We’ve just returned from the Mundos de Mujeres conference in Madrid, where we had a chance to meet with progressive women from around the world, including anti-violence activists, and begin to share strategies.  In the coming days, we’re going to feature a couple of the groups and projects that we learned about that are doing inspiring work to end violence against women.

As we talk here in Chicago about the forms of violence that women and girls experience, it’s important to think about the many ways that women elsewhere experience violence during armed conflict, and the ways that women have been able to insert themselves into the peace process. 

Here’s where the Iniciativa de Mujeres Colombianas por la Paz, or I.M.P. comes in (in English, it’s the Colombian Women’s Peace Initiative).  They are an alliance of dozens of organizations across Colombia, and they have 2 broad goals – to involve women in peacemaking negotiations in the conflict in Colombia, and to lessen the particular forms of violence that women experience during wartime. 

These 2 goals are linked – because women experience such unique forms of violence during conflict, it’s so important to have women at the negotiating table.  I.M.P. reminds us that during armed conflict, women experience a lot of different kinds of violence, including physical violence, sexual violence as a tool of war, and the psychological violence of being threatened and displaced from your home. 

Using a human rights model, and looking at women’s multiple identities across class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, religion and more, these women have written, marched and organized for peace in Colombia.  For those who read Spanish, you can check out their great website at www.mujeresporlapaz.org. 

Actually, a lot of groups we heard from are using a human rights analysis, bringing in international law and standards as they approach their work.  We’d love to hear from you: does your project use a human rights framework?  Would this be helpful to hear more about?