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News, features and analysis from around the world.

  • NGO WG: Monthly Action Points for the UN Security Council - March 2012
    05/Mar/2012
    As a member of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, we are pleased to share the latest Monthly Action Points (MAP) for the UN Security Council for March 2012.
  • Femicide: A Global Problem - New Research Note
    01/Mar/2012
    This Research Note confirms the importance of the focus and work of members of the IANSA Women’s Network around the world. It states, “Firearms play an important role in lethal violence, and the display of firearms—as a means to intimidate, threaten, or coerce someone—is a predictor of their actual use."
  • Call for applications: The Women PeaceMakers Programme
    29/Feb/2012
    This is an exciting opportunity for IANSA women. The Women PeaceMakers Programme of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice (IPJ) of the University of San Diego, California is calling for applications from peacemakers to participate in an eight-week residency during 2012.
  • Israel: Gun Free Kitchen Tables - Activity Report 2011
    28/Feb/2012
    This activity report for 2011 from the Gun Free Kitchen Tables (GFKT) project highlights progress and the tangible momentum achieved in 2011 to demand enforcement of an existing Israeli law restricting security guards’ authorisation to bear arms, to the guards' worksites only.
  • Canada: Outrage at approval to destroy the long-gun registry
    15/Feb/2012
    This news from Canada reminds us of the essential and important work of IANSA women and members around the world, working on laws and policies at national level to help prevent and reduce gun violence. In a week where most focus is on the UN Preparatory Committee on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) it also reminds us that we need more than an ATT to help tackle the global gun crisis, and we need to stand together to support each other in our struggles.
  • New resource: Women Under Siege
    13/Feb/2012
    ‘Women Under Siege’ a project of the Women’s Media Center documents how rape and other forms of sexualised violence have been used as tools in genocide and conflict throughout the 20th century and into the 21st. This website will be a very useful resource as we further develop positions for negotiations on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) taking place in July 2012, in our advocacy for measures to prevent gender based violence and sexual violence against women to be included in the ATT.
  • IANSA women at WINAD to champion UNDP Caribbean Human Development Report
    08/Feb/2012
    The active work of IANSA women on security and gender issues in Trinidad and Tobago has been recognised by UNDP. UNDP has invited WINAD to be one of its champions for the very first Caribbean Human Development Report themed "Human Development and the Shift to Better Citizen Security" launched on 8 February 2012. Included amongst the report’s recommendations is, “In the short term there is a need to reduce access to illegal firearms and to better manage the access to legal ones.”
  • P@x: Focus on sexual violence in amed conflicts
    06/Feb/2012
    IANSA women at the Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra in Portugal have released the latest issue of their online bulletin P@x. This edition focuses on ‘Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts’ one of the most controversial and difficult topics in the realm of the reflection on the history of war and, in particular, the wars of the 20th century. The articles provide useful insight and background as we prepare for the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) Preparatory Committee from 13-17 February 2012, and in our advocacy for measures to prevent gender based violence and sexual violence against women to be included in the ATT.
  • NGO WG: Monthly Action Points for the UN Security Council - February 2012
    05/Feb/2012
    As a member of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, we are pleased to share the latest Monthly Action Points (MAP) for the UN Security Council.
  • US: Too Many Victims of Gun Violence Are Women
    23/Jan/2012
    This article by Hedi Yewman, author of ‘Beyond The Bullet’ was published in Ms. Magazine on 7 January 2012 and highlights the range of impacts of gun violence on women and girls, and those who survive.
  • India: A lone battle against war
    09/Jan/2012
    It was Christmas Eve, the year was 2004. I still vividly remember the events of that day. The tragedy that befell the Wabgai Lamkhai village of Thoubal district in Manipur left a deep and lasting impression on my mind. I was witness to the cold-blooded killing of 27-year-old Buddhi Moirangthem.
  • India: IANSA woman shares experience in Sunday Pioneer article
    04/Jan/2012
    An article by IANSA woman, Binalakshmi Nepram, has been published in the Sunday Pioneer newspaper and includes details about her first-hand experience of gun violence in India and efforts to control small arms.
  • NGO WG: Monthly Action Points for the UN Security Council - January 2012
    03/Jan/2012
    As a member of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, we are pleased to share the latest Monthly Action Points (MAP) for the UN Security Council for January 2012.
  • PRIO Gender, Peace and Security Update: 2011
    02/Jan/2012
    The latest edition of PRIO's 'Gender, Peace and Security Update' for 2011 has a special focus on the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize and highlights some of the many civil society events that took place in Oslo during the Nobel Days.
  • Religion, Women and Peacebuilding Seminar Series Launched
    19/Dec/2011
    The Religions for Peace Global Women of Faith Network, in collaboration with United Nations Women, Princeton University Office for Religious Life, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Ford Foundation, The Salvation Army International Social Justice Commission, The Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations and The Institute for Global Engagement, launched an ongoing seminar on “Religion, Women and Peacebuilding” on Tuesday December 6th 2011.
  • NGO WG: Monthly Action Points for the UN Security Council - December 2011
    18/Dec/2011
    As a member of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, we are pleased to share the latest Monthly Action Points (MAP) for the UN Security Council for December 2011.
  • 6 December: Remembering the Montreal Massacre
    06/Dec/2011
    For 45 minutes on 6, December 1989 an enraged gunman roamed the corridors of Montreal's École Polytechnique and killed 14 women with his .22-calibre rifle. Marc Lepine, 25, separated the men from the women and before opening fire on the classroom of female engineering students, he screamed, "I hate feminists." Almost immediately, the Montreal Massacre became a galvanizing moment in which mourning turned into outrage about all violence against women.
  • Indian women 'gun survivors' urge for disarmament
    23/Nov/2011
    From 21 to 23 November 2011, the Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network and Control Arms Foundation of India organised a three day art and craft exhibition, around the theme 'Weaving Disarmament', to spread the message of peace and disarmament amid growing conflict. This article provides background information and shares key messages from the event.
  • USA: New PBS television series 'Women, War & Peace'
    21/Nov/2011
    Women, War & Peace is a new five-part PBS television series challenging the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men's domain. The series reveals what IANSA Women have known for years: how the post-Cold War proliferation of small arms has changed the landscape of war, with women becoming primary targets and suffering unprecedented casualties; yet, they are simultaneously emerging as necessary partners in brokering lasting peace and as leaders in forging new international laws governing conflict.
  • South Korea: Article on women's activism against militarisation
    21/Nov/2011
    This article in Open Democracy brings attention to the role of women in disarmament and the challenges they face in making their voices heard, and makes links to the work of IANSA Women. Calling for international action to stop to the construction of a military base in South Korea, Rebecca Johnson, Director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, highlights the contradictions between the absence of women from discussions at a UN conference on disarmament and the activism of local women against plans to build the naval base in Jeju Island. She shows how the base threatens to destroy the livelihoods of the iconic women shellfish divers and raise levels of rape and prostitution in the surrounding villages.