(OTTAWA)—November 12, 2015. The dire situation for women inside Syria and along the refugee route in Europe will be the focus of a fact-finding delegation November 16-20 led by three Nobel peace laureates and high-level leaders of peace and human rights organizations. The delegation—co-organized by the Nobel Women’s Initiative and the International Campaign to Stop Rape & Gender Violence in Conflict—will visit Belgrade, Zagreb, Berlin and border crossings across the Balkans, in Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia.
During the delegation, the group will release some preliminary findings of research being conducted by Nobel Women’s Initiative.
The Nobel peace laureates are Tawakkol Karman (Yemen), Shirin Ebadi (Iran) and Jody Williams (USA). The delegation will also include leaders from Physicians for Human Rights, American Friends Service Committee, Kvinna till Kvinna, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and Hand in Hand for Syria, as well as women’s rights activists from the Balkans and Germany.
The goals of the delegation are to increase the visibility of grassroots and citizen-led organizations working to support women in Syria and women refugees, as well as to influence policy makers to prioritize the immediate resettlement of refugees and shift to nonviolent alternatives to military intervention in Syria.
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For more information, please contact:
Rachel Vincent
Director, Media & Communications, Nobel Women’s Initiative
[email protected]
Mobile: 613-276-9030 (Canada)
Balkans: +381 637687703 Germany: + +49 152 220 86368
Ines Tanović
Croatia & Serbia On-site Media Coordinator
[email protected]
Mobile: +387603127206
Anne Siegel
Berlin On-site Media Coordinator
[email protected]
Germany: +49 221 511657
Mobile: +49 177 2423769
To follow the delegation on social media:
On Our Blog: http://bit.ly/WomenRefugeesWelcome
On Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube: @NobelWomen #WomenRefugeesWelcome
The Nobel Women’s Initiative was established in 2006, and is led by Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Leymah Gbowee, Tawakkol Karman and Mairead Maguire. The Nobel Women’s Initiative uses the prestige of the Nobel Peace Prize and of courageous women peace laureates to magnify the power and visibility of women working in countries around the world for peace, justice and equality.