Catégorie : 1000 women Peace Nobel 2005

Linked with Women in Black worldwide, with The Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, with Global Action, and with Britain’s new nuclear abolitionists.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Rebecca Johnson is a feminist, peace activist and citizen diplomat, whose work on disarmament negotiations prompted government diplomats in 1996 to call her ‘civil society’s ambassador’. While living at the Greenham Women’s Peace Camp (1982-87), she co-founded the Aldermaston Women’s Camp(aign) in 1985, extending the resistance to US and Soviet nuclear weapons to the UK nuclear programme and Trident. She currently directs the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy and is a member of the international steering group of Global Action to Prevent War … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

She says: « My passions are women and peace ».

While her present research priorities (2005) are WMD, space weaponisation and international security, Rebecca Johnson has authored numerous articles and reports on the United Nations system and multilateral disarmament and negotiations, notably the NPT and CTBT; civil society; and British defence policy, and gives papers and lectures on these subjects to a wide range of UN and other international conferences, seminars and meetings … (full text).

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Rebecca Johnson – England

She works for (Women in Black WiB) for justice, against war, for the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, and for Global Action to Prevent War.

Find her and her publications on The Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy.

Dr Rebecca Johnson combines her job as director of an internationally-renowned think tank with voluntary campaigning with various grassroots anti-nuclear and women’s groups. The youngest of eight children born into the Hutterian Society of Brothers, Rebecca was raised in North Dakota, USA and Sussex, England. After studying physics, philosophy and politics, her travels took her to Japan, where she became involved with a radical group of feisty Japanese lesbian feminists and never looked back!

She arrived at the US Airbase at Greenham Common on August 9, 1982 and ended up living at the Women’s Peace Camp for the next 5 years, during which she campaigned for the removal of nuclear weapons from Europe, danced on the missile silos, occupied the air traffic control tower, took President Reagan to court, painted cruise missile launchers while they were on military exercises and poured blood, paint and porridge on cluster bombs and other munitions at the nearby US base at Welford, for which she was brutally beaten by US soldiers and then imprisoned by the UK courts.

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She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

A nurse and therapeutic specialist, Sr. Maria Christina Färber (born in 1957) worked with children from broken homes in Germany. In 1999, during the Kosovo War, she moved to the Albanian city of Shkodra, where she helped refugees from Kosovo. After the war she took over Caritas International’s psychological and social care of Albanian families involved in blood feuds. With the reconciliation of hostile clans, counseling mothers, and organizing children’s therapy sessions, Christina does everything possible to help families step out of the vicious circle of violence, revenge, and death … (1000peacewomen).

She says: « We must break the cycle of killing. The first step is that the victims of violence do not become offenders themselves ».

Verleihung des Bundesverdienstkreuzes am Bande an Schwester Maria Christina Färber.

Am 02.02.02 fand die erste Profess der Schwester Maria Christina Färber in Kehrsiten/Schweiz, am Vierwaldstätter See, statt.

Der Albaner Pal und sein Sohn Marresh haben ihr Haus seit Jahren nicht verlassen. Sie haben Angst, erschossen zu werden – aus Blutrache.

Maria Christina Färber: « Wenn der Vogel kein Nest mehr hat“. Hilfe für Inlandsflüchtlinge in Albanien.

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Maria Christina Färber – Germany

She works for Caritas International, and for the Spiritual Community.

Sister Christina has been invited into Albanian houses for Raki countless times, and always politely refused. But here, in the Laçi family house (all clan names have been changed to protect the families) it is impossible. Dede Laçi pours his distilled spirits to the brim. The men in the smoke-filled parlor rise. Only Dede’s wife Mira remains seated in the corner of the sofa, in a black dress of mourning.

Her youngest son cries on her lap, too small to understand what his father and the nun from Germany have just discussed and will now confirm with liquor: That the murder of Dede Laçi’s nine year old son Elton will not be avenged with further murders.

Sister Christina had been fighting for this agreement for months. Again and again she tried talking to the men of the Laçi clan in the northern Albanian city of Shkoder, for the first time on the very day that Elton Laçi was shot. And now the father of the family has asserted before witnesses, that he wants to reconcile his family with the family of his son’s murderer. “The first step is that victims of violence do not become offenders themselves,” says the 47 year old. Thoughtfully she adds: “If the promise can be kept.”

Because Dede Laçi does not decide alone. The family is large, with many branches. All of them have to renounce something they see as their right for the sake of reconciliation. A right that, says Christina Färber “is still very much in peoples’ minds” in northern Albania: The right to revenge, faithful to the unwritten law of blood for blood.

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Linked with Women’s Earth Alliance WEA.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Marta is a Salvadoran activist, theologian and educator. She is the Founder of Ecohouse and the International Institute for Cooperation Amongst Peoples-IICP. Marta has developed ecological programs at the local, regional and national levels, teaching permaculture and soil and water conservation and management to rural and indigenous communities with emphasis on women and youth. She works on environmental issues at the regional and global levels with the UN processes and other concerned groups. Marta is also the recipient of the 2003 U.N.’s Prize for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life and one of the 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize, 2005 (on Women’s Earth Alliance).

She says: « Peace is not built, peace is something within us. What we need to build are the processes to manifest it. We cannot buy or obtain it, because peace is inherent ».

Listen her Video: Marta Benavides, 10.56 min, from June 26, 2008.

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Marta Benavides – El Salvador

She works for the Rural Cooperative of Planta Nueva, for the Lenca Civil Association, and for the Highlander Center for Popular Education (no website found for El Salvador of these three groups).

TESTIMONIES FROM EL SALVADOR, BY MARTA BENAVIDES.

Reclaiming, February 2001.

Marta also participated in the peace processes to stop the armed conflict in El Salvador between 1980–1992. During the peace process she advocated for human right processes that support the people who were hurt by the armed conflict. Marta live in exile for the duration of the armed conflict and the peace process because of threats made on her life. In 1992 Marta was able to return to her home country and has continued to foster peace through teaching people how to respect all life from butterflies to people. (pielc.org).

Reflecting on El Salvador … Finding the Meaning of Life … Touching Hope.

Handbook of Spirituality for Ministers, 592 pages.

Women’s Consultation Briefing Paper, Financing for Development, Issue #7, INTER-LINKAGES, by Marta Benavides with Alejandra Scampini.

Find her name on Google Book-search.

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She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

… NASRA DU SAHARA OCCIDENTAL est une des 1000 femmes candidates pour le prix Nobel de la paix 2005: Nasra Mahmoud Souelem est née probablement en 1958, à Agmar dans le Sahara Occidental, dans une famille d’esclaves. Comme elle le dit, leurs maîtres ont toujours été très bons avec eux, considérant et traitant les esclaves comme des membres de la famille … (texte entier 1/2, par Elisabeth Bäschlin, page 14/16).

She says: « I have been working as a nursery teacher for over 29 years. A whole generation has passed through my hands ».

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Nasra Souelem – Western Sahara

She works for the Polisario Front PF, (mentionned /explained on Global Policy Forum; on wikipedia; on Prophet of Doom; on Freebase, the world’s database; and on many more); and she works also for the National Union of Saharawi Women NUSW, (mentioned /explained on arso.org / and same in french; on the blog ZEINA; on IIAV.nl; on Womens Organisations Western Sahara; and on wikipedia.

Nasra Mahmoud Souelem has been working as a nursery teacher in the camps in Western Sahara for 29 years. She has suffered great afflictions in her life; perhaps the most harrowing of which was losing her husband in the war four years after their marriage. In the Saharan camps, to where her family had to move, she began her training as a nursery teacher. Despite the gradual improvement of the conditions in the camps, the situation there often remains bleak. In this climate, Nasra’s work to provide education for children is an investment in a more promising future. (1000peacewomen).

… Là, Nasra, sa mère et ses soeurs vivent d’abord dans le camp de Dakhla, à 160 km au sud de l’oasis algérienne de Tindouf. Comme tous les adultes, la jeune Nasra, qui avait alors 17 ans, participait à l’organisation autogérée des camps en travaillant comme membre du Comité populaire de production de sa daïra. Ce comité, responsable de la production de base, organisait le travail dans les jardins et dans les ateliers de tissage et les ateliers de production de cuir. Au bout d’un an, Nasra devient membre du Comité d’alimentation qui, sous les auspices du Croissant Rouge toujours active dans le secteur de l’éducation. En 1982, elle a été envoyée pour un an à l’Ecole du 27 février, l’école de femmes, pour une formation d’éducatrice pour les crèches. Comme elle avait de très bonnes notes, elle a été désignée par la suite membre de direction de l’école. Depuis ce temps, Nasra travaille comme éducatrice pour les crèches au 27 février; actuellement, elle est responsable de la crèche du personnel de l’école. Durant toutes ces années, des générations entières de jeunes sahraouis ont passé entre ses mains … (texte entier 2/2, par Elisabeth Bäschlin, page 14/16).

Sorry, no more any information in the internet about our peacewomen, Nasra Souelem, Western Sahara. Not any mention about her work appears in the public room, only what is told about the peacewomen project (like the following in german: Frieden ist eine Männerbastion).

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Daphne Jansen is a project coordinator for the Network on Violence Against Women in Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town. Born in 1956, Daphne has been involved in bringing change for women in her community, focusing on eradicating violence against women. She is also a motivational speaker. Daphne is a graduate of Development Education Leadership Teams in Action (Delta). She obtained a certificate in adult education and a higher diploma in adult education training and development from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, where she worked as a part-time tutor.

She says: « Domestic violence happens all the time. It is not predictable when it is going to take place. Peaceful homes and peaceful communities is what we wish for, and for it to happen we must work hard ».

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Daphne Jansen – South Africa

She works for Network on Violence Against Women (described on Rape Crisis, Cape Town),
and for Development Education Leadership Teams in Action DELTA (described on W.K.Kellogg Foundation – and see also the scholar texts about this item).

Daphne works for the Network on Violence Against Women in Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town. The Network as it is known started in 1996 and since its inception Daphne has been instrumental in its sustenance. Before joining the Network, Daphne worked all her life as a volunteer in the community, but now she is the Network’s Co-ordinator of the Mitchell’s Plain branch.

The work that she does is difficult. It is not only about awareness raising and training for women but also involves the courts of law. Legal systems in South Africa have never been fair to women and children and to change these systems is a challenge. Trainers like Daphne need to know how these systems work yet they have not studied law. Because of such processes and procedures Daphne spends a lot of time working and negotiating referrals for women.

The work of the Network has benefited women and the community in general in that it has managed to make society understand what domestic abuse is. It has also helped semiliterate communities to familiarise themselves with new government legislation on human and women’s rights. As part of the Network’s activities a focus group on human rights was established.

Daphne works for long hours and always goes the extra mile. As a result, she spends minimal amount of time with her family. She has influenced other women to take up the fight to eradicate violence against women. Women who have attended her workshops are encouraged to become members of the organisation and to become part of the voluntary focus groups. Daphne is also a motivational speaker.

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Linked with Center for Civil Initiatives CCI.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Biserka Momcinovic, a mother and grandmother, accountant and commercial officer before the war, was born on 9 December 1946 in Zagreb, Croatia. In 1991, the year when war broke out in Croatia, Biserka, moved from Zagreb to Porec. Having ethnic Serbs as friends made her a strong believer in a multi-cultural society where people practice respect and tolerance. For this reason, she was one of the signatories in the 1991 Antiwar Campaign Charter declaration that affirmed that, despite cultural differences, people can work together. (1000peacewomen).

She says: « Peace building is the first prerequisite for development, along with respect for human rights ».

Biserka Momcinovic spoke of the importance of the support from the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation in enabling the Croatian Women’s Network to meet and grow strong … (full text).

… « We know there are verbal provocations, » said Biserka Momcinovic and Veronika Reskovic, activists of the Croatian Anti-War Campaign and civil human rights board … (full text).

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Biserka Momcinovic – Croatia

She works for the Center for Civil Initiatives CCI (named on Bosnia News; on Caucasian Knot.ru;
and on Center for Citizen Initiatives.ru).

For the last 13 years, she has engaged in the promotion and protection of human rights and helped hundreds of people, especially the missing Serbs to reunite with their families. She was co-founder of the Civic Committee for Human Rights, which was later renamed the Center for Civil Initiatives (CCI), and led its office in Porec. She has organized public discussions in order to promote human rights, while simultaneously offering direct support to victims of human rights abuses. She was the first coordinator of the Women’s Network of Croatia and has contributed significantly to its becoming one of the biggest and most respected Croatian NGO networks.

Before the war formally ended in August 1995, the Croatian military and police undertook several operations that were intended to drive out the ethnic Serbs from Croatia. This resulted in many deaths and destruction among the Serbs and many of them were expelled. Whatever was left in their homes was either stolen or burned. In May 1995, operation Flash was launched by the Croatian military. Biserka immediately went to the heavily destroyed town of Pakrac, together with other human rights activists from Croatia (e.g. Veronika Reskovic and Petar Ladevic). They supported the remaining ethnic Serbs there in their fight for their citizenship. They also monitored the Croatian authorities, the civil, police and military institutions and applied constant pressure on them to respect the rights of the remaining Serbs and to respond to their needs. While in Pakrac, Biba and her group established the Human Rights office, which continued to function for several years after they left.

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Linked with Mahila Samakhya, Uttar Pradesh .

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Sumitra (born 1949) comes from a scheduled caste family and has received no formal education. But she is at the center of a social upheaval in her village. In 1996, braving disapproval and hostility, she set up the self-help Milori Women’s Group. The group runs women’s courts in the village, making dispute resolution quick, inexpensive, and mutually consensual. The fallout of the popularity of the women’s courts has been a drastic reduction in violence against women, and the consolidation of women’s power … It is said about her: Sumitra is reputed to have a way of getting right to the heart of the matter of any dispute, which she then judges without considerations of caste, class, gender, or community coming in the way.

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Sumitra – India

She works for the Milori Women’s Group (MLG), and for Mahila Samakhya, Uttar Pradesh.

Sumitra was born in 1949 into an indigent family of laborers. After her father died, her mother slaved to feed Sumitra and her four siblings. No one, least of all Sumitra herself, would have imagined then that she would one day lead a women’s group in a block consisting of 60 villages.

When she was 16, Sumitra married into a family of equally poor laborers. Poverty and its attendant problems remained Sumitra’s constant companions. The turning point in her life was her association with the Mahila Samakhya in 1991. Initially, Sumitra worked as a Sakhi for five years. In 1996, she formed the Milori Women’s Group.

One of the most important of this group’s activities is the women’s courts that deal with problems within families, violence against women, and disputes relating to land and family affairs. Sumitra’s method of functioning is to listen to both parties and solve the problems through mutual agreement. If either party fails to honor the court’s decision, the group calls in the cops – a surefire kick in the pants.

Today, the 60 villages resolve virtually all their disputes through the women’s courts. The lower cost and quick resolution – and the fact that decisions are arrived at through mutual consent, not legal brawling – have helped making these courts universally acceptable.

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Linked with Transparency International TI.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

María del Pilar Callizo López Moreira–“Pili”–comes from a very traditional family from Paraguay. She had a happy childhood, without any kind of deprivation or needs. This situation, however, did not prevent her from feeling the need to contribute to the construction of a better country, championing the cause of women and encouraging them to take on a leading role … (1000PeaceWomen).

She says: « When I was 14 years old, I acquired the consciousness that no power should snatch from human beings their most valuable possession: freedom ».

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María del Pilar Callizo López Moreira – Paraguay

She works for Transparency International, Paraguay in english, same as Transparencia Paraguay in spanish. (See also Transparency International TI).

“The fact that something or somebody out there felt superior and was denying me my freedom and my rights helped me to see the reality. From that moment on, I knew that, as a woman, my duty was to do something to change that state of affairs. I also realized that to achieve my goal, I would have to take down many barriers. It was a challenge, and I began at home”, remembers María Del Pilar Callizo López Moreira, Pili.

“The first thing I did was study. In 1978, I got my degree in Law. Later on, I specialized in arbitration and mediation, in Buenos Aires, Argentina”. The first step had been taken. The next step was to put into practice her new knowledge and make use of her ideas and observations.

She comes from a solid family nucleus. She grew up in a happy environment, absorbing the values of her family. She transformed those values into a need to collaborate to the promotion of human rights. She also championed women’s rights and worked to promote greater transparency and efficiency in public life.
In 1986, along with a group of women, she founded, in Asunción, the capital of the country, “Mujeres por la Democracia” (Women for Democracy), one of the first organizations to fight for the improvement of the situation of women in Paraguayan society. She worked to examine and revise the judicial framework that maintained her fellow countrywomen in an inferior position, without even the most basic human rights. “These were the times of one of the cruelest and longest dictatorships in Latin America, and it was not easy to talk about gender, when we could not even speak of human rights”.

Pilar remembers that the meetings where strategies were outlined were clandestine: “Once, during the Paraguayan dictatorship, public demonstrations were forbidden and the people, who dared to participate, were victims of repression, imprisonment, torture and, in the majority of cases, went on to swell the lists of the ‘missing’ or murdered people. We knew that we were under observation. In our phone calls, we used nicknames and diminutives. Some documents about legal revisions were kept under conditions of extreme secrecy, because they were the fruit of constant discussions with other similar groups. Those times before democracy were especially hard”.

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Linked with the Restoration Advisory Board RAB.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Nilda Medina Diaz has dedicated her life to the demilitarization of Vieques. This tiny (21 miles by 3 miles) Puerto Rican island was used by the U.S. Navy for military exercise and weapons training and testing for 63 years. Largely because of the work of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, co-founded by Nilda, the U.S. closed its bases in 2003. In addition to coordinating the movement’s civil-disobedience-organizational center, Nilda continues to play a crucial role in the post-Navy struggle to ensure that her community is informed and involved in their homeland’s environmental cleanup … (1000PeaceWomen).

She says: « The Navy is not leaving because it wants to, but because the people have forced them out ».

She is also mentionned als Political Heroe.

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Nilda Medina-Diaz – Puerto Rico

She works for the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, for the Restoration Advisory Board, and for the Military Toxics Project.

On the morning of Dec. 21, 2000 Nilda and other members of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, placed themselves in front of huge Navy tractors to block yet another military action. Riot police arriving at the scene were well equipped with dogs, pepper spray, and handcuffs. But when a large group of community members joined the protesters, the police withdrew. Such scenes as these were common in the battles Nilda fought with and for the citizens of Vieques. Leading the struggle for « the four D’s » (demilitarization, decontamination, devolution and development) members of the Committee often put themselves in harm’s way.

Born in 1950 in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico, Nilda is the youngest of five children. As a student at the University of Puerto Rico, she began organizing for labor rights and was regional coordinator for the Puerto Rican Socialist Party during the 1970s. Armed with a certificate to teach science – and fierce determination – she moved to Vieques in1980.

Her work has not ended with the withdrawal of the U.S. military.

As a member of the Restoration Advisory Board, she reviews and reports on military clean-up efforts. She organizes community forums to discuss the clean-up, independent expert evaluation of its progress, activities for teen mothers, and leadership opportunities for the local youth organization. She helps to resolve transportation issues for families with loved ones in the hospital or in prison, and arranges legal representation for Viequenses who have been arrested by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for using ex-military lands for community functions. She is a coordinator of « Radio Vieques, » a weekly radio program – a vital service for a community that has no newspaper. To help similar communities dealing with problems left by military bases, Nilda serves on the Board of the Military Toxics Project.

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She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Lenira Maria de Carvalho (1932), in her childhood, had to take care of children instead of playing with dolls. Just like her mother, she faced a working day of twelve hours in exchange for food and a place to sleep. She did not put with that situation. Along with other young women, she took on the task of increasing awareness in the districts of Recife. (1000 peacewomen 1/2).

She says: “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was written over half a century ago and we still see a lot of inhumanity. Most of us are not aware of the right to preserve our dignity ».

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Lenira Maria de Carvalho – Brazil

She works for the Sindicato dos Empregados Domésticos da Região Metropolitanado Recife.

In 1988, she founded a Union that provides judicial support to fifty maids per day. For over 50 years, Lenira Maria de Carvalho has pursued ideals to conquer rights for domestic workers.

Lenira was born in a sugar-cane plantation farm inside Alagoas. Her mother worked in the “big house” (the farm owner’s house). Without a father and with no house to call her own, she shared a bed with her mother and sister and she ate leftover food. “My mother worked her whole life and never saw any money.”

Lenira moved to Recife, when she was 14, to work as a maid for her mother’s boss’ son. She managed to enroll in a night school run by nuns, where she concluded elementary school. Her awakening to militancy occurred when she was 24 years old and attended meetings at the JCO – Juventude Católica Operária (a group of young catholic manual workers).

As a missionary in the JCO, Lenira helped organize state and regional meetings. In 1964, with the Military Coup, came the repression. She was taken into prison. After, she continued mobilizing maids. In the 70’s, she founded the category’s association. She traveled to other states and met many leaders to make sure that their rights would be recognized in the 1988 Brazilian Constitution. “We got the right to vacation, to receive prior warning before getting fired, to be paid a 13th salary at the end of each year and to continue getting paid during maternity leave.

Lenira and her partners inaugurated the Domestic Worker’s Union in Recife, which sees about seven thousand people a year. She was elected president of the Union. She also wrote a textbook called “The Social Value of Domestic Work”. Now, 72 years old, she is tireless. Currently, she fights to be able to give domestic workers the right to their own house and to a fair retirement.

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