Radhika Coomaraswamy is joining 1,300 peace activists, academics and civil society members in The Hague from 27 – 29 April to mobilise the world against war and militarisation.
Sri Lankan lawyer, academic and lead author of the United Nations Global Study on Women, Peace and Security Radhika Coomaraswamy is participating in 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.
Coomaraswamy is an internationally known human rights advocate who worked as the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women from 1994 to 2003. Previously, she was the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, and the Chairperson of the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission.
As the lead author on the UN Global Study on Women, Peace and Security, which is currently reviewing 15 years of UN Security Council resolution 1325, Coomaraswamy will be taking in grassroots and civil society perspectives, as well as contributing theoretical and practical frameworks at the conference.
“WILPF is perhaps my favourite international women’s organisation because it is the oldest and because it brought women onto the international stage in the 1920s to fight for peace and against militarisation,” says Coomaraswamy.
“The original message of WILPF is the message we need to pick up again,” she remarks, “as we need a global movement against war and militarization for this era.”
The Conference is supported by organisations like Code Pink and Peace is Loud, and is aimed at coming up with a new, holistic peacebuilding agenda for the 21st century.
Registration for the Conference is now open at www.womenstopwar.org.
Pictures of Radhika Coomaraswamy can be downloaded at – http://bit.ly/18xNfF1