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Press Release: Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee to Join Hundreds of Peacemakers at International Peace Conference

11 March 2015

Leymah Gbowee is joining 1,300 peace activists in The Hague from 27 – 29 April to set a new peacemaking agenda for the 21st century. It is the first conference of its kind in 100 years.

Leymah Gbowee, Liberian peace activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner and member of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, will be a keynote speaker at the Women’s Power to Stop War Conference, an event hosted by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) – the oldest women’s peace organisation.

Gbowee led the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace movement that helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Her efforts to end the war helped usher in a period of peace and enable a free election in 2005, won by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Leymah Gbowee will share her experience in peacemaking with activists attending the Conference, which will be hosted at the World Forum from 27 – 29 April in The Hague, the Netherlands.

“A radical shift in the approach to peace is necessary,” explains Madeleine Rees, Secretary General of WILPF, who is known for speaking out against human rights abuses, as portrayed in the feature film The Whistleblower (2010).“First we have to believe in it and not make war and violence just more manageable. Second we have to build inclusive investment into sustaining peace, placing human rights, the environment and justice – in particular economic and social – at the core of policy making and address inequalities. We can only do this with real and inclusive participation – by all of us.”

“You cannot build peace unless you deal with the root causes of conflict. You have to understand how power works, who has it, who wants it, and how it impacts on men and women differently and affects our abilities to reach out to each other across national, religious, ethnic and political divides,” says Rees.

The Conference is supported by organisations like the Nobel Women’s Initiative and the International Peace Bureau, and it is aimed at coming up with a new, holistic peacebuilding agenda for the 21st century.

Registration for the Conference is now open on www.womenstopwar.org.

Pictures of Leymah Gbowee can be downloaded on – http://bit.ly/1E08z17

Pictures of Madeleine Rees can be downloaded on – http://bit.ly/1PfE4wU

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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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