Fruitful exchanges

MRS SUZANNE Mubarak had a busy schedule in the British capital last week. On 6 May, she met with the Rt. Hon. Patricia Hewitt, the secretary of state for trade and industry and minister for women. The following day, Mrs Mubarak met with the Rt. Hon. Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC.

On 8 May, she had successive meetings in the morning with Margaret Prosser, chair of the Women's National Commission, Annette Lawson, head of the International Working Group, Indira Patel and Mandana Hendssi, from the Women's National Commission. In the afternoon, she chaired a working lunch at the residence of Egyptian Ambassador Adel El-Gazzar.

The lunch was attended by a group of prominent British women, including MPs, activists, academics and representatives of NGOs, who had participated in the Sharm El-Sheikh Women's Peace Conference in September 2002.

The group discussed means of institutionalising the Women for Peace Movement, explored ways to push the movement's work forward and talked about how to capitalise on the momentum created in Sharm El-Sheikh to lend an immediate hand to people in conflict and post-conflict situations.