ICAN’s Mission Five Steps for Sustainable Prevention of Sexual Violence in Conflict ICAN Partner AWAPSA: A Catalyst for Kenya’s First SGBV Court The War Against Ourselves: Afghan Women Peacebuilders’ Response to the Mental Health Crisis in Afghanistan Protecting Women Peacebuilders: The Front Lines of Sustainable Peace
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 […]
Open Statement to the United Nations Security Council on behalf of Women Peacebuilders Marking 25 Years of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda
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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ICAN and UMass Collaborate to Launch the UMass Mellon Liaison Fellowship 2023
ICAN and UMass Collaborate to Launch the UMass Mellon Liaison Fellowship 2023
10 August 2023
We are excited to announce the launch of the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Mellon Liaison Fellowship at the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN).Organized by the UMass-Amherst World Studies Interdisciplinary Project(WSIP), and funded by the Mellon Foundation and the UMass-Amherst Provost’s Office, ICAN will host two distinguished UMass PhD Mellon Liaison Fellows in 2023. The Fellowship is linked to the WSIP Graduate Certificate in Decolonial Global Studies (DGS), and UMass PhD students from all departments, colleges, and schools were invited to apply.
ICAN offers UMass Mellon Fellows the opportunity to learn about both local women’s peacebuilding practices and the workings of a global, coalition-building, peacebuilding organization. Fellows meanwhile put their skills in research, writing, collaborative conceptualization, and relation-building at the service of a social-justice organization. In addition, the Fellowship enables UMass PhD students to build new networks, hone new skills, and explore future work in non-academic social-justice arenas.
We are thrilled to introduce the two 2023 UMass Mellon Liaison Fellows: Mariam Parvez Sheikh and Meenakshi Nair.
Mariam Parvez Sheikh is a PhD candidate at the College of Education, UMass. Her current research focuses on how young students in Pakistan’s higher education system produce alternative knowledge as they articulate links between their struggles within the university and movements such as feminism, climate justice and anti-capitalism. Mariam’s work examines how they expose gender, ethnic and class inequities through their struggle for social justice. She holds a master’s degree in Education and International Development from University College London (UCL), United Kingdom and a BSc. Hons. in Economics and Political Science from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).
Meenakshi Nair is a PhD student in English at UMass.She holds a master’s degree in Comparative Literature from SOAS, University of London and a BA in English and a diploma in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding from the Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi. She is interested in South Asian literature and postcolonial studies, with specific interests in cities and mobility, and multilingualism and literary translation.The languages she works with are English, Hindi and Urdu, and some Malayalam. Meenakshi formerly worked with Women in Security Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP, Delhi). She is a trained Bharatanatyam dancer and has poetry and short fiction published in The Alipore Post, VAYAVYA, and elsewhere.
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.
در عرصه صحت روانی، افغانستان با بحران پیچیدهای مواجه است که این بحران به طور جدایی ناپذیر با ناامنی شدید فیزیکی، سیاسی و اقتصادی در کشور گره خورده و این نا امنی ها بحران را تشدید میکند. برای رسیدگی به آسیب های روانی، صحت و بهداشت جامعه به شیوه های پاسخگو به جنسیت و با مد نظر گرفتن حساسیت های فرهنگی، سازمانهای فعال در عرصه صلح سازی به رهبری زنان افغان در موقعیتی منحصربه فرد قرار دارند. این سازمان ها خدمات ابتدایی ارائه میدهند، مهارتها را توسعه میبخشند و در شکلدهی هنجارهای فرهنگی و جنسیتی نقش مؤثر ایفا میکنند.
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In a powerful departure from traditional advocacy, ICAN—guided by our Afghan partners and women peacebuilders—hosted the event “Watan e Ma – وطن ما – Our Homeland: Women of Afghanistan Keeping the Flame of Freedom Alive” on March 17, 2025 at Blue Gallery in New York City. Held during the 69th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69), the event celebrated Afghan cultural heritage and the resilience of Afghan women peacebuilders, who persist in their leadership for peace, justice, and equality under the Taliban’s regime of gender apartheid.
On May 5, 2025, ICAN's Sanam Naraghi Anderlini delivered the keynote speech at the two-day international conference "25th Anniversary Conference of UNSCR 1325 Women, Peace and Security."
As Senator Mobina Jaffer concludes 23 years of distinguished public service in the Canadian Senate, we extend our deepest thanks for her steadfast leadership as Chair of ICAN’s Board of Directors from 2014 to 2024.
Together with André Mundal, our new Interim Chair of the ICAN Board of Directors, we are delighted to welcome two new members to our Board of Directors.
Trust between communities and the security sector is critical for effective governance and peace. So is a vibrant civil society. When women peacebuilders are recognized and engaged as independent, strategic partners and security actors—in their own right—the results are transformative. Twenty-five years on from the launch of the WPS agenda, women peacebuilders’ creativity and contributions to societal peace and security are not only timely, they are even more essential.
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