PRESS RELEASES
December 23, 2004

Media Release

International Team of Women Leaders to Visit Palestine to Lend Support to Palestinian Women during the Presidential Election

The Global Coalition - Women Defending Peace is sending an international team of women leaders to Palestine from 7 to 10 January 2005 to lend support to Palestinian women during the presidential election. The Global Coalition is responding to an invitation by Zahira Kamal, Minister for Women Affairs of the Palestinian Authority, and Salwa Abou Khadra, President of the General Union of Palestinian Women.

The Global Coalition - Women Defending Peace was created last November in Geneva by the participants of an international conference that was held under the auspices of Suzanne Mubarak, President and Founder of the Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement (SMWIPM), and Micheline Calmy-Rey, Head of the Foreign Department of Federal Affairs of Switzerland. (www.dcaf.ch/wdp)

This mission is a gesture of solidarity as well as a commitment to support any opportunity that presents itself for strengthening women in their efforts to participate in political life on an equal footing with men, and to accede to positions of leadership.

The delegation will include women from ten different countries. It will be led by Gertrude Mongella, President of the African Parliament, and will include Anna Balletbo, President of the Olof Palme Foundation; Robyn Brentano, Vice President of Healing the Divide; Rebecca Carter; Anja H. Ebnöther, Assistant Director of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces; Aleya El Bindari-Hammad, Secretary General of Women Defending Peace and SMWIPM; Therese Gastaut, Spokesperson of SMWIPM; Anne Marie Lizin, President of the Belgian Senate; Flora MacDonald, former Foreign Minister of Canada; Ndioro Ndiaye, Assistant Director General of the International Organization of Migration; Zohreh Tabatabai, Director of Communications of the International Labour Organization; and Ruth-Gaby Vermot, Swiss Member of Parliament.

Before travelling to Palestine the team will assemble in Cairo to meet with Suzanne Mubarak to discuss the content of the mission and to agree on its detailed terms of reference.

During its stay in Palestine, the delegation will meet with key representatives of the Palestinian Authority and parliamentarians, as well as with representatives of women’s organizations. It will travel throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory and meet local representatives and visit election centres.

The mission is unique in that it illustrates women’s resolve to achieve equal participation of women in the political life of their respective nations and demonstrate the importance of international solidarity to achieve this objective.

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