Mois : juillet 2007

Linked with the West Africa Early Warning & Response Network WARN, and with the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding WANEP.

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

She says: « The economic promotion of women is one of the fundamental ways of giving women a sense of dignity ».

Read: Religions for Peace.

Sorry, I can not find any photo of Cissé Hadja Mariama Sow, Guinea (see also my comment ‘Brave women without photos‘).

She works for l’Union des Femmes Oulémas de Guinée UFOG, for the Coordination Office of the Associations of the Muslim Women of Guinea, (both not found in the internet), and for the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding WANEP.

Cissé Hadja Mariama Sow was born into a large Peuhl family in the region of Labé in Guinea and is a national of that country today. She is president of the Union of Oulémas Women of Guinea (UFOG) and has had a brilliant political and professional career. She is married and is the mother of eight children. Mariama Sow has never given up work despite her advanced age since, according to her, there are always challenges and it is necessary to confront them.

The success of her work is measured by how she propelled Guinean women into an African women’s movement. The fight of Guinean women under Ahmed Sékou Touré (1958-1984) was so well conducted that she served as a reference for women of other African countries, especially French-speaking countries.

Hadja Mariame Sow had a lot to do with raising the consciousness of Guinean people.

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

She says: « My trick is to talk to people using ordinary language in an ordinary manner that allows them to relate to my cause. It’s ineffective to raise yourself above the people whose support you want ».

Katsuko Nomura – Japan, 2004 (in interview)

She works for the Livelihood Cooperative Association, for the Women’s Occupational Association, and for the Laborers’ Families’ Organization.
Further she had worked for the Consumers’ Union of Japan, and she founded the Overseas Citizens’ Activities Information Center, as also the Information Center for Public Citizens.
(Sorry, no website found with an english text for one of these NGOs, they may exist in Japanese).

Katsuko Nomura, called the pioneer of Japan’s NGO movement, has helped to ensure social justice for Japan’s citizens for more than half a century.

After the war, appalled by the scarcity of food, Katsuko lobbied general headquarters for a consumer cooperative law. As a result, the Japan Life Society Cooperative Law was passed in 1948. The law placed more rights into the hands of consumers, who as a result became more effective in solving the problems of daily life in post-war Japan.

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Linked with Southern African Regional Poverty Network SARPN, with Assessing the Scope of National and Supra-National Parliaments to Form African Policies, and with African NGOs and the Pan African Parliament.

Gertrude Ibengwe Mongella is the president of the Pan-African Parliament. She was born in 1945 in Ukerewe, Lake Victoria, Tanganyika, Tanzania.

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

She is also a Better World Hero.

She says: « If we are to remain free, if we are to enjoy the full benefits of Africa’s rich resources, we must unite to plan for our total defence and full exploitation of our material and human means in the full interest of our peoples. To go it alone will limit our horizons, curtail our expectations and threaten our liberty ». (full text).

She says also:  » … the problem (of youth joblessness) largely contributes to fast spread of AIDS as some jobless youths have turned to immoral practices for their livelihood. (full text).

Contact information of Pan-African Parliament.

Gertrude Ibengwe Mongella – Tanzania

She is member of of the following groups:

• Southern African Regional Poverty Network SARPN;
• The Tanzania Association of Women Leaders in Agriculture and Environment TAWALE;
• Society for Women and Aids in Africa Tanzania Branch SWAAT;
• Tanzania Dental Association TDA;
• United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, board of trustees: on UN.org/, and on Dept. of Foreign Affairs ZA;
• Meaendeleo ya Wanawake Ukeuewe MAWAU.

Until the African parliament is elected by universal suffrage in early 2009, some its resolutions still require confirmation by the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government. All the other institutions of the AU government, including the African Union Commission, are subordinate to, and accountable to the Parliament. (full long text on her activities).

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Linked with The BEIJING COMMITTEE in GUATEMALA, and with CLADEM, the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights.

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

She says: « Fight for earning rights » … and: « No matter how big or small my knowledge is, it must be for the good of the women of my country » … and: « These generations are not submissive anymore. They demand autonomy, both collectively and for the individual. It is important and therefore it is worth fighting for ».

She says also: « Peace is the basis of democracy. Without democracy there is no peace. All men and women must become part of our commitment to give it life all over the world. Peace is not an isolated condition. If that harmony is going to be produced there must be articulation in an international context. Conflicts must be resolved by dialogue and negotiation. The mechanism of coercion as a means of bringing about decisions must be rejected. There cannot be any harmony within a framework of inequality and oppression. Peace is the fundamental aim ».

Alicia Amalia Rodríguez Illescas – Guatemala

She works for the Beijing Committee in Guatemala.

And she says: « When the confrontation is between women that means that you already have a lot to do, for example, to develop a critical consciousness. This is a pending item even if it is part of the process, and that is frustrating. We give ourselves the right to suffer and cry, to question why things are the way they are, but we must rise to the occasion. We must do what we have to do » … and: « We Guatemalan women have begun the process: to dream of peace, to commence the transition in order to build a different State. As in the rest of the world, the oppression of women and indigenous people is an unresolved matter ».

Alicia Amalia Rodríguez Illescas (57) is mother, diplomat, Doctor in Political Science, professor, feminist, promoter of laws, and defender of the human rights of women. She has built her life on wisdom, uprightness and devotion. She dedicates her life to engineering a better future. Along with other women, she rebels, makes proposals and takes decisions.

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