FIRST INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S PEACE BUILDING CONFERENCE IN TIMOR-LESTE

Dili, 22 January 2004
The first international women’s consultation in Timor-Leste will see women peace activists from Bougainville, Fiji, the Netherlands, Solomon Islands, the USA and West Papua meeting with their East Timorese counterparts in a Pacific women’s consultation on nonviolent conflict resolution, January 23-29, in Maubara, Timor-Leste.

“It is very important for women to share our experiences of peacebuilding and to develop peace networks in the Pacific and in Timor-Leste,” said Filomena Barros dos Reis, director of the Peace and Democracy Foundation (PDF), which is organizing the consultation.

The consultation is the first international gathering organized by an East Timorese non-governmental organization and the first regional meeting of Pacific women devoted to the topic of active nonviolence.

The Peace and Democracy Foundation (PDF) is an East Timorese non-governmental organization established in 1996 by Nobel Peace Prize co-Laureate José Ramos-Horta. PDF works to establish a culture of peace in Timor-Leste and throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

The consultation is co-organized by the International Fellowship of Reconciliation’s (IFOR) Women Peacemakers Program. IFOR, founded in 1919, is an international non-governmental organization working to promote nonviolent conflict resolution. The Women Peacemakers Program is an IFOR project designed to empower women though active nonviolence. IFOR’s Women Peacemakers Program is supported by funding from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.