PHILADELPHIA, March 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Women's International League for
Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is launching two new cutting-edge programs to mark
the celebration of International Women's Day, 2005. This begins its tenth
decade of organizing to end war. WILPF has addressed the root causes of war
and called for negotiated settlements to end them since its founding at The
Hague in 1915.
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Noting that future wars to control the world's resources will be over
water rather than oil, Laura Santina, chairperson of WILPF's new "Save the
Water" campaign said "It's appropriate to announce WILPF's Save the Water
campaign on International Women's Day. There's no question water is a women's
issue." The program will educate and organize communities to address the
scarcity, misuse and rapid "marketization" of water with corporations taking
private control of this vital resource around the world.
The second campaign "Women Challenge U.S. Policy: Building Peace on
Justice in the Middle East" will educate wider audiences to speak out against
United States' policies promoting war and violence in the region rather than
peaceful solutions to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, in Afghanistan and
Iraq.
"It's very important that more women get involved in foreign policy,"
declared Odile Hugonot-Haber, chairperson of WILPF's new campaign focused on
the Middle East. "We hope to affect the lives of women in the Mideast -- that
would be success, if we could see a difference in the lives of the people
there," she concluded.
WILPF members chose these priorities for work in the next three years.
This was a first-time ever, nationwide vote. Noting the link between the two
campaigns, Mary Day Kent, WILPF's Executive Director, said "Control and access
to water is as fundamental to the conflicts and violence in the Middle East as
control of oil, and more fundamental to sustaining life on this earth. Water
is a human right. All people must have equal access to it on a not-for-profit
basis."
Since 1915, WILPF has worked to achieve through peaceful means: world
disarmament, full rights for women, racial and economic justice, an end to all
forms of violence, and to establish those political, social and psychological
conditions which can assure peace, freedom, and justice for all.
See http://www.wilpf.org
This release was issued on behalf of the above organization by
Send2Press(TM), a unit of Neotrope(R). http://www.Send2Press.com
SOURCE Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
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Related links:
http://www.wilpf.org
CONTACT:
Gillian Gilhool of WILPF, +1-215-563-7110,
ggilhool@wilpf.org
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