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New High Commissioner For Human Rights Kicks Off His Mandate By Pointing At The Root Causes Of Conflict

17 March 2015

Last week, the newly appointed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, presented his first report to the Human Rights Council. In his presentation, he talked about the need to address the root causes of conflict. He also acknowledged the impact of arms transfer on human rights and the importance of fully implementing the Arms Trade Treaty.

Extremism and oppression of women

We believe that Mr Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein is right in linking violent extremism to the oppression of women. If there is something that all kinds of extremism have in common, it is the fact that they exacerbate the patriarchal oppression of women.

Identifying the root causes of war

The key, Mr Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said, is to address the root causes of conflict, something that WILPF has been stressing for the last 100 years. While advocating for disarmament and women’s participation in conflict resolution, WILPF has always maintained that eradicating the true root causes of war is the only real preventive task that can be undertaken.

While we welcome Mr Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein’s call to address the root causes of conflict, we regret that the only root cause he mentioned was extremism and that this extremism is only put in the context of Islam.

We believe that the root causes of war lie not only in extremism, but also in economic inequality, militarism, patriarchy, colonialism and later neo-colonialism, racist hatred and other scourges of our time.

Militarising the protection of human rights is counterproductive

Radhika Coomaraswamy, former Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, reminds us in her video how extremism can be religious, but also nationalist. She further analyses the many factors that contribute to all kinds of extremisms growing and reminds us that military force bipolarises societies.

There is a militarisation in the way we deal with conflicts. At WILPF, we believe that militarising the protection of human rights is counterproductive, as it puts women at risk when we instead need to empower them.

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Melissa Torres

VICE-PRESIDENT

Prior to being elected Vice-President, Melissa Torres was the WILPF US International Board Member from 2015 to 2018. Melissa joined WILPF in 2011 when she was selected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the WILPF US’ Practicum in Advocacy Programme at the United Nations, which she later led. She holds a PhD in Social Work and is a professor and Global Health Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and research lead at BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Of Mexican descent and a native of the US/Mexico border, Melissa is mostly concerned with the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. Her work includes training, research, and service provision with the American Red Cross, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, and refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. Some of her goals as Vice-President are to highlight intersectionality and increase diversity by fostering inclusive spaces for mentorship and leadership. She also contributes to WILPF’s emerging work on the topic of displacement and migration.

Jamila Afghani

VICE-PRESIDENT

Jamila Afghani is the President of WILPF Afghanistan which she started in 2015. She is also an active member and founder of several organisations including the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organisation (NECDO). Elected in 2018 as South Asia Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board, WILPF benefits from Jamila’s work experience in education, migration, gender, including gender-based violence and democratic governance in post-conflict and transitional countries.

Sylvie Jacqueline Ndongmo

PRESIDENT

Sylvie Jacqueline NDONGMO is a human rights and peace leader with over 27 years experience including ten within WILPF. She has a multi-disciplinary background with a track record of multiple socio-economic development projects implemented to improve policies, practices and peace-oriented actions. Sylvie is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and was the Section’s president until 2022. She co-coordinated the African Working Group before her election as Africa Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018. A teacher by profession and an African Union Trainer in peace support operations, Sylvie has extensive experience advocating for the political and social rights of women in Africa and worldwide.

WILPF Afghanistan

In response to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and its targeted attacks on civil society members, WILPF Afghanistan issued several statements calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan people and ensure that their rights be upheld, including access to aid. The Section also published 100 Untold Stories of War and Peace, a compilation of true stories that highlight the effects of war and militarisation on the region. 

IPB Congress Barcelona

WILPF Germany (+Young WILPF network), WILPF Spain and MENA Regional Representative

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Demilitarisation

WILPF uses feminist analysis to argue that militarisation is a counter-productive and ill-conceived response to establishing security in the world. The more society becomes militarised, the more violence and injustice are likely to grow locally and worldwide.

Sixteen states are believed to have supplied weapons to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 with the US supplying 74 % of weapons, followed by Russia. Much of this equipment was left behind by the US military and is being used to inflate Taliban’s arsenal. WILPF is calling for better oversight on arms movement, for compensating affected Afghan people and for an end to all militarised systems.

Militarised masculinity

Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. WILPF shares a feminist analysis on the links between militarism, masculinities, peace and security. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists’ action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality.

WILPF has been working on challenging the prevailing notion of masculinity based on men’s physical and social superiority to, and dominance of, women in Afghanistan. It recognizes that these notions are not representative of all Afghan men, contrary to the publicly prevailing notion.

Feminist peace​

In WILPF’s view, any process towards establishing peace that has not been partly designed by women remains deficient. Beyond bringing perspectives that encapsulate the views of half of the society and unlike the men only designed processes, women’s true and meaningful participation allows the situation to improve.

In Afghanistan, WILPF has been demanding that women occupy the front seats at the negotiating tables. The experience of the past 20 has shown that women’s presence produces more sustainable solutions when they are empowered and enabled to play a role.

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