février 2008 – Page 4 – World People's Blog

Pauline Tangiora – New Zealand

Pauline Tangiora is a Maori elder from the Rongomaiwahine Tribe on the East Coast of the North Island of Aotearoa (New Zealand). She is the former president and currently vice president of Womens International League for Peace & Freedom WILPF Aotearoa, (their Homepage), former representative for the World Council for Indigenous Peoples, a member of the Earth Council and an Earth Charter commissioner. (She is also) life member of the Maori Women’s Welfare League, and a committee member of Rigoberta Menchu Tum Nobel Laureate Indigenous Initiative for Peace. Pauline Tangiora has represented Aotearoa (see also on wikipedia) at many international meetings for peace, the environment, spiritual well-being and indigenous rights. In 2005 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as part of the 1000 Women for Peace project. Pauline Tangiora is one of the 50 Council Members of the World Future Council (see also on wikipedia), an international organization created by Right Livelihood Award founder, Jakob von Uexkull, which works for a sustainable future in the fields of environment, governance, human development and human rights and peace. (see on betterworld heroes)

Listen her video on brightcove, 5.13 min, added Jul 27, 2007.

Pauline Tangiora – New Zealand

She works also for the World Forum for Fisher Peoples WFFP, (see also on nyeleni), for the Indigenous Initiative for Peace, as an ‘outreach workers’ for the Peace Foundation, for the Mahia Office of the peace.net. She has represented Aotearoa at many international peace, indigenous and human rights conferences, and was a Consultant to the International Steering Committee of the World Court Project (see them on the Disarmament & Security Centre, and on the world court project). She has written papers on health, the environment, indigenous issues, spiritual well-being and peace.

Find her publications on Disarmament & Security Centre;

She says: « People who recognise that others have something to share must make themselves available too. I’m humbled to be able to offer our basket of the spirit for others to draw from, as well as to learn from other participants to increase my own awareness of what is happening in the world”. (dropping knowledge.org).

Charity (is) not the answer, says fisher-folk.

She says also: “My idea of government is that you run a country not with a party stick but with what you really have to offer. People come together with all their skills from whatever background and work for the benefit of the whole community. »

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Flavia Agnes – India

Linked with MAJLIS, with Bilkis Bano’s Brave Fight.

Flavia Agnes is a women’s rights lawyer and writer and has been actively involved in the women’s movement for the last two decades. She has written extensively on issues of domestic violence, feminist jurisprudence and minority rights. Her books are widely acclaimed and are popular among advocates, paralegal workers, law students and women who have been victims of domestic violence. Currently she co-ordinates the legal centre of MAJLIS and is also engaged in her doctoral research on Property Rights of Married Women with the National Law School of India. (SPARROW online).

She is named as Ashoka Fellow.

Her book: Women and Law in India: An Omnibus Comprising/introduction by Flavia Agnes. New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2004, 676 pages, $39. ISBN 0-19-566767-0

Flavia Agnes – India

She works for MAJLIS.

Times Foundation rewards women achievers.

Law and Gender Inequality maps the issue of gender and law reform upon a broad canvas of history and politics, and explores strategies which could safeguard women’s rights within India’s sphere of complex social and political boundaries. Written in a lucid style, this book provides an invaluable analysis of the current trends of the debate on the Uniform Civil Code and goes on to expose the communal undertones of some recent judicial pronouncements. Readership: The book will be of interest to scholars and students of law, gender studies, activists and NGOs. (webstore).

CHALLENGING THE LAW: WOMEN’S STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY IN INDIA POST-GUJARAT.

What is most significant is the fact that Flavia married after high school was a battered mother of three. Way back in the Seventies she came to a women’s group in Mumbai for support. It took her a long time to break free of the marriage and the domestic violence within it. Once she did, she penned a very moving autobiography called My story…Our Story of Rebuilding Broken Lives. The story was widely translated into different languages including Punjabi. A decade ago a play based on her life story was presented in Punjabi all over Punjab with Paramjit Tewari as director.(full text).

Domestic Violence Act.

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Hyun-Sook Lee – South Korea

Linked with Women Making Peace WMP.

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

Hyun-Sook Lee is the cofounder and former Executive Director of Women Making Peace, an organization established in 1997 with the goal of creating a culture of peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula. She helped open the door between North and South Korea by getting the first humanitarian aid to the North and encouraging the first people-to-people visits. Hyun-Sook is also cofounder of the Korea Women’s Hotline, which provides guidance and support to victims of domestic abuse, and which was instrumental in establishing domestic and sexual violence as criminal acts in South Korea.

She says: « We have suffered for over half a century. That is too much. We firmly believe it is now time to live together with parents, sisters, brothers, all our families, in a reunited, peaceful Korea ».

Hyun-Sook Lee – South Korea.

She works for Women Making Peace WMP: in english, in korean; for the Council of Unification Education, and for the Global Partnership for Prevention of Armed Conflict, Northeast Asia Region GPPAC (people building peace).

Hyun-Sook Lee She seeks to open the door wider in this century and is challenging those who continue to rattle swords, both in her country and abroad. Women Making Peace is a multi-dimensional organization that views gender equality, demilitarization, denuclearization, respect for human rights, and the eventual reunification of North and South Korea as several of the necessary steps to making peace a reality. Like the organization she co-founded, Hyun-Sook is a multi-faceted and passionate activist for peace, devoted to building the women`s movement in South Korea.

This wife and mother is steadfast in her support of democratization efforts and helps to educate the international community about the plight of the Korean peninsula.

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Shereen Sazawar – Afghanistan

Linked with The Afghan Independent Journalists Association, and with The price of free speech.

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

Shereen Maira Sazawar, born in Afghanistan, is a talented journalist. She writes regularly in the local newspapers on issues concerning women and human rights. She is an active member of the Women’s Council in Mazar-e-Sharif. For the past three decades Shereen has been active through the media and has also penned numerous poems in Dari and Uzbeki. She has recently written an article in a local newspaper about the grievous condition of women and the degrading attitude of the warlords towards them, thus risking her life and attracting accusations of blasphemy by the religious extremists.

She says: « Peace is the continuation of life … Peace is life ».

Shereen Sazawar – Afghanistan

She works for the Journalist Association of Afghanistan JAA, for the Women’s Council in Mazar-e-Sharif, and for the Independent Writers Association IWA. No one of these associations was found, but see below some links for Afghan women and Afghan Journalists).

Maria Shereen Sazawar was born in 1956 in Emam Sahib Village of Sar-e-Pil province. She received her early education at Mirman Khatool girls’ school. Due to her family’s unstable financial conditions she could not pursue her higher education.

But, later she joined the work in a local newspaper and for 28 yaers she has been an eminent journalist and correspondent for the Balkh Print Media. She also wrote several poems in both Dari and Uzbeki languages. All her poems are about peace, love, patriotism, ending of violence against women and peaceful coexistence. Many of her poems and articles are printed in several local and national newspapers and magazines.

During the Taliban era, that banned the education of girls and women, she was involved in providing home schooling for girls and women, which put her life at grave risk from the Taliban guerrillas. She has been selected as representative of women from Balkh area to both the Emergency Loya Jriga and Constitution loya Jirga.

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Tony Colman – England

Linked with The World Future Council, and with africa practice.com.

Anthony John Colman (born July 24, 1943) was the Labour member of Parliament for Putney, Former Labour MP for Putney London. He won the seat in the 1997 election, defeating David Mellor, but lost it in 2005 to Justine Greening. Before being elected to Parliament he was a councillor and leader of London Borough of Merton between 1991 and 1997. He also enjoyed a successful career in business which included being a director of the Burton Group. Since 2006 he is a founding member of the World Future Council … (wikipedia).

He says: « Constituency casework is the area in which I can make most difference to people’s lives. For example, I helped a woman retain her part-time job and incapacity benefit and restored, she said, « her faith in humanity and in politics ». (guardian).

Listen his short video: Tony Colman talks about the World Future Council, 1.54 min, August 02, 2006.

Tony Colman – England

His intervention in the House of Commons debates, 25 November 2004: about United Nations Industrial Development Organisation.

The fourth meeting in the series was entitled Ahead of the Curve: Why the UN needs the capacity to think. This meeting was chaired by Tony Colman MP, Chair of All Party Parliamentary Group on the UN; and the (full text).

More bios:

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