Peace by Piece Conference
24-26 June 2008
Belfast, Northern Ireland
This summer, GJC President Janet Benshoof and Director of Development and Communications Abby Goldberg went to Northern Ireland to meet with women leaders at the Peace by Piece International Women's Conference. The GJC led a workshop focused on providing an international perspective to the comparative analysis of women's inclusion in government in post-conflict reconstruction. In her presentation Moving from Equal Opportunity to Equal Power: Using International Law to Advance Equality Rights and Restructure Government, Janet explained CEDAW and Resolution 1325 and their importance to women in transitional governments or governments developing a Constitution, like Northern Ireland.
The ruling document as it stands in Northern Ireland is the Belfast Agreement; in essence, a power sharing agreement between ruling religious parties, which leaves no room for women's equality. Janet emphasized the importance of implementing international law and adopting a Bill of Rights that includes the CEDAW definition of equality, with means for judicial scrutiny of all laws that affect women. Well known academics and government officials pledged to follow up on Janet's recommendations for advancing equality in Northern Ireland and one leader said that she "will never think of equality in the same way again."
To view the GJC's presentation from this workshop, please click here.