Ethiopia: African women combatants and promoting humanitarian rules         

[DEC. 29, 2005]  ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- A conference in Addis Ababa in late November discussed how women combatants can help promote humanitarian and human rights norms. At the invitation of the organization Geneva Call and the Program for the Study of International Organizations at Geneva's Graduate Institute of International Studies, 40 women currently or recently involved in armed opposition groups from a dozen sub-Saharan African countries exchanged views on their experiences.

The first such conference was in August 2004 in Geneva, bringing together women involved in armed opposition groups from 18 war-torn countries around the globe. This regional follow-up was then organized as a means of further engaging with armed opposition groups on issues central to respect for humanitarian rules and human rights.

Two members of the International Committee of the Red Cross took part as facilitators in the recent conference. For some years now the committee has been endeavoring to gain a better insight into the many ways in which women experience war, as either victims or participants. The organization attaches great importance to discussing this issue as a means of promoting compliance with humanitarian law.

[Provided by the Good News Agency]

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