Celebrating Feminists’ Voices, Inspiring Global Peace

Greetings WILPF Sisters on our 101st Birthday!

28 April 2016

It is a beautiful sunny day in Geneva, but the wind is strong. What will it bring? It’s easy to be pessimistic.

Our foremothers 101 years ago also had grounds to be pessimistic, but in their deeds and words decided to act rather than be despondent.

The practical issue of economic justice preoccupied the women at The Hague, and again in Zurich, where they identified capitalism as the principal source of conflict between nations.

Capitalism is again at the forefront of political debate as tax avoidance scandals are exposed at the same time as austerity is imposed. It is also increasingly understood that the root cause of catastrophic climate change is capitalism. Critiquing its inherent injustice and use of the word socialism is featuring in the US election of all places!

The election of Corbin in Britain to lead the Labour Party, whether he will survive or not, also shows that when you really talk to the public, you get support, in spite of Murdoch’s press domination. Everywhere people understand that investing in public services and being strong on disarmament, investing resources in what people need, serves everyone.

Racism is showing its ugly face in so many places where refugees and asylum seekers are vilified and detained. The human tragedy and suffering is terrible to see; people are fleeing wars and despair and have a right to seek asylum, which some solidarity movements and organisations do support.

The Syrian negotiations here in Geneva are not going well; what is needed is a cease fire and all parties to negotiate without preconditions. The Syrians need to decide who leads their country, and the conditions need to be created for that, not regime change orchestrated by the west.

Another round of nuclear disarmament talks will be held in Geneva next week. We hope they doesn’t disappear into arms control and tinkering with words. The planet cannot afford us being distracted from the real problems of companies producing and profiting from arms who should be named, shamed and shut down!

We are sitting here in the West, that continues to dominate and bully, but we wish to send strength and courage to WILPF women everywhere – in Africa, the Americas, in Asia and the Pacific, in the Middle East and in other parts Europe – that are part of building movements that end war, racism, poverty, surveillance, destruction and bring about peace with justice!

On our 101st anniversary, let us read again our aims and principles, and act to move them forward. As the WILPF women of 1915 showed us: instead of being afraid of what might happen, let us fight what can be defeated!

Edith Ballantyne & Felicity Ruby
28 April 2016, Geneva

Aims and Principles
1. The aims and principles of WILPF are:
(a) To bring together women of different political beliefs and philosophies who are united in their determination to study, make known and help abolish the causes and legitimization of war.
(b)
i. To work toward world peace
ii. Total and universal disarmament
iii. The abolition of violence and coercion in the settlement of conflict and their substitution in every case of negotiation and conciliation
iv. The strengthening of the United Nations system
v. The continuous development and implementation of international law
vi. Women’s political, social and economic empowerment to achieve gender equality and justice for all.
vii. Cooperation among all people
viii. Environmentally sustainable development

2. Believing that under systems of exploitation these aims cannot be attained and a real and lasting peace and true freedom cannot exist, WILPF makes it its duty to further by non-violent means the social transformation that enables the inauguration of systems under which social and political equality and economic justice for all can be attained, without discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion, or any other grounds whatsoever.

3. WILPF sees as its ultimate goal the establishment of an international economic order founded on the principles of meeting the needs of all people and not those of profit and privilege.

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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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