Shortly after the war of aggression in Ukraine began in February, we opened an emergency fund to support people in embattled areas in eastern Ukraine, especially the women who participated in our 2021 Women’s Peace Tables. Thanks to the network of our partner organisation, KFR Public Alternative, a large number of people in need received essential everyday items.

In this issue of our newsletter, our Ukrainian partners report on the changes they have noticed over the last two years in the participants of our meetings with war-affected women from Ukraine. In another article, you will find out which topics were at the centre of discussions for 17 peace activists from 10 Asian countries at the network meeting in Manila. You can also find out what was on the programme during the visit of Sudanese peace activist Rabab Baldo and Colombian human rights lawyer Luz Marina Monzón Cifuentes in Bern.

Even before the Russian war of aggression, women in eastern Ukraine were barely heard, their needs and concerns ignored. Our pilot programme, launched in 2021, opened up spaces where women discussed issues and formulated demands to make their everyday lives safer. We are picking up where we left off with the new Women’s Platform for Peace.

Die drängende Frage, wie der grausame Angriffskrieg Russlands gegen die Ukraine gestoppt werden kann, erlaubt keine vereinfachend-binären Antworten. Unsere Programmverantwortliche Annemarie Sancar und Andreas Zumach plädieren als erfahrene Friedensengagierte in Neue Wege für einen breiten Friedensbegriff und einen selbstkritischen historischen Blick.

Die belarussische Friedensaktivistin Olga Karatch, Gründerin der Organisation Unser Haus, engagiert sich für belarussische Dienstverweigerer und macht sich Sorgen, dass ihr Land in den Krieg gegen die Ukraine eintreten könnte. Sie war im September 2023 Gast an drei Veranstaltungen, die wir in Bern durchgeführt haben und ist Teil unseres globalen Netzwerks.

Here we list articles and media content published in English, Spanish or French. For media content that was published in German, please refer to the Medienspiegel page.

Margret Kiener Nellen, Vorstandsmitglied FriedensFrauen Weltweit, war OSZE-Beobachterin und Frauenaktivistinin der Ukraine. Jetzt hat die Ex-Nationalrätin klare Forderungen an die Schweiz.

In this podcast, our programme manager Andrea Filippi talks to the Oxford Society for International Development about our work for genuine peace and gender justice. With a particular focus on our work with our partners in Colombia, Ukraine and Palestine, she describes how we support women to become active participants in peace processes, thereby helping to shape sustainable peace.
The OxSID is a student-run organisation founded in 2017.
The podcast is available on Apple, Spotify and on the OxSID website.

Even before the Russian war of aggression, women in eastern Ukraine were barely heard, their needs and concerns ignored. Our pilot programme, launched in 2021, opened the space for women to discuss issues and formulate demands that would make their everyday lives safer. We are picking up where we left off with the new Women's Platform for Peace.

Our work with women in eastern Ukraine has shown even before the war escalated on 24 February 2022: Violence against women is a military tactic is, writes our programme manager Annemarie Sancar in the latest issue of à propos. Women's experiences must be part of the process of dealing with war crimes.

In an interview with Swiss newspapers the Belarusian peace activist Olga Karatch expresses her concern that her country could enter the war against Ukraine. In an article for our magazine, she writes about the impact of increasingly toxic masculinity on men and women in the region. She was a guest at events we held in Bern.

Common paths to peace: this could be the title of this print newsletter. Because the women from Colombia and Ukraine featured in this issue are on these paths – even though war is still raging in Ukraine and a peace agreement has been in force in Colombia since 2016.

In an interview with our Ukrainian programme coordinator Olena Zinenko, she recalls the first days and months after the Russian attack on 24 February 2022 and talks about the path she has travelled since then. She also explains why women must be the driving force behind a future-oriented "life agenda" in Ukraine.

The book “Voices along the way” records the stories of Ukrainian women from the first year of the Russian war of aggression. The 24 stories recount uncertainty and flight, upheaval, fear and hope. The book also poses the question: “When loud voices urge us to end the war, do they actually mean peace?” The 24 stories in the book thus become an important contemporary document.

How do you talk about peacebuilding during an ongoing war? It’s hard and challenging, but 20 Ukrainian women gathered in Lviv from 17-20 November 2025 and did just that.