2003 Colloquium and Policy Day

Overview
Policy Day
Report on Policy Day 2003
Policy Day Remarks
Other Member Meetings

Overview: Peace Building Through Civil Society
Waging hosted its fifth annual colloquium November 1-8, 2003. The 38 participants from 21 conflicts around the world discussed strategies women in civil society use to engage in effective and sustainable peace building.

Lessons learned from Israel to Iraq, South Korea to Sierra Leone show that civil society’s involvement in peace processes is crucial to long-term stability. An active civilian population not only ensures ownership of the negotiations process among the people who have to live with its consequences, but also demands greater accountability of the negotiating parties and promotes good governance. Women constitute the majority of civil society leaders in conflict-affected regions. Including this vital sector means including its women leaders as well.

The Policy Commission presented findings from four cases studies on women’s contributions to:

• disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) in Sierra Leone;
• transitional justice and reconciliation in Bosnia;
• the negotiations process in Colombia; and
• governance and political participation in Rwanda.

Working groups examined DDR, transitional justice, negotiations, and governance; discussed the Commission’s findings; and heard about the ways the Commission engages policymakers and presents the peace work that women do. Participants gained new information about women’s efforts in other conflicts and ensured that the research findings were aligned with perceptions on the ground.

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Policy Day Overview
Representatives from the US Department of State, US Agency for International Development (USAID), US Department of Defense, United Nations, World Bank, and Council of Foreign Relations, as well as several academic institutions and NGOs, attended Policy Day on November 7, 2003. These 112 policymakers joined the 38 women experts attending the Colloquium in roundtable groups based on geographic regions of interest to outline the value added by civil society’s participation in peace processes. Recommendations they generated for each region are available in the Report on Policy Day 2003.

View Report on Policy Day 2003 (pdf)

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Policy Day Remarks

Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Women
Remarks by Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary for Global Affairs, US Department of State
November 7, 2024

Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace Policy Day 2003
Remarks by Donald K. Steinberg, Director, Joint Policy Council
November 7, 2024

Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace Policy Day 2003
Remarks by Ambassador George F. Ward, Jr.
November 7, 2024

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Pre- and Post-Colloquium Meetings
Waging members met with policy shapers in Canada and the United States before and after the Colloquium. These sessions furthered strategic partnerships and allowed many of the women to network with key agencies and academic circles not represented at the Colloquium itself.

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: In October 2003, Canadian Senator Mobina Jaffer, co-chair of the Canadian Committee on Women, Peace, and Security, hosted Kemi Ogunsaya, senior conflict resolution trainer at the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes; Mary Okumu, regional coordinator at El Taller Africa; and Claudine Tayaye Bibi, president of Programs for the Call to Action for Women (Democratic Republic of the Congo). The three Waging members participated in high-level meetings with representatives from Africa-related bureaus at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and Canadian International Development Agency, including Marie Gervais-Vidricaire, director-general of the Global Issues Bureau.

New York, NY: Vjosa Dobruna, former minister of democratization, good governance, and media with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, and Visaka Dharmadasa, founder and chair of Parents of Servicemen Missing in Action (Sri Lanka), attended meetings in October 2003 at the United Nations as well as the US and UK Missions to the United Nations. At the US Mission, they spoke with Saskia Reilly, chief of staff to US Ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte, on implementation of UN Resolution 1325 in Kosovo and Sri Lanka. At the launch of the UNIFEM portal on women, peace, and security, Dr. Dobruna and Ms. Dharmadasa spoke with Executive Director of UNIFEM Noeleen Heyzer and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Rudd Lubbers.

Washington, DC - Iraqi Delegation: Waging partnered with the World Bank, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and American Bar Association Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (ABA/CEELI) to host a 17-member delegation of Iraqi women for 10 days in November 2003. The women met with high-level policymakers, including President Bush; National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice; Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, US Department of Defense; Andrew Natsios, Administrator, USAID; Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary for Global Affairs, US Department of State; and Jim Wolfensohn, President, World Bank. The ABA/CEELI portion of the agenda included meetings with Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and federal circuit and district court judges, as well as discussions with Senators Clinton, Hutchinson, Davis, Hagel, Cantwell, and Landrieu and House members Maloney, DeGette, and Johnson, among others. The Iraqi delegation generated enormous press from media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, CBS, Fox News, and National Public Radio (On Point and The World programs).

November 2003: Visaka Dharmadasa, founder and chair of Parents of Servicemen Missing in Action (Sri Lanka) and Josephine Perez, director of the Peace Education and Capability Building Program at the Gaston Z. Ortigas Peace Institute (Philippines), participated in a weeklong series of events: facilitating a workshop on checkpoints at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York (with Israeli Waging member Michal Miller); speaking as guests of honor at a Cambridge Conversation hosted by Swanee Hunt; participating in a panel at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Foreign Service, Global Women’s Program; and presenting to students, faculty, and policymakers at the Smith College landmine conference “Clear Path to a Safe World.”

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More...
2002 Colloquium and Policy Day
2001 Colloquium and Policy Day
2000 Colloquium and Policy Day
1999 Colloquium and Policy Day

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