I often say my social activist life can be summed up, “from Selma to Soweto with a feminist perspective.”  So, to be with friends from many decades at The Feminist Press kick-off event for their 40th anniversary year was a sheer joy.  Award recipients included: Arianna Huffington, the trailblazing founder of Huffington Post; Taslina Nasrin, an extraordinarily brave Muslim physician, writer and human rights activist from Bangladesh; and Rhonda Copelon, a groundbreaking human rights attorney who worked at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Huffington spoke of a “tribe of women” who as feminists are pioneering a way “to succeed differently than men.”  Nzarin said, “as an exile I have no home; but I have a home with you.”   Copelon said, “a... more

I’d worked with diplomats and women’s rights activists from several nations to promote the passage in 2000 of 1325, a UN Security Council Resolution that mandates the protection, participation and promotion of women and their involvement in all aspects of peace processes.  Last week, during the opening of 64th UN General Assembly, I attended “Peace and Security through Women’s Leadership: Acting on 1325 and Climate Change” chaired by Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Tarja Halonen of Finland.  They once again declared a call to action for implementation of 1325 before its 10th anniversary next year.  They also focused on the incorporation of a gender perspective to be included in the negotiations for a new agreement on climate change.  This meeting was a follow up... more

Women and girls are the key to sustainable development and have the capacity to resolve myriad crisis that plague our world.  I applaud the many insightful articles in today’s The New York Times Magazine with the cover “Why Women’s Rights Are the Cause of Our Time” (emphasis my own).  I have been an advocate of the perspective highlighted in these pieces and I encourage you to read all of them.  As Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn wrote in their 21st century manifesto, there is growing recognition among leaders from all sectors – public and private – that supporting women and girls throughout the world is the solution for many of the world’s problems.  As Mark Landler wrote in his piece... more

After saying goodbye to Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who I’ve known since we worked together in the 1980s, I reflected. All of us who participated in this historic Colloquium reconnected with friends we’d known from our work over the decades on behalf of gender equity and a more just world. We made new relationships with wonderful advocates from the public, private and civil society sectors of many countries. We had intensely in-depth discussions about where we’ve been, where we now are and where we are determined to be with the status of women in our respective nations, regions and the world. We had innumerable poignant insights about opportunities and challenges we each face: often the same ones, sometimes quite unique... more

Today, while Colloquium workshops continue, another historic event is part of the program. Tonight the film Pray the Devil Back to Hell about the Liberian women’s peace movement responsible for ending the brutal 14-year civil war wasshown. This was the first time it is being screened for the public in Liberia. Radio stations have been promoting this for the last several days and many Liberians came to the Samuel K. Doe Stadium. Tomorrow Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will present awards to representative of the women who organized the amazingly powerful, courageous and ultimately successful effort to bring peace to their country. This morning the women – dressed in white, as they did during their entire campaign – marched into the stadium to... more

Half a dozen concurrent thematic sessions – each with a half dozen panelists and a moderator before tea; another dozen break-out sessions – also with panelists, moderators and rapporteurs delving deeper into the themes before lunch, each charged to develop concrete action steps; an afternoon session with several remarkable segments including, among more:Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tarja Halonen signing a new Monrovia Declaration 2009 calling on all to celebrate and draw strength from women’s leadership at all levels. I couldn’t help but think that this was building – with gender equity and making it global this time – on the historic Monrovia Declaration 1979 commitment by African heads of state and government “to promote the economic and social development... more

Carol Jenkins, President of the Women’s Media Center, is the MC for this International Colloquium on Women’s Empowerment, Leadership, Development, Peace and Security being held in Samuel K. Doe Stadium in Monrovia, Liberia co-hosted by Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Finland’s President Tarja Halonen. This is what I texted Carol first thing this morning, “I’m sitting at stage left end of front row reveling in seeing you on the podium as the MC!” Lynn Sherr and her colleague Meagan Townsend are shooting a four-part series on the conference for World Focus, a new, nightly international news program produced by WLIW and WNET in New York with the aim to provide in-depth global news to American viewers. Their pieces will... more

In the morning light, five hours after arriving, I see we are on a bustling street in downtown Monrovia: wonderful people from the Liberia Host Committee – Precious, Samuel, Emmanuel, Ruth and Johnson helping us in every way.  I must join my colleagues here from Sweeden, Somalia, Ethiopia, the UK and US to go to the Stadium for the start of Colloquium.  When I return to my lodging, I hope to have many wonderful pictures & stories to share. I also was thrilled to learn that Melanne Verveer has been named US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. She’d led Vital Voices Global Partnership that supports women leaders who promote political, social, and economic progress in their countries. She took a lead in... more

First lesson learned: better charge camera battery before departing on a 29 hour voyage! I wish I could show you pictures from the magnificently chaotic and gorgeous scene of much of an entire plane of Colloquium participants disembarking in the dark; beautiful young singers & drummers greeting us, small handwritten welcome signs; drinks & snacks; & a group of powerful women organizers – all of us – asking each other “do you know what we do? Where we stay? How we get our bags?” Women from Kosovo trying to help women from Tokyo, women from Zambia hugging their friends from the US, women from Ghana sitting with women from Vietnam, Benin and Nepal. I am brought back to 1985 Nairobi... more