The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

PROJECT REPORT
THE CONTRIBUTION OF WOMEN
TO PEACE AND RECONCILIATION
INTRODUCTION
BIRGIT DAIBER
History of the Creation of the Project
In December 2008, during the opening ceremony for the foundation of
the strategic office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Brussels, sev -
eral of the invitees gathered informally and talked about their experiences
as peace and human rights activists: Bosiljka Schedlich of the
Southeast European Cultural Centre in Berlin, who had worked against
the war in Yugoslavia in the diaspora, and had initiated many psychological
and social initiatives with traumatized war refugees; Molly Malekar
of Bat-Shalom in Jerusalem, who had, since the founding of Jerusalem
Link in 1994, maintained cooperation with Palestinian peace activists despite
all the blockades and battles; Asha Haji Elmi from Somalia, who
has recently received the Alternative Nobel Prize for her initiative Save
the Somali Women and Children, and Birgit Daiber, head of the Brussels
Office, who had participated in the peace initiatives against the first Iraq
War (the Sheherazade Network), against the war in Yugoslavia and for
peace in the Middle East. A very lively discussion emerged around the
various initiatives and experiences, and soon the question arose:
couldn’t we try to create a more continual working context? That in turn
gave rize to the idea for the project “The Contribution of Women in
Peace and Conflict Transformation”. The Brussels Office of the Rosa
Luxemburg Foundation drafted an initial project outline, and other partners
were also recruited: Yolande Mukagasana, author of the first documentations
of the genocide in Rwanda (Mukgasana, 1997), Lama
Hourani and later Ghada Al-Jadba from Palestine, and Simone Susskind,
founder of many essential Euro-Mediterranean peace initiatives, especially
Jerusalem Link and the International Women’s Committee (IWC).
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