Focus AreasTransitions to democracy, whether post-Soviet or post-conflict, represent a strategic entry point and historic opportunity to promote accountability for women’s rights. In 2007, the International Women's Program supported a number of initiatives involving increasing gender jurisprudence, investigation and documentation of women’s rights violations during conflict, prosecutions based on violations of women’s rights (particularly sexual violence), and building the capacity of women’s organizations seeking justice internationally, regionally and nationally.
The following are examples of IWP-supported initiatives:
Capacity-Building of Multi-Regional Women’s NGOs Demanding Justice
IWP supported the Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice to convene the Forum on Justice for Women in Kampala, Uganda—bringing together over 120 women most affected by conflicts (in northern Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Darfur, Central African Republic, with additional participants from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Burundi) currently receiving International Criminal Court attention. The Forum provided learning opportunities for women’s organizations to use ICC jurisprudence to advocate for women’s human rights domestically.
Justice for Victims of Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, hundreds of thousands of women and girls have experienced rape and other forms of sexual violence by armed groups in the conflict. The International Women's Program awarded grants to AJEDI-Ka and Solidarité Féminine pour la Paix et le Développement Intégral to strengthen the capacity and leadership potential of demobilized girl soldiers and other women affected by war in the DRC, to ensure justice for victims of violence, and to support medical, psychological, and legal programs for victims with the aim of challenging the culture of impunity related to sexual violence. The program also sponsored a former girl solider from the DRC to speak at the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2007, to bring attention to the impact of conflict on girls.
Investigation of Crimes Against Minority Women by Khmer Rouge in Cambodia
In consultation with the Open Society Justice Initiative and with co-funding from OSI’s Southeast Asia Initiative, the International Women's Program supported the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which documents grave human rights abuses that occurred during the Khmer Rouge regime. The grant enabled the center to investigate and record testimonies of Cham Muslim women survivors—the first effort to document minority women’s experiences under the Khmer Rouge. The testimonies will be published in Khmer and English, and used for promoting justice and reconciliation for Cham women, genocide education in the country, and for raising awareness about Cham women’s experiences among organizations that document genocide globally.
