By Robyn Naylor, Communications Coordinator, Isis-WICCE

The head of a global women’s rights organization scheduled to be a keynote speaker at the upcoming communication rights conference, Congress 2008, recently challenged over 400 senior Amnesty International delegates from all over the world to make women’s human rights real, particularly in Africa, a region where Amnesty International’s initiatives tend to lag behind despite its strong human rights profile.

Ms. Ruth Ojiambo Ochieng, Executive Director of Isis-Women's International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE) based in Kampala, Uganda, was speaking on the theme “Thinking Ahead", as a key panelist at a recent Amnesty International (AI) Council Meeting in Morelos, Mexico.

In her role with Isis-WICCE, Ms. Ochieng works to empower women at all levels, particularly those affected by armed conflicts, to recognize their right to communicate and advocate for access to communication platforms and tools. She has spearheaded the development of projects to promote women’s leadership in conflict resolution, peace building and reconstruction processes. Ms. Ochieng’s commitment to promoting sustainable peace has taken her Mexico, Southern Sudan, South Africa, Liberia, Netherlands, Belgium and Djibouti in the just last two months speaking out on women’s human rights violations and advocating for peace at the grassroots.

In early September, Ms. Ochieng and her colleagues released a detailed report on the gross women’s rights violations committed during the 20 year civil war in Southern Sudan. The report is based on Isis-WICCE’s findings during its documentation programme in Southern Sudan in 2006, when the organisation trained 10 women and 4 men to carry out research in over 20 counties in the Central Equatorial State. The organisation is also in the final stages of producing its video documentary entitled: Out of a Dark Cloud: Women’s Spirits Unbroken, to highlight the stories and experiences of Southern Sudanese’s women during the civil war.

Due to Ms. Ochieng’s long standing work on women and peacebuilding, she was invited to speak at the “Gender, Militarism, Conflict Resistance and Peace-building” in Cape Town, South Africa hosted by African Gender Institute where she shared how the Government of Uganda continues to perpetuate militarized politics and the impact on women. In telling the story, Ms. Ochieng highlighted Isis-WICCE’s best practices in peace building and provided key suggestions for a transnational feminist action research project spearheaded by the Organization.

In October, Isis-WICCE hosted its International Exchange Programme in Liberia – a country recently emerging from a 14 year conflict – with 40 women human rights activists from 23 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America under the theme Women Leading Change for Peace and Human Security, the organization’s initiative that provides women working conflict situations with tools to document violations in their home countries. While the organization is international in focus, Isis-WICCE specifically selected 11 women from Liberia and 4 women from Southern Sudan - two countries currently in the post conflict reconstruction phase. During such situations women have faced specific challenges, and the organization is geared share ideas and experiences to learn and share with women who have gone through.

Shortly after the success of the Institute, Ms. Ochieng spoke at a European Union Conference on the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 organised by ICCO & Kerk in Actie, an Isis-WICCE partner. Under the theme Women: from Target Group to Stakeholders in Peace and Security, the conference was designed to facilitate the sharing of knowledge between civil society organizations in the global south and EU policy makers to bridge the gap between policy and implementation by identifying realities and challenges on the ground with respect to UNSCR 1325. Ms. Ochieng spoke on a panel discussion on Conclusions for EU Engaging CivilSociety in the Implementation of UNSCR point 8, with a focus on women’s human rights issues at the grassroots level in Northern Uganda. She also shared experiences during various workshops on the DDRR process, role of women’s organizations in peace initiatives and gender based violence, to name a few.Prior to the meeting she was invited to give a talk with church leaders in The Hague on the current situation in Northern Uganda.

Ms. Ochieng was recently invited to participate in a UNESCO Think Tank, held in Dijibouti on the future of the Horn of Africa which looked at offering a suitable framework for researchers, opinion leaders and policymakers to exchange ideas, research findings and visions on the future challenges of the region.

At the national level, Ms. Ochieng continues to participate in the in the ongoing Juba Peace Talks between the Government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army to end the 21 year civil war through the Uganda Women’s Coalition for Peace.

Ms. Ochieng, as a member of the Coalition, earlier this summer held consultations with over 750 women in Northern Uganda to hear first hand from women war survivors how the peace talks should unfold and more specifically what they need from both parties to reconcile for the countless atrocities committed during the brutal war.