Increasingly women (and children) are becoming the victims of war. In modern times, war less often takes the form of competing armies of men fighting in unpopulated areas, and more often takes place within or near civilian communities, thus putting women at as much risk as male combatants. In addition, war leaves many women vulnerable due to the deaths of...
Women, Peace and Security
Women Peace and Security is a committee within the Human Rights Team. Its goal is to raise awareness about violence against women in conflict zones and the role of women in the peace-keeping process.
The theme of women and conflict resonates with the very origins of FAWCO. According to The Red Book, FAWCO: A History 1931-2011:
Caroline Curtis Brown founded FAWCO on the belief that "enlightened women, working cooperatively throughout the world, could do much to help achieve permanent international peace; and that this was especially true of American women living abroad who had acquired special experience in living in foreign lands among foreign people and foreign customs. Their American clubs not only provided a home away from home, she felt, but also served to promote sympathetic awareness of the needs and problems in countries other than the United States." Our founder's words are perhaps even more relevant today than in her own time. In our globally connected world, wars have a real impact on the lives of all of us, even when they occur in a distant land. A peaceful world benefits everyone.
FAWCO's Human Rights Team presents
THE STRENGTH OF A WOMAN TOUR: RWANDA
Since the genocide that tore Rwanda apart twenty years ago, this tiny African country has become a model for the involvement of women in all levels of government. Women have been at the heart of the country's recovery. While over 60% of the Rwandan Parliament is made up...
Genocide. What a strange thing it is. The need to wipe a group of people off the face of the earth! What a barbaric concept! Yet the last century has seen multiple genocides that have resulted in the loss of millions and millions of lives in the most horrific ways. We imaginative humans seem to come up with ever more ingenious ways...
Adopting from abroad came...
Human Rights. FAWCO's current Target Project addresses the topic. We talk intensely about human rights, but thankfully, most of us have never experienced a severe deprivation of our own human rights, and probably few of us know people who have. As much as we might care about the topic, most of our experience of the issue is indirect and...
This campaign began in 2010 in neighboring countries Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which had been torn apart by some of the worst atrocities of war that the world has seen in recent years. Women from opposing sides of war in these communities came together on a bridge joining the two countries in a plea for peace and...