In recent years, diaspora women have had a considerable degree of influence on policy agendas in conflict-affected countries on issues ranging from advocating for inclusive peace processes to pressing for sustainable development. Diaspora women, many of whom have been directly affected by war, often possess unique skills and first-hand experience of the local and global context and are well-placed to influence international policies in favour of women in war-affected countries.

Please join us for the launch of ‘United Women for Peace’ an initiative of the non-profit ‘’Women for Peace and Participation.’’ This event will highlight the role of diaspora women leaders based in the UK but who continue to advocate for inclusive and gender`-sensitive peace processes and in their home countries and the inclusion of their communities in policy making, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Indonesia, Kosovo, Libya, South Sudan and Turkey.

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Launch Event: ‘United Women for Peace

Amnesty International

The Human Rights Action Center

17 -25 New Inn Yard

London, EC2A 3EA

20 April 2017

10:00 – 14:00

Women for Peace and Participation (WPP) is organizing the event together with the Afghan SOAS Society aiming to highlight the gender aspects of peace-building in Afghanistan, specifically focused at women’s participation.

In line with UNSCR resolution 1325, supporting women as active participants of war and peace, WPP recognizes the importance of women as participants in the peace-building processes at the grass-root and policy level, which aims at achieving women’s effective participation in creating a peaceful society. The event will provide an opportunity to the speakers and audience to discuss the progress made by Afghan women on political front, with a focus on their role in the current peace process and to provide an in-depth understanding about the obstacles woman peace-builders come across during their work. Furthermore, it is to analyse how international frameworks, such as UNSCR 1325, have been supporting women in addressing these obstacles.

 

Speakers

Samira Hamidi holds a Masters (LLM) in International Human Rights Law and Practice from University of York, UK.  She is a freelance consultant and women’s rights activist. Ms. Hamidi has contributed towards women’s rights agenda through her different roles and responsibilities since 2004. She has been able to focus on policy advocacy, contribute in strategic decisions of the organizations towards women’s empowerment agenda, design and conduct conferences, trainings, workshops and advocacy events, participate in lobby initiatives at the national and international platforms. Ms. Hamidi was a member participant of National Peace Consultative Jirga in 2010 and Loya Jirga in 2011. Ms. Samira Hamidi was an elected civil society speaker to the Tokyo International Conference on Afghanistan in 2012. Ms. Hamidi is currently the Chair of the Executive Board for Afghan Women’s Network (AWN), Chair of the Human Rights Defenders Committee and member of Steering Committee of Kabul House, (an initiative to support Women Human Rights Defenders) facilitated by Afghan Women Skills Development Centre.   

 

Dr. Marissa Quie is a Research Associate in the Department of Sociology, College Lecturer in Politics at Magdalene College and Director of Studies at Lucy Cavendish College.  She was previously a Research Fellow at Queens’ College and Samuel Reichmann Fellow at Gonville and Caius College Cambridge. She received her Ph.D from Christ’s College, University of Cambridge. Her main research interests focus on the problem of peace and on the connections between peace, gender and security and regional solutions to the problem of peace.  Her research engages with the motifs of participation and protection that characterise debates about women and marginalised groups. She is currently engaged in a research project analysing the appeal of Islamic State for British women. She has done extensive consultancy work for the United Nations and for the Government of Afghanistan and has acted as an advisor to the Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Programme (APRP) which was initiated in 2010. She has been a Mentor to Afghan students at both Cambridge and Oxford. 

 

Hameed Hakimi is a Research Associate at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, in London. Previously, he has worked as a researcher at various institutions including the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Between 2014 and 2015, Hameed was an International Advisor for policy and capacity development at the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul. He has a masters degree in International Security and Global Governance from Birkbeck College, University of London; a bachelor degree in Politics from Queen Mary University of London, and training qualification in research methodologies from University of Birmingham.

 

 

Sippi Azarbaijani-Moghaddam International consultant and social scientist with 23 years’ experience in conflict and post-conflict settings, notably Afghanistan, specializing on gender issues and working with international and local governments and military actors, local leaders, civil society and communities. From the 1990s she worked on negotiating access with the Mujahideen and the Taliban to work with women in rural communities. She worked extensively with Afghan women’s NGOs and with women leaders from the Taliban period into the post-Taliban era. She has published extensively on women in Afghanistan. She is currently doing a PhD in International Relations the University of St Andrews.

 

 

Quhramaana Kakar is the founder and director of Women for Peace and Participation. She works for women’s empowerment in the areas of leadership development through political participation in peacebuilding, and international development with special focus on women’s and vulnerable individual’s economic development and their inclusion at the policy level. She is N-Peace 2012 Role Model for Peace awardee, currently providing support to UN peace-network as advisor on the strategic board. She has been advising policy makers and politicians advocating for the rights of women and vulnerable communities in Europe and US on international intervention in Afghanistan. Besides her role with international community she was the Gender Advisor for the Afghanistan Peace and Reconciliation Program, to ensure that women’s interests are considered and integrated in the peace process. She holds an Mphil from the University of Cambridge, a master in Public Policy from Germany, a master in development economics and a master in Business Administration.

 

Marika Theros is a human rights and organizational development expert with more than 12 years’ experience working at the intersection of public policy, academia and civil society.  She provides strategic and programmatic advice on issues related to human rights and civil society to a range of organizations. She is currently a senior researcher at the Institute for State Effectiveness in Washington DC. At the London School of Economics (LSE), she contributes to the Civil Society Research Program (JSRP), particularly on issues of accountability, justice, and conflict in Afghanistan.  She also serves on the executive committee of the London Transitional Justice Network and is completing her Doctorate at the Department for International Development at LSE.