Celebrating Feminists’ Voices, Inspiring Global Peace

UK's Second Call for Syrian Women at Peace Talks Shames Silence of Brahimi and Member States

12 December 2013

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The United Kingdom government, specifically the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, is officially communicating that Syrian women should, and must, assume a crucial role in the Geneva II peace talks.

Their message, soon to be publicly released, demands:

  • A direct role for Syrian women
  • Women members in both delegations
  • The appointment of an empowered gender adviser plus gender support throughout the peace talks
  • The presence of a consultative body as a mechanism to enable this direct participation – made up of women and civil society, based in Geneva, with access to the UN mediation team and the delegations, which is able to brief the parties, contribute papers and make recommendations and take part in specific parts of the negotiations, supported by appropriate funding and with a role for UN Women.

This vocal call for the inclusion of women in the peace negotiations is yet another instance in the steadfast support the United Kingdom and the Foreign Secretary William Hague have provided to both WILPF and other women organisations in our mission to include women in the talks. WILPF congratulates them for it!

It behoves other States to agree and support the United Kingdom’s demands. Under Security Council resolutions 1325 and 2122, which WILPF took the lead in pushing and getting successfully passed, Member States have a legal obligation to adopt William Hague’s position. Moreover, it is the moral and right position to adopt.

WILPF and our members and partners must back it!

Call to Action

If you have not already done so, please lobby your government to publically support this position, especially if you are in the United States. While the United Kingdom is vocal in their support that peace must include women, other Member States have been reticent in publicly adopting this position. Lakhdar Brahimi for the United Nations, resists changing his tactic of brokering negotiations only between the warring parties. WILPF holds this to be untenable. It has produced no results over the 2 years it has been tried, it focuses on the minority not the majority, and repeats a narrative which has historically been shown to fail bring peace in the long term.

As one of our Syrian partners so poignantly said, “Why is it that the US, Russia and the warring parties get to decide the future of my country? It is the country of the Syrian people, and it will be us who have to live there after they have destroyed it between them!”

Women Lead to Peace

Get active. Help WILPF make a difference! WILPF is now partner of a movement and campaign called, “Women Lead to Peace”, which strives to pressure Member States into adopting Hague’s stance and galvanizes local support for our work.

Sign our petition: We Need Syrian Women at the Negotiation Table

Together we can ensure that peace always and without question or reservation, includes women.

If you want to share ideas on bringing  Syrian women to the negotiation table, then please send them to us. Feel free to use the comment field below – we would love to hear your ideas!

In peace,

Madeleine Rees
Secretary General of Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom (WILPF)

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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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