The main bodies of WILPF consist of the International Congress, the International Board, National Sections and Groups and the International Secretariat.
Click on the circles in the illustration to learn more about the different parts of WILPF, their roles and how they are interconnected.
Standing Finance Committee (SFC)
Convenor
Standing Constitution Committee (SCC)
Convenor
Standing Personnel Committee (SPC)
Convenor
Standing Committee on
Risk Management (SCRM)
Convenor
Resolution Congress 1919 – Zurich, Switzerland.
Resolution Congress 1915 – the Hague, Netherlands.
Resolution Congress 1929 – Prague, Czech Republic.
Resolution Congress 1926 – Dublin, Ireland.
Resolution Congress 1924 – Washington DC, United States.
Resolution Congress 1921 – Vienna, Austria.
Resolution Congress 1937 – Luhacovice, Czech Republic.
Resolution Congress 1934 – Zurich, Switzerland.
Resolution Congress 1932 – Grenoble, France.
Resolution Congress 1949 – Copenhagen, Denmark.
Resolution Congress 1946 – Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
Resolution Congress 1959 – Stockholm, Sweden.
Resolution Congress 1956 – Birmingham, UK.
Resolution Congress 1953 – Paris, France.
Resolution Congress 1968 – Nyborg, Denmark.
Resolution Congress 1965 – the Hague, Netherlands.
Resolution Congress 1962 – San Francisco, United States.
Resolution Congress 1977 – Tokyo, Japan.
Resolution Congress 1974 – Birmingham, UK.
Resolution Congress 1971 – New Delhi, India.
Resolution Congress 1989 – Sydney, Australia.
Resolution Congress 1986 – Zeist, Netherlands.
Resolution Congress 1983 – Gothenburg, Sweden.
Resolution Congress 1980 – Connecticut, United States.
Resolution Congress 1998 – Baltimore, United States.
Resolution Congress 1995 – Helsinki, Finland.
Resolution Congress 1992 – Santa Cruz, United States.
Resolution Congress 2007 – Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Resolution Congress 2004 – Gothenberg, Sweden.
Resolution Congress 2001 – Geneva, Switzerland.
Resolution Congress 2018 – Accra, Ghana.
Resolution Congress 2015 – the Hague, Netherlands.
Resolution Congress 2011 – San Jose, Costa Rica.
Resolution Congress 2022 – Brisbane, Australia.
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.
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.
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.
Janette McLeod has been a member of WILPF for more than a decade. During this time, she has held several roles in WILPF Australia, including Section Treasurer. Prior to being appointed Asia Pacific Regional Alternate Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018, Janette has been and still is a member of the Standing Finance Committee,. She is a member of the Standing Personnel Committee and has been Liaison to the Standing Constitution Committee since 2018. In addition to her involvement with WILPF, Janette has been active in social justice in Australia and worked as a public servant for many years.
Annie Matundu Mbambi is a women’s rights activist in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). She is the President of the Board of Directors of WILPF DRC, and was the consultant for the revision of the National Action Plan (NAP) of UNSCR 1325 and the NAP 2250 in DRC. She has also written various articles on different themes such as Human Rights, Gender Based Violence, Environment, in Artisanal Mining. Annie is also the author of the Glossary of Terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and its related resolutions of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.
Edwick Madzimure is a Development Practitioner with a unique background in rural development, gender and the empowerment of women and girls. She is the Founding Director of WILPF Zimbabwe which she started in 2016. As part of her work, Edwick facilitates grassroots community climate change education awareness, human rights education, and gender-based violence activism. She advocates for the implementation of the Women Peace and Security Agenda and facilitates trainings on the localisation of the UNSCR 1325 in grassroots communities. She holds an Honours Degree in History and International Studies and an MA in Development Studies. She is currently studying towards a PhD in Development Studies with a thesis focused on rural women livelihoods and water scarcity. Edwick is on a mission to transform communities from socially constructed systems that contribute to the exclusion of the youth and women from development processes.
Janet Slagter is an eager feminist theorist and researcher. Since 2018, she is the Americas Alternate Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board and has held several different roles in the Fresno branch of the US Section since 2001. With over 40 years of teaching experience, Janet’s main expertise lies in cross-cultural perspectives on women harassment policy, reproductive technologies and women’s international grassroots organising.
Prior to being appointed Americas Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018, Beatriz Schulthess has been a WILPF Costa Rica board member since 2015 and she has recently been elected President of WILPF Costa Rica. In addition to her involvement with
WILPF, she has 40 years of experience in advocacy, strategic planning, project development, and negotiations at the United Nations. Moreover, Beatriz has notable expertise in human rights, social justice, indigenous peoples, and gender equality. She is fluent in English, French, Spanish, and German.
Ludmilla Kwitko is a passionate advocate for Women, Peace and Security and a dedicated member of WILPF since 2013. With over 30 years of experience in academia and civil society, she has an exceptionally broad range of expertise, including social development and inclusion, post conflict development, disaster risk reduction, gender and human rights. She has worked across the Asia-Pacific region and globally, with communities, women and girls, governments and multilateral organisations for gender justice and sustainable peace. Ludmilla is also an expert in Monitoring and Evaluation and Program Development, and speaks English, Ukrainian and French.
Celine Patricia Kearney is an enthusiastic journalist, editor, academic – a writer by nature and training. With over 40 years of teaching experience in Aotearoa New Zealand, Switzerland, and Vietnam, she views learning and education as a lifelong journey. Celine has been the President of WILPF Aotearoa, most recently, from 2016 to 2018 and has been a WILPF member since 1991.Celine’s expertise is in areas including denuclearisation of the Pacific, peace, environmental sustainability, and climate change.
Originally from Sweden, Ariana has a law degree from the University of Kent and is now pursuing an MA in International Relations at Uppsala University. Within WILPF, Ariana has been active at the local, national, and now regional and international levels. At the local level, she has been involved in boosting local feminist peace collaboration with other civil society organisations, politicians and members of the public. She is also a board member of WILPF Sweden since 2021. As the Regional Representative for a region which is currently experiencing a war, Ariana sees the need for strong collaboration between Sections and between regions and the IB. Some of her goals as a Regional Representative will be to tackle both internal and external challenges to grow stronger with wider activism around the world.
Rosa Logar co-founded WILPF Austria in 2021 and has since built up several projects and activities nationally and regionally. Rosa is also the Executive Director of the Domestic Violence Intervention Centre in Vienna, and Co-Founder and Advisory Board member of the European Network WAVE (Women Against Violence Europe). Over the years Rosa has contributed to a number of international activities from being a member of the Council of Europe Ad Hoc Committee on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence which drafted the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention, 2011) to being part of the independent expert committee GREVIO in the Council of Europe monitoring the Istanbul Convention.
In addition to being appointed MENA Alternate Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018, Hanan Awwad has been the President of WILPF Palestine since she started the Section in 1988. An academic, writer,editor and cultural advisor by profession, her main expertise lies in various areas including (resistance) literature, human rights and women’s rights. Hanan received a PhD from Oxford University ,has published twelve books and received multiple awards for her work in defending human rights and dignity. Hanan is also a member of the Palestinian National Council and has represented Palestine in more than 700 conferences.
Diala Chehade is a Lebanese lawyer and human rights defender with over 18 years of experience in legal counselling and litigation, including four years at the International Criminal Court of The Hague. She has designed, conducted and/or participated in dozens of legal outreach events in Europe, Africa and the MENA region. As of 2014, she has been managing a law firm in Beirut with focus on cases of public interest such as corruption, torture, racism, extrajudicial killing, arbitrary detention, freedom of expression amongst other. She has been a frequent guest legal expert on pan-Arab media outlets.
Pushpa Motiyani has been a passionate and committed member of WILPF since 1994. As a member of WILPF India she has held several roles at branch and Section level and since 2018, she is the Secretary of WILPF India. Pushpa holds a PhD in Peace Studies and was a dean and professor at the Peace Research Centre & Department of Gandhian Philosophy at the Gujarat Vidyapith University until retiring in 2017. With over 40 years of experience in academia and teaching, Pushpa’s main expertise lies in human, women’s and children’s rights, the status of women in India and peace research.
Madeleine Rees is a British lawyer and Secretary-General of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), a role she has held since 2010. For most of her adult life, Rees has worked nationally and internationally to advance human rights, eliminate discrimination, and remove obstacles to justice. In addition to her work specialising in discrimination law with a major firm in the United Kingdom, she has also held various roles with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) – including as Head of the OHCHR in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she helped expose human rights abuses and and the involvement of UN peacekeepers in sex trafficking As Secretary-General of WILPF, Rees is leading the organisation’s efforts to work through national and international legal frameworks to advance a future of human security and justice for all. Passionate about connecting women across borders to share experiences and organise for action, she is committed to building a true global movement for feminist peace. In 2014, Rees was awarded the OBE for her services to human rights, particularly women’s rights and international peace and security.
Negina Yari is a civil society activist and an Education and Peace expert. She is the Executive Director of Afghans 4 Tomorrow (A4T), and the Founder of the Afghanistan Peace House Organization (APH) and the Afghan Women Initiative Centre. Negina has been a committed member of WILPF Afghanistan since 2019. She holds a master’s degree in Management and Leadership and a fellowship in Human Rights and has been contributing to the Afghan civil society development for more than 12 years. Negina is also a member of national and international networks and is the Chair of the Women Advisory Group (WAG) to Humanitarian Coordination Team (HCT) Afghanistan.
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
