2000 - Special Washington & New-York

On October 17, 2000, a group of six women living in conflict areas addressed Ms. Fréchette, UN deputy Secretary-General and Ms. King, Special advisor to the secretary-general on women's issues.

They were :

1. Mathilde Kayitesi, from Rwanda ;
2. Mayada Abassi, from Palestine ;
3. Nazand Begikhani, from Kurdistan ;
4. Fahima Vorgatts, from Afghanistan ;
5. Erika Papp, from Yugoslavia ;
6. Marta Buritica, from Colombia.

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1. Introduction - Mathilde Kayitesi, Rwanda

Madam Fréchette, Honourable Representatives of National Delegations, Friends:

I am Mathilde Kayitesi and, based on the very painful experience of Rwanda and the subregion of the Great Lakes, I speak of the international community's ineptitude in conflict management, which led to the most ignoble crime of humankind, namely, genocide.

We, the women who have come from the four corners of the Earth, are here as living witnesses of thousands of women who suffer acts of violence and injustice caused by armed conflict. We thank you for accepting to listen to us. We represent no country, no political or religious tendency. Our testimony and our demands are on behalf of all women who experience war.

I wish to mention a number of African countries that, like other countries in the world, are suffering the impact of war right now-countries like Angola, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea. I want to stress the crucial importance of the immediate implementation of Security Council resolutions, specifically those denouncing the illegal arms and diamond trade. The continual exploitation of our peoples and our natural resources to the benefit of the multinationals of rich countries is strengthened by the immoral but legally permitted use of arms and violence.

We entreat all member States to respect their commitments as expressed in the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the many resolutions made over the past decades in the UN assemblies.

I will now give the floor to Madam Mayada Abassi, from Palestine.

2. Ms. Mayada Abassi, Palestine

Ladies and gentlemen, honourable representatives of the States of the world. I speak to you as a Palestinian woman whose people are currently-and have for the past 52 years-been experiencing the most severe rights violations and repression. You must put an immediate end to the bloodshed of the Palestinians committed by the Israeli army and government . In two weeks 102 Palestinians, including 20 children, have been killed and over 3000 people wounded, among them dozens of children who have been blinded.

The Israeli army is using sophisticated weaponry--armoured tanks and missiles launched from helicopters-against the civilian population. The armed settlers are attacking the villages and terrorizing the inhabitants.

We are outraged by a so-called peace process that is not taking into account the fundamental rights of the Palestinians and that is continuing to reinforce the occupier in the confiscation of our land for the construction of additional settlements, the destruction of our homes, the imprisonment of our sons and husbands, and the takeover of our holy places.

We demand that the United Nations use all means at their disposal to force Israel to respect international law and UN resolutions concerning the Palestinian people, as you do with other States, and bring to an end the total impunity with which Israel is violating the legitimate human rights of my people. Your double standard policy must cease.We demand that the international community assure the protection of the Palestinian people. The occupier must withdraw from all Palestinian territories that have been occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem.

Only the attainment of a just peace will allow the two people, Palestinian and Israeli, as well as all the people of the Middle East Region to live and to prosper.

I am now introducing to you Ms. Nazand Begikhani from Kurdistan

3. Ms. Nazand Begikhani from Kurdistan

Madame Fréchette, honourable delegations to the UN.

I am a Kurdistani woman bringing the message of millions of women deprived of their basic human rights and status in all parts of Kurdistan who resist and struggle for a better world.

Kurdish women, like all those living in similar situations, are subjected to all forms of racial, ethnic, religious, social, economic and gender discrimination. They are experiencing on a daily basis all forms of violence such as genocide, mass destruction of towns and villages, imprisonment, deportation, forced assimilation, and rape, at the hands of the State-Nations governing different parts of Kurdistan. Also they are subjected to, and fight against domestic violence practised in the form of honour killing, mutilation, early and forced marriage.

This reality is the most virulent expression of violence and discrimination experienced by women from minorities all over the world.

With solidarity and in their name, we demand that the UN takes the following actions, actively involving women from the very beginning:
1) immediately take measures to end war and all forms of violence in Kurdistan;
2) ensure justice, democracy, peace and respect of human, cultural, linguistic and political identities.
3) bring pressure to bear on the States governing different parts of Kurdistan to

a) ratify and implement without reservation all the conventions and covenants relating to human rights,
b) provide the necessary resources to reconstruct, compensate and apologise for the losses inflicted by war;

Je passe maintenant la parole à Fahima Vorgatts

4. Fahima Vorgatts, from Afghanistan

Dramatically taking off her purdha (sp?) Ms Vorgatts got a standing ovation from the audience

Extremist regimes and dictatorships are the fertile ground in which weapons trade and big economic interests reinforce each other. Nowhere is this toxic mixture more evident with its devastating effects on women than in Afghanistan.

Afghan women as women in countries such as Burma, Algeria, Sudan, Iran, are deprived of their human rights. In Afghanistan they are barred from seeking the most basic health assistance, deprived of all education opportunities and freedom of movement, and constricted to sub-human living conditions. More concretely, they are beaten openly in the streets, stoned and burned to death.

I am here as the voice of millions of Afghan and other women in the world that are abandoned by the United Nation and its constituent states.

We demand
1. that all weapons sales and shipments to Afghanistan and all others countries that contravene the most basic human rights of their citizens be stopped immediately ;
2. that political recognition to illegitimate and extremist regimes such as the Taliban is not given;
3. that all violators of human rights be arraigned before the International Criminal Court ;
4. that practical measures be implemented immediately for the re-instatement of all women's rights which are human rights.

Anyone claiming to be a defender of justice, peace, equality and development must support around the world the women's struggle in against extremists of all stripes or religions.

Ms Erika Papp will now take the floor.

5. Ms Erika Papp, from Yugoslavia

I represent all those women from Serbia and the Vojvodina who bravely completed a pre-election women's campaign in Yugoslavia. I also speak on behalf of all those women in the world who oppose repression and with undefeatable hope and commitment work on combating poverty.

Our campaign in Serbia mobilised a great number of women and made an important contribution to changes we desired so much. Yet, after more than a decade of wars and sanctions, the lessons learned are clear and applicable to all countries in similar situation.

Isolating a country only reinforces hardcore dictatorships.

Such regimes generate fear, hatred, and intolerance, resulting in multi-fold and complex conflicts that facilitate war profiteering, mafia-type economy and wide scale trade of arms, drugs and trafficking. Mass killings and genocide are often and dramatically also part of the pictures.

In most cases the international community is reluctant, the present structure of the Security Council is immobilistic, and if and when the interventions occur, they risk to contribute to the absolute rule of the dictators.

These dictators' impunity mustn't be tolerated and to that end a system of justice must be introduced that includes reparation rather than only accusation. Therefore, a real concept of democracy should be re-invented, a democracy that includes the feminine vision of a world order of respect and human security.
This process should include vital reforms and democratisation within the Security Council starting with the elimination of the right to veto.

Women's Groups must be effectively involved as partners in this work.

I will now ask Marta Buritica -from Colombia to conclude our presentation.

6. Marta Buritica, from Colombia

The women of Colombia, the women of the world do not want to bear more children for war.

We denounce the double standard implicit in the wars waged in our countries. We want to expose the responsibility of international organizations and the international political system, the United Nations and its Security Council.

The double standard is part of the complicity in maintaining the silence surrounding the arms industry, one of the most profitable in the developed countries. This is a global, productive business; it is also immoral but legitimized by free trade. Thus the industry of death travels from country to country, giving rise to and then feeding on religious, ethnic, territorial and political conflict.

And so while there is talk about human rights, war is encouraged and conflict, exacerbated.

Given this reality, humanitarian aid plays its role: to prevent peoples from completely succumbing to war and to call for formal peace that allows such aid to continue.

The illegal arms trade is part and parcel of the business of drug trafficking and the international market of women and children for the sex trade.

Therefore, we women propose to fight to destroy the arms industry, and we declare that we do not want to bear more children for war. We will fight so that our sons and daughters do not wish for guns to play with; so that they wish for a flute, a hoe or a telescope to give free rein to their creativity and imagination; so they can dream of a free world. These are conditions we can think about and build our dimension of peaceful coexistence.

The six presenters stood up, holding hands and proclaiming: 'END ALL WARS'
- The audience stood up and joined in chanting this most felt wish by all.

Celebrating WILPF's 85th anniversary - "if you want peace, live peace and prepare for peace"