PERSPECTIVES ON GRASSROOTS PEACEBUILDING:

The Roles of Women in War and Peace

Ambassador Nancy Rubin (right) and Institute
Executive Vice President Harriet Hentges

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The U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a one-day conference, "Perspectives on Grassroots Peacebuilding: The Roles of Women in War and Peace", on September 14, 1999. The one-day conference, which gathered together scholars and members of the U.S. government and non-governmental organizations, focused on how gender influences all aspects of a violent conflict. Highlights of the conference included keynote addresses from Boltzmann Institute Research Director Cheryl Benard and U.S. Representative to the UN Commission on Human Rights, Nancy Rubin . Presentations at the conference included several panel discussion featuring experts on Israel, Palestine, South Africa, Somalia, Northern Ireland, and Latin America. Key issues which were discussed during the conference included:

• establishment of grassroots organizations and alliances by women in violent conflict to promote peace;
  
• efforts to build bridges across various sectors of society and actively mobilize coalitions to protect human rights;
  
• need for increased recognition by the media and policy community of the efforts of women in grassroots peacebuilding initiatives; and
  
• exclusion and inadequate representation of women from formal conflict prevention measures, peace negotiations, and post-conflict reconstruction efforts.

Cheryl Benard and Institute President Richard H. Solomon

During the conference, panelists urged both the U.S. government and United Nations to not only increase the representation of women in their organizations but also to explicitly focus on the empowerment of women in all aspects of conflict prevention, peacebuilding and post-war reconstruction. In particular, Ambassador Rubin, during her remarks, urged the United Nations Security Council to adopt specific policies to help prevent gender-based violence, ensure the monitoring and enforcement of human rights, and to strengthen early warning systems.

Non-governmental organizations, which have been more active in conflict prevention in the post-Cold War period, were also encouraged by panelists to increase their efforts to help ensure that the international community possesses the necessary political will to help prevent, manage, and resolve both current and future violent conflicts.

Conference Keynote Speakers

Cheryl Benard is Director for Research at the Boltzmann Institute in Vienna, Austria and a consultant with the RAND Corporation in Washington, DC. Her current projects include work on issues relating to NGO-military cooperation, women in the military, and conflict resolution in Austrian public schools. Benard is a novelist and is the author of numerous scholarly books and articles dealing with gender issues, socialization, and relations between the sexes.

• Remarks by Cheryl Benard (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Ambassador Nancy Rubin is Head of the US Delegation to the UN Commission on Human Rights. Rubin has spent the last 25 years in public service and related public policy arenas. Her broad experience includes many domestic and international activities with a focus on human rights. She has been a representative in international conferences in Beijing in 1995 at the 4th UN World Conference on Women, representing the NGO community in consultative status with the UN; in 1993 in Vienna at the UN Economic and Social Council as a US delegate; and in Kenya at the Forum of the 1985 UN Conference on Women. Rubin was Chair of the Committee on Women, Law, and Development, and for many years chaired the Coalition for Women in International Development. She has served in the past on the Executive Committee of the Board of the International Human Rights Law Group and the Leadership Council of Amnesty International.

• Remarks by Ambassador Rubin (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)