Catégorie : 1000 women Peace Nobel 2005

Linked with the presentation of Intermón Oxfam.

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

Goes with ‘Assuming Authority‘.

She says: « Since I was a child, I have always had a dream: that one day I shall build a big house where all unfortunate people can live and enjoy life. »

Achta Djibrine Sy – Chad

She works for Intermón Oxfam (IO); for Groupe informel de réflexion et de recherche action feminine (GIRAF); and for Said-Al-Awine (Women’s Union).

Achta Djibrine Sy (born 1962) obtained her first degree in Management and Economics from the University of N’Djaména. She is Intermón Oxfam Representative in Chad and has been advocating women’s work to be visible, regardless of their ethnical and religious background. She encourages women to gain self-confidence and to pool their labor to bring about peace in Chad. Thanks to her splendid efforts, women who were very poor some years ago are now self-dependent and are even able to give loans to others.At the beginning of civil war in Chad in 1979, Achta Djibrine Sy was a 17 years old high school student. Despite the abrupt instability of the country, she succeeded in getting her baccalaureate and Bsc in Management and Economics from the University of N’Djaména in 1989. A year before completing her Bsc program, she worked with a group of women, who were affiliated with international organizations in the country, to form an interactive assembly called “Groupe informel de réflexion et de recherche action feminine” (GIRAF), which is an informal group of research about women issues.

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Added January 14, 2008: linked with CANGO.net.

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

She says: « I believe in the values of democratic change and human rights. »

Natalia Shabunz – Turkmenistan

She works for ‘Civil Dignity’, and for ‘Counterpart Consortium’.

Natalia Shabunz lives and works under Turkmenistan’s authoritarian regime as a well-known educator, writer, and public- and human rights-activist. She started her work in Turkmenistan when civil society activism first began to take shape in the nation, but maintains that even today the democratic culture of the Turkmen population needs to be strengthened even more. Fighting some very difficult conditions, Natalia has often been persecuted by local authorities for her work in education and public activity.Natalia Shabunz was born in 1951, in Simpheropol, Crimea, and studied at the Art Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia. Since 1976 she has been living in Turkmenistan, where, from 1979 till 1993 she worked at an art museum. Since 1993 she has been active in the public sector and the civil society movement in Turkmenistan. From 1993 to 1998 she worked in a public school of economics, and in a youth center called Dialog as a trainer. Since 1999 she has been a trainer for the Counterpart Consortium, and is also leader of the youth-centered non-governmental organization (NGO) Civil Dignity.

As a writer, she has published textbooks and popular works that are famous throughout Central Asian and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. In both realms she is dedicated to concepts of civil society, democracy and human rights. Her books, which discuss new approaches to interethnic conflict resolution and development of democracy, include “Alphabet of Civil Education,” “Laws that Bring Us Together,” “Several Steps to Win,” “Animals’ Rights in the World of People,” and “How to Live Together,” and are used in regional, Central Asian and Russian NGOs and education centers alike. Her textbooks on civil and human rights are used not only in Turkmenistan, but in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Armenia and Russia. Her writing has helped challenge and alter national and international understanding of the political and human rights situation in Turkmenistan, and the general world outlook for people living under authoritarian regimes, and her books form part of a new democratic culture in people’s understanding of the Turkmen situation.

As an educator, Natalia conducts seminars, training workshops and practical initiatives. She has held 300 training programs and seminars, for 6000 participants across the country and abroad. Thanks to her, over 6000 NGO leaders, journalists, and women have gotten access to new information, knowledge and know-how in navigating the troubled landscape of women’s and human rights for their nation. She has also participated in both regional and international conferences and round tables on education, human rights and NGO development, and has reported extensively on her experiences, sharing her knowledge with colleagues from all over the world.

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Linked with our presentation of Survivors Associated – Sri Lanka.

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

Shanti Christine Arulampalam and her organization Survivors Associated, for witch she is working, have transformed the lives of more than 27,000 people in four war-torn districts of northern and eastern Sri Lanka.

Shanti Christine Arulampalam – Sri Lanka

As executive director of Survivors Associated, working for the psychosocial healing of people affected by war, Shanti Christine Arulampalam has helped transform many formerly ravaged lives. She and her organization have assisted more than 27,000 people in four districts of northern and eastern Sri Lanka. As a Sinhala working among Tamils, Shanti has often been viewed with suspicion, but has won over her critics with her hard work and transparent approach.The daughter of academics, Shanti Arulampalam did not expect to become a social worker. She had planned to be a doctor, but became instead a teacher. Today, Shanti is executive director of her own organization, Survivors Associated, which works for the psychosocial healing of people affected by war.

Shanti discovered her mission in life by a circuitous route. After finishing her studies in business management, she taught English and mathematics in the Maldives for two years. After her contract was over, she returned to Sri Lanka to work in a commercial establishment as a business manager. In 1967, Shanti, who is a Sinhala, married a Tamil man, but the marriage was not a happy one. She was left to take care of two little boys on her own: as a single parent, she went to work in a premier export house as commodities buyer, and employed by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, became the first woman member in its commodities auction division. She later began her own export venture.

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

She says: « We refuse to be silent! To speak out freely is a decisive step on the way to freedom. »

At her oath of allegiance to become Turkey’s first ever Kurdish woman in Parliament she said: « I swear by my honor and my dignity before the great Turkish people to protect the integrity and independence of the State, the indivisible unity of people and homeland, and the unquestionable and unconditional sovereignty of the people. I swear loyalty to the Constitution. I take this oath for the brotherhood between the Turkish people and the Kurdish people. »

And at her trial in which she was sentenced to 14 years in prison, she said, « This is a conspiracy. What I am defending is perfectly clear. I don’t accept any of these accusations. And, if they were true I’d assume responsibility for them, even if it cost me my life. I have defended democracy, human rights, and brotherhood between peoples. And I’ll keep doing so for as long as I live. »

Leyla Zana – Turkey / Kurdish part

Since 1980, Leyla Zana has been active in gaining recognition of the social, political, and cultural rights of Kurdish populations and for a peaceful resolution of the Kurdish conflict. She was a Representative of the Democratic Party in the Turkish Parliament (1991–1994), a political prisoner (1994–2004), and since 2004 a co-initiator of DTH, a new movement for democratic society. She has become a symbol of the struggle for human rights, democracy, and peace. Her courage has sensitized European public opinion about the problems of the Kurds and inspired numerous women to become active.Leyla Zana, called the “Kurdish Pasionaria” (in the spirit of the Spanish oppositional politician Dolores Ibarruri) is a symbol of the fight for freedom, democracy, and equality as well as for the rights of the Kurdish people. She was freed unexpectedly on 9 June 2004 after ten long years of captivity. On 14 July, the highest appeals court in Ankara reversed the second verdict that had upheld the 15-year prison sentences of four Kurdish ex-parliamentarians, including Leyla Zana. Both these decisions are connected with Turkey’s desire to join the European Union, but they are also linked to the continuous pressure of an international solidarity movement.

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Linked with our presentation of REDEPAZ – Colombia.

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

She says: “Peace is not a Colombian invention. It is a flag of all humanity.”

She works for the Red Nacional de Iniciativas por la Paz y contra la Guerra (Redepaz).

Ana Teresa Bernal – Colombia

”When Ana Teresa Bernal was an adolescent, she distributed food to children living on the streets. As a young woman, she continued her social work and created a movement called ‘Life’. Later, as a woman, she founded REDEPAZ, the National Network of Citizen Initiatives against War. Her personal fight is against war. She dreams of a Colombia at peace. She has been working, day after day, for more than two decades to achieve this. “I believe that this is our country and that we have to defend life. It was formed in 1993 as the citizens’ answer to the president of Colombia at that time, César Gaviria. He proposed what was called ‘an integral war’. We said that what the country needed was ‘integral peace’. In 1996, REDEPAZ organized what became known as the ‘Mandate against Violence’. They asked boys and girls from more than a hundred municipalities all over Colombia to choose, from twelve fundamental rights, the one they considered to be the most important. Then, 2.700,000 children voted for the right to peace. Their voices were heard all over the country. One year later, REDEPAZ organized a new vote, when more than 10 million adult Colombians called for the same thing. Each year in Colombia, approximately 30,000 people die. According to the United Nations, more than 1 million inhabitants have been displaced by the war and thousands have been killed or remain missing. (Read all this on this 1000peacewomen page).

In the past, negotiations and general discussion of the Colombian conflict have excluded representatives of civil society, particularly members of youth, women’s, indigenous peoples’ and farmers groups. Instead they have been limited to representatives of the more powerful sub-sectors, such as unions, universities, and the different religious sectors.

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Linked with our presentation of Network of African Women Ministers and Parliamentarians REFAMP.

Linked also with our presentation of UNFPA.

Goes with ‘Assuming Authority‘.

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

Her fight against forced marriages was a project that covered several areas and especially towns of north and south Benin and the lake-bordered towns.

Grace Antonia D’Almeida – Benin

She works for the Association des Femmes Juristes du Bénin (AFJB), and for the Network of the Women Ministers and Parliamentarians.

A lawyer, Grace Antonia D’Almeida (1951–2005) was divorced and the mother of three children. She enjoyed her work and excelled at everything she did. She, indeed, was a great fighter in the women’s movement in Africa and world-wide. She passed away in early 2005.The work of the AFJB was especially beneficial to rural women and women lawyers of the sub-regions who undertook an appeal on the status of women. Nevertheless, Grace Antonia never lost sight of the fact that she achieved the results she did because she and her colleagues took courage in their two hands to confront the challenges, among which was the hostility of men and traditional leaders towards the legal status of women. Many meetings were held with these hostile people to get them to embrace the initiatives of the AFJB.

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

Through Nagarik Awaz, Rita Thapa provides support to thousands of people whose lives have been turned upside down by the fallout of the Maoist insurgency in Nepal.

Rita Thapa – Nepal

She works for Tewa, and for Nagarik Awaz.

For the past 24 years, Rita Thapa (born 1952) has devoted her personal and professional life to founding and supporting institutions working for women’s empowerment and for the development of philanthropy and peace-building in Nepal. Through Tewa, established in 1996, she has worked for grassroots women throughout Nepal. Nagarik Awaz (Citizen’s Voice), set up in 2001, provides support to thousands of people whose lives have been turned upside down by the Maoist insurgency and the government’s overkill retaliation.As the Maoist insurgency in Nepal gained ground, Rita Thapa knew she could not sit on the sidelines and just watch her fellow countrymen and women kill each other. So, in 2001, this intrepid woman decided to found an organization, Nagarik Awaz (Citizen’s Voice), to help all those affected by the conflict, without taking sides.

As the situation in Nepal is deteriorating by the day, it is hard to talk of ‘results’ and ‘improvements’. But, clearly, the intervention of Thapa and her coworkers has had its impact.: A cadre of committed peace workers has been created, and their numbers are growing. Transit homes and temporary shelters have been set up to help the thousands of people internally displaced, injured and traumatized by the armed forces, whether Maoist or government.

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Linked with our presentation of The International Association of Women Judges IAWJ.

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

Goes with ‘Assuming Authority‘.

She says: « Being able to help others is a great opportunity and a duty toward the most disempowered among us. I dedicate the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 to the victims of all forms of violence the world over. »

Fatoumata Dembélé Diarra – Mali

She works for the Observatoire des Droits de l’Enfant et de la Femme (ODEF), and for the Fédération Internationale des Femmes des carrières Juridiques (FIFCJ).

Fatoumata obtained a licence in human rights from the University of Dakar in 1971, a master in legal sciences from the national school of administration of Bamako (ENA) in 1974, and a diploma from the national legal school of Paris in 1977. She has done many university courses. She also has a rich career in the Malian judicial world.

After holding several portfolios in the different courts and courses, she finally became head of the national directorate of judicial matters.

It is for that position that the UN summoned her to the Criminal Court in the former Yugoslavia then to the all new CPI (International Criminal Court).

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

She says: « The trauma of war fills all our cells with fear; healing allows a return to peace, to trust, as a human being. »

Bosiljka Schedlich, born in 1948 in what is today Croatia, founded the Southeast European Cultural Center in Berlin in 1991. Since then, some 30,000 war refugees from former Yugoslavia have received care, counseling, and therapy.

Bosiljka Schedlich – Germany & Croatia

Bosiljka led therapy groups of people traumatized from the war and soon became an expert on trauma. Meanwhile, many war refugees have returned voluntarily. Bosiljka and her colleagues have recreated their reconciliation projects in former war zones through sponsorships or « storytelling cafés » in which people can speak freely about their war experiences.Bosiljka Schedlich is a short woman whose large dark eyes radiate an astonishing mix of gentle motherly patience and strict precision. When she talks she gets right to the point, her psychological intuition is on target and her memory exact.

The 57-year old knows the long and complicated history of the war in former Yugoslavia only too well. In 1991, she founded the Southeast European Cultural Center in which some 30,000 war refugees have received care, counseling and therapy. After the end of the war in former Yugoslavia, many refugees returned more or less voluntarily. For them the center provides help with the return, arranges for supporting sponsorships, and runs reconciliation projects in the war zones. For example, the “storytelling cafés” in which people can talk freely about their war experiences in a pleasant coffee house atmosphere.

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Linked with our presentation of Lao literature (in English and Lao). Also with Thierry Falise – Belgium & Thailand, and with Vanida S. Thephsouvanh – Laos & France.

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

She says: « I want to make the wonderful world of books accessible to all children. »

Douangdeuane Bounyavong (born 1947) is dedicated to the promotion of literacy and cultural experience through books in a country with a very limited reading tradition, due to lack of education and resources. She founded and is now directing and writing for Dokked Publishing and bookstore in Vientiane, a small independent publishing house, which focuses on titles for children and women, securing the necessary funding through successful networking abroad. She has established many libraries in rural regions and is working to improve the working conditions and quality of teachers. (Read on this 1000peacewomen site).

Douangdeuane Bounyavong – Laos

One of the foremost cultural figures of Laos, Ms. Douangdeuane Bounyavong has contributed to promoting traditional Lao culture, particularly textiles and traditional weaving techniques, and studying and disseminating Lao literature.

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