This section presents a series of conversations with members of the national group on the contribution of a resilience approach and the perspectives for transformation that the group has identified over the past months.
This article looks at the project currently being piloted by Interpeace, on the role of resilience in the Guatemalan peacebuilding process.
This assessment of resilience draws attention to capacities and strengths in society, whether as individual personality traits, solidarity networks of communities or alternative livelihood strategies, which can inform more context-specific and nationally-owned peacebuilding processes.
Too often women find themselves excluded from the peace-making process. But at the same time many women have been able to make a significant impact on statebuilding in their own country.
How do we ensure that women’s voices are heard and that many more women can participate in re-shaping their countries' future?
The More Inclusive Ways to Peace panel features women and men from different backgrounds and professions who will share their own experiences of working within constitution-making processes around the globe.
The goal of the event is to underline that sustainable peace can be built if the process is inclusive and all voices are heard equally. This is the central message of the Interpeace’s élaboration de Constitutions pour la paix.
The panel is co-organized by Interpeace and the Permanent Mission of the United States to the United Nations in Geneva.
You are welcome to join the panel event on Thursday January 12, 2015, from 9:30 to 11:00 CET at the Espace Henry Dunant, Musée international de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge in Geneva, Switzerland.
PANELISTS
More information, including the full biographies of the panelists, is available ici.
Correspondents and journalists interested in talking with individual speakers and event organizers prior to or after the event, please contact:
Alexandre Munafò, Global Engagement Officer
munafo@interpeace.org
T : +4122 404 59 21
M : +4179 272 73 22
About Interpeace: Interpeace is an independent, international peacebuilding organization and a strategic partner of the United Nations. Interpeace works with local partner organizations in 21 countries with the aim of building long term peace. The organization is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It has regional offices in Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire); Guatemala City (Guatemala); Nairobi (Kenya); and representation offices in Brussels (Belgium); New York (USA).
Interpeace et le Permanent Mission of the United States to UN in Geneva are co-organizing a panel, “More inclusive ways to peace: the role of women in constitution-making processes”. The event will be held on Thursday 12 November, at 9.30am at the Musée international de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge.
Featuring speakers from different regions and generations who have played key roles in ensuring a better role for women in political processes, including constitution-making, the discussion will center on the need for women's full and equal participation at every level of the constitution-making process. The event will also showcase the important role that women are already playing in these processes.
Speakers at the event will share their personal experiences of the struggle to achieve gender justice in the constitution-making process, setting this in an international but also local context.
This panel is part of Interpeace’s Women’s Constitutional Voices programme that seeks to increase women’s inclusion in the peacebuilding and constitution-making process.
More Inclusive Ways to Peace: The Role of Women in Constitution-Making Processes
12 November 2015 - 9h30 - 11h30
Musée international de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge
Espace Henry Dunant
To register, please cliquez ici.
Event speakers
Fatima Outaleb is a founding member and executive board member of Union de l’Action Féminine (Union of Women’s Action) Morocco. The organisation has been part of the women’s lobby to implement the gender parity provision in Morocco’s constitution. As a human rights and gender advocate she has focused on women’s empowerment and gender justice across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Fatima also runs a shelter organised by Union de L’Action that helps women victimized by domestic violence, rape and other abuse.
Michele Brandt currently directs Interpeace’s Constitution-making for Peace Programme and its newest project -- Women’s Constitutional Voices. For over twenty years she has implemented constitutional and gender justice programmes including in post-conflict countries. Previously she has worked as a constitutional advisor to UNAMA and Constitutional bodies in Afghanistan. In East Timor she was gender and judicial officer with UNTAET as well as an advisor to the Constituent Assembly. In Cambodia, she co-founded a Women’s Crisis Center and led a legal aid association. Michele has written numerous articles and guidance tools on constitution-making and gender justice – including the Interpeace handbook on constitution-making.
Louise Kasser Genecand became the youngest member of the constituent assembly in Geneva at the age of 23. Serving from 2008 to 2012, she oversaw the organisation and development of the assembly. Previously, she worked as an advocate for youth engagement and the right of foreigners to vote, in Geneva as well as the federal level. She is now an attachée for intercantonal affairs at the presidential department of the canton of Geneva.
Farooq Wardak, in 2002, served as Director of the Constitutional Commission Secretariat as well as the Secretariat of the Constitutional Loya Jirga, the grand Assembly that ratified the constitution. In this role, he supported efforts to ensure women's participation and representation at every stage and level of the process. In 2004, he was appointed as Director of the Joint Election Management Body’s Secretariat (a UN and Afghan Government body) and organized the voter registration process and presidential election. He has also served as State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Director General of the Administration as well as Minister of Education.
Sapana Pradhan Malla is an advocate for women’s participation in political and public policy processes. She is a founder of the Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD) and a cabinet-appointed Gender Advisor to the Prime Minister of Nepal. While a member of the country’s 1st Constituent Assembly tasked with writing a new constitution, she worked to ensure the inclusion of a comprehensive women’s rights agenda. In 2008, Sapana was awarded the prestigious Gruber International Women's Rights Award and the Asia Foundation’s Lotus Leadership Award in 2013 for her contributions to advancing women’s rights in the developing world.
Also appearing at the event
Ambassador Pamela Hamamoto
In May 2014, Pamela Hamamoto became the second woman to serve as Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva. During her term in office she has sought to use Geneva’s unique position as a center for global humanitarian organizations to create new opportunities for women and girls. As part of this goal the US mission launched The Future She Deserves in 2015, an initiative to promote collaboration between Geneva based organizations on gender issues.
Renée Larivière will moderate the event. She currently heads the Development and Learning division of Interpeace. Her main responsibilities are focused on providing the vision and leadership for Programme Development, Learning and Policy and IPAT. She also supports the development of the Constitution Making for Peace Programme. Operating in the complex environments of fragile societies, she has extensive experience in working closely with the different stakeholders that have an interest in building sustainable peace. Renée came to Interpeace in 2007. Prior to this she worked in Peru on issues around the access, use and management of natural resources. Renée also worked in Pakistan with LEAD International and at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
Interpeace’s International Peacebuilding Advisory Team (IPAT) will host a one-day training and learning event on citizen engagement in peacebuilding on 26 November. The event will be an opportunity to learn about practical ways to operationalize important aspects of Sustainable Development Goal 16: Promoting Just, Peaceful and Inclusive Societies.
The mechanisms for citizen participation in established democracies do not always exist – or are not as robust – in countries attempting to emerge from conflict. State institutions are often significantly weakened and lacking in the public’s trust, while society itself may have a yet-to-be developed sense of “citizenship”.
In such contexts efforts to create meaningful public participation can have multiple benefits. They can:
Yet the prevailing practices are not necessarily conducive to enabling greater public participation and citizen engagement. Mediation efforts tend to concentrate on the powerful elite players while other international actors work with national civil society groups that are not necessarily representative of the wider population.
From more than 20 years of experience in peacebuilding, we know that peace cannot be imported from the outside and that it must be built from within a society. This is why Interpeace tailors its approach to each society and ensures that the work is locally driven. Interpeace believes that every society has what it needs to build peace. Our role is to support societies to harness their strengths. Together with local partners, we jointly develop peacebuilding programmes. We help to establish inclusive processes of change that connect local communities, civil society, government and the international community through our approche Track 6.
The course
This one day training course draws on Interpeace’s experience with inclusive peacebuilding but will also create space for participants to share their experiences and engage in peer learning.
Throughout the day we will make use of inputs, group work, case examples and video clips that illustrate public participation on issues that matter, in various peacebuilding and statebuilding contexts.
Key questions that we will explore during the day will be:
Event details
When and Where: Thursday 26 November at the Interpeace Office, Maison de la Paix, Geneva.
Sessions will run from 9.30-12.45 and 14.00-17.45.
Main course facilitator: Koenraad Van Brabant, Senior Peacebuilding Adviser
Main working language: English
Cost: CHF 85 per person, for the one-day training. This includes the course fee and coffee and tea but snacks or lunch are not provided. Though there is time out over lunch, this is a full day event and participants are expected to be present during both morning and afternoon sessions.
Applications to: ipat@interpeace.org with mention ‘citizen engagement course’. Acceptance to the course is on a first come, first served basis – acceptance is confirmed by payment in advance of the course fee to Interpeace
IBAN CH88 0027 9279 2135 5200 G;
SWIFT UBSWCHZH80A
