IPJ Daylight Series

Thursday, October 14, 2004

2004 Women PeaceMakers Program

Lessons learned from Guatemala's Struggle for Peace and Justice

A Conversation with Luz Mendez

Luz Mendez is President of the Advisory Board of the National Union of Guatemalan Women (UNAMG), a women's association working for women's human rights, gender equality, and social justice. She led the reconstruction of UNAMG, one of the oldest Guatemalan women's organizations, which was forced into exile during the 1980s due to political repression. Working now to assist and strengthen women advocating peace processes in other countries and regions, she has worked with Hutu and Tutsi women in Burundi, women civil society leaders in Colombia, and Israeli and Palestinian women leaders, among others. She was a speaker at the first meeting that the UN Security Council held with women's organizations leading up to UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
This conversation will be moderated by Dr. Joyce Neu, IPJ Executive Director.

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Tuesday, September 14, 2004

"Rethinking Sanctions:
Lessons from the International Anti-Apartheid Movement"

Dr. Francis Njubi Nesbitt

Associate Professor of African Studies at San Diego State University

Dr. Francis Njubi Nesbitt is Associate Professor of Africana Studies at San Diego State University. His book, Race for Sanctions: African Americans against apartheid, 1946-1994was published in May 2004 by Indiana University Press. He has published numerous articles in journals such as Mots Pluriels and Critical Arts.

"A nation that is boycotted is a nation that is in sight of surrender. Apply this economic, peaceful, silent, deadly, remedy and there will be no need for force." President Woodrow Wilson, 1919
Recent studies have highlighted the effectiveness of international sanctions in blocking Saddam Hussein's efforts to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. This paper discusses the efficacy of comprehensive sanctions as an alternative to violence. Based on a study of the successful campaign to transform U.S. foreign policy and bring South Africa to its knees through international sanctions, the paper argues that human rights and peace activists should reconsider the use of sanctions as a tool of conflict resolution. Examples from South Africa, Iraq, Serbia and Libya will be used to examine the impact of sanctions.

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Wednesday, August 18, 2004

"Women's Rights in Post-Taliban Afghanistan"

Fatana Gailani

Co-sponsored with the Women's Equity Council of the United Nations Association of San Diego

Fatana Gailani, a leader in women's rights, education and health care in Afghanistan, is the founder of the Afghanistan Women’s Council, located in Peshawar, Pakistan. Gailani’s leadership extends to the Ariana School for Afghan refugees, the Mother and Child Health Clinic, which provides education and medical care to refugee families, and the Nazo Ana Clinic, a 20-bed hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, which kept its doors open throughout all five years of the Taliban regime.

AWC also manages a humanitarian relief effort for newly arrived refugees and publishes the monthly Zan-e-Afghan (Afghan Women), a journal about women and children's rights. The Afghanistan Women’s Council has worked for seventeen years to restore to Afghan women and girls the rights of employment and education, to rehabilitate the Afghan people through acts of reconciliation, and to establish friendships with similar organizations in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries.