30/01/2011 - NPWJ News Digest on Middle East and North Africa Democracy

An International Conference in Arbil on the Role of Iraqi Women in Peace-Building
By Abdel Hamid Zebari, Iraq Daily Times, 30 Jan 2011

 
Launched in Arbil Thursday of the International Conference on (the role of women in peace-building, reconciliation and accountability in Iraq) with the participation of members of the Iraqi Council of Representatives and the Parliament of Kurdistan and representatives of the UN mission in Iraq and the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Conference, and representatives of civil society organizations and international experts in the field of strengthening the role of women in national reconciliation.
The organization of the conference, which runs the conference for two days, at the initiative of the Iraqi Council of Representatives and the Parliament of Kurdistan and the support of the Italian government and the Organization of the International Alliance for Justice, no peace without justice.
Bakhtiar Amin, says the Organization of the International Alliance for Justice that the conference includes a workshop aimed at strengthening the role of women in Iraqi society by taking advantage from the experiences of several countries, “he said in an interview with Radio Free Iraq:
“There is a public meeting of international experts from different countries of Argentina, Kosovo, Kuwait, Ireland, South Africa and other countries that went through wars and conflicts to benefit from their experiences, will emerge from the recommendations, ideas and practical steps to improve women’s role and status of legal, economic, and their active participation in real political decision-making in the pyramid political. “
For its part, recalls a member of the Iraqi parliament Safiya al-Suhail, one of the organizations of the Conference, that the conference aims to achieve a set of demands for Iraqi women, she said:
“The goal of this conference is to strengthen the role of women in society and in its partnership in the making of peace and national reconciliation and accountability in Iraq and industry stability and have a real role in making this future and the reconstruction of Iraq, and visualize the full real partnership on its future and the future of her family and her children and the whole of society.”
Emphasizes Ad Melkert, the representative of UN Secretary-General to Iraq, and who attended the conference on the importance of the conference, describing it in a statement to Radio Free Iraq that important conference, adding that he had become a cause in the collection of government, parliament and non-governmental organizations to all agree on a strategy for women’s development.
For its part, “said Mona Makram Ebeid, a member of the Egyptian people and former political science professor at the American University in Cairo, and the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Egyptian opposition Al-Wafd Party, that the time has come for the Iraqi women working for a change in society, adding:
It’s time that it contributes to the change of Iraqi women in a big way so as not to seek to repair the damage but only to promote the positive contributions the role to be performed is not the role of women as victims, but its role as a catalyst for change. “
In the opinion believes Nabila Hamza, President of the Foundation for the Future is an international institution based in Jordan and working in North Africa and the Middle East, said on Iraqi women to move on more than one level to enhance its role in society, and said:
“It’s time for Iraqi women to move with great support from the powers Altkadimp to get more involved, first in Parliament and at the level of executive power also at the level of power the central and local municipalities because there has been progress since 2003, do not deny that, but according to what I have read and discussed it with my sisters in Iraq A project is very slow. ”