Women, Peace and Security Network Africa (WIPSEN-A)
Gbowee was a 17 year-old girl when the war first came to Monrovia, and as she says, she turned “from a child into an adult in a matter of hours.” Gbowee joined the Woman in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET) and quickly rose to leadership. She brought all the women of the Christian Churches together into a group called the Christian Women’s Initiative and began issuing a series of calls for peace. Soon she formed a coalition with the women in the Muslim organizations in Monrovia, which eventually became Liberian Mass Action for Peace. Under Gbowee leadership, the coalition managed to force a meeting with Charles Taylor and extract a promise from him to attend peace talks in Ghana. She then led a delegation of Liberian women to Ghana to continue to apply pressure on the warring factions during the peace process. Gbowee’s work with the Liberian Mass Action for Peace was featured in the acclaimed documentary, Pray the Devil Back to Hell. (Click here to watch a preview of Pray the Devil Back to Hell )
Gbowee has been honored by multiple organizations. She has been awarded the Blue Ribbon for Peace by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and in May 2009 she accepted the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award® on behalf of her countrywomen. In addition, Gbowee has won the 2009 Gruber Women’s Rights Prize, which honors an individual who has brought about significant advances in the quest for peace and gender equality in Africa. In July 2009, the Celebrate Africa 2009 Committee honored Gbowee and WIPNET during their annual celebration in Philadelphia at the African–American Museum and she was named a Living Legend in March 2009 by Emmanuel Brinklow Seventh Day Adventist Church. In April 2010, she was awarded the John Jay Justice Award. She recently received the Livia Award from the Livia Foundation in Denmark and the World Association of Girls Guide 1st Centenary Award in Oxfordshire UK.
Watch a preview of Gbowee’s incredible story, and the story of the thousands of courageous Liberian women who came together to bring peace to their shattered country, in Pray the Devil Back to Hell here.Pray the Devil Back to Hell will kick off the upcoming WIDE ANGLE mini series, Women, War & Peace. The series challenges the conventional wisdom that war and peace are male domains, and places women at the center of an urgent dialogue about conflict and security in the post-Cold War era, where globalization, arms trafficking, and illicit trade have intersected to create a whole new type of war.
The Women Peace and SecurityNetwork Africa (WIPSEN-Africa) was established on 8th May, 2006 under the lawsof the Republic of Ghana as a women-focused, women-led Pan-AfricanNon-Governmental Organization with the core mandate to promote women'sstrategic participation and leadership in peace and security governance inAfrica. Over the last two decades and especially since the adoption of theUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women Peace and Security inOctober 2000, women the world over have been engaged in activities that aim at(re)building particularly war-torn societies, restoring relationships andpromoting social cohesion.
InAfrica, the involvement of women in peacebuilding gained prominence during thetwo decades of violent conflicts/wars that saw and resulted in the mobilizationof women across all sectors to find lasting solutions and take action. Variousapproaches were used with the aim of achieving this purpose but forWIPSEN-Africa, such strategic engagement must be systematic and requiresproactivity, access to timely and accurate information, knowledge of the issuearea, and specialized skills.
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