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WILPF is Delighted to Announce our Newest National Group, WILPF Chad

17 June 2016

Chad map

Bordered by Libya, Sudan, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger, The Republic of Chad is the fifth largest country in Africa; Chad has a population of 13 million people, 54% of which are woman.

With the UN’s Human Development Index ranking Chad as the 7th poorest country in the world, and 80% of the population living below the poverty line and a history of civil war, conflicts and inter-community violence, modern Chad faces many difficulties.

In recent years however, things have been relatively more stable. Nonetheless, with the ongoing violence and conflicts in neighbouring Sudan and CAR, many refugees have flocked to Chad and there are still many internally displaced persons within the country. These people are especially vulnerable to violence and harassment.

The group which was to become WILPF Chad Group begun activities in 2014 looking to include Chadian women in peace processes to ensure longer-lasting peace. Over recent years WILPF has been flourishing in Africa, with WILPF Chad’s entry into the WILPF family coming at a time of great expansion and success for WILPF in the area.

We got to catch up with WILPF Chad Group’s President Djibrine Souleymane Amalkher.

How does it feel to be the newest addition to WILPF’s family?

It is great to be part in of a network of women champions of peace, activist, peace prize winners, women right’s workers.

WILPF is one of the oldest peace contributions coming from a women organization, and what WILPF has achieved until now is phenomenal and unbelievable. It’s a great to have the opportunity to manage a WILPF group here in Chad and to be able to help women reach their potential.

Why did Chad want to join the WILPF family?

We also share WILPF’s vision of a peaceful world where girls and women enjoy full rights and are able to reach their potential, as well as proposing and adopting peaceful solutions to conflicts.

We believe the best way to achieve this will be through working with a network of people that have the same ideology and vision, so we can share learn and channel our common will to achieve miracles together.

In what ways do you believe that WILPF Chad Group will make a difference to communities around the country?

WILPF Chad Group already has started to make huge differences in communities by sensitizing them about their rights and raising awareness and training on women’s rights, conflicts resolutions and peace debates.

Root causes of violence sometimes are related to problems like poverty and illiteracy etc. WILPF could indirectly fix them by advocating for the Government and funders to invest in such domains.

What difficulties have you faced up until now, and what challenges do you believe that WILPF Chad Group will experience in the future?

Some of the difficulties we are facing are include financial problems, as we’ve just started, and not having a WILPF office in Chad is causing difficulties.

In the future, the challenges will include ensuring WILPF Chad Group’s full participation in implementing women’s rights frameworks’ at the national level; cooperation between Chad’s political, traditional and religious authorities; and reaching Chad’s rural areas, where most people live and are the most vulnerable and unaware about their rights.

What are WILPF Chad Group’s main aims for the upcoming year, and what do you hope to achieve?

Our Main goal is to protect women and to allow them to reach their potential in a peaceful country, we wish to “preach peace, make peace and live in peace”. We will focus on ensuring advocacy for government to take women’s issues very seriously; implementing of important frameworks such as CEDAW, BEIJING and UNSCR 1325; and reinforcing the participation of women in the country’s development.

WILPF Chad Group has already now started working in the spirit of WILPF. The Group will become an official WILPF Section in 2018, if the Triennial International Congress decides to adopt the Group at Congress.

/by Isabel May Bull

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About the author

Isabel May Bull is a student, studying Politics and French at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, with a particular interest in gender politics and International Relations. She is currently on an Erasmus year abroad at The University of Geneva studying Translation (French and English).

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Matt Mahmoudi

Matt Mahmoudi (he/him) is a lecturer, researcher, and organizer. He’s been leading the “Ban the Scan” campaign, Amnesty International’s research and advocacy efforts on banning facial recognition technologies and exposing their uses against racialized communities, from New York City to the occupied Palestinian territories.

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Hanne Peterson

Europe Alternate Regional Representative

More about Hanne Peterson coming soon.

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Diana María Salcedo López

VICE-PRESIDENT

Diana María Salcedo López holds a degree in Political Science from the National University of Colombia, a Master’s degree in Women’s, Gender and Citizenship Studies from the University of Barcelona, and a Master’s degree in Human Rights, the Rule of Law and Democratisation from the University of Alcalá de Henares in Madrid. A feminist and anti-militarist, she has a solid track record spanning two decades working as a consultant for non-governmental organisations, international cooperation agencies, the United Nations and state bodies in Colombia. 

Her work has focused on safeguarding women’s rights, incorporating a gender and intersectional perspective into public policy, strengthening the social fabric amongst women who are victims of the armed conflict, and consolidating local peace-building processes. 

She currently serves as director of the Colombian section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (LIMPAL Colombia), where she leads initiatives on issues such as feminist approaches to the energy transition, the protection of women human rights defenders, the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda, and advocacy in international forums. She also represents the organisation on the Special Women’s Body for Monitoring the Peace Agreement and on the Intersectoral Commission on Security Guarantees for Women Human Rights Defenders and Women Leaders in Colombia. 

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Desirée Sterner

VICE-PRESIDENT

Desirée Sterner currently serves as President of the Swedish Section (IKFF), a role she has held since 2023. Her engagement with WILPF began at the grassroots level through the local branch in Lund/Malmö during her university years. Desirée brings a deep substantive understanding of WILPF’s core issues, rooted in academic training in gender, peace and security (LSE), war studies (Swedish Defence University), peace and conflict studies, and human rights (Lund University), combined with several years of practical advocacy, movement-building and organisational leadership work in Swedish civil society.  

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Sylvie Jacqueline Ndongmo

PRESIDENT

Sylvie Ndongmo, is a Cameroonian peacebuilder, feminist leader, civil society actor and Women, Peace and Security expert with over 30 years of experience in peacebuilding, mediation, and gender equality advocacy. She serves as International President of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and Executive Secretary of Women Peace Initiatives. She coordinates the Women and Youth Early Warning Monitoring Room in Cameroon and was recently appointed to the African Union Advisory Panel on Democratic Elections and Governance in Africa. Her work focuses on advancing women’s leadership, conflict prevention, and sustainable peace through feminist, inclusive, and intergenerational approaches.  

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.