[WCUSP] Fwd: WILPF International Co-President, Kerstin Greback in the News

[Odile Hugonot Haber]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Susi Snyder <susi.snyder at wilpf.ch>
Date: Mar 25, 2008 4:46 PM
Subject: WILPF International Co-President, Kerstin Greback in the News
To: WILPF news <wilpf-news at wilpf.ch>










http://www.pww.org/article/view/12745/


Women's peace advocate: 'We need real, not fake, security'




Author: John Rummel

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 03/24/08 13:56










Kerstin Greback, co-president of the Women's International League for
Peace and Freedom. PWW/Laura Dewey

FERNDALE, Mich. — "Women are the realistic people in the world; they
can see the future and the need for peace and stability," said Kerstin
Greback, co-president of the Women's International League for Peace
and Freedom (WILPF).

 Greback, who is from Sweden, is touring the U.S. to speak on the
links between gender equality, peace and security, and, she said, to
"get a feel" for this nation's people, mood, and thinking.

 Addressing a luncheon crowd here March 18, Greback said women play a
key role in the fight for peace. Preventing war also requires the
"protection of women's rights and the maximizing of women's political
power," she noted.

 People everywhere have concerns about security, but "we need real,
not fake, security," Greback said. The walls the U.S. is building
along the Mexican border and those Israel is putting up to prevent
movement of Palestinians are not the answer, she said.

 A goal of WILPF, Greback said, is to reach out to the underdeveloped
world, to insure women have a voice and to help women organize
themselves to play a role in the redevelopment of their country. She
said United Nations Resolution 1325 can be a tool to reach this goal.
Resolution 1325, adopted in 2000 by the UN Security Council, calls for
better protection of women's interests in post-conflict situations and
for their full inclusion in reconstruction efforts that lay the
foundation for sustainable peace and prevention of future conflicts.

 A second area of concern for Greback's organization is the military
buildup in the European Union. From the Balkans to Poland, new members
of the EU are being forced to bring their military up to NATO
standards. And who is put forward as the straw enemy, she asked, and
then answered: immigrants from Africa and other areas coming to find
work. A variety of economic and political factors force people to
migrate, she noted. The idea is projected that Europe is somehow
entitled to the oil under North Africa's sand, Greback said, while the
conditions of the people there are of no importance.

 The immigration question and NATO military buildup are big issues for
the European peace movement according to Greback. She added that
Romania has a large number of unemployed people but its admittance
into the EU came with a price and part of that price will be paying to
beef up its military rather than address its social and economic
problems.

 The third issue of concern Greback addressed was weapons in space and
the "insane resources" going into this. Military spending is at odds
with the human needs of society, she said, and we must "make visible
all the costs of war and what we can do instead to build a better
world."

 "A small battleship costs the equivalent of six and a half years of
educating Afghanistan's children," she pointed out.

 jrummel @ pww.org



Best Wishes,

Susi Snyder

Secretary General

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom

1, rue de Varembe

Case Postale 28

1211 Geneva 20

Switzerland

Telephone: +41 22 919 7080

Fax: +41 22 919 7081

www.wilpf.ch

www.PeaceWomen.org

www.ReachingCriticalWill.org