On 5 March, DPI ran an online comparative study event entitled ‘Celebrating Women’s Participation in Peace and Conflict Resolution: Overcoming Challenges and Putting Peace Back on the Agenda’. The event was held ahead of 8 March, International Women’s Day, to celebrate the participation of women in peace and conflict resolution and look at the different approaches and models used to further the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. The event brought as keynote speakers Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, former chairperson of the peace panel of the Government of the Philippines & Dr Emma Leslie, Executive Director, Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies. By engaging with and hearing the first-hand experiences of key women leaders in conflict resolution, participants were given the opportunity to discuss the role of women in contributing to dialogue and peace, particularly on what can be done in challenging times where a process is facing obstacles or stalled.
The event brought together a diverse group of political and civil society actors from different regions and representing the broad spectrum of different political affiliations in Turkey. They included elected representatives and members of political parties, heads and representatives of human rights organisations and think tanks, lawyers, businesswomen, media professionals, youth representatives and academics.
The online CSE forms part of a larger series of activities planned in the context of the project: “Forging Pathways to Peace and Democracy in Turkey”, supported by the Norwegian and Irish government.