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WAND
and the UN |
UN
Report: April 2007
Men Recognizing
Women's Work for Peace
by Sayre Sheldon, WAND representative
on the NGO Working Group for Women, Peace and Security
WAND's presence on the NGO Working Group for Women,
Peace and Security provides us with a link to the
entire international women's peace movement, and in
particular the support for Security Council Resolution
1325. At this year's United Nations Status
of Women meetings there was a new emphasis on the
increasing participation of men in the implementation
of 1325.
The Canadian High Commission
led a discussion of why countries in conflict have
so few ways of including women in both preventing
war and rebuilding their societies after war. New
ways of cooperating with women's groups were presented.
The NGO Working Group on Women
Peace and Security is in touch with many of these
women's groups around the world who work hard on the
ground and then are shut out of their newly formed
governments. We bring women from conflict zones to
testify before the U.N. Now men are realizing that
they are simply continuing old aggressive behaviors
that will promote rather than prevent violence. They
are turning to women's groups for help in reintegrating
soldiers and providing new frameworks for peaceful
societies.
There is a new determination
to promote images of men and boys as peace makers
and contributors to social welfare. It remains a challenging
task for us all given the violence within our own
society but there is encouragement in the new indications
of men's looking to women for help and giving them
a part in reshaping societies.
Sayre
Sheldon, WAND president emerita
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A founding member of WAND and President Emerita
of the National WAND Board, Sayre has been a
long time political and social activist. She
is a college professor of literature and an
author of several plays and articles about women's
issues and peace issues.
She
edited the anthology Her War Story: 20th
Century Women Write About War, published
in 1999 by Southern Illinois University Press.
She represents WAND as an NGO at the United
Nations. |
