Press
A Small Shower in the Desert
This article was originally published by Scripps Howard News Service. This past weekend, I saw “Hotel Rwanda,” one of this year’s Academy Award nominees. The film tells the story of the 1994 genocide, through a personal and true tale. It was a chilling experience, not just because the notion of genocide is impossible to comprehend, […]
Press
Women’s Voices Rise as Rwanda Reinvents Itself
This article was originally published in The New York Times. The most remarkable thing about Rwanda’s Parliament is not the war-damaged building that houses it, with its bullet holes and huge artillery gashes still visible a decade after the end of the fighting. It is inside the hilltop structure, from the spectator seats of the […]
Press
Women’s Rights: Iran’s Bitter Lessons for Iraq
This article, co-authored by Swanee Hunt and Isobel Coleman, was originally published by International Herald Tribune. Before the recent elections, leading Iraqi politicians did their best to assuage concerns of their more secular compatriots by promising moderation and inclusion. But election rhetoric is not reality. An important test will be how these leaders address women’s […]
Conflict Prevention and Transformation: Women’s Vital Contributions
Inclusive Security and the United Nations Foundation hosted a consultation on the role of women in conflict prevention on February 23, 2005. The presentations and discussion highlighted examples and strategies regarding women’s conflict prevention activities and generated policy recommendations for the international community. This conference report makes a compelling case for the inclusion of women […]
Research
Women’s Contributions to South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission
In 1994, in order to address apartheid-era human rights abuses, the country created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Two important goals of the TRC were to grant amnesty to perpetrators of human rights abuses who disclosed the atrocities they committed and to break the country’s cycle of violence. Women played vital roles in the […]
Policy Brief
Implementing Peace in Sudan
With the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005, the international community began preparing for the next phase of the peace process between the North and the South—the implementation of the peace agreement and reconstruction of the country. This report offers recommendations on how to include women in institutionalizing the rule of law, […]
Research
Naga Women Making a Difference: Peace Building in Northeastern India
The end of fighting between the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) and the Indian government exposed divisions within the NSCN and among Naga factions. Although it seemed that the ceasefire could not be sustained, Naga women began taking advantage of their position as respected mothers, stepping in to stop inter-factional violence. The Naga Mothers’ […]
Research
Moving Beyond Silence: Women Waging Peace
Around the globe, women play a vital but often unrecognized role in averting violence and resolving conflict. With expertise in grassroots activism, political leadership, investigative journalism, human rights law, military reform, formal and information negotiations, transitional justice, and post-conflict reconstruction, these women bring new approaches to the security sphere process. Sustainable peace, and therefore international […]
Policy Brief
Addressing the Crisis in Darfur
A comprehensive, inclusive, and coordinated approach to the multiple conflicts in Sudan is essential. It is urgent that the relevant parties address the needs of women, support women’s peacebuilding efforts, and include women in decision-making regarding conflict resolution and reconstruction in Darfur. This publication gives specific recommendations for supporting inclusive peace negotiations in Darfur, involving […]
Press
Muslim Women in the Bosnian Crucible
In this academic piece for the journal Sex Roles, Hunt interviewed 26 Bosnian women from different ethnic, religious, and political backgrounds. Challenging misconceptions about the role of Islam in Bosnia, the women reflected on three interconnected features of their lives: “the effect on sex roles of the political turmoil of the past century, the particular […]
