General Women, Peace and Security

he African Union - United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), in collaboration with the Ministries of Social Affairs and the Wali's (Governor) Advisors on Women and Children in the five Darfur states, organized a series of Open Days on United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace and Security which concluded on 9 October in El Fasher, North Darfur.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Pakistan.

Where are the women? In traditional historical and scholarly accounts of the making and fighting of wars, women are often nowhere to be seen. With few exceptions, war stories are told as if men were the only ones who plan, fight, are injured by, and negotiate ends to wars. As the pages of this book tell, though, those accounts are far from complete. Women can be found at every turn in the (gendered) phenomena of war.

What if I suggested that reducing the rates of rape and sexism in the U.S. would reduce our risk of international conflict? You might think that American girls and women who regularly adapt their lives to deal with “harmless” street harassment, or who are assaulted by American men, have little to do with, say, the Iraq War.

The problems of women soldiers who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan are addressed in the new documentary "Service: When Women Come Marching Home." It tells their stories of lost limbs, homelessness, psychological issues, sexual assault and how they can get help.

Approximately 19,000 sexual assaults take place in the U.S. military each year; Ruth Moore, at the age of 18, survived two of them. Ruth enlisted in the U.S. Navy during her senior year of high school in search of a better life. Her family couldn't afford college and the military was her best chance at obtaining a college degree. In 1987, after boot camp and service school, Ruth was posted overseas in the Azores.

We the women of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and South Asia, with our colleagues from North

On Thursday, Sept. 27, at 6:30 p.m., the West African Research Association, a consortium of scholars and institutions with interest in West Africa, will host a panel discussion on Peace and Conflict in West Africa in collaboration with the Cambridge Peace Commission. The event will take place in the auditorium of the main branch of the Cambridge Public Library.

2011 Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee calls herself “a local girl with a global platform.” Leymah is not only an inspiration to women in Liberia; she is a role model for women around the world. Her leadership was clearly demonstrated last month in Sri Lanka, where she met women's groups from throughout the country working on peace, security, and development.

Bogotá, 3 September 2012

OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT JUAN MANUEL SANTOS
WOMEN AT THE NEGOTIATION TABLE
Mr. JUAN MANUEL SANTOS
President of the Republic of Colombia
Bogotá

Dear President Santos: