Nina Potarska, a member of the ICAN-spearheaded Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership, is currently at sea with the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civilian-led mission organized with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, en route to Gaza.
In February of 2011, a group of Libyan women, inspired by the wave of peaceful uprisings across Egypt and Tunisia, protested the arrests of their male relatives outside a prison in Benghazi. Their actions inspired a swathe of Libyan society – particularly the young – to spill out into the streets and demand an end to dictatorship.
This brief draws particular attention to women’s experiences in Libya in the context of political and security developments in the past two years. It also highlights opportunities that the international community lost for sustaining and implementing the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) agenda on Women, Peace and Security.
“People’s aspirations are being thwarted. I want to live in a different Libya, but the present reality seems to be taking us in a worse direction.”
-Libyan woman activist
Recognizing the value and need to channel equitable resources to local women’s peacebuilding organizations (WPBOs) have been constant stipulations of the value of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda since its inception at the turn of the 21st century. From the United Nations to its 193 member states, the desire and intent to support such organizations has increased over the years. But the chasm between donors’ good intentions and their political, financial, and administrative constraints has hampered the flow of funds to the grassroots women who need them the most.
ICAN Featured ICAN Updates Our Resources SBP Frameworks
This policy brief highlights key challenges impeding progress on the global PVE and SDG 16 agendas, underscoring how they are two sides of the same coin.
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This brief examines and reflects on existing efforts to enable the participation of civil society voices, notably women, in Yemen’s formal negotiations. And it provides practical recommendations to the U.S. administration and Congress on steps needed to reach peace in Yemen.
ICAN Featured ICAN Updates Our Resources Papers Peace Track Initiative
Images of women’s mass participation surprised Western observers and revealed the vibrant force of Yemeni women as influential, yet previously unrecognized, change agents.
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