Ukrainian peacebuilder Nina Potarska sails to challenge illegal blockade of Gaza
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.
The Odd Couple: Women Peacebuilders and Security Actors Bridging Positions, Building Trust
The WPS agenda has proven a vital entry point for women peacebuilders to engage with the security sector and build trust within affected communities. These efforts—often invisible—are contributing to the reform of the sector, reshaping local security environments and mitigating violence.
The War Against Ourselves: Afghan Women Peacebuilders’ Response to the Mental Health Crisis in Afghanistan
This case study describes the drivers of the mental health crisis in Afghanistan, its gendered and cultural dimensions, and the strategies used by Afghan women-led peacebuilding organizations to provide solutions. The authors conducted interviews with representatives of Afghan women-led peacebuilding organizations and thematic experts, which were complemented by a desk review of project documentation and […]
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ICAN Trains the Women Mediators across the Commonwealth on Gender Responsive Mediation
ICAN Trains the Women Mediators across the Commonwealth on Gender Responsive Mediation
04 January 2021
During three weeks in December the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN), provided an 18-hour training on Gender Responsive and Inclusive Mediation to 16 members of the Women Mediators across the Commonwealth (WMC), a network hosted by Conciliation Resources. Representing Cameroon, Canada, Cyprus, the Gambia, Jammu and Kashmir, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, the Northern Territories of Australia, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe, the WMC members brought to the training an extensive array of experiences and contexts.
Part of ICAN’s Better Peace Initiative (BPI) the training explored the participation, representation, and recognition of women as peacebuilders and mediators in peace processes and how to ensure gendered perspectives in mediation and peace negotiations. Focusing on the topics of gender-responsive ceasefires, devolution, transitional justice, and how to build and sustain women’s coalitions, ICAN adapted its 2018 pilot training to respond to the interests of the WMC. The training was delivered virtually through a combination of presentations, discussion, visual explainers – animations, and simulations.
ICAN’s BPI Program Director Helena Gronberg and Senior Program Officer Stacey Schamber delivered the training, supported by program intern Kendahl Tyburksi. ICAN’s Founder and CEO, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini MBE, also a WMC member, joined select training sessions to share her experience and expertise on the various topics. Members of the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL), Sabrina Mowlah-Baksh from Trinidad and Tobago, and Visaka Dharmadasa from Sri Lanka, both also WMC members, and Cerue Konah Garlo from Liberia, also joined to share their professional experiences. The participants valued the opportunity for collaborative learning through discussions that highlighted the uniqueness and similarities of their experiences across different contexts.
“I learned the importance of the social dimensions of transitional justice processes. In addition to the criminal and legal sides, the gendered and social dimension is the most important because women suffer the brunt of war processes. Men tend to hide behind the aspect of culture and tradition.”
– Dudziro Nhengu, Zimbabwe
“Supporting the organization of women’s peace coalitions is the missing piece in how we have tried to support peace processes, how to build out the action side of our policy agenda.”
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.
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مدينة البصرة في جنوب العراق، المدينة التي تضررت طويلا من الحرب وقلة الاستثمارات، تواجه تهديدات متزايدة بسبب خطاب الكراهية والتطرف وتآكل الثقة بين المواطنين والمؤسسات. وغالبا ما يقع الشباب -وخاصة الشابات- في قلب هذه التوترات، في عالم تتقاطع فيه المضايقات والتحرش الالكتروني مع الواقع. وفي مثل هذه البيئة، تتبنى جمعية الفردوس العراقية (الفردوس) نهجا جديدا […]
The International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) and the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) Statement: The Escalating U.S.-Israeli War on Iran and its Regional Ramifications
Iraqi Al-Firdaws Society (Al-Firdaws) is taking a new approach to peacebuilding. Their project, Horizon: Promoting Community Peace, supported by ICAN’s Innovative Peace Fund (IPF), brings together youth, local security forces, and civil society actors to address violent extremism through dialogue, education, and community-based action.
Women peacebuilders often operate in some of the world’s most dangerous contexts—yet the security support available to them is frequently fragmented, repetitive, and short-term. Recognizing the need for a fundamentally different approach, ICAN conducted a holistic security assessment of its Afghan partners, including members of the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL). The result is the Holistic Security Menu: a co-designed, partner-driven model that provides practical and sustainable security support—on women peacebuilders’ […]
ICAN convened 20 members of WASL in Lisbon for the “Our Strategies, Our Peace” Writers’ Workshop. This unique gathering provided a secure and creative space for women peacebuilders to share their strategies, experience, expertise, and stories from conflict and crisis contexts.
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On October 6, 2025, the U.N. Security Council holds its annual open debate on Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security. Today, we are not issuing a new statement. Instead, we are honoring our community of women peacebuilders—who appeared before the Security Council throughout these 25 years, speaking for the millions they represent—by echoing their messages.
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In South Sudan, a nation where peace has long remained fragile and democratic progress uncertain, women are stepping forward to shape the future of their country. Long excluded from the corridors of power, they are forging their own movement for lasting change.
On behalf of the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) and members of the global Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL), we are honored to nominate Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
