Ukraine: Our demands on the Swiss Federal Council and the international community
One year after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, there are no signs of a ceasefire, let alone peace. Every day the casualty numbers rise and the suffering increases. On the anniversary of the attack, we are issuing a renewed appeal with a special focus on the participation and protection of women.
Moments of recognition and understanding emerged during the exchange between peace activists from Colombia and the Philippines. Interview with our programme officers Andrea Filippi and Karin Widmer.
In the webinar "Memory and Transformation", experts and participants addressed the legacy of conflict-related violence and injustice. The recording of the webinar is now available.
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An inclusive process for a sustainable peace: Colombia
Since the signing of the peace agreement in Colombia, we have been actively supporting the participation of conflict-affected women and marginalised groups in its implementation.
Our advocacy aims to create political impact and achieve a feminist vision of peace. The focus is on the implementation of key human rights instruments that form the basis for a peaceful and gender-just world.
Peace is more than the absence of war. Patriarchal power relations, structural violence and physical or psychological violence against women block the path to lasting peace. This is why we engage in peacebuilding with a feminist, intersectional perspective. And because we have a comprehensive understanding of peace.
Women's rights are human rights. We work to ensure that core human rights standards are respected in conflict-affected regions too. Our work is based on the UN’s "Women, Peace and Security" agenda.
Women's access to peace and conflict transformation processes is severely limited. However, peace processes offer critical windows of opportunity for the recognition of women's rights and for the elimination of discriminatory social structures and gender norms. Women and marginalised groups must therefore play an active role in peace processes.
Gender-based violence is one of the most common human rights violations worldwide. Particularly in conflict-affected contexts, violence against women increases in all its forms. Gender-based violence is a major obstacle to gender justice and lasting peace.
Militarisation means more than "just" spending on armed forces: this spending is the consequence of a security policy geared towards war. As a feminist peace organisation, we oppose the claim that more weapons lead to more security. We demand demilitarisation and disarmament because that is the only way to achieve genuine peace and comprehensive security.