"Only together can we move forward, so that there is light and hope for all women on the planet." - Rigoberta Menchú Tum
Access to decision makers leads to influence and policy impact. We create access for women peacebuilders to senior officials. When decision makers are exposed to women’s analysis and solutions, they put peacebuilding, human rights and the environment on their agenda.
In this realm of work we want to:
- ensure inclusion of women providing solutions to climate change, gender violence, and militarism in policy discussions.
- leverage the access of the Nobel peace laureates to decision makers to enable grassroots women’s organizations to influence public policy makers.
- expose decision makers to the experience of grassroots women’s organizations and their contributions to peacebuilding.
- advocate for the protection of women human rights defenders.
Photo: Nobel peace laureates Shirin Ebadi, Mairead Maguire and Tawakkol Karman meet with Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina (centre) after their delegation to the Rohingya camps in 2017.
Recent successes
- In 2020 we collaborated with The Equality Fund to co-author Supporting Women's Organizations and Movements: A Strategic Approach to Climate Change. The report looked at how a more integrated, feminist approach to the climate crisis could save the planet.
- Also in 2020, The Nobel peace laureates called for women’s participation in conflict prevention and peacebuilding in Cameroon; for a United Nations’ human rights fact-finding mission; and for the international community to stand with people of Cameroon by condemning the displacements, violence, and killings.
- Nobel Women’s Initiative played a catalytic role in shaping global conversations on the situation faced by the Rohingya women, starting with our Nobel peace laureate-led delegation to the refugee camps near Cox’s Bazar in February 2017. The delegation heard directly from survivors of sexual violence, and met with the local Rohingya women leaders and Bangladeshi women’s organizations that first responded to the crisis. The impact of this delegation continued to be seen through 2019. A motion in the Canadian Senate in April 2019 called on the Canadian government to push for legal proceedings before the International Court of Justice under the UN Convention on Genocide. More than a third of Canadian Senators signed on, supported by a letter signed by more than 100 human rights organizations.
- In 2019 we worked with Global Affairs Canada to rewrite and strengthen its guidelines on human rights defenders. The guidelines were released during a visit to Canada by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights. We also lobbied for Canada’s Subcommittee on International Human Rights to conduct a study on women human rights defenders and were then called upon to appear as expert witnesses.