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Women PeaceMakers ProgramMade possible by a grant from the Fred J. Hansen Foundation 2007 Women PeaceMakers Biographical Abstracts
Samia Bamieh of PalestineSamia Bamieh is a founding member and respected leader of the International Women's Commission for a Just and Sustainable Palestinian-Israeli Peace (IWC) and chairperson of its Palestinian Steering Committee. Bamieh, one of the experts who helped formulate the Palestinian government’s Plan of Action on gender after the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, was the director of gender policies and training in the Palestinian Directorate of Gender and Development of the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation. She then served in the same ministry as director of U.N. and International Organizations and director general of European Affairs, and was a member of the committee assigned to draft a Palestinian constitution under Minister Nabeel Shaath. Bamieh, a mother of two, has been involved for over 30 years in promoting women’s rights and roles in politics and decision making. Her civil society activism includes being a member of Jerusalem Link, the coordinating body of two independent women’s organizations (the Jerusalem Center for Women on the Palestinian side and the Jerusalem Women’s Action Center on the Israeli side) that promote a shared set of political principles for coexistence and the resolution of the conflict. Bamieh continues to be engaged in efforts to build a civil, political society for a future Palestinian state on two interdependent fronts: the establishment of an independent democratic state with a constitution that acknowledges pluralism and non-discrimination, and the expansion and defense of achievements of Palestinian women in their political and legal struggles. In spite of having suffered from war, occupation and disappointing peace efforts, Bamieh has chosen to take paths that allow her to support and inform new ways of thinking about the conflict and how peace and communities might be restored. ......................................................
Latifah Anum Siregar of IndonesiaLatifah Anum Siregar is a human rights lawyer, the chairperson of the Alliance for Democracy in Papua (ALDP) and an expert at the Commission for Law and Human Rights of the parliament in Papua Province, Indonesia. Although her family is from a different island, speaks a different language and practices a different religion, Siregar is a trusted, effective advocate for peace, working within the complex tribal and migrant conflicts of Papua communities. Respected for her and ALDP’s call to identify traditional laws, norms and values that could help settle land disputes, she has led the way to articulating these traditions in written law, which the Papua indigenous people can now use to negotiate with the government and migrants in the search for peaceful solutions to land conflicts. During Siregar’s student days in the early 1990s, she was the first woman chairperson of the Muslim Students Association; later in the decade she served as a member of the regional parliament in Papua Province; from 2003 to 2007 she was on the board of directors of Papua Women Solidarity; and from 2007 to 2011 she will serve as general secretary of the Papua Muslim Assembly. ......................................................
Susana Tenjoh-Okwen of CameroonSusana Tenjoh-Okwen is a teacher, community peace mediator, facilitator promoting social and economic empowerment and respected gender activist who has peacebuilding experience in two provinces of Cameroon. As technical advisor for women’s affairs in the Ashong Cultural and Development Association of Bamenda, a founding member of the Moghamo Women’s Cultural and Development Association of Cameroon and president of Moghamo Women’s Association, Tenjoh-Okwen has been working to address causes of long-standing, intertribal conflict that seldom makes international news, but that has resulted in division, displacement and trauma for many people in several regions. In uniting and educating women from different villages, she was able to overcome the hostilities of men against men at the peak of a crisis when families were being torn apart. A mother of five, Tenjoh-Okwen is also publicity secretary for the Cameroon Association of University Women (affiliated with the International Federation of University Women) and serves on the board of the Fomunyoh Foundation, a charitable organization promoting humanitarian activities and peace. Tenjoh-Okwen teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels, has many published articles on her gender work and has appeared on Cameroon television as a facilitator on peace and gender issues. ......................................................
Irina Yanovskaya of South Ossetia (Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone)Irina Yanovskaya, of South Ossetia in the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict zone, is a journalist, lawyer, chair of the NGO Journalists for Human Rights, children’s advocate focused on post-conflict healing and peace education for children, as well as the mother of four, grandmother of one and a singer in her church choir. Devoted to resolving the conflict between Ossetians and Georgians that began with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, she is an outspoken critic of media that abuses and distorts public opinion. She was recognized in 2005 among the 1,000 women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work to help war-traumatized children and women to overcome the horrors they witnessed, and for her efforts to reopen doors in mixed communities of Georgian and Ossetian people torn apart by hate and suspicion. She has given seminars and facilitated discussions among various groups within Ossetian and Georgian civil society, created summer camps for Georgian and Ossetian children and works with War Child International in Holland. A primary emphasis in all of Yanovskaya’s work and extensive writing has been to find ways to open minds to peace and respect, especially those of children and young people who have only lived in conflict and revenge.
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