Pursuing peace further

The Suzanne Mubarak International Women's Movement for Peace restates its call for peace and equality. Dina Ezzat reports

---

The Suzanne Mubarak International Women's Movement for Peace (SMIWMP) is preparing for a key peace event next month. Early in May, SMIWMP will bring together in Egypt women from several Arab countries to talk about their experience of living amid war and to make their call for peace heard across the world. The testimony and appeals of these participants will be heard as a part of a workshop scheduled to take place over several days, under the umbrella of SMIWMP in cooperation with a number of concerned Arab NGOs.

Mrs Suzanne Mubarak is expected to personally inaugurate and attend the event, along with several high-profile Arab peace and women's rights activists. A number of prominent international figures are also expected to be present.

The SMIWMP secretariat says this coming seminar is a key step in launching a series of initiatives by the non-governmental organisation, recently established under the auspices of Mrs Mubarak as the first peace-calling women's organisation in the Middle East. The objective of the seminar, they say, is to underline the justice of equality for all.

This seminar and other plans and activities of the SMIWMP were subject to discussion late last week in Geneva in a meeting between Mrs Mubarak and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The meeting took place on the fringe of a visit paid by Mrs Mubarak to Switzerland to launch a key antiquities exhibition and participate in a number of socio-economic events. "It was important to talk with the UN Secretary-General Annan on the plans and objectives of our organisation, especially that the mandate of this NGO comes in lines with UN Security Council Resolution 1325 that calls for a wider participation of women in making peace," Mrs Mubarak said in Geneva.

Mrs Mubarak also held meetings with concerned members of the Swiss government to discuss potential cooperation between Bern and the SMIWMP, which is registered as an NGO in Geneva, the world capital of humanitarian and non-governmental organisations.

This same issue was also subject to discussion in a series of meeting that Mrs Mubarak held with other key UN staff in charge of files related to women, health and culture. She also highlighted up the cause and initiative of the SMIWMP during a meeting she held with a number of representatives of several international NGOs.

In a speech addressed to the meeting, Mrs Mubarak placed peace and equality as fundamental preconditions of development and prosperity.

"There is no doubt that globalisation has opened up avenues of benefit to almost all countries, but it has also carried with it new threats and new risks. We must continue to be vigilant and work towards the reduction of inequities among and between peoples, for this is our responsibility and our legacy for the future," Mrs Mubarak said.

In her statement, Mrs Mubarak stressed the invaluable role of women in leading the way towards peace and equality. Women, she said, "have always worked and contributed to the social and economic development of their country and are becoming increasingly opposed to seeing their efforts undermined, if not downright destroyed, through senseless wars."

In Geneva next fall, SMIWMP is planning to host a seminar in cooperation with the Swiss government and the UN to further bring to visibility the calls of women for peace in the Middle East region and elsewhere in the world.