WOMEN PEACE BUILDERS FROM IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, THE MIDDLE EAST,
AND OTHER CONFLICT ZONES DISCUSS INCLUSIVE SECURITY
WITH U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL POLICYMAKERS

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS November 8, 2024

As the situation in Iraq and the continuing war on terrorism dominate world headlines and political agendas, more than 30 women peace builders will meet with U.S. and international policymakers to offer innovative security alternatives for addressing the world's seemingly intractable conflicts.

Experts in the Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace network from Iraq, Northern Ireland, Sudan, the Middle East, and other conflict zones are participating in the meeting as part of an Executive Program of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government's Women and Public Policy Program. They will insist on action on major policy resolutions from the United Nations, European Union, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and G8 that call for the full inclusion of women in peace processes at the local, regional, and international levels, but have not yet been fully implemented.

Among policymakers addressing the group are:

• Monica McWilliams, a founding member of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition and a member of the Northern Irish Assembly, was instrumental in the multiparty negotiations that led to the signing of the historic Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Also a professor of women's studies and social policy, Dr. McWilliams has written and published extensively on the impact of political conflict and domestic violence on women in Northern Ireland. As a signatory of the Good Friday Agreement, she was awarded the National Democratic Institute Award and the John F. Kennedy Leadership and Courage Award; she is also the recipient of the Frank Cousins Peace Award and Boston Immigration Center's Woman of the Year Award.
• Since her appointment as Ambassador of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United States in 2000, Faida Mitifu has led efforts to integrate President Kabila and the Congolese government into new international efforts for resolution, and has arranged meetings between Congolese representatives and President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, and other officials; these meetings contributed to the signing of the Pretoria Agreement in October 2002. She has also testified before the Congressional subcommittee on Africa about the situation in the Great Lakes region, and made presentations at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and various universities on the crisis in the DRC. In the mid-1990s, Ambassador Mitifu was an active member of the All North America Conference on Zaire, an organization of Congolese intellectuals who sought the removal of long-time leader Mobutu Sese Seko.
• Vjosa Dobruna was one of only three women appointed to the United Nation's joint interim administrative structure of war-ravaged Kosovo, where she served as the minister responsible for democracy building and civil society. She insisted on the full political participation of women and ethnic minorities and helped draft an election law requiring that one in every three candidates for the new national assembly be a woman. Dr. Dobruna subsequently co-led a conference that brought together the women in the Kosovar Parliament for the creation of a multi-party caucus bridging ethnic and party lines-the only such cross-party body in Kosovo. She is now a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, where she is researching truth commissions and exploring possible reconciliation models for Kosovo.
• The 1996 treaty between the Philippine government and the Moro National Liberation Front has led to increased economic development and stability on the island of Mindanao. Amina Rasul-Bernardo is education advisor to the Growth and Equity in Mindanao Program 2, a five-year development-assistance project funded by USAID that works to increase economic growth. She has served on the Philippine Cabinet as Presidential Advisor on Youth Affairs and was responsible for the passage of a law creating the country's National Youth Commission. Ms. Rasul-Bernardo has represented Muslim women at the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women and is a founding member of the Muslim Professional and Business Women Association.

Highlights and events open to the media include:

Policy Day Opening and Closing Plenaries, discussions between US and international policymakers and women peace builders focusing on action steps to ensure women's full participation in the peace process, Friday, November 8, 10:00 - 11:30 AM and 3:00 - 4:30 PM, Littauer Building, John F. Kennedy School of Government, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge

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