Kroc IPJ Research and Resources

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  Pioneering the Restoration of Peace: A Narrative of the Life and Work of Shreen Abdul Saroor of Sri Lanka

  Donna Chung

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time or, perhaps, they do not have formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency.

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. The peacemakers’ stories are also documented on film by the IPJ’s partner organization Sun & Moon Vision Productions. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Shreen Abdul Saroor is one of the founders of Mannar Women’s Development Federation (MWDF) and Mannar Women for Human Rights and Democracy (MWfHRD) in Sri Lanka. Saroor’s work grew out of her experience of being forcibly displaced, along with all of her family, in 1990 by the militant group fighting for a separate Tamil state. Saroor helped establish MWDF on the understanding that through microcredit and educational programs, Tamil and Muslim women could find common ground to resurrect the past peace in their communities. She assisted in the implementation of the Shakti gender equality program sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency, which aimed to engage both government and nonprofit organizations in development and influence gender-sensitive economic, political and legal policies.
  
  With the descent into deeper violent conflict in Sri Lanka, disappearances and the loss of civilian lives increase on a daily basis. As a result, Saroor has focused most of her recent work on highlighting human rights violations of the Tamil and Muslim minority communities at the regional and international levels. Organization of protests and petitions has become an integral part of her work.

  As an Echoing Green Fellow, Saroor has been working for the establishment of a Model Resettlement Village, which brings together Hindu, Catholic and Muslim women who have become heads of households due to the conflict. With support from MWDF, these women have come together in the building of a new settlement where they can live and demonstrate reconciliation and peaceful coexistence. As children witness their mothers working and living together, they are ingrained with practices which allow for formerly divided communities to live in harmony with one another. The project has also focused on efforts to create community and social cohesion through the collection of stories that express individual and common experiences of living amidst violent conflict and imbue the element of truth-telling into the process. As the war escalates, Saroor and the community are still working toward the creation of the village, although progress has been drastically slowed.

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  A Just Path, A Just Peace: A Narrative of the Life and Work of Luz Méndez of Guatemala

  Sarah Cross

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time or, perhaps, they do not have formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency.

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. The peacemakers’ stories are also documented on film by the IPJ’s partner organization Sun & Moon Vision Productions. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Luz Méndez of Guatemala is president of the Advisory Board of Unión Nacional de Mujeres Guatemaltecas, which works for gender equality, social justice and peacebuilding. She participated in the table of peace negotiations as part of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity’s delegation, where she dedicated special attention to the incorporation of gender equality commitments in the accords. After the end of the war, she was a member of the National Council for the Implementation of the Peace Accords. She was also the coordinator of the Women Agents for Change Consortium, an alliance of women's and human rights organizations working for the empowerment of women survivors of sexual violence during the armed conflict, seeking justice and reparations. Méndez was a speaker at the first meeting that the U.N. Security Council held with women’s organizations leading up to the passage of resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.

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  THE LATECOMER: The Life and Work of Zarina Salamat of Pakistan

  Kathleen Hughart

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time or, perhaps, they do not have formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency.

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. The peacemakers’ stories are also documented on film by the IPJ’s partner organization Sun & Moon Vision Productions. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Zarina Salamat was for several years the chairperson of the Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) in Islamabad and a leader in the Citizens’ Peace Committee. For most of her life, Salamat had been a social scientist researcher; it was not until the passing of her husband in 1994 that her peace activities began to take center stage. After she joined PIPFPD, India and then Pakistan exploded nuclear devices in May 1998. Salamat organized protests against both, in the midst of great hostility from extremist groups.

  By the end of 1998, Salamat was engaged with the Hiroshima Citizens Group for the Promotion of Peace and traveled to the Japanese city with a peace advocate from India to witness the effects of atomic bombs. Upon their return home, joint efforts for peace on the subcontinent commenced. In her efforts to ban nuclear weapons, Salamat hosted a number of peace missions from Japan to raise awareness in the Pakistani public of the reality and dangers of nuclear weapons. She hosted the visit by the mayor of Hiroshima as part of his worldwide campaign for “Mayors for Peace” and enrolled local mayors to join the movement. With the active assistance of the mayor of Hiroshima, Salamat convinced the government of Pakistan to set up a peace institute and university faculties to introduce peace studies as part of their curricula.

  Salamat’s efforts to create forums for parliamentarians, activists and intellectuals from Pakistan and India to meet are credited with setting the environment for the 2004 visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Pakistan, the first visit in over a decade. Salamat has also arranged for women from India and Pakistan to work together, and for youth between the ages of 15 to 17 to visit Hiroshima so they can witness for themselves the irrevocable impact of nuclear weapons.

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  Time to Make History, Time to Educate Women: A Narrative of the Life and Work of Christiana Thorpe of Sierra Leone

  Whitney McIntyre

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time or, perhaps, they do not have formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency.

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. The peacemakers’ stories are also documented on film by the IPJ’s partner organization Sun & Moon Vision Productions. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Christiana Thorpe is the chief electoral commissioner for the National Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone. She is the founding chair and former chief executive officer of the Sierra Leone branch of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE-SL). A former nun, Thorpe left convent life to devote herself to the protection and education of girls. She was appointed deputy minister of education in late 1993 – the only woman in a cabinet of 19 members. After establishing FAWE-SL in 1995, the group created Emergency Camp Schools in the capital, Freetown, for children displaced by the civil war. Unrest in the country forced her into exile in Guinea, where FAWE-SL developed non-formal education programs for children. The organization later counseled and rehabilitated women and girls who had been raped by the fighting forces, particularly those victimized during the rebel attack on Freetown in 1999.

  Through her duties as chief electoral commissioner, Thorpe restructured electoral processes within Sierra Leone for the nation’s second post-conflict presidential and parliamentary elections. Thorpe was responsible for registering political parties and citizen voters and organizing and monitoring the voting process. In addition, she ensured the involvement of all stakeholders including civil society and security forces in the election planning process. She conducted a series of civic education trainings with women’s and youth groups to educate them on election processes. With the successful training of over 8,000 youth, Thorpe employed them to monitor the elections. In a final effort to minimize election-inspired violence, she conducted trainings of peaceful conflict resolution with village chiefs. Thorpe is also a member of the National Security Council, which elevated her capacity to institute free and fair elections within the country.
  
  Thorpe is the recipient of the 2009 German Africa Award, recognized for her role in the peaceful elections in Sierra Leone by the German Africa Foundation. The foundation honors individuals for their commitment to peace, democracy, human rights and a social market economy. Thorpe also received the 2006 Voices of Courage Award from the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children and the Special Token of Appreciation for Remarkable Services Award of Sierra Leone for her service to humanity.

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  IF YOU SEE SOMETHING WRONG: The Life and Work of Raya Kadyrova of Kyrgyzstan

  Kaitlin Barker

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time or, perhaps, they do not have formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency.

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. The peacemakers’ stories are also documented on film by the IPJ’s partner organization Sun & Moon Vision Productions. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Raya Kadyrova is the president and founder of Foundation for Tolerance International (FTI), a nongovernmental organization (NGO) founded in 1998 in Kyrgyzstan that operates in the cross-border communities of the Ferghana Valley in Central Asia. Dedicated to preventing and transforming interethnic conflicts, FTI has developed a reputation as the premier NGO in its region for its ability to bring divided communities together in the spirit of peace and for its efforts to lend a voice to disenfranchised populations.

  After graduating from the University of Bishkek, Kadyrova became a language instructor for the U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers in Kyrgyzstan and later joined the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to implement a tolerance education project, minimizing tensions between Kyrgyz and Tajik students. During incursions into southern Kyrgyzstan by Islamic extremists in 1999 and 2000, known as the Batken War, FTI established camps for internally displaced people and set up Radio Salam and Salam Asia, a radio station and magazine – critical outlets of information for the displaced population. For her and FTI’s efforts in the Batken War, Kadyrova was conferred the title of Honorary Citizen of Batken Oblast by the government of Kyrgyzstan, the only woman among seven recipients.

  Additionally, Kadyrova has strived to make police reform a priority in the country and was one of two civil society representatives in the Government Committee on Police Reform in Kyrgyzstan. She was also civil society representative in the Council on Human Rights of the Kyrgyz Republic and chaired the Civil Society Advisory Board to the United Nations, which institutionalizes cooperation channels between the United Nations and civil society and seeks to improve the efficacy of U.N. activity in Kyrgyzstan.

  While FTI remains focused on its original goals of preventing violent conflict and building peace and justice throughout Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia, it has expanded its efforts from the amelioration of interethnic conflicts in the Ferghana Valley to address a broader range of conflicts, particularly between corrupt governmental authorities and the citizenry of Kyrgyzstan. Kadyrova refers to this shift as a change in focus from horizontal to vertical issues, which is the result of the changing political context within the country. Therefore, FTI has developed programs aimed at developing an effective multiparty democracy, improving the capacity of local government bodies, enhancing democratic decision making at the local level and incorporating women and youth in the peaceful democratic development of Kyrgyzstan.

  In addition, FTI is responsible for the development of the Early Warning for Violence Prevention program, which utilizes constant monitoring processes to raise awareness of potential and actual conflicts throughout Kyrgyzstan; it is the first early warning system in Central Asia. In 2005, Kadyrova was one of the 1,000 women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

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  Building the Base of the Community: A Narrative of the Life and Work of Zahra Ugas Farah of Somalia

  Carmen Dyck

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time or, perhaps, they do not have formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency.

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. The peacemakers’ stories are also documented on film by the IPJ’s partner organization Sun & Moon Vision Productions. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Zahra Ugas Farah is a founding member and director of the Family Economy Rehabilitation Organization (FERO), originally created in 1992 to meet the basic survival needs of people suffering from the violent civil war in Somalia. Within a year of its founding, FERO was appointed deputy head of food distribution, working directly with the World Food Program. The organization has since expanded its work to include HIV/AIDS awareness; the elimination of the practice of female genital mutilation; the empowerment of women through education, income-generating projects and skills building; and incorporating women into capacity building and decision making at the local and national levels. When government and Ethiopian troops battled Islamic insurgents in 2006 and 2007, re-igniting pronounced violent conflict in the country, FERO mobilized women’s groups in Mogadishu and called on the warring sides to observe international human rights standards; the organization also continued their humanitarian work to save lives during the height of the fighting.

  The daughter of a clan chief and a devout Muslim, Farah has been participating in the Somali peace process as a key civil society leader. At the Somali Reconciliation Conference in 2002, Farah served as a member of the Committee on Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation, and later was nominated to chair meetings of the Leaders Committee composed of rival warlords attempting to communicate and find resolution to the conflict. FERO has hosted hundreds of events to educate local communities on Somali women’s role in reconciliation and peace processes. However, as the quota of women holding government positions in Somalia is not being filled, Farah and her colleagues are using forums and declarations to revitalize the call for and realization of women’s rights and representation.

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  Color from Shadows: A Narrative of the Life and Work of Hyun-Sook Lee Kim of Korea

  Allison J. Meeks

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time or, perhaps, they do not have formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency.

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. The peacemakers’ stories are also documented on film by the IPJ’s partner organization Sun & Moon Vision Productions. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Currently the executive director of the Women's Forum for Peace and Diplomacy, Lee was raised in post-World War II Korea in a Confucian society marked by extreme poverty, heightened tension and militarization due to the political division between the North and South. As a student at the Hanshin Theological Seminary, Lee studied globally conscious theology which focused on politics and international affairs. She is the youngest member of the Presidential Advisory Committee for Reunification and the chairperson of the Advisory Committee of the Reunification Ministry.

  Through her work as chief of the Women's Desk at the Korea Christian Academy, Lee, in collaboration with her colleagues, was responsible for initiating a program aimed at raising awareness and eradicating domestic violence in South Korea. The Korea Women's Hotline provides guidance and support to victims of domestic violence and has served as a catalyst for the progressive women's movement in Korea. The hotline was instrumental in establishing domestic and sexual violence as criminal acts in South Korea.

  As co-founder and former executive director of Women Making Peace, an NGO established in 1997, with the goal of creating a culture of peace on the Korean peninsula, Lee has helped to open the door between the two Koreas by getting humanitarian aid to the North and encouraging the first people-to-people visits. Women Making Peace is a multi-dimensional organization that views gender equality, demilitarization, denuclearization, respect for human rights and the eventual reunification of North and South Korea as several of the necessary steps to making peace a reality. In the 10 years since its inception, Women Making Peace has forged new ground by bringing peace, gender and reunification issues to the forefront of Korean society.

  Lee served until 2008 as the vice president of the Korean Red Cross, where she engaged in humanitarian activities, which included her participation in the reunion of separated families across the divide of the peninsula. Inspired by her time at the IPJ, Lee recently initiated a 1325 Peace Club, which works toward implementing in Korea the agreed-upon commitments as outlined by the U.N. Security Council Resolution. The 1325 Peace Club activities also include visits to training centers for defectors from North Korea, of which approximately 70 percent are women, and the submission of recommendations to the minister of unification and related officials on appropriate measures for the successful resettlement of women. Lee has received the prestigious National Reconciliation Award from the Korean Council of Reconciliation and Cooperation, made up of leaders from NGOs and government, and a National Decoration from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.