Military, Academia and local NGOs met at a 2-day seminar conducted by the Washington DC-based organisation Women In International Security (WIIS). Speakers included Fatima Gailani of the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan, Shirin Tahir-Kheli of Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies, South Africa's Deputy Minister of Defence, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, and the UN's Funmi Olonisakin.

Engendering Peace in Africa: A Critical Inquiry Into Some Current Thinking on the Role of African Women in Peace-building
Louise Vincent. Africa Journal in Conflict Resolution. No. 1. African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes, 2001

Women Making Peace
South Asia Forum for Human Rights, R. Manchanda, B. Sijapati, R. Gang, Kathmandu, Nepal 2001
This report details a regional workshop held in June 2001 entitled 'Strengthening Women's Role in the Peace Process.' Reporting on the workshop's experiments with developing overarching and comparative frames of women's experiences in conflict zones and their coping strategies in South Asia, this publication provides a solid reference for Best Practices in peacebuilding and maintenance.

Women, Governance and Conflicts in Africa
Maria Nzomo, Ph.D, DPMF/OSSREA Conference on African Conflicts: Their Management, Resolution and Post Conflict Reconstruction, Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia, 13-15 December 2000

Rapport del'atelier sur la transformation des conflits en Afrique: La perspective des femmes africaines
Association des Femmes Africaines pour la Recherche et le Developpement (AFARD) et International Alert. Dakar, Institut de Goree, 23-36 mai 2000

Women in War and Peace: Grassroots Peacebuilding
Donna Ramsey Marshall. Peaceworks. No.34. Washington D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, 2000

Women and Peacebuilding
Dyan Mazurana and Susan McKay. Montreal: International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, 1999
If progress is to be made towards building more peaceful, cooperative and just societies where human security is valued as paramount, building peace must more deeply involve women and women’s approaches. As documented throughout this essay, women’s roles in, and contributions to, peacebuilding have been underutilized and lacking in recognition at community, national, and international levels. Despite women’s marginalization outside the mainstream peace and international security arenas, their work in peacebuilding is substantial. order this publication

UN Reports

Can conflict analysis processes support gendered visions of peacebuilding? Reflections from the Peace and Stability Development Analysis in Fiji
UNDP, 2006
This paper was prepared at the request of the UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery to highlight key issues, lessons and opportunities with regard to the integration of gender issues and concerns in conflict analysis processes such as the Peace and Stability Development Analysis (PSDA) in Fiji. The report draws from the work, experience and insights of many people who have been active participants of the PSDA process.

Guide on Women, Peace and Security
UN-INSTRAW, 2006
To commemorate the International Day of Peace, September 21st 2006, the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) offers a new manual on how to create a successful action plan on women, peace and security. Designed as a resource for governments, international and regional agencies and civil society organizations, the guide -"Securing Equality, Engendering Peace: A guide to policy and planning on women, peace and security"-provides good practices, specific recommendations and a practical six-step model process.

Gender Approaches in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations
UN Development Programme (UNDP), 2001
This manual was compiled during a seminar entitled “Approccio di genere in situazioni di emergenza, conflitto e post-conflitto” (Gender approach in emergency, conflict, and postconflict situations), which was held in Rome on 2-6 April 2001. The seminar was organized by the UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery in Rome and the Emergency division of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and included participants from various Italian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN agencies directly involved in emergency, crisis response and recovery operations. During the seminar, a needs assessment session was held and participants expressed their interest in having a “how to” manual that could help them better integrate a gender approach during humanitarian, recovery and development activities.

Women are half of the community, why are they not half of the solution?
UNIFEM Independent Experts' Assessment Report. Progress of the World ’s Women 2002, Vol.1: Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and the Role of Women in Peace-Building, 2002

Women Say No to War
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizational (UNESCO)
Women speak up against war. This book supports their voices. Photographs from all corners of the world and short commentaries by key spokespersons of the peace movement illustrate women's rejection of war and violence.

Non A La Guerre Disent Les Femmes
Des bras qui se levent en signe de deuil, des visages eplores: les photos de cet album, prises sur toues les continents, parlent de la souffrance
des femmes, de leur refus de la violence et de la guerre.

Final Report of the Asian Women for a Culture of Peace Conference
Hanoi, Viet Nam, 6-9 December 2000
The primary aim of the Conference was to provide a forum for Asian women to share their visions, experiences and strategies on the theme of peace building and non-violence in Asia, and to coordinate their actions for the promotion of a culture of peace as a prerequisite for sustainable and environmentally sound development. The Conference was attended by 150 delegates and observers from 35 countries in Asia and the Pacific, as well as non-Asian countries, organizations of the UN System, national government and non-governmental organizations and regional institutions.

Unveiling Women as Pillars of Peace: Peace Building in Communities Fractured by Conflict in Kenya
Monica Kathina Juma, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2000
This report provides a background on the conflict in Kenya, then goes on to analyze the roles women have played in peace-building and reconciliation, as well as the challenges they faced in their efforts at peace. Specific regions in the study include the Wajir District, Western Kenya, and the Northern Rift Valley.

Declaration of the 4th Regular Meeting of IGAD Ministers in charge of Gender/Women Affairs
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), February 21-22, 2006

Proceedings of the 3rd Regular Meeting of Ministers in Charge of Gender Affairs
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), July 15, 2004
The specific objectives of the meeting were: to develop an IGAD Gender Policy framework with the view to facilitate the mainstreaming of Gender perspectives into all activities of IGAD in order to make them gender responsive and contribute to the achievement of economic integration, food security and environment protection, peace and Security and Humanitarian affairs in the region; to review a draft modalities of creating and IGAD women for Peace and Development Forum and to discuss the process and needs for improved Gender Budgeting in the region.

Summary Proceedings of the Workshop on engendering CEWARN (Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism)
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), November 25 – 26, 2002
This workshop was organized with the following objectives focusing gender issues within the framework of CEWARN:
• Broaden participants knowledge on engendering CEWARN as well as perception of the participants and deepening the analysis of the concept and recommend innovative ideas on engendering CEWARN
• Provide a forum for floating and testing ideas, which can later be formulated to logical framework and integrated to the CEWARN activities
• Assure presentation of Women in CEWARN and CEWERUs (In-state Conflict Early Warning and Conflict Management Unit)
• Develop Institutional Link between Gender Desk, CEWARN/CEWERUs and national machineries

Report of the 2nd Regular Meeting of Ministers in Charge of Women’s Affairs
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), July 4-5, 2002
The objectives of the meeting included reporting on the progress made since the First Regular Meeting of Ministers in charge of Gender and presenting a training program on Advanced Negotiation & Mediation Training for Women in Peace Making, Leadership & Development.

A Stone in the Water: Report of the Roundtables with Afghan-Canadian Women on the Question of the Application UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in Afghanistan
Advocacy Subcommittee of the Canadian Committee on Women, Peace and Security and YWCA of Canada, July 2002

Seminar on Gender Mainstreaming of IGAD Peace Building and Conflict Resolution Programme
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), October 15-16, 2001
The objectives of the Seminar were:
- To share experiences and enhance the participants capacity and women’s involvement in peace making and peace building.
- To review the current peace initiatives of IGAD in relation to the involvement of women.
- To review the IGAD Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution and Humanitarian Affairs programmes and identify gender gaps.
- To map out a strategic action plan for onward submission to the First Regular Meeting of the IGAD Ministers In-charge of Women’s Affairs.

Gender Mainstreaming Summary Report
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), July 3-4, 2000

Books, Journals and Articles

Encyclopedia of Peace Education
Edited by Monisha Bajaj, Teachers College, Columbia University, 2008

The rise of peace education both in scholarship and in practice has yielded numerous documents, websites, and publications with often divergent perspectives on what the field is, does, and means. The Encyclopedia of Peace Education provides a comprehensive overview of the scholarly developments in the field to date, so as to provide a common denominator for the various actors involved in advancing peace education internationally.

Thus, this edited volume serves as an essential reference guide that traces the history and emergence of the field, highlights foundational concepts, contextualizes peace education practice across international and disciplinary borders, and suggests new directions for peace educators.

Peacebuilding - Women in International Perspective
By Elisabeth Porter, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

This book clarifies some key ideas and practices underlying peace building; understood broadly as formal and informal peace processes that occur during pre-conflict, conflict and post-conflict transformation.

Applicable to all peace builders, Elisabeth Porter highlights positive examples of women’s peace building in comparative international contexts. She critically interrogates accepted and entrenched dualisms that prevent meaningful reconciliation, while also examining the harm of othering and the importance of recognition, inclusion and tolerance. Drawing on feminist ethics, the book develops a politics of compassion that defends justice, equality and rights and the need to restore victims’ dignity. Complex issues of memory, truth, silence and redress are explored while new ideas on reconciliation and embracing difference emerge.

Many ideas challenge orthodox understandings of peace. The arguments developed here demonstrate how peace building can be understood more broadly than current United Nations and orthodox usages so that women’s activities in conflict and transitional societies can be valued as participating in building sustainable peace with justice. Theoretically integrating peace and conflict studies, international relations, political theory and feminist ethics, this book focuses on the lessons to be learned from best practices of peace building situated around the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.

Gender perspective in peace initiatives: Opportunities and challenges
By Satbeer Chhabra, Faculty for Women Development Division, NIPCCD, New Delhi, september 2005
The reprt explores the importance of improving the understanding of how women's and men's perspectives on peace and violence vary and whether or not there are policy and programmatic implications for these differences. The role of women in peace building needs to be investigated and highlighted as part of gender analysis of peace support operations. The perception of women as victims of violence as also actors during war and conflict situations could provide an improved basis to develop effective strategies for incorporating gender perspectives in peace initiatives.

Peace Lessons from Around the World
Andrea S. Libresco and Jeannette Balantic, Hague Appeal for Peace, 2006
Peace education is a comprehensive and holistic participatory process that includes teaching and learning for and about human rights, non-violence, social and economic justice, gender equality, environmental sustainability, disarmament, international law, human security and traditional peace practices. This collection of sixteen lesson, from Albania, Cambodia, Philippines, Kenya, India, Nepal, US, Catalunya (Spain), and South Africa, is based on the Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice for the 21st Century (UN Ref. A/54/98) They should be adoptable and adaptable to any culture and will serve to stimulate values and skills for a culture of peace. Included are suggested guidelines on how to make a peace lesson.

Rising Up in Response: Women's Rights Activism in Conflict
Jane Barry, Urgent Action Fund, March 2005
Women's human rights activists work on the frontline of conflicts throughout hte world. They mobilize, individually and collectively, to address the urgent needs of conflict-affected populations- before, during and after the fighting. Urgent Action Fund launched a year-long project in early 2003 to identify concrete ways to improve international support for the interventions of women's rights activists during all phases of conflict. Over 82 women's rights activists were interviewed in three conflict-affected areas: the Balkans (Kosovo and Serbia), Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka. The report's findings and recommendations are derived primarily from semi-structured field interviews, focussing on women activists' experiences and their interventions at different points of a conflict, as well as specific barriers to their work and supporting factors, with a particular emphasis on security-related issues. Other topics were discussed, including the relationship between women's rights activism and humanitarian action.

Gender, Peacebuilding and Reconstruction
Caroline Sweetman (Ed.), Oxfam, Focus on Gender, 1 December 2004

Women in War
Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, South Africa, 2004
War and conflict have historically been viewed as a masculine terrain. Traditional discourses position women in the private sphere as victims and community maintainers, while men defend the nation (and their virtue) and pick up the pieces once peace is attained.

Development, Women, and War Feminist Perspectives
Deborah Eade and Haleh Afshar. Oxfam Development in Practice Readers. Oxfam, 1 Nov 2003
The shared experiences of women and their potential to contribute both to wat and particularly to peace, are highlighted in this discussion of the long-running conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe. Policy makers, practitioners, and academics consider why women's concerns have yet to be placed at the forefront of both analysis and practical outcomes. This selection of essays presents an overview of different feminist approaches to peace building and conflict resolution, and puts forward concrete policy measures to achieve these ends. Contributors argue for the need to move beyond the myriad projects that involve women to consider the factors that contribute to the relatively poor overall impact of such projects - an outcome that often results from a failure to understand the underlying gendered power relations and the dynamics of social change.

Burmese Women Leaders Learning from the Philippine Women's Movement
Joanna C. Castro, Initiatives for International Dialogue, 23 July 2003
Four women leaders from different ethnic states in Burma - Shan, Mon, Karen and Kachin - visited the Philippines last 6-16 October to participate in a political strategy exposure on Filipino women's movement.

Women's Activism and Globalization: Linking Local Struggles and Transnational Politics
Nancy A. Naples and Manisha Desai (Eds.). New York: Routledge, 2002
Women's Activism and Globalization is a broad and comprehensive collection that shows how women activists across the globe are responding to the forces of the "new world order" in their communities. The first person accounts and regional case studies provide a truly global view of women working in their communities for change. The essays examine women in urban, rural, and suburban locations around the world to provide a rich understanding of the common themes as well as significant divergences among women activists in different parts of the world.

Engendering the Peace Process in Africa: Women at the Negotiating Table
Femmes Africa Solidarite (FAS). Africa Civil Society Organizations and Development and Development: Re-Evaluating for the 21st Century. United Nations Office of the Special Coordinator for Africa and the Least Developed Countries, September 2002

Women's Organizations in the Arab World
Laila Al-Hamad. Al-Raida. Volume XIX, Nos. 97- 98 Spring/ Summer 2002 Volume XIX, Nos. 97- 98, Spring/Summer 2002
From Morocco to Palestine, the emergence of organizations dedicated to women’s empowerment has given voice to the needs that have gone unnoticed over the years, and the calls that have gone unheeded by government officials. Furthermore, while civil society is not necessarily a female arena, at least in the Arab world, it has embraced and catapulted women’s activism and citizenship, nurtured their sense of leadership, and given them space and recognition for their contributions, whether for issues related to women or not. Ironically, campaigns calling for identity cards, equal rights to nationality, and the right to obtain a passport without male permission have all been launched by civil society and not parliament.

The UN Security Council Addresses Women’s Role in Peace
Maha Muna and Rachel Watson, Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children. Forced Migration Review, vol. 11, October 2001
While governments contend with international law and UN protocol, women around the world are continuing the struggle to maintain a safe environment for their communities and their children in the face of war. In Latin America, mothers, wives and sisters dared to question military juntas about their ‘disappeared ’ relatives...In Mali and Liberia,women rallied together to call for disarmament. In the Philippines,women run peace zones around villages protecting their children.It is for these women —and all women in conflict zones —that we must ensure that SCR 1325 is not just filed away in UN offices but is actively implemented, with the encouragement and monitoring of all those who work to promote peace.

Legal Rights Organizing for Women in Africa: A Trainer's Manual
Women in Law and Development (WiLDAF), 2000
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Cultures of Peace: The Hidden Side of History
Elise Boulding. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000

Feminist Resistance to War and Violence in Serbia
Lepa Mladjenovic and Donna M. Hughes, Frontline Feminisms, Garland Press, 1999
This report opens with a brief background to the Yugoslav wars and Serbian nationalism. The authors then relate how the women's lives were affected during the conflict through such atrocities as rape and ethnic cleansing, and go on to present the various efforts made by women's groups in resisting the war, nationalism, and violence against women.

Feminist Organizing in Belgrade, Serbia: 1990-1994
Donna M. Hughes and Lepa Mladjenovic, Canadian Women’s Studies/Les Cahiers de la Femme Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 95-97, 1995
This report presents the work of anti-militarist feminists in Belgrade in the early 1990's, highlighting antiwar groups, groups opposing violence against women, and political women's organizations.