More Than Just Victims

Irene Santiago, a world-renowned expert on conflict negotiation and the crucial role women can play in that field, will next Thursday, June 12, 2014, join her peers in London to launch a global campaign on Women, Peace and Security. The event, according to Irene, coincides with the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, hosted by the Government of the United Kingdom, in cooperation with international representatives from around the world. 
The UK Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative Summit, she said, represents a timely opportunity to elevate women’s roles and perspectives in peacebuilding because empowering women is a critical component of the efforts led by Foreign Secretary William Hague and Special Envoy Angelina Jolie. She added that the protection of women during violent conflict, including from sexual and gender-based crimes, is closely related to the ability of women to contribute to ending violent conflicts and leading efforts of political transition or post-conflict rebuilding.

During the Campaign, Irene, who is also executive director of the NGO Forum on Women in China in 1995, will act as the lead convener and who first conceived the idea for the campaign. 

The Global Campaign will be a broad-based movement of informed and concerned citizens – from civil society, government, international institutions, academia, and the private sector – who believe that women are indispensable to peace and who recognize that women are more than just victims in conflict, they are agents of change, representing untapped potential for creating a more peaceful, secure, and just world. The campaign will leverage social media to mobilize thousands, if not millions, of people to propel the women, peace and security agenda forward.

BEYOND THE JUNE 2014 LAUNCH

A wide-reaching social media campaign will target youth, NGOs, and women-led enterprises to engage in individual and collective actions. Additionally, local “Women’s Peace Tables” will be established across the globe and will come together in five conflict-affected countries to share strategies for effectuating positive change and to increase the visibility of women’s experience in wartime. An Experts Workshop on Women, Peace and Security will be convened in June 2015 to assess the progress made by the campaign, to create a manifesto for policy and action that will be submitted to the U.N. General Assembly, and chart the course for sustainable and equitable peace worldwide.