A special welcome from the Director

Welcome to the official site of the 2002 International Conference on "Women, Peace Building and Constitution Making".

Even as men are too often the architects of war, women suffer its consequences. Women and children account for the most number of civilian casualties in war. Women and children make up to 80% of the refugees or internally displaced persons. Women fall prey to sexual violence, torture, rape, forced prostitution, sexual slavery, and forced conscription in war. Women lose fathers, husbands, sons, property, and employment in war. From the Balkans to Burundi, Sierra Leone to Sri Lanka, women are the worst victims of war.

The bitter experiences of women in times of war often make them strong adherents of peace building and constitution making for conflict resolution. However, women’s roles in and contributions to conflict resolution are underutilized or wholly ignored in mainstream peace building and constitution making processes. Nevertheless, women all over the world are devising creative and effective strategies to ending wars and building peace. In doing so, they are forming strong coalitions that reach across religious, ethnic and political divides. Their activism in the field of peace building and constitution-making is complementing their wider struggle for gender equality.

Contemporary women peace builders and constitution makers can offer valuable insights and may contribute to a gendered knowledge about their approaches to peace building and constitution making. Yet, little has been made to glean more information about their initiatives or to develop a comparative analysis of their strategies.

This conference marks a small step in this direction. For this conference we have invited women activists from conflict areas including Burundi, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Colombia, and Northern Ireland. We have also invited leading academics and specialists who have researched the theme of women and peace. We hope to create a platform for the sharing of experiences and strategies amongst women, who are either experts in the subject, and/or have played and active role in the peace building and constitution making process of their respective countries. The objectives of the conference are:

• To identify and articulate the effect of war on women and the gender specific needs of women during times of war.

• To contribute to an understanding of women’s roles in peace building and constitution making;

• To develop strategies for supporting, developing and enhancing women’s peace building and constitution making capacities at multiple levels;

• To improve the cross-regional and cross-cultural exchange on the subject;

The International Centre for Ethnic Studies firmly believes that the further inclusion of women in the peace building and constitution making process in Sri Lanka holds potential for achieving peace and reconciliation in the context of its own protracted ethnic conflict. With this in mind, this conference will bring together women from all walks of life in Sri Lanka, ranging from academics, to officials in government ministries, to women peace workers at the grassroots level. It is hoped that this conference will enrich and invigorate their own work, while laying the foundation for the creation of an international network of women who are committed to working on issues of peace building and constitutional reform.

We place high priority on your presence and participation and look forward to a successful conference.

Thank you,

Sincerely,

Radhika Coomaraswamy
Director, International Centre for Ethnic Studies
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women