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May is the month where we honor mothers - and by extension all women. One way I’ll be celebrating is by hosting my annual Mother’s Day Peace Initiative Conference on Saturday, May 5. I’d like to see everyone concerned about building peace at the Dallas Central Library auditorium from 9 am to 11 am to discuss the United Nations Security Council’s Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.
Saturday’s conference is an outgrowth of my Peace Initiative, A World of Women for World Peace, which taps into the role of women as peace makers and peace keepers. I began A World of Women for World Peace in 2001 to bring greater visibility to the women who are victims of war and aggression and the women who lead peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace-building activities in their communities.
In a region as diverse as the Dallas-Fort Worth area, many of us have ties to women and girls impacted by conflict at home and abroad. Saturday’s conference is an opportunity to hear from experts of diverse backgrounds about ways we can support peace-building locally and advocate for nonviolent resolution of conflicts globally.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security in 2000. Resolution 1325 marks the first time the Security Council addressed the disproportionate and unique impact of armed conflict on women. It also recognized the under-valued and under-utilized contributions women make to conflict prevention, peacekeeping, conflict resolution and peace-building, and stressed the importance of their equal and full participation as active agents in peace and security.
Women cannot sow the seeds of peace unless they, themselves, are safe from brutality. Yet in too many parts of the world, women and girls are subject to kidnapping, rape, slavery and assault. Sometimes economic conditions make these women’s families into victimizers, when they sell their daughters into servitude or trade them for safety from armed thugs. In other situations, cultural traditions victimize women and girls, subjecting them to circumcision and the complications that sicken and scar them for life.
Right here in this nation, women and girls are afraid to attend school in zones where gangs rampage through neighborhoods. They suffer domestic violence and sexual abuse in numbers that – if taken together - would rival many armed conflicts around the globe.
Yet the international organizations tasked with spreading peace do too little to incorporate women or their concerns.
This is one area where America can show leadership. We can cultivate powerful women leaders, such as Secretary of State Condoleza Rice and former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, who can promote peace worldwide and incorporate women’s concerns. What is more, they can serve as examples for the next generation of peace leaders. I hope the Peace Initiative conference can plant the seeds for those future leaders.
We can also be helpful by incorporating peaceful practices in our everyday lives. We can seek to work out our conflicts in a nonviolent and compassionate way. What is more, we can look for ways to make our lives more peaceful. We can practice forgiveness, reach out to help others and learn to be better listeners.
These are some of the concerns that my distinguished panel of guests will address on Saturday. Ambassador Moushira Khattab, Secretary General of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood and Member and Vice-Chair of the International Committee on the Rights of the Child will join Lucy Mashua, a Kenyan opponent of female genital mutilation and Jody Dodd, Coordinator of the North American section of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom to examine the protection of women in zones of conflict. Also participating in our discussion will be Gillian McCombs, Dean of the Central University Libraries Southern Methodist University and Chairwoman of the Women’s Foundation and Sofije Kusari a human trafficking specialist from Mosaic Family Services.
Although women are the focus of the conference, they are not the only audience. I invite all of you to join the conversation as we look for ways to increase peace in our world.
U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson is the highest-ranking Texan on the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure. She represents the 30th Congressional District, which includes downtown Dallas, Northeast, East Oak Cliff & Pleasant Grove; all of Balch Springs, De Soto, Lancaster & Hutchins and parts of Cedar Hill, Duncanville, Glen Heights, Wilmer and Ovilla.
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