The Golden Tulip Declaration of Liberian Women Attending the Peace Talks in Accra Ghana

1. 1325 NEWS

Visit our updated news pages on Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Israel-Palestine and Liberia

Women's Rights Goal of Meeting in Former Taliban Stronghold
September 3, 2003 – (Globe and Mail - Toronto) Kandahar, the spiritual home of a regime that barred women from work and education, is not the first city that springs to mind as a host for a gender-equality rally.

Canadian Perspectives on Gender, Conflict and Security: Advancing Research, Advocacy and Policy - Workshop
September 1, 2003 - A workshop called “Canadian Perspectives on Gender, Conflict and Security: Advancing Research, Advocacy and Policy” was held August 25th and 26th at the York University Centre for International and Security Studies in Toronto, Canada. The workshop brought together Canadian researchers - academic, activist and government - working within the area of Security Council Resolution 1325 to assess the current state of art of this work, and identify research/advocacy resources, as well as gaps and strategies for moving Canadian foreign policies in the area of Resolution 1325 forward. The organization of the workshop involved six sessions and each begun with informal, kickoff speakers and thematic guiding questions. Two reports are being produced from the workshop: a policy paper is being formulated for the Canadian policy community and then a conference report is being generated which will be widely distributed in the upcoming months. If you have further questions about the workshop please contact: Suzanne Taylor- Forbes at suzzanne@peacebuild.ca.

Mano River Women's Peace Network (MARWOPNET) Signs on Peace Agreement in Akosombo
August 29, 2003 – (MARWOPNET Press Release - Liberia) A delegation of eight women from the Liberia Chapter of the Mano River Women's Peace Network (MARWOPNET) led by Mrs. Ruth Sando Perry, former Liberian Head of State, and Mrs. Theresa Leigh-Sherman, Vice-President of MARWOPNET, has been participating for the last two months in the Liberia peace talks held in Akosombo, Ghana.

Kenyan And Rwandan Women Learn Political Empowerment Skills
August 28, 2003 – (United States Department of State) "A woman's way of leading is different from that of men, it is much more inclusive, much more dependent on collaborating and networking," one of a small number of women members of parliament in Kenya, told the Washington File. Esther Keino, a graduate of Harvard University, was one of eight women leaders from Kenya and Rwanda who gathered on Maryland's Eastern Shore recently to learn key political leadership skills as well as how to train and empower other African women to use those skills when they return home.

Mobile Female Lead Teams to Support Women and Children in Northern Iraq
August 28, 2003 – (WADI e.V) The German WADI, which is working in Northern Iraq since 1993, is supporting female lead Mobile Teams both in Suleymaniah, Kirkuk and Arbil and Mosul Gouvernarate. These teams contain of Medical Assistants, Social Workers and Supervisors. On daily base they visit women and children in different areas, offer basic health services, conduct awareness' courses, visit women, who suffer from distress and if needed bring them to one of the protection centres or shelters for Women in Distress WADI is supporting in the Area. Different researches and questionnaires about female victims of Baathism, Anfal Widows and female led families were conducted.

Ijaw Women Condemn Warri Crisis, Blame Government
August 26, 2003 – (Vanguard – Lagos) Ijaw women of Niger Delta have condemned the renewed spate of violence in Warri and blamed the federal and Delta state governments for not putting a stop to the unending crisis.

More than 400 Iraqi Women Kidnapped, Raped in Post--War Chaos: Watchdog
August 24, 2003 - (AFP) More than 400 Iraqi women have been kidnapped and raped amid the lawlessness gripping the country since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq said Sunday.

Zimbabwe Women Bear Brunt of State Sponsored Violence
August 19, 2003 – (Daily News) In 18 months, Amani Trust, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to the assistance of victims of violence in Zimbabwe, has documented 16 cases of rape. Sixteen - not even one a month. Not enough to make the case for the systematic rape of women during Zimbabwe's political crisis. Not enough to make anyone sit up and take notice. However, this relatively small number belies the degree to which women have been and continue to be targeted in the continuing political violence.

For more 1325 news, click here.

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2.WOMEN, WAR AND PEACE WEB PORTAL

Launch Date: October 31, 2003

The PeaceWomen Project is joining the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in a web partnership on their Women, War and Peace Web Portal, which will be launched October 31, 2003. The web portal is intended to promote a systematic flow of accurate and timely information about the impact of armed conflict on women and women's role in peace-building to, and among, national and international actors working on these issues.

Through the web portal partnership, UNIFEM and PeaceWomen will together feature key women, peace and security themes (see Themes listed below) and gender analysis of armed conflict situations in the profiles of more than 50 countries (see Countries listed below).

In this partnership, the PeaceWomen site will host:

NEWS: Timely country-specific news stories about women, peace and security issues from the 52 countries profiled.

PEACEBUILDING INITIATIVES: A regularly updated compilation of women's peace-building initiatives in-country and at the international and regional levels.

* The compilation will feature initiatives that are currently being organized by women, and women and men in partnership, on conflict prevention, peace building, refugees, reconstruction, rehabilitation, disarmament, demobilization, transitional justice, violence against women on armed conflicts, HIV/AIDS in the context of war, and peace education.

DATABASE OF ORGANIZATIONS: A database of women's organizations, in-country and at the international and regional levels, working on peace and security issues, including detailed contact information;

RESOURCES: Links to NGO, UN and governmental resources – analyses, statements, and reports – on the 52 countries profiled and thematic issues profiled.

While the PeaceWomen team is working with the information and the information sources that already exist on www.peacewomen.org, we are of course also looking for a wider breadth of sources and information. We are thus asking for input from other organizations regarding which news sources and stories, initiatives, organizations and women, peace and security resources should be included on the PeaceWomen website as part of the UNIFEM web portal.

Please send news sources and listservs to sarah@peacewomen.org.

Please send any contact information for organizations working on women, peace and security issues, and any resources- civil society and NGO reports and statements, UN reports, governmental reports, books and articles- that you believe need to be included to kara@peacewomen.org.

If your organization or any partner organization has organized, or is currently organizing initiatives on the aforementioned issues, we welcome any description, stories or key findings from your experience for inclusion in our compilation. Please send any information to Lupe Bardelli at lupeb@peacewomen.org.

In addition, if there are countries which you believe ought to be profiled which are not listed below, PeaceWomen will gladly consider adding them to the list. Please send any country suggestions or comments about our country list to info@peacewomen.org.

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Below are listed the themes and countries that will be featured on PeaceWomen.org for the web partnership with the UNIFEM Women, War and Peace Web Portal:

THEMES:
Violence, Trafficking, Peacekeeping, Justice, Peace Negotiations, Human Rights, Human Security, Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR), Early Warning, Prevention, Landmines, Elections, Reconstruction, Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW), Displacement, Health and HIV/AIDS, Organizing for Peace, Economic Rights, Racial Discrimination.

COUNTRIES:

AFRICA
North Africa: Western Sahara
West Africa: Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone
Great Lakes: Burundi, Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Uganda
East Africa/Horn: Ethiopia/Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan
Southern Africa: Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe

CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE (CEE): Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chechnya, Cyprus, Georgia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Tajikistan

CENTRAL/ SOUTH AMERICA: Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru

CARIBBEAN: Haiti

EAST ASIA: Korean Peninsula

SOUTH ASIA: Burma – Myanmar, Cambodia, India/Pakistan, Kashmir, Nepal, Sri Lanka

SOUTH EAST ASIA/PACIFIC: Acheh (Indonesia), Bougainville (Papua New Guinea), Fiji, Solomon Islands, South Sulawesi and Malaca (Indonesia), Timor-Leste, Vanuatu

WEST ASIA: Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), Lebanon

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3. FEATURE STATEMENT

The Golden Tulip Declaration of Liberian Women Attending the Peace Talks in Accra Ghana
August 15, 2003

Included below is the full Golden Tulip declaration, written and adopted by representatives of various Liberian women's organizations, attending the Liberian peace talks, at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Accra, Ghana:

Preamble

We, the representatives of the various Liberian Women's Organizations at the Accra Peace Talks on Liberia held a one-day Strategic Planning Meeting under the Chairmanship of Her Excellency Madame Ruth Sando Perry on Friday 15th Day of August A.D. 2003 at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Accra to analyse lessons learnt at the Accra Peace Talks from 4 June 2003 to present and to strategize on the inclusion of women within all existing and proposed institutions including all components of the current and in-coming Liberian Government (Executive, Legislative and Judiciary) and within all structures to lead the post conflict peace building process.

* Cognizant of women constituting approximately 51.2 percent of the Liberian population;
* Recognizing the numerous contributions of Liberian women to the socio-economic development and the political and peace processes;
* Noting the continuous exclusion and low participation of women from decision-making bodies;
* Recalling UN Resolution 1325 relative to the incorporation of a gender perspective into peace keeping and in the participation of women in the peace negotiation and post conflict reconstruction do hereby resolve as follows:

1. Greater participation of women in peace keeping missions as well as the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process;

2. More participation of women in the on going peace process;

3. Awareness and sensitisation meetings by rural and urban women, youth and combatants to lay down their arms;

4. Women leaders who are currently observers at the Accra Peace Talks be made delegates and be given voting rights including places on the Vetting Committee;

5. Lobby all parties including the facilitators at the Peace Talks in Accra for 50% representation of women in the Transitional Leadership;

6. Encourage all women to support women candidates;

7. Women organization in Liberia be supported and empowered by the Government of Liberia, UNAIDS, and UNIFEM to actively participate in the implementation of all activities involving the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS during the post conflict process;

8. Liberian women be integrated and supported in all decision-making policies on HIV/AIDS prevention and control (National and International);

9. Recognition and empowerment of delegates to the Golden Tulip Consultative and Strategic Planning meeting as a core group for the inclusion of women in
the process of rehabilitation, reconstruction and redevelopment of Liberia;

10. Establishing contacts with existing donor agencies to support skills training and micro credit program to address humanitarian concerns;

11. UNIFEM and partners to support a Workshop in the coming periods in Monrovia.

It was unanimously agreed that UNIFEM be mandated to empower and support the efforts and results arising out of this Consultative and Strategic Planning Meeting and also establish a follow up committee to ensure implementation of the recommendations and decisions emanating from the Accra meeting and beyond. In this regards, a Peace and Security Program will be formulated to support Liberian women's initiatives for the coming periods in Liberia.

For the full declaration, which includes the distribution list, click here.

A Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed between the Government of Liberia, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) and Liberia's 18 political parties on August 18, 2003 in Accra, Ghana. To read the full agreement, click here (ReliebWeb).

A delegation of eight women from the Liberia Chapter of the Mano River Women's Peace Network (MARWOPNET) participated in the peace talks as observers; they were the only women's group that received accreditation to the conference. To read a MARWOPNET press release about their involvement in the peace talks (included in 1325 News above), click here.

PeaceWomen looks forward to including your and other organizations' analyses on the integration of gender concerns in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and recent peace negotiations in future issues of the newsletter.

For a comprehensive annotated bibliography of books, articles and analyses on women's peace theory and activities, as well as NGO position papers, reports, speeches, statements and tools for organisational building, click here.

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4. FEATURE INITIATIVE

The International Women's Commission (IWC)
Israel-Occupied Palestinian Territories

Palestinian and Israeli women's organizations, including Women's Center for Legal Aid and Counselling in Jerusalem and Bat Shalom, are collaborating on an initiative, called the International Women's Commission (IWC). Women have initiated this type of political body to address the historical absence of women from the formal negotiations and to ensure women's active participation in the Israeli-Palestinian peace processes. The Commission is being developed with the objective of being recognized by the Quartet (UN, EU, US and Russia), under the mandate of UNSC Resolution 1325.

The creation of the Commission will allow the Israeli, Palestinian and international women representatives and negotiators to reframe the divisive issues, sustain political will for and popular support of negotiations, and build bridges between traditionally antagonistic sides in order to ensure a genuine commitment to a sustainable peace. It is hoped that this body will ensure that women's input and a gender perspective will be incorporated into any binding agreements, so as to guarantee a more representative and equitable substantive result. Two key concerns that must be further addressed by the organizers and Israeli and Palestinian women, respectively, include: the degree and make-up of representation afforded for Israeli, Palestinian and international women in the Commission and the most suitable partner within the Quartet to host the Commission as a formal political body.

A working document on the Commission has been circulated at town hall meetings in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Nazareth. Approximately 100 women attended the three town hall meetings. In the near future, there also will be town hall meetings held in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Due to the on-going hostilities, the International Women's Commission cannot sufficiently progress forward, just as the Roadmap processes cannot. The international community, and particularly the women involved in the international women's movement, must support the work of Israeli and Palestinian women within an international law framework, including UNSC Resolution 1325.

WOMEN'S CENTRE FOR LEGAL AID AND COUNSELLING
Al Dahya Intersection
Al Hirbawi Building, Third Floor
P.O. Box 54262
Jerusalem 91516
phone: 972 2 2347438
e-mail: wclac@netvision.net.il

BAT SHALOM
Northern Office: P.O.B 2740
Afula 18126
Israel
phone: 972 4 640 7011
email: batshalomtzafon@hotmail.com

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5. FEATURE RESOURCE

Gender and Development In Brief: Gender and Armed Conflict (Issue 13)
BRIDGE Bulletin, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex
August 2003

“A gender analysis of armed conflict and its aftermath reveals distinct types of hidden disadvantage that worsen gender relations. Given that gender inequality pre-dates conflict, it is disproportionately women's disadvantage that is hidden. But this does not mean that men are always the winners. The need to recognise women's experiences and address the impact on gender relations led to the establishment of the Gender Programme of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Peru (CVR). The CVR's activities promoted gender equality as central to preventing future outbreaks of violence. The Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) in Palestine also works to recognise the contribution of women and the importance of gender equality as essential to the resolution of conflict and the establishment of peace in the occupied territories.”

The articles included in this issue are:

- “Tackling gender inequality for long-term peace,” by Lata Narayanaswamy, BRIDGE

- “Gender in Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” by Julissa Mantilla, Gender Programme, Legal Division of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Peru (CVR)

- “Promoting women's human rights in the midst of conflict,” by Soraida Abed Hussein, Head of Legal Literacy and Training Unit, The Palestinian Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC)

This issue is available online at: http://www.ids.ac.uk/bridge/dgb13.html.

BRIDGE has also produced a Cutting Edge Pack on Gender and Armed Conflict. In addition to the bulletin, the pack includes:
- Overview Report outlining the main issues, examples of good practice and recommendations
- Supporting Resources Collection including summaries of key texts, case studies, tools, and online resources, and contact details of relevant organizations.
For the Cutting Edge Pack, visit: http://www.ids.ac.uk/bridge/reports_gend_CEP.html

To read this issue in French and Spanish, visit: http://www.ids.ac.uk/bridge/reports_gend_CEP.html

To receive a hard copy version of this issue, contact bridge@ids.ac.uk.

Other issues of In Brief are available at: http://www.ids.ac.uk/bridge/Bri_bull.html

For a comprehensive annotated bibliography of books, articles and analyses on women's peace theory and activities, as well as NGO position papers, reports, speeches, statements and tools for organisational building, click here.

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6. CALENDAR EVENTS

Women in Black Regional Conference
September 20 2003, 10:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Frederick, Maryland, USA
Registration deadline: September 10
Frederick, Maryland Women In Black (WIB) is organizing the first ever Women in Black conference in the US. The Conference will include a presentation of the history of WIB, reports from WIB chapters, a WIB international conference report, and a walking vigil in War Memorial Park. The conference will be hosted by Fahima Vorgetts of Women for Afghan Women and Anne Brodsky, author of With All Our Strength: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. For more information, contact: Andrea Norouzi at 301/834-7581, wibfrederick@mizmail.com, or andibonita@earthlink.net.

Women, War and Peace Seminar
October 3, 2003, 1.45 pm – 5 pm, Friends Meeting House, London, England
The National Council of Women of Great Britain, Foreign Affairs Committee will host the Women, War and Peace Seminar to consider the difficulties of women in post-conflict situations in Rwanda, Iraq and Afghanistan and the importance of the implementation of United Nations SC Resolution 1325. Presentations will be given by: HE Rosemary Museminali, Ambassador to the United Kingdom; Nazaneen Rashid, Field Officer Kurdish Disaster Fund; Karen Wolstenholme, Foreign and Commonwealth Office; and Hilary Page MBE, UNIFEM UK. Lois Hainsworth will chair the seminar. For more information, contact Jane Cooper at: 01732 459014.

Clash or Consensus: Gender and Human Security in a Globalized World
October 8-9, 2003, Kenney Auditorium, The School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC, USA
Women's Learning Partnership (WLP) has organized this conference to provide a forum for women leaders and human security experts from the Global South, particularly from Muslim societies, to come together to discuss and strategize on ways to advance human security around the world. Panel discussions and strategy sessions will provide an opportunity for participants to identify the conditions needed under which citizens can live in safety, peace and dignity, exercise their fundamental right to health, education and well-being, exert the freedom to choose, and participate fully in governance. For more information and to register, visit WLP at: http://www.learningpartnership.org/events/2003/03clashorconsensus.phtml, call (1) 301-654-2774, or fax (1) 301-654-2775.

For the complete calendar items as well as more calendar events, click here.

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