Beijing +10 Amnesia: Governmental Interventions in Preparation for the September Summit

1. WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY NEWS

UGANDA: CHARLOTTE, GRACE, JANET AND CAROLINE COME HOME
May 8, 2005 - (NYT Magazine) The rebels have ruined northern Uganda. No one wanted to look out the car window on the three-hour journey northwest from Lira to Gulu near the Sudanese border. Charlotte Awino leaned her cheek on the glass and closed her eyes against the abandoned homesteads and fallow farmland that once provided most of the country's cassava, millet and beans. After 18 years of civil war, more than 1.5 million inhabitants have fled to plastic-sheeted internment camps, preferring to risk slow death by disease and malnutrition rather than to wake in their beds one night to discover the rebels have arrived. The rebels are the Lord's Resistance Army (L.R.A.), which massacres or mutilates villagers -- cutting off their noses, ears and genitals -- and kidnaps their children, turning them into killers who then become kidnappers themselves.

DARFURIS DEMAND ACTION AFTER WOMEN RAPED
May 7, 2005 - (Reuters) Darfuri Sumaya Hassan Mohamed was kidnapped, beaten, raped and then given money to go and buy soap to wash the blood off herself.

RAPE OF ARMY DAUGHTER CONFIRMS LICENCE TO RAPE SYSTEMIC IN BURMA
May 7, 2005 - (Shan Women's Action Network, SWAN, press release) The recent rape and murder of the young daughter of an SPDC soldier by a fellow officer is a shocking indictment of the continuing culture of impunity for military rape in Burma.

RALLY CALLS FOR PROTECTION OF WOMEN FOLLOWING TRIPLE MURDER
May 5, 2005 - (IRIN) Several hundred women demonstrated on the streets of the Afghan capital, Kabul on Thursday, calling on the government to improve their security and to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of five women over the past two weeks, three of them on Wednesday.

FIJI: FEMTALK 89.2FM THE MOBILE WOMEN'S COMMUNITY RADIO INITIATIVE IS 1 YEAR OLD TODAY!
May 5, 2005 - (femTALK) Suva, Fiji Islands- femTALK 89.2FM Fiji's mobile women's community radio initiative was launched a year ago today at the Asia Pacific meeting of the World Union of Catholic Women's Organisations with the participation of a team of student broadcasters from St Joseph's Secondary School.

IRAQ: WOMEN'S RIGHTS UNDER SCRUTINY
May 3, 2005 - (IWPR'S IRAQI CRISIS REPORT, No. 123) When Shanaz Osman was asked to be a witness for a friend's marriage, the judge asked her to find another woman to be a co-witness or stand down and allow a man to perform the role instead.

INTERNATIONAL: ANNAN CALLS ON [WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL FORUM] TO HELP PROMOTE UN REFORM
May 3, 2005 - (UN News) Describing the two major set of recommendations to meet global challenges that world leaders will debate and decide on at the United Nations summit in September, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on a UN-affiliated women's group to help seize the opportunity to reform the world body.

SOMALILAND WOMEN TAKE ON NEW ROLES
May 3, 2005 - (IRIN) The old Somali adage, "A mother's purpose is to be a cook, laundrywoman, nurturer and wife to her husband," describes to some degree the traditional role of the women in Somaliland.

UN REFUGEE AGENCY AWARD GOES TO ORPHANAGE FOUNDER ‘ANGEL OF BURUNDI'
May 2, 2005 - (UN News) A much decorated Burundian humanitarian worker will receive the top award of the United Nations refugee agency next month for her work caring for 10,000 children displaced by civil wars in her home country and in neighbouring countries and for recently repatriated Burundians.

For more country-specific women, peace and security news, CLICK HERE

For more international women, peace and security news, CLICK HERE

Back to Top

2. BEIJING +10 AMNESIA: GOVERNMENTAL INTERVENTIONS IN PREPARATION FOR THE SEPTEMBER SUMMIT

Governmental Responses to the Secretary-General's Report, In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All

Between 19 and 28 April 2005 UN Member States participated in four rounds of interventions, based on the following four major themes of the Secretary-General's report, In Larger Freedom: development, security, human rights and UN reform. The governmental responses to the recommendations in the report were largely void of a gender perspective and, in particular, a focus on women. WILPF, PeaceWomen Project, while recognizing those Member States that integrated women-specific and gender-specific language in their interventions, urge all Member States to formulate their priorities, including those on peace and security, in the framework of their commitments to the Beijing Platform for Action, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. The following excerpts demonstrate ways that Member States and political/regional governmental groups integrated women-specific and gender-specific language in their responses to In Larger Freedom.

On Freedom to Live in Dignity (human rights and governance) in In Larger Freedom:

France
H.E. Mr. Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, 19 April 2005
While it is true that the Secretary-General's report is in itself a well-balanced working outline, there is undoubtedly some slight room for improvement. France would accordingly like to make two final remarks:...

• The gains of the major conferences in the 1990s, especially Cairo and Beijing, might have deserved greater emphasis in this chapter rather than being perceived solely from the standpoint of their contribution to the Millennium Development Goals. In particular, gender equality, women's rights and their situation in armed conflicts (SCR 1325) should have been addressed in the report.

On Freedom from Fear (peace and security) in In Larger Freedom:

Canada
H.E. Mr. Allan Rock, 21 April 2005
...Canada has been very encouraged to note the degree of support among member states for the establishment of a Peacebuilding Commission. We hope this will be one of the key achievements of the Summit, where leaders should be in a position to agree to a set of parameters for the commission's structure and mandate...

Regardless of our efforts in setting up the Commission, a Peacebuilding Support Office should be established within the Secretariat without delay. A peacebuilding support office would serve to consolidate and strengthen an essential UN capacity that is now diminished because it is fragmented and dispersed.

And in this context of conflict prevention and recovery, let me, Madame President, emphasise that Canada would like to recognize the important role played by women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peacebuilding. We must bring Resolution 1325 to life! We would like to stress the importance of the equal participation and full involvement of women in all efforts for addressing the threats and challenges to peace and security. We need to increase their role in priority-setting and decision-making with regard to all aspects of conflict prevention and resolution...

Malaysia, on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
H.E. Mr. Rastam Mohd Isa, 21 April 2005
...on sexual exploitation allegedly committed by UN peacekeepers and other personnel engaged in UN operations against minors and other vulnerable people, NAM supports in principle the recommendations contained in the report, entitled A Comprehensive Strategy to Eliminate Future Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in UN Peacekeeping Operations contained in document A/59/710, which was prepared by the Secretary-General with the assistance of his adviser on this question, H.R.H. Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein, the Permanent Representative of Jordan. This support notwithstanding, NAM re-emphasizes that certain recommendations would require further study and clarification.

NAM supports the enactment by the Secretary-General of a policy of 'zero tolerance' towards such grave crimes. NAM further supports the encouragement made by the Secretary-General to Member States to similarly adopt the same policy with respect to their national contingents (para 113 of A/59/2005)...

Botswana
Mr. Galetshajwe L. Rebagamang, 22 April 2005
In conclusion Mr. Chairman, Botswana would want to see discussions under this cluster also address relevant issues of gender equality, particularly those in with Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security.

On Freedom from Want (development) in In Larger Freedom:

Bangladesh
H.E. Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, 26 April 2005
…Our experience dictates that development is best achieved in a matrix of pluralism, moderate and progressive ethos, greater gender balance and women's empowerment, human rights and accountable governance. However, these are values which are universal- they transcend national boundaries. Together, at all levels, they create the necessary ambience for development….Our experience also demonstrates, important in these times, that empowerment of women economically and politically, can starve off extremist thought and action, and marginalize destabilizing phenomena, like terrorism.

Luxembourg, on behalf of the European Union (EU)
H.E. Mr. Jean-Marc Hoscheit, 25 April 2005
...As during the 49th session of the CSW, the EU confirms today its strong support for and our commitment to the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome document of the 23rd session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, as well as for the agreed conclusions adopted at the sessions of the Commission on the Status of Women since Beijing.

Gender equality is an important goal in itself and essential to the achievement of all Millennium Development Goals. We believe that a gender perspective should be fully integrated at the high-level review of the Millennium Declaration, including the Millennium Development Goals…

For these and other excerpts from governmental statements on and responses from women's organizations
to In Larger Freedom, CLICK HERE.

Back to ToP
3. A REPORT FROM THE NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY REVIEW CONFERENCE

Women Say No to Nukes, Yes to Life
Susi Snyder, Secretary-General, WILPF

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and the New Japan Women's Association organized a women's caucus on the opening day of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) 2005 Review Conference, 2 May 2005. This caucus brought together more than 400 women from Japan, Canada, France and the United States to share stories, experiences, information and ideas.

Megumi Tamada, Secretary- General of the New Japan Women's Association, opened the session with an inspiring speech about the history of women's activities in Japan for nuclear abolition. New Japan Women's Association has brought more than 200 members to New York for the 2005 Review Conference. The organization has five goals: peace and democracy, women's rights, gender equality, better living conditions and children's welfare. Every summer the organization plays an active role in the Japan Mother's Congress and the World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs. In recent years they have sponsored women from US peace organizations to attend these two events in Japan.

Carol Urner and Ellen Barfield of the US National Section of WILPF presented information on their work with the US Congress pushing for disarmament. Ellen spoke about Representative Lynn Woolsey's effort to introduce a resolution which would call on the US Administration to reaffirm their agreements on nuclear disarmament, and specifically the practical steps to disarmament that were agreed to in 2000.

Following these presentations, many women participants shared their stories about how they had become active in the peace movement, and how they had become nuclear resisters. One woman brought the crowd to tears as she spoke about her father, a Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor) and how he just recently passed away after working for almost 60 years to gain official recognition from the Japanese government as a survivor. She told of the many Hibakusha who still keep silent, afraid of the cultural stigma attached to that status, and asked the group to encourage and support Hibakusha to speak about their experiences.

A woman from Movement de la Paix in France spoke about the work of her organization to resist their government's attempts to modernize their nuclear arsenal. For example, on 28-9 May, in Marseilles, there will be an event bringing the women's movement together to prepare for a culture of peace. Another woman from the U.S. spoke about the preparations for coordinated actions across the U.S. Nuclear Weapons complex to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 6-9 August (More information is available at http://www.lasg.org/). The overwhelming feeling as women left the union hall was hope. Hope that the new relationships born at this event will continue, and blossom. Hope for a world free of nuclear weapons, full of safety and security for all life.

*Reaching Critical Will (RCW), a project of the WILPF UN Office, was created in 1999 in order to increase the quality and quantity of civil society participation at international disarmament fora, including the NPT. Since then, Reaching Critical Will has become the NGO liaison to the NPT, coordinating NGO side events, NGO presentations to the conference, publishing a daily newsletter (the News In Review) and more.

For more information about the NPT and the 2005 Review Conference (2-27 May 2005), visit: www.reachingcriticalwill.org.

For more information about WILPF's participation at the NPT, visit: http://www.wilpf.int.ch/events/2005NPT.html

Back to TOP
4. FEATURE 1325 INITIATIVES

Global Action to Prevent War Prioritizes 1325
Global Action to Prevent War (GAPW) Coalition, 2005

At its February 2005 International Steering Committee Meeting, the Global Action to Prevent War (GAPW) Coalition with members in 53 countries decided to make implementing Security Council resolution 1325 one its top priorities. The GAPW is a programme which grounds the goal of conflict prevention in specific integrated phases of conflict prevention, peacekeeping and disarmament over a three to four-decade period, and has included resolution 1325 as a crucial element of preventing conflict since it was adopted in 2000. For more information about GAPW, visit: http://www.globalactionpw.org/.

Picking up on the language in the first operational paragraph of the resolution, GAPW intends to work specifically on the Security Council's acknowledgment that women have a role to play in conflict prevention. GAPW will generate a report on what women are doing around the world to prevent war, genocide and internal armed conflict for the fifth anniversary of the resolution, October 2005. For more information and to become involved in the conflict prevention component of implementing 1325 contact Coordinator Jennifer Nordstrom at coordinator@globalactionpw.org or call (1) 212-818-1861.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Website Launch for The Canadian Committee on Women, Peace and Security
May 2005

The Canadian Committee on Women, Peace and Security now has a website: http://www.ccwps-ccfps.org/.

The Canadian Committee on Women, Peace and Security (CCWPS) is a national coalition of individual and organizational members of civil society, government and Parliament whose mission is to work toward the goals established in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325.

The website features information about Canada and implementation of SCR 1325, at the national and international level, information about how to get involved with the CCWPS, and past initiatives and publications prepared by the CCWPS.

To receive more information about the CCWPS, contact:

Jodie McGrath, Coordinator
Canadian Committee on Women, Peace and Security
900 Victoria Building, The Senate of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A4
Tel: (613) 996-4298
Fax: (613) 992-0673
Email: mcgraj@sen.parl.gc.ca

Back to TOP
5. UNIFEM UPDATE

South Sudanese Women Hold Oslo Review and Planning Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya

Over 40 South Sudanese women, together with a few male counterparts, gathered in Nairobi last Thursday to assess the outcomes of the gender symposium and donors' conference held last month in Oslo and to determine what their next steps should be. The meeting was organized by the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) Commission on Gender, Women and Child Welfare, with support from UNIFEM and the National Democratic Institute (NDI).

After a series of consultations held in various national, regional and international spaces, 50 women from across Sudan had come together in Oslo on 10 April to define a common agenda for urgent reconstruction priorities, and had sent delegates to the Oslo Donors' Conference on Sudan to formally present their recommendations. Women who had participated in the Oslo events addressed Thursday's review meeting, filling in details about the process and helping to determine what follow-up action should now be taken.

Women participating in the Nairobi meeting identified the following key priorities:
• Building the capacity of the Commission on Gender, Women and Child Welfare;
• Ensuring women's active participation in the Constitutional Commission of the Government of National Unity;
• Making information more widely available about the Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Sudan to facilitate women's and communities' access to these funds;
• Increasing support for women's activities in communities;
• Building the capacity of women leaders in both government and civil society at the community level;
• Supporting women to access adult education and English literacy training;
• Advocating for women's participation in the Darfur peace process;
• And obtaining consistent updates on the post-conflict processes getting underway in Sudan, such as the United Nations Mission in Sudan, to enable women's full involvement.

Civil society feedback on the Oslo gender symposium and donors' conference was gathered in Khartoum earlier this month, and additional review meetings are planned in the coming weeks to ensure the input of Sudanese women from all regions in the planning of next steps. UNIFEM, NDI and Isis-WICCE will support a review meeting in Kampala in May, in coordination with the SPLM Commission on Women and Child Welfare, which will bring Sudanese women from refugee and displaced communities together with women's organizations focused on Sudan. Then in June, a review meeting will be held inside south Sudan, with support from UNIFEM and the SPLM Commission on Women and Child Welfare. This meeting will bring together the 65 women leaders elected to represent the five regions of south Sudan, as well as representatives from SPLM structures and commissions. In addition to feedback and planning to follow up on the Oslo donors' conference, the meeting in south Sudan will incorporate training and orientation for the women leaders, putting into immediate action one of the priorities identified in Nairobi last week. For more information on Sudanese women's peace-building activities and the impact of conflict on Sudanese women, see: http://www.womenwarpeace.org/sudan/sudan.htm.

In other news: Earlier this month UNIFEM Afghanistan released the second issue of its newsletter: Gender Advocacy in Afghanistan, featuring: a discussion of drug addiction among Afghan women; an analysis of customary laws in relation to women, Islam and the Constitution; a look at the low literacy rates among Afghan men and what actions are needed to address this problem; and a series of guidelines on maternal health. The newsletter also lists upcoming gender events in the country. Both issues of the newsletter (in English and Dari) can be found on the Afghanistan Country Programme website: http://afghanistan.unifem.org/. More information on the impact of conflict on Afghan women and Afghan women's peace-building activities are available at: http://www.womenwarpeace.org/afghanistan/afghanistan.htm.

UNIFEM's Web Portal on Women, Peace and Security: http://www.womenwarpeace.org/

Back to TOP
6. FEATURE STATEMENT

Speech delivered at the University of Pennsylvania's Summit on Global Issues in Women's Health
Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Philadelphia, USA, 26 April 2005

…I've been in the Envoy role for four years. Things are changing in an incremental, if painfully glacial way. It's now possible to feel merely catastrophic rather than apocalyptic. Initiatives on treatment, resources, training, capacity, infrastructure and prevention are underway. But one factor is largely impervious to change: the situation of women. On the ground, where it counts, where the wily words confront reality, the lives of women are as mercilessly desperate as they have always been in the last twenty plus years of the pandemic…

All my adult life I have accepted the feminist analysis of male power and authority. But perhaps because of an acute naiveté, I never imagined that the analysis would be overwhelmed by the objective historical realities. Of course the women's movement has had great successes, but the contemporary global struggle to secure women's health seems to me to be a challenge of almost insuperable dimension.

And because I believe that, and because I see the evidence month after month, week after week, day after day, in the unremitting carnage of women and AIDS --- God it tears the heart from the body... I just don't know how to convey it ... these young women, who crave so desperately to live, who suddenly face a pox, a scourge which tears their life from them before they have a life ... who can't even get treatment because the men are first in line, or the treatment rolls out at such a paralytic snail's pace... who are part of the 90% of pregnant women who have no access to the prevention of Mother to Child Transmission and so their infants are born positive... who carry the entire burden of care even while they're sick, tending to the family, carrying the water, tilling the fields, looking after the orphans ... the women who lose their property, and have no inheritance rights, and no legal or jurisprudential infrastructure which will guarantee those rights... no criminal code which will stop the violence...because I have observed all of that, and have observed it for four years, and am driven to distraction by the recognition that it will continue, I want a kind of revolution in the world's response, not another stab at institutional reform, but a virtual revolution…

For the full text of this statement, CLICK HERE.

For NGO and civil society reports, papers and statements, UN and government reports, and books, journals and articles on women, peace and security issues, CLICK HERE.

Back to TOP
7. A GENDER AND PEACEKEEPING UPDATE

Report of the Secretary-General on Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse
15 April 2005
The present report is submitted in compliance with General Assembly resolution 57/306 [on “Investigation into sexual exploitation of refugees by aid workers in West Africa”* (15 April 2003)], in which the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to maintain data on investigations into sexual exploitation and related offences. The report presents data on allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse in the United Nations system in the period from January to December 2004. It also describes progress made in the creation and implementation of measures designed to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse, and measures for processing allegations.

Three annexes are included in the report detailing: the nature of allegations by UN entity and category of personnel; the status of investigations as of 31 December 2004 in UN entities other than the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO); and the status of investigations of allegations concerning DPKO as of 31 December 2004.

For the report in all 6 official UN languages, CLICK HERE.

*To read General Assembly resolution 57/306 on “Investigation into sexual exploitation of refugees by aid workers in West Africa” (15 April 2003), CLICK HERE.

For PeaceWomen's Gender and Peacekeeping index, CLICK HERE.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Recent Media Coverage

COMPLAINTS OF SEXUAL INFRACTIONS AT UN LAST YEAR DOUBLED FROM 2003
May 5, 2005 - (UN News) The number of allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation made by and about United Nations personnel in 2004 was more than double the number reported in 2003, a development that is deeply distressing, even though contributing factors include clearer reporting procedures and new response measures, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a report to the General Assembly.

LIBERIA: UNMIL INVESTIGATING ALLEGED SEXUAL MISCONDUCT BY PEACEKEEPERS IN FOUR INCIDENTS
May 3, 2005 - (IRIN) Allegations of sexual misconduct by UN peacekeepers serving in Liberia have been substantiated in four incidents and investigations launched, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) told IRIN on Tuesday.

UN WELCOMES NEWSPAPER APOLOGY FOR ACCUSATIONS OF SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AGAINST STAFFER
April 28, 2005 - (UN News) The United Nations today welcomed an apology issued by a British newspaper which had made unsubstantiated accusations of sexual exploitation against a senior UN staff member serving in the peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

For more gender and peacekeeping news, visit PeaceWomen's Gender and Peacekeeping News Index, CLICK HERE.

Back to TOP
8. FEATURE RESOURCE

Gender, Conflict and Development
World Bank, April 2005

This review addresses the gender dimensions of intrastate conflict. It is organized around eight areas or themes that are related to the World Bank's agenda on gender, conflict, and development: (i) gender and warfare; (ii) gender and sexual violence; (iii) gender and formal peace processes; (iv) gender and informal peace processes; (v) gender and the post-conflict legal framework; (vi) gender and work; (vii) gender and rehabilitating social services; and (viii) gender and community-driven development. For each theme, the authors have analyzed the gender-specific roles of women and men before, during, and after conflict, the gender role changes throughout conflict, the development challenges in sustaining positive gender role changes and mitigating negative effects, and the policy options for addressing these gender roles, dynamics, and challenges. The suggested policy options are intended to be gender- as well as conflict-sensitive, and ideally should contribute to more equal gender relations. The relevance and applicability of the policy options are identified and key considerations outlined that the Bank would need to take into account in assessing policy options. Finally, further research areas are suggested on the gender, conflict, and development nexus.

For the full report, CLICK HERE.

For NGO and civil society reports, papers and statements, UN and government reports, and books, journals and articles on women, peace and security issues, CLICK HERE.

Back to TOP
9. LISTENING TO PEACEWOMEN VOICES FROM THE PAST

On the Occasion of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference (2-27 May 2005), we recall WILPF's own analyses addressing nuclear disarmament issues found in the following resolutions, excerpted below:

1st Congress, The Hague, 1915
12. General Disarmament
The International Congress of Women, advocating universal disarmament and realizing that it can only be secured by international agreement, urges, as a step to this end, that all countries should, by such an international agreement, take over the manufacture of arms and munitions of war and should control all international traffic in the same. It sees in the private profits accruing from the great armament factories a powerful hindrance to the abolition of war.

http://www.wilpf.int.ch/statements/1915.htm

11th Congress, Copenhagen August 15-19th, 1949
XI Disarmament
The XIth International Congress of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, assembled at Copenhagen from August 15-19, 1949,

reaffirms its opposition to all forms of warfare.

Believing that military preparedness tends to lull the nations into a sense of false security, since there is no real defense against modern weapons of war, while prejudicing the atmosphere of reconciliation which is a necessary condition for the settlement of disputes, urges the nations cooperating through the United Nations:

…b) to advocate in the United Nations, as the only real safeguard of security, the systematic reduction of armaments in all member States, as proposed in the General Assembly, December 1946. As a first step toward this end, the Congress recommends that all nations join in demanding that the consideration of disarmament be placed high on the agenda of the next session of the United Nations General Assembly Meeting, September 30, 1949, or, failing this, that a special session of the General Assembly be called to consider this plan;

…d) to make persistent efforts to achieve the necessary minimum of agreement for control of the use of atomic energy, and the secure the prohibition of the preparation of all means of mass devastation, including atomic and biological weapons, together with the destruction of all existing stocks;

http://www.wilpf.int.ch/statements/1949.htm

19th Congress, Birmingham 1974
Nuclear Power
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, meeting in its 19th Triennial Congress at Birmingham, 17-20 July 1974,
Recognizing that nuclear power, whether used for weaponry or peaceful purposes presents grave dangers to health, life, peace and the environment, and that of all pollutants radioactive fissionable materials which is the most contaminating;

…Realizing that accelerated development of nuclear energy for war and peace has already presented a disposal problem of radioactive waste that defies solution;

Knowing that testing nuclear devices and operating nuclear power plants seriously irradiate air and water, and that the first by-product of the "peaceful" reactor is plutonium, a small amount of which is sufficient to make a nuclear bomb;

…We reaffirm the necessity for a total permanent cessation of all nuclear weapons testing, manufacturing and stockpiling, as well as of refraining from the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. To prevent the death of the earth and the incalculable suffering of all living things we demand the elimination of existing nuclear arsenals, and

We demand an immediate moratorium on licensing, siteing, building, selling and operating nuclear plants anywhere in the world.

http://www.wilpf.int.ch/statements/1974.htm

For a comprehensive index of WILPF's resolutions from its triennial Congresses since 1915, visit: http://www.wilpf.int.ch/statements/resindex.html

Since WILPF was established in 1915, its members have met at 28 triennial congresses passing resolutions at each on issues as diverse as women political prisoners in Germany (1934) and a new international economic order (1986). Many of these resolutions, the oldest from the original 1915 Congress, are as relevant today as when they were first drafted. To honor these WILPF peacewomen voices, and to explore the continued relevance of their analyses and discussions, the PeaceWomen Project has launched this new item in 1325 PeaceWomen E-News entitled
“Listening to PeaceWomen Voices from the Past,” featuring women, peace and security excerpts from the resolutions adopted by WILPF since 1915.

For more WILPF history, CLICK HERE.

Back to TOP
10. WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY CALENDAR

Call for Papers for an edited book: Theorizing Sexual Violence
Deadline for submisssion: 30 July 2005
Universtiy of Toledo, Ohio, USA and University of Canterbury, New Zealand
The intent of this volume is to revitalize the critical edges of the debates…taking the issue of sexual violence (primarily for these purposes, rape and psychological/physical abuse) as a point of departure. Sexual violence has been effectively medicalized and psychologized, but it has not been particularly well theorized by feminists beyond a dominance/submission model with its attendant assumptions about the fixed subjectivity of men and women. The following questions will guide our thinking about the volume: What does sexual violence have to do with personhood and citizenship? What does/should the pluralization of sexuality and sexed identities through the queer, trans, and intersex movements have to do with movements against sexual violence (beyond the notion that "it happens here as well")? How can we move beyond a moralistic rhetoric of "exposure" to identifying the macro/micro-possibilities of counter-rhetorics and practices that contest dominant discourses and practices? Does the contemporary "risk culture" perpetuate the terms on which sexual violence is possible? What are effective strategies for subverting the dualistic terrain of masculine/feminine identification that make sexual violences so likely? How do we politicize sexual violence without reducing that politics to the mediation or adjudication of claims of victimization? For more information, contact: Renee Heberle, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Toledo, Ohio 43606, renee.heberle@utoledo.edu and/or Victoria Grace, College of Arts, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand at victoria.grace@canterbury.ac.nz.

Call for Proposals: Workshop on the History of Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones
1 September 2005: deadline for proposals
27-29 April 2006: date for workshop
University of Iowa Center for Human Rights (UICHR)
Although sexual violence in conflict zones (SVCZ) is as old as warfare, the international community has granted it serious attention only since the 1990s. NGOs, activists, academics, medical professionals, and lawyers now devote considerable attention to sexual violence in contemporary conflicts. This workshop will explore the role of sexual violence in conflicts around the globe from the ancient world to the late twentieth century, with a special interest in conflicts before the 1990s. The UICHR will host the workshop from April 27-29, 2006. We encourage a range of approaches and themes, such as gender and sexuality studies, military sociology, health and medicine, refugee and migratory movements, legal history, and more. The conference organizers expect to publish a selection of papers that will break new ground as the first wide-ranging exploration of SVCZ across time and space, yet rooted in close research.

Please submit a 250-word proposal and a 2-page CV electronically to uichr@uiowa.edu (with subject heading: Call for Papers). For more information, visit: http://www.uiowa.edu/~uichr/events/SVCZ/cfp.html. Direct inquiries can be sent to Elizabeth-Heineman@uiowa.edu.

For the complete calendar, CLICK HERE.

Back to Top
11. WILPF PEACEWOMEN PROJECT EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

(2) WILPF PeaceWomen Project Associate Positions Available
Applications due: 13 June 2005

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) PeaceWomen Project seeks two full-time project associates for the UN Office in New York City, USA.

Organization and Project Description:
The PeaceWomen Project is a project of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) United Nations Office, in New York City, USA.

The PeaceWomen Project monitors and works toward rapid and full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution (SCR) 1325 on women, peace and security. To these ends: PeaceWomen hosts Peacewomen.org, a website that provides accurate and timely information on women, peace and security issues and women's peace-building initiatives in areas of armed conflict; PeaceWomen works to facilitate communication among and mobilization of advocates and supporters in civil society, the UN system and governments working on women, peace and security issues; and PeaceWomen advocates for the integration of gender analysis in the governance, peace and security work of civil society actors, the UN system, and governmental bodies.

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is the oldest women's peace organisation in the world. It is an international Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with National Sections in 37 countries, an International Secretariat in Geneva, and a UN Office in New York City. Its aims and principles are: to bring together women of different political beliefs and philosophies who are united in their determination to study, make known and help abolish the causes and the legitimization of war; to work toward world peace; total and universal disarmament; the abolition of violence and coercion in the settlement of conflict and its replacement in every case by negotiation and conciliation; to support the civil society to democratise the United Nations system; to support the continuous development and implementation of international and humanitarian law; to promote political and social equality and economic equity; to contribute towards co-operation among all people; and to enhance environmentally sustainable development.

For more information about WILPF, visit: http://www.wilpf.int.ch/

Project Associate's responsibilities include:
A. Oversee the development and maintenance of www.PeaceWomen.org;
B. To produce and distribute the bi-weekly 1325 PeaceWomen E-Newsletter;
C. To coordinate the 1325 Translation Initiative (http://www.peacewomen.org/1325inTranslation/index.html);
D. To participate in the work of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security (http://www.peacewomen.org/un/ngo/wg.html);
E. To engage with the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and maintain a web partnership with their Women, Peace and Security Web Portal (http://www.womenwarpeace.org/);
F. To liaise with WILPF National Sections and WILPF's International Secretariat;
G. To help develop position papers, oral interventions, and analyses targeted at governments, UN entities and NGOs regarding women, peace and security issues;
H. To network with other NGO representatives, UN staff and governmental representatives to actively pursue the implementation of SCR 1325 in coordination with a variety of stakeholders;
I. To organize presentations for civil society groups on women, peace and security issues and SCR 1325; and
J. To supervise interns.

The detailed job descriptions for the two project associate positions are available upon request.

Salary: Commensurate with experience

Education: Undergraduate or advanced degrees in political science, international relations or development studies, women's studies, or other related fields.

Languages: Oral and written fluency in English required; and oral and written proficiency in Spanish and/or French, preferred.

Eligible candidates must possess the following skills and capabilities:
1. Experience in policy and advocacy work;
2. Knowledge of and commitment to gender and peace issues;
3. Knowledge of and commitment to the UN system;
4. Strong oral and written communication and analytical skills;
5. Ability to work in a team;
6. Ability to present complex themes in a brief but comprehensive manner; and
7. Experience with MS Office, PowerPoint, Dreamweaver or related web-design programming.

Last day to apply: 13 June 2005

Please submit a resume, a statement of intent (1-2 pages), contact information for two references, and a brief academic or work-related writing sample on a theme related to women, peace and security to:

Mary Ann McGivern, Director
WILPF UN Office
777 UN Plaza, 6th floor
New York, NY 10017
Fax: (212) 286-8211
Email: wilpfun@igc.org
No phone calls, please.