Getting To Peace in the Middle East
The Role of Women in Changing Threat Perceptions
International Women’s Day Disarmament Seminar
4 March 2009
Room IX, Palais des Nations
13h15 - 17h

Statement to the Conference on Disarmament

Since 1984, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has worked with other NGOs to organise a seminar linking 8 March – International Women's Day – with disarmament, peace and security issues.   Each year, a report and statement from the NGO conference has been read into the record of the Conference on Disarmament (CD), the only official oral statement from NGOs to this body.

In 2009, the International Women’s Day disarmament seminar will concentrate on the security challenges in the Middle East, specifically on the threat perceptions that create a perceived need for a reliance on military means, including weapons of mass destruction, to provide security.  Speakers will address the impact of media as well as other actors in creating and sustaining the perception of imminent danger, imminent threat.   The seminar will also provide an opportunity to brainstorm about how others in the international community can better understand these threat perceptions, and help shift them to create the conditions for negotiations on both peace agreements and weapons of mass destruction free zone agreements. 

Building on the success of the 2008 seminar, that focused on the roles and responsibilities of women in conflict prevention and peace building, this seminar will examine the complex issues in the Middle East and the efforts that women are taking there to de-escalate current conflicts, and to shift governmental spending priorities from the false sense of military security to true human and sustainable security. 

The goal of a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction has been repeatedly affirmed by all states in the region, as well as the international community at the highest political levels.   In preparation for the 2010 nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, many states have raised the issue of the status of implementation of the 1995 resolution on the Middle East.  It has been repeatedly affirmed that this resolution cannot be implemented without; at least, concurrent discussions on the Middle East peace process overall.  The roadmap to peace between Palestine and Israel is known; it was defined decades ago through UN brokered principles and resolutions.  Another paper roadmap is not needed; what is needed is the road.  This seminar will pave the way for creative thinking about new actors and new actions needed to build and hopefully walk down this road. 

Back in 1984 WILPF sought to bring the voices of the vibrant and particularly active women’s disarmament movement of the 1980’s to the Conference on Disarmament, but also saw a need to educate and inform this movement about steps being taken toward disarmament through the UN system.  WILPF has continued this effort because despite the adoption of Security Council resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security in 2000, women’s voices and perspectives continue to be routinely underrepresented in security and disarmament decision-making. 

Speakers include:

Sharon Dolev, peace and human rights activist, head of the Regional Peace Movement for the promotion of the Arab Peace Initiative and runs the Greenpeace Mediterranean campaign against nuclear weapons.  Sharon is the author of a recent article entitled “A Lefty in Israel”, which has been reprinted in hundreds of places around the world.

Jonathan Frerichs, World Council of Churches programme executive for nuclear disarmament and the Middle East, is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Jonathan has published extensively on issues to nuclear weapons and the Middle East.

Kerstin Grebäck, International President, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.  Kerstin was the Secretary-General of WILPF Sweden from 1990-95, and was involved in the creation of the Standing Committee on the Middle East, very actively fundraising and supporting the work of a women's peace initiative Jerusalem Link, as well as arranging the first meeting in East Jerusalem with the Palestinian and Israeli WILPF sections.  In 1993 she led WILPF Sweden in building support for the women in former Yugoslavia and together with many representatives from the Swedish peace and women’s movement started the network Kvinna till Kvinna (which means Woman to Woman in Swedish) of which she was President and Secretary-General at different periods.

Moderated by Annelise Ebbe, International President, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

The Seminar will be followed by an NGO Strategy session.

This seminar is co-sponsored by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the Geneva NGO Working Group on Peace, and Femmes Africa Solidarite.