{news} FW: Sat. Nov. 10-women and peacebuilding conference

Tue Nov 6 13:10:40 EST 2007

Fyi, Charlie

From: Pax Educare [mailto:paxeducare at comcast.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 10:29 AM
To: Pax Educare
Subject: women and peacebuilding conference

Dear Friends: a reminder that this Saturday, November 10, is "Building
Peace: Women Making a Difference" , a conference at the University of
Hartford's Gengras Student Union. This is a conference for both women and
men, students, educators, activists and community members.  The latest
updates on the event may be found on the conference web site
<http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/peaceconf/>
http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/peaceconf/. Our registrations are steadily coming
in, with over 100 so far. Mishkat Al Moumin, one of our speakers, will be
speaking Friday evening at the Mark Twain Visitors Center, in an event
sponsored by the World Affairs Council at 6 PM. Here is information on that
event.  http://www.ctwac.org/Pages/Index.aspx.

Hoping to see you Friday evening and at the Saturday conference.

Mary Lee Morrison Ph.D.
President and Director
Pax Educare, Inc.
The Connecticut Center for Peace Education
56 Arbor Street
Hartford, CT 06106
860-231-0445
paxeducare at comcast.net
www.paxeducare.org

Pax Educare, a 501 (c) (3) organization, is a resource center devoted to the
research, study and teaching of peace.

Women and Peacebuilding Conference
November 10, 2007   8 AM-5 PM
University of Hartford Gengras Student Union

Registration begins at 8

Event runs until 5 PM

Contacts: 
Donn Weinholtz, University of Hartford 
weinholtz at hartford.edu 860-768-4186

Mary Lee Morrison, Director Pax Educare, Inc., 
the Connecticut Center for Peace Education
paxeducare at comcast.net 860-231-0445

Conference web site: http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/peaceconf/ 

"Building Peace: Women Making a Difference" will focus on women's leadership
in peace and conflict resolution initiatives locally, regionally, and
internationally. The target audience will be educators, students, community
activists and interested others, both men and women. Students with student
IDs are free.   $30 registration fee at the door.  This major conference is
funded by a grant from the Women's Education and Leadership Fund (WELF), a
legacy fund of the Hartford College for Women, and will be held at the
University of Hartford on November 10, 2007. The aims of the event are to:

1)    Highlight the roles women are playing in leading peace and conflict
resolution at the local, regional, national and international levels. 

2)    Build collaborative, working relationships among conference
participants that will help move forward women's peace building initiatives.

3)    Illustrate that peacemaking is a real option for average people, as
well as for the exceptionally talented.

4)    Develop participants' peacemaking skills for individual action and
successful group initiatives through interactive workshops.

Pax Educare, Inc., the Connecticut Center for Peace Education, located in
Hartford, CT, is a co-sponsor. Pax Educare is a resource center whose
mission is the promotion of the research, study and teaching of peace.
Several other groups have joined in as affiliates.

The day will feature an international plenary panel of prominent women
peacemakers, morning and afternoon workshops, a theatrical performance by
HartBeat Ensemble, resources and will include lunch. During the conference a
Lifetime Achievement award will be given to New England resident Elise
Boulding, sociologist and former Nobel Peace Prize nominee and a co-founder
of the International Peace Research Association, whose work in the area of
women and peace has been groundbreaking. 

Workshops will feature local, grass-roots skill-building and processes
designed to empower participants to work toward peace and social change, as
well as showcase women's peacemaking internationally. Topics will include:
the media and peace and social change, community organizing, global
sustainability, peace and communities of color, art and peace, youth and
peace, and empowering individuals for social change. 

An interactive theatrical performance by Hartford's own activist troupe,
HartBeat Ensemble,  will take place in the afternoon, followed by a closing
reception. 

Following are brief biographies of the morning speakers: 

Mishkat Al Moumin, Women Waging Peace Network

The former minister of the environment in the interim Iraqi government and
current Futrell Visiting Scholar at the Environmental Law Institute, Mishkat
Al Moumin is a well-known Iraqi lawyer, and a lecturer of human rights in
the University of Baghdad's College of Law. Since Iraq did not previously
have a ministry of the environment, Dr. Al Moumin designed its entire
structure. In this post, she also developed new environmental law, led
campaigns to support Iraqi people living in environmentally dangerous areas,
and initiated awareness and cleaning projects. Prior to joining the
government, she served as the women's issues director for the Free Iraq
Foundation, where she successfully advocated for women to hold 25 percent of
the seats in the new Iraqi parliament. In this role, she also conducted
trainings for NGOs and women leaders. In 2004, Dr. Al Moumin worked with the
International Federation of Election System as an adviser on the elections
in Iraq. Dr. Al Moumin was a lecturer at University of Baghdad College of
Law, where she lectured on human rights, fundamental rights, international
and constitutional law. Dr. Al Moumin, a scholar at the Middle East
Institute in Washington, DC, recently graduated as a Mason fellow at the
John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where she earned
a master's degree in public administration. Dr. Al Moumin already has a
master's degree and a PhD in public international law from the University of
Baghdad. She has published articles in various Arabic newspapers on
environmental developments and women's roles in public life. She has also
authored articles on international law and international justice in a number
of legal journals. Finally she is the founder and director of Women and
Environment Organization that operates in Iraq; and a member of the board of
directors in the PATH organization, an international, nonprofit organization
that creates sustainable, culturally relevant solutions, enabling
communities worldwide to break longstanding cycles of poor health.

Rachel Mayanja, Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on Gender Issues
and Advancement of Women, United Nations.

Ms. Rachel Mayanja, the Secretary-General's new Special Adviser on Gender
Issues and Advancement of Women, is a long-serving career international
civil servant with vast experience in normative, policy and operational work
of the United Nations, including peace-building, peace-keeping and
inter-agency collaboration.
Ms. Mayanja's career with the UN started in the Women's Division shortly
after the first World Conference in Mexico in the midst of sensitization of
the world to women's right to equality, development and peace. As Secretary
to the drafting committee of the Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women, she was actively involved in the establishment
of this landmark legal instrument. 
Ms. Mayanja actively participated in peace-building and peace-keeping
missions and therefore possesses an understanding of the suffering created
by conflicts and the challenges facing the UN in such situations. This first
hand knowledge is essential in her role as the Secretary-General's Special
Adviser, especially in the area of women, peace and security. Ms Mayanja, a
national of Uganda, obtained a law degree from Makarere University, as well
as a Master's Degree in Law from the Harvard University Law School. She has
three children

Lina Sidrys Nealon, Initiative for Inclusive Security

Ms. Nealon is a policy specialist and trainer for Initiative for Inclusive
Security, a research and advocacy organization that promotes the full
participation of all stakeholders - especially women - in peace processes.
She has conducted capacity-building workshops for women leaders in
government and civil society around various aspects of conflict prevention,
resolution, and reconstruction in conflict areas such as Palestine,
Afghanistan, and Liberia. In addition to working closely with the Women
Waging Peace Network of over 500 women peacebuilders from over 40 countries,
Ms. Nealon focuses her efforts on United Nations advocacy work and Liberian
women's engagement in security sector reform. Ms. Nealon graduated with
honors from the University of Notre Dame, earning a BA in Political Science
with a Concentration in International Peace Studies. Lina is an active
member of the Lithuanian- American community, specifically mentoring
students and engaging them on social justice issues. Along with her husband,
Boston bookstore owner Brian Nealon, Lina has organized over 10,000 books to
be sent to Liberia and Afghanistan. Lina is fluent in French and Lithuanian.

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