'When women are not represented in peace processes, it is a failure. It is absolutely vital to include women in peace negotiations.'

‘Accountability for human rights and for peace is possible. Each one of us has to be accountable and play a role in making it happen. Its starts by ending the “othering ” of those we see as different, by efusing to be made afraid of others because we are told we should be. It translates into how we live in our communities, and then on to state and inter state bodies and the system reated to regulate it. It lies in refusing to see violence as a solution to disputes, it means talking and engaging, it means ending gender as a binary concept and refusing to be co-opted into militarism.’

BIOGRAPHY

Madeleine Rees is the Secretary General of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She has a great experience as a lawyer fighting against discrimination, aiming at better understanding and interpreting the concept of Security, by drawing on human rights law and humanitarian law. She has spoken out against human rights abuses in Bosnia by peacekeepers and others working for the United Nations.Madeleine was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to human rights, particularly women’s rights, and international peace and security. She was portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave in the 2010 feature film The Whistleblower.