The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

Project documentation, Ed. Birgit Daiber, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels, 2012, 288 pages, in English

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From the introduction: "How can it be that the enormous amount of work and experience in peace practice accumulated by women and by many selfless men, who are all struggling in their own contexts for compromise and peace, has entered to such a small degree into the general strategies of conflict prevention and of positive measures for peace building? And what about support for the civil resistance in war and violent conflict? Is the work of civilian women to secure the survival of their children and their families even noticed? Sometimes, as in the cases of Asha Haji Elmi, Bosiljka Schedlich or Ruchama Marton, women receive awards and then enjoy a brief moment of public attention, but they then immediately disappear back into their practical projects, their grassroots work, and when the “big” issues of conflict prevention and conflict transformation arise, women’s experience and women’s perspectives on conflict are hardly ever embedded in the strategies... The primary task is therefore to really root the experience and solution strategies of women as central in conflict transformation strategies."

Content:

1) Project report (The contribution of women to peace and reconciliation)

2) Reports on conflict history, on civil resistance to conflicts, and on reconciliation work on Ex-Yugoslavia, Somalia, Rwanda, Israel, Palestine, Special View on Gaza and on Women’s Pe ace initiatives in the Middle East

3) Interviews with the Peace Activists Bosiljka Schedlich, Berlin, Shukria Dini, Nairobi, Yolande Mukagasana, Kigali, Molly Malekar, Jerusalem, Lama Hourani, Ramallah, Ghada Al-Jadba, Gaza, Simone Susskind, Brussels

See also:

>> Conference "Consciousness-raising and prevention in the struggle against violence and war", 24-25 November 2011