WUNRN
At What
Cost?: Women, Wars, Weapons and Conflict Prevention
2008
International Women's Day Seminar, Geneva, Switzerland
Wednesday 5 March
2008 – NGO Conference
International Conference
Centre, Geneva
Thursday 6 March 2008 – Dialogue - NGOs, Governments & UN Officials
U.N.- Geneva
Since 1984, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
(WILPF) has worked with other NGOs to organise a seminar linking 8 March –
International Women's Day – with disarmament, peace and security
issues. Each year, a report and statement from the NGO conference
has been read into the record of the Conference on Disarmament (CD), the only
official oral statement from NGOs to this body.
This year the seminar will be in two parts.
March 5 is an NGO Conference -- an opportunity for activists and advocates
to share information in a series of briefings, discussion and strategising on
gender, security and preventing conflict.
Cosponsored by WILPF, the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, and the NGO
Committee on Disarmament, this day will start with a panel reflecting on the
rewards and limits of Security Council resolution 1325. Participants will
then hear from experts on gender and military budgets, landmines, small arms,
nuclear weapons and security policy, followed by breakout sessions for more in
depth information and discussion, followed by a lobbying training.
Confirmed speakers: Catalina Perdomo of the Stockholm Institute for Peace
Research, Rebecca Johnson Executive Director of the Acronym Institute, Cora
Weiss, President of The Hague Appeal for Peace, Rebecca Peters, Director of the
International Action Network on Small Arms, and Kate Harrison of WILPF on
gender and cluster munitions, and Saba Nowzari- Coordinator, WILPF European
Security Politics. Sylvie Brigot the Executive Director of the
International Campaign to Ban Landmines has been invited.
March 6 is an opportunity for dialogue among NGOs, governments and UN
officials. A keynote speech during the lunchtime period will be
followed by two panel discussions in the afternoon, all of which will take
place in the Council Chamber of the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
Cosponsored by WILPF and the Geneva Forum, invited panellists include President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Mary Robinson,
Wangari Mathai and Naomi Klein among others.
The 2008 International Women's Day Seminar will bring women together to
discuss the next phase of activity in putting resolution 1325 to work so
that it does more than add a few sentences to speeches, more than add a few
women to UN departments and peacekeeping operations.
Today military budgets are soaring, new weapons for killing and
mutilating are under development, and 27,000 nuclear weapons remain threatening
our very survival. Outdated military security doctrines and budgets of
the Cold War prevail, and while they remain the vision of Security Council
resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security cannot be fulfilled.
Today it is clear is that in scales that matter, commitments to gender equality
are not yet real. Without women's participation and empowerment
and without gender equality, sustainable peace, sustainable development and
true human security are unattainable. The failure to finance gender equality is
the failure to finance development and human security.
Consider the following facts:
- US$ 5 billion is the amount of bilateral aid devoted to projects that
promoted gender equality between 2001-2005 according to the OECD - which is
what it costs to occupy Iraq for 2 weeks;
- The combined budgets of the UN agencies and programmes devoted to women is
only $65 million - this is 0.005% of a world military
expenditure of $1204 billion in 2006;
- More than two-thirds of the world's unpaid work is done by women – the
equivalent of $11 trillion (approximately half of the world's GDP);
- Women make up 70 percent of the world's poor and 67% of the world's
illiterate people – women still own just one per cent of assets
worldwide;
Immediate Registration is requested so that we can request a
pass for you to enter the United Nations. Registration form attached.
A modest sponsorship programme is available to enable the participation of
a diverse range of women from developing countries and poorly funded
NGOs.
See the WILPF website for details of the sponsorship,
conference registration form and list of a range of accommodation options in
Geneva -http://www.wilpf.int.ch/events/2008IWDseminar.html
A finalised agenda will be
posted at this link soon.
Queries? Email felicity.hill@wilpf.ch
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