Earth Democracy Presentations at WILPF International Congress

By Nancy Price
Earth Democracy Chair

July 2022

The timely theme for the 33rd WILPF International Congress, to be held virtually July 16-24, 2022, is Making Connections: Environment, Social Justice and Demilitarization for Feminist Peace. 

Throughout the week of Monday, July 18 through Friday, July 22, WILPF International will host panels, workshops and films on a variety of topics. Don’t miss the Earth Democracy panels—read on for more info! 

Secure your ticket now at this link. 

The Congress is hosted through Canapii, an excellent and easy to use conference system. You can review the Congress Plenary and Workshop and Exchange Sessions here.

NOTE: The Congress website posts the time for all events in CEST (Central European Summer Time). Be sure to convert that time to your US time zone, so you tune in at the proper time in Geneva, where the WILPF International office is located. 

Click here to register and get your ticket for the WILPF International Congress! 

Towards Environmental Peace and Justice – A Space for Learning and Exchange
Monday, July 18
10:00 – 11:30 pm CEST / 4:00 – 5:30 pm EDT / 1:00 – 2:30 pm PDT

Nancy Price will make a short presentation on PFAS from the point of view of the impact of militarism on the Human Right to Health (see www.militarypoisons.org for more info). This is part of WILPF International’s Environmental Working Group’s Exchange and Learning Session to dive into the gravest impacts of the ecological crisis and its intersections with gender and peace, seen from WILPF members’ perspective. We will listen to lived experiences and collaboratively find approaches and solutions to these destructive environmental and climate impacts. Discussions will include Indigenous perspectives, grassroots mitigation and adaptation, disarmament and degrowth. 

Can Sanctions Ever be Just – Let Alone Effective? A Feminist Perspective, Patricia Hynes
Wednesday, July 20
7:00 – 8:30 pm CEST / 1:00 - 2:30 EDT / 10:00 – 11:30 am PDT

This program will discuss whether sanctions – such as trade, divestment and boycotts -- can hold the potential to be just and effective, or if they are too often corrupted by masculinist power politics and serve mainly as another form of punitive war. Our goal is to develop a set of conditions and qualities that characterize just sanctions and contexts for their optimal use. Pat asks, “How do we help ensure that sanctions are both just and more likely to be effective in sustaining justice?  She concludes by describing some very interesting and revealing case studies in Africa. 

Read Pat’s April 14, 2022 article, Can sanctions ever be just – let alone effective, here.

Pat’s new book, Hope, But Demand Justice was just published and reviewed in the recent Peace & Freedom Magazine. She was director of the Traprock Peace and Justice Center in Western Massachusetts from 2010-2021. Since the WILPF 2018 Congress in Ghana, she has partnered with WILPF Sierra Leone and WILPF Cameroon on projects. 

Climate Justice+Women+Peace, Cindy Piester and Nancy Price
Friday, July 22
6:00 – 7:30  pm CEST / 12:00 – 1:30 pm EDT / 9:00 – 10:30 am PDT

This panel will discuss ways for WILPF Sections to collaborate on the call for nations to Move the Money from militarism and war to climate mitigation and adaptation, particularly for frontline nations and the Global South; to prioritize diplomacy, negotiations, and peace above militarism and war, to divest from fossil fuels, and to denuclearize. 

Cindy Piester will begin with a 20-minute illustrated talk, “Fighting the Militarism of Extinction and Annihilation – A Feminist Perspective” on the climate emergency and threat of nuclear war. This will be followed by discussion among WILPF Section members from Norway, Italy, Canada and Afghanistan on ways to collaborate and build an inclusive, intersectional and transformative peace movement.

Cindy is a lifetime peace activist and former alternative media cable access television producer/host. She has been giving presentations on climate disruption and U.S. militarism since 2018. She is on the steering committee of the Veterans for Peace’s Climate Crisis and Militarism Campaign, and on the board of the Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community. 

Nancy is Co-chair with Randa Solick of the Earth Democracy Committee and a member along with Cindy of WILPF International’s Environmental Working Committee.