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Women
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Cultivating the contribution of this "global peace party" requires that we confront and address violence against women, increase access to education for girls, and encourage the civic participation of women globally.
Rwanda and Congo: Ashley Judd diaries
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Actress Ashley Judd recently sent us her diaries from a trip to Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
One of the US's most prominent advocates of women's rights, Ashley has a long history of contribution to Africa. She is a global ambassador for YouthAIDS, a board member of Population Services International, and a global ambassador for its Five & Alive initiative, which aims to improve the health of children under five.
In this insightful journal she takes us through her personal experiences walking through Rwanda's genocide memorial, visiting orphanages and clinics, and seeing the hope and rebirth taking place in the country. She makes a side trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and recounts a chilling trip to a women's clinic there that is distributing mosquito nets to pregnant women.
Intelligent and articulate, Ashley allows us to see Rwanda and Congo through the eyes of an affluent, educated Western woman with real compassion.
Congo: What you can do
Three things you can do in the next fifteen minutes to help the women and children of Congo.
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Nobel Women's Initiative
The Nobel Women's Initiative was established in 2006 by sister Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan Maguire. These six women -- representing North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa -- decided to bring together their extraordinary experiences in a united effort for peace with justice and equality.
The six women Nobel Peace Laureates seek to re-define the meaning of peace. They believe peace is much more than the absence of armed conflict. Peace is the commitment to equality and justice; a democratic world free of physical, economic, cultural, political, religious, sexual and environmental violence and the constant threat of these forms of violence against women indeed against all of humanity.
At the first international conference of the Nobel Women's Initiative in Galway, Ireland in May, 2007, the participants discussed how "peace" has been hijacked as a meaningful word and has become synonymous with "weak". The six Nobel women Laureates issued a closing statement in which they stated: "We know that working for peace is anything by "weak"- it is hard work every single day....We as women can and must redefine peace...."
Shirin Ebadi- The Meaning of Peace in the 21st Century
Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer and defender of human rights. In 1975-79 she served as president of Tehran's city court, but was forced to resign after the 1979 revolution. In the 1980s, she founded the Association for Children's Rights, and was briefly jailed for her exposure of plans to assassinate dissidents. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her efforts for democracy and human rights, especially the rights of women and children, in Iran and the Muslim world in general. In this article, "The Meaning of Peace in the 21st Century" written just after the first Nobel Women's Initiative International Conference in 2007, Ebadi continues the discussion about the need to redefine a number of social concepts. One of the most pressing of these is the need to redefine the notion of peace.
