General Policy Highlights

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Spain Committee and the Inter-Parliamentary Union held a conference entitled “Women in Peace Processes” on February 20-21, 2004, in Valencia, Spain. Sanam Anderlini, director of the Waging Policy Commission, opened the discussions with an overview of women, peace, and security to an audience of international parliamentarians and European policymakers.

Read coverage of the conference in the World of Parliaments Quarterly Review.

Read coverage of the conference in Spain's newspapers, El Pais and El Periodico:

Women Building Peace
by Jaime Prats, El Pais
February 29, 2024

Excluded from Peace Negotiations: Experts in the resolution of armed conflict reject the role of women as passive victims and reiterate their work for reconciliation
by Rosa Massague, El Periodico
March 8, 2024

In November 2002, Waging co-sponsored “Bringing Women to the Table: Identifying Strategies for Enhancing the Role of Women in Peace Processes Around the World” with the Department of State and the Wilson Center. Waging members Farida Azizi of Afghanistan, Rita Manchanda of India, Sabine Sabimbona of Burundi, and Thandi Modise of South Africa presented their work. The event was attended by international scholars and representatives from the State Department, US Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the US Naval Academy, the National Endowment for Democracy, Vital Voices, the Open Society Institute, several congressional offices, and various universities in the Washington area.

In October 2002, the office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues to the UN Secretary-General issued a special report, which was commissioned by the mandate of Security Council Resolution 1325, to analyze the internal UN commitment to advance women in the peace building arena. At the same time, UNIFEM published Women, War and Peace, an independent experts’ assessment on the impact of armed conflict on women and their role in peace building. The reports contain more than 100 recommendations for action by the UN and other groups. Collaborating with these offices and the United Nations Foundation, Waging organized an experts’ meeting in February 2003 to prioritize the recommendations.

On Capitol Hill, Waging members from Afghanistan, Burundi, Kosovo, the Middle East, and South Africa briefed members of Congress and their staff on civil society’s involvement in peace building, making a strong argument for the vital role that women play in peace processes and post-conflict reconstruction.

The Policy Commission
The Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace Policy Commission, a group of research and policy experts, was created in 2001 to produce a substantial analytical body of information about women's contributions to peace processes. Researchers have interviewed scores of women active in peace processes and local, national, and regional officials in El Salvador, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Uganda. These case studies, and a dozen more to be conducted in 2003, will allow for crosscutting analysis, providing the hard evidence requested by policy shapers about the effectiveness of women's involvement in conflicts around the world.

International Crisis Group
The International Crisis Group (ICG), which uses field-based analyses from five continents to promote the prevention and resolution of deadly conflicts, has agreed to include the perspective of women peace builders in their research and analysis. Waging will be a source of information and assistance to ICG analysts, who author 90 reports each year on the state of conflicts around the world.

Woodrow Wilson Center Co-sponsored Conference
Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace co-sponsored a conference with the Woodrow Wilson Center in September 2002 on the role of women in conflict prevention. A radio interview with Ambassador Swanee Hunt was broadcast from the conference, and a video of discussions at that conference will be broadcast to Department of State Embassies around the world in late October.

Regional Conferences
Conferences of Waging network members in Europe and Latin America culminated in meetings with some 150 regional and national policymakers. In Vienna, officials from the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE), the UN, the European Parliament, the Austrian Government, and numerous embassies and ministries met with women from Armenia and Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Northern Ireland, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Russia, and the Yugoslav successor states: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Serbia & Montenegro. Roundtable discussions focused on measures for the implementation of policies adopted by the UN (specifically Security Council Resolution 1325), the G8, the European Union, and the OSCE to help ensure the full inclusion of women in the peace process. In Guatemala City, women from Guatemala, Colombia, and the US met with policy shapers to discuss the essential role of women in creating the conditions for sustainable peace and their participation in the political and civil sectors during the reconstruction of communities affected by war.

G8 Foreign Ministers Insist on Women's Full and Equal Participation in Conflict Prevention
During the G8 Summit held in Italy in July 2001, the G8 Foreign Ministers announced a new initiative focusing on the vital contribution of women in peace building. Recognizing that "the international community has failed to ensure women's full and equal participation in conflict prevention, peace operations and post-conflict peace building," the G8 Foreign Ministers have issued a supplementary paper outlining the "positive contributions women can make to prevent conflict and consolidate peace." More on Waging´s work with the G8.

Foreign Policy Article
An article entitled "Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace" was published in the May/June 2001 issue of Foreign Policy. The article, co-authored by Ambassador Swanee Hunt and Cristina Posa, assesses the role of women in conflict areas and challenges the international community to focus on the concept of "inclusive security" - a diverse, citizen-driven approach to global stability, which emphasizes women's leadership rather than their vulnerability. For more information, read the Foreign Policy Journal article.

Mobilized Mothers
In early May 2001, Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace and the Women and Public Policy Program of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government held a series of events to highlight the work of activists who are linking the passion and power of mothers with public policy initiatives. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela (South Africa), Atema Eclai (Kenya), and Ida Kuklina (Russia) participated in a day of meetings with policy shapers in Washington, DC, to highlight their peacemaking work to organize women around their common identity as mothers, cutting across divisions of ethnicity, class, and religion.

• The Mobilized Mothers shared their strategies for grassroots campaigns and advocacy on behalf of children internationally with Marian Wright Edelman, the founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, and her staff.
• Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) co-sponsored a briefing for members of Congress and their staff about the efforts of women worldwide to promote political change.
• An evening forum cosponsored by Amnesty International and Women in International Security highlighted ways mothers and policymakers can work together to identify new methods for building sustainable peace.

In Cambridge, the Mobilized Mothers led a panel discussion entitled A New American Foreign Policy for the Twenty-First Century at the Harvard University-wide Colloquium on International Affairs. US Congressman Michael Capuano (D-MA) concluded the panel by discussing how the work of women can influence US foreign policy.

Core Network Members Join Ambassador Hunt on Panel
Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace conducted a session on women's role in peace building at the annual State of the World Forum, held in September 2000 in New York City. Ambassador Hunt was joined by three core network members, Aloisea Inyumba (Rwanda), Gulnara Shahinian (Armenia/Azerbaijan), and Branka Peuraca (the post-Yugoslav region), as panelists.

G8 Summit Follow-Up Meetings
Waging representatives visited Japan for follow-up meetings to the July 2000 G8 Summit, including a meeting with Katsuhiko Oku, Director of the UN Policy Divisions and G8 Conflict Prevention Track at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Waging Work With USAID Bureaus
Following the successful meeting with senior administrators at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in June 2000, Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace has been working with various bureaus at the agency to promote the inclusion of women and conflict issues in their development policies. The agency's Center for Democracy and Governance invited Ambassador Hunt to take part in a panel for their annual conference in December, and in January South African core member Pumla Gobodo-Madikezela joined Waging staff to convene a discussion on the role of the network in democracy building. Also in December, Ambassador Hunt met with senior administrators from the USAID Africa Bureau to discuss the potential for collaborating on African initiatives, including a regional African conference that core members are planning for 2001. The agency's Office of Women in Development invited core member Marina Skrabalo (post-Yugoslav region) to address a conference in December about the impact of conflict on gender in the former Yugoslavia.

"New Alliances: International Security and Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace"
In June 2000, Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace and the 92nd Street Y, a major Jewish community and cultural center in New York, hosted a public forum entitled "New Alliances: International Security and Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace". Keynote speakers included Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan; General Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander of Europe; and Leon Fuerth, National Security Advisor to Vice President Al Gore. Addressing a gathering of almost 1000, women peace builders from seven conflict areas discussed their work. The event was covered by the C-Span television network.

Beijing + 5 Special Session
From June 5-9, 2000, the United Nations General Assembly held a special session for the five-year review of the 4th World Conference on Women (commonly known as Beijing +5). Core members and delegates presented a panel discussion entitled "Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace: Exploring Strategies." Women peace builders from seven areas of violent conflict described their experiences and shared their strategies with an audience of 50 women leaders, activists, journalists, researchers, and policy shapers, who were a part of the greater Beijing +5 NGO conference audience.

Presentation to the UN Commission on the Status of Women
Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace made a presentation to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women on International Women's Day, March 8, 2000.

Oxfam Discussion
Oxfam (a major international humanitarian relief organization) hosted a focused in-depth discussion between Waging activists and high-level officials from government agencies and other NGOs.

Carnegie Corporation Working Lunch
The Carnegie Corporation hosted a working lunch with seven Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace activists and two dozen high-level representatives from think tanks, international organizations, major media, foundations, and corporations.

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