Women's Peacemaker Conference

It is well known that history is often a case of "his"-tory - that the stories of women are omitted and forgotten, even powerful women who have broken down gender barriers and made a difference in their societies. Furthermore, the peaceful side of history is often neglected, as history textbooks tend to be a litany of battles, conquerors, and consequences. As a result, so much is missing, and our view of history remains slanted and incomplete. How can we reconcile this? How can we ensure that women's stories, and particularly stories of peace activism, are told?


The Women's PeaceMaker program at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice (IPJ) seeks to do just that, by annually bringing 4 women who are working in the peacebuilding field to the University of San Diego campus to document their stories. I had the priveledge last night to listen to some of these amazing women share their stories at the Women's PeaceMaker conference, which this year is focusing on the 10th anniversary of UN resolution 1325, in which the Security Council called for the inclusion of women in all levels of decision-making and peacebuilding processes. The title of the conference"Precarious Progress," indicates that while some progress has been made, much work remains to be done.

The first event was the showing of the documentary "Pray the Devil Back to Hell," which documents the women's peace movement during the civil war in Liberia. One of the women featured in the film, Viaba Flomo, is a 2010 Women's PeaceMaker, who shared some words and answered questions from the audience after the film. The movie portrays the incredible perserverence and strength of the Liberian women as they advocated for peace talks, pushed for results, and successfully campaigned for the election of Africa's first female head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.


While the film had some very shocking and upsetting moments as women described the atrocities that they had been through or witnessed, overall the film was inspiring and surprisingly uplifting. When the women began their campaign, rampant violence and abject poverty plagued Liberia, but through their persistence and hard work, the women brought the country to peaceful, democratic elections. Flomo emphasized that now there is much work to be done in order to further secure peace and prosperity. If anyone can do it, it is the incredible women like her who are working for peace. The movie leaves no doubt in the viewers mind that these women can - and will - accomplish anything.


Flomo said, "We need to strengthen peace where peace is. To build peace where peace is broken is hard." Speaking to an audience in sunny, prosperous San Diego, it seemed that Flomo was calling on the members of the audience who were fortunate enough to come from places that were not torn by civil war to work harder at building and maintaining peace. As the subsequent speaker, Monica McWilliams said, "Peace is a process, not an event." Peace requires constant work, constant cultivation, and it is far easier to do this in places that are not at war


Flomo's words and the documentary highlight the importance of the work that the Women's PeaceMaker program is doing. So often, women are written out of history. Peace movements are not well-publicized, and the women behind movements for freedom, democracy, and human rights go unrecognized and unacknowledged. By bringing them to San Diego to tell their stories, the Women's PeaceMaker program ensures that the stories of four women, from different movements in different parts of the world, will not be forgotten.


Monical McWilliams, the Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and a leader of the women's movement throughout the peace process, also emphasized the importance of the Women's PeaceMaker program as a refuge for the women, a place where they can reflect, recharge, and return to the homefronts ready to take action. The women in the program are engaged in work that is exhausting, physically and emotionally draining, and ongoing. They work tirelessly and selflessly to promote peace in their home countries and in the world. The PeaceMaker program provides them with the ability to take some time for themselves to rest, rejuvenate, and replenish.

McWilliams' talk - a part of the IPJ Distinguished Lecture Series - was entitled "From Peace Talks to Gender Justice," during which she described her experience working in the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition and the peace processes. A thoroughly engaging speaker, McWilliams adeptly used humor as she described the challenges and lessons from the peace talks. Her talk was peppered with brilliant nuggets of wisdom, such as "all parties to the problem should be part of the solution," and "exclusion breeds insecurity." She highlighted the importance of continued dialogue between sides, and said that "the real sign of leadership is when you challenge your own side and not the other." Her words highlight the need for us to be reflective and critical of our own beliefs, something that is not common in politics.

McWilliams ended her speech with the statement, "When women awake, mountains move." The women at the Women's PeaceMaker conference truly have moved moutains. They have built peace in areas where most of the world had given up. As women, they had to fight for their places at the peace talks tables, and had to speak louder than anyone for their voices to be heard.

Imagine a world where women's voices and stories are heard equally. In that world, I have no doubt that peace will prevail.