Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Archives

The annual meeting of the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women, held in New York every March, may be in trouble because of uncertainty and fear about the Trump administration’s attempt to ban immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. One major group has announced it is pulling out, and calls are being heard to … Read more

GEOPOLITICS

Top Sellers of Weapons to the Developing World in 2015? US and France

January 30, 2017January 18, 2017 by Julie Vanderperre

Sanaa Yemen families the day after an airstrike

A responsibility to promote worldwide cooperation toward peace and security is not the only role that the permanent-five veto-wielding powers in the United Nations Security Council have in common. Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States are also the world’s largest exporters of conventional weapons to developing countries. The export of weapons by the … Read more

TOPIC: WOMEN

What, Exactly, Is a Feminist Foreign Policy? A New Website Explores the Subject

November 4, 2016 by Dulcie Leimbach

Two young women in London are taking on what they call the elitist nature of foreign policy and turning it toward a more feminist approach that could play out in many different pathways, said Marissa Conway, a founder of a new blog, Feminist Foreign Policy, in a phone call recently. “We want to provide a … Read more

Syrian Women Are Ready to Participate in UN-Led Geneva Peace Talks

January 20, 2016 by Dulcie Leimbach

While new Syrian peace talks organized by the United Nations remain tentatively scheduled to begin on Jan. 25 in Switzerland, a substantial group of Syrian women is preparing to convene in Geneva starting that day to demand an equal place at the negotiations table. Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Syria, who is … Read more

WORLDVIEWS

UN Peace Talks on Syria Collectively Failed Women

May 17, 2014February 10, 2014 by Maria Butler

This is a difficult time for peace advocates. How can we talk about women participating at the peace table when talk has not translated into action? How can we discuss the implementation of the women, peace and security agenda, first mandated by the United Nations Security Council in 2000, when despite rhetoric, goodwill, ministerial support, … Read more

At Geneva II Talks in January, It Is Not Enough to ‘Add Women and Stir’

December 8, 2014December 26, 2013 by Dulcie Leimbach

The campaign to ensure women’s equal participation at the peace talks on Syria in January has become more urgent, as certain parties recognize that women are vital in rebuilding and reconciling Syrian society. Yet only a few weeks before the talks are scheduled to start, no commitment has been made as to whether women will … Read more

Syrian Women’s Groups Push for Equal Role at Geneva II Talks

November 19, 2014December 5, 2013 by Dulcie Leimbach

Recognizing that women in the Middle East and North Africa must play an active role in their countries’ political processes, especially amid the regional backdrop of upheavals and conflicts, the Netherlands government is providing money for a new program, Women on the Frontline, to help women-run initiatives organize themselves better to assert their rights to … Read more

The UN Adopts an Arms Treaty ‘With Teeth’

October 16, 2013April 3, 2013 by Dulcie Leimbach

Peter Woolcott, Australia ambassador to the UN

The momentous adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty at the United Nations has been greeted with much enthusiasm worldwide but also strong skepticism as the reality of carrying out its aim — regulating international transfers of conventional arms — sets in. “Effectiveness will be slow as it comes into force,” Peter Woolcott, the permanent representative … Read more

The Lethal Effects of Arms on Women

January 3, 2015March 25, 2013 by Amy Lieberman

The $100- to $120-billion international arms trade in 2012 intensified the internal conflicts in Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo but also brought guns into homes in these countries, where men turned them against women. That was the message that the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom brought to an event … Read more

The Recipe for a Better World? Ending Violence Against Women and Girls

November 17, 2014March 7, 2013 by Dulcie Leimbach

57th Commission on the Status of Women at the UN

Thousands of women worldwide flock to the Commission on the Status of Women’s conference at the United Nations every March, and this year is no exception, for good reason: the theme is eliminating and preventing all violence against women and girls. Violence is a phenomenon that all females can relate to day after day, however … Read more

UN Women's Conference 2014

A Place for Women at the Table

January 3, 2015November 28, 2012 by Mirva Lempiainen

Vandana Devi and Gulabi Bahadur, two elected women representatives from Jhabua district in Madhya Pradesh listen to UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet speak during the National Leadership Summit in Jaipur, India on 4 October 2012.

A dozen years have passed since the United Nations Security Council made history by adopting a resolution that addressed women’s rights during conflicts and required their participation in preventing wars and in peace talks. Until Resolution 1325was approved, post-conflict reconstruction had been mostly the realm of those possessing the Y chromosome in the eyes … Read more

Citing Trump Immigration Ban, a Major Group Drops Out of UN’s Annual Women’s Conference