Last Updated on: 17th April 2023, 11:02 pm
Seoul, April 17, 2023: The International Women’s Peace Group (IWPG) has signed the Peace Education Memorandum of Agreement (MOAs) with the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare of South Sudan and the Ministry of Women, Family, and Children of Côte d’Ivoire.
The IWPG, Chairwoman Hyun Sook Yoon hosted two side events at the 67th UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), held at the UN Headquarters in New York in March, each with the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare of South Sudan on March 8 and Ministry of Women, Family, and Children of Côte d’Ivoire on March 10.
CSW is a functional commission of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) that gathers international institutions and NGOs every year from all over the world to share policy ideas on women’s rights and female empowerment and discuss ways to effectively implement gender equality strategies.
This year’s CSW was held on the theme: “Innovation and Technological Change, Education in the Digital Age: Progress toward Gender Equality.”
IWPG started by hosting an NGO parallel event on March 6 and went on to host its first side event with the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare of South Sudan under the theme: “Development of Peace Education in the Digital Age for Global Partnership and the Empowerment of All Women and Girls.”
The event gathered 300 participants from various backgrounds, including national ministers and UN ambassadors.
H.E. Aya Benjamin Libo Warille, the South Sudan Minister of Gender, Child, and Social Welfare, Hyun Sook Yoon, Chairwoman of IWPG; Stephanie Copus Campbell, Australia Ambassador of Gender Equality; H.E. Maha Ali, Secretary General of the Jordan National Commission for Women and Na Hyung Jun, Secretary General of IWPG, participated as speakers, discussing various peace-building strategies.
H.E. Minister Aya Benjamin Libo Warille said, “The Ministry of Gender, Child, and Social Welfare of South Sudan is honored to co-host this important side event with the International Women’s Peace Group to discuss how South Sudan can develop peace education in the global partnership digital age for the empowerment of women and girls. Peace Education must take place in South Sudan nationally, not just locally. I believe there is much the South Sudan Ministry of Gender, Child, and Social Welfare can do in partnership with IWPG.”
Hyun Sook Yoon urged support for the institutionalization of the DPCW and said, “IWPG is teaching women the value of peace and ways to practice it so that women understand that peace, not war, is natural. IWPG proposes a way to overcome the limitations of current international laws and solve the fundamental cause of war to achieve sustainable peace, which is the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW), the foundation of our Peace Education.”
The theme of the second side event co-hosted with the Ministry of Women, Family, and Children of Côte d’Ivoire was “Development of Peace Education in the Digital Age for Global Partnership and the Empowerment of All Women and Girls: The Case of Peace Education.”
H.E. Nasseneba Toure, Minister of Women, Family and Children of Côte d’Ivoire, Abdelahad Benhallam, Advisor to the Minister of Solidarity, Social Integration and the Family in the Kingdom of Morocco; H.E. Imelde Sabushimike, Minister of National Solidarity, Social Affairs, Human Rights and Gender of Burundi; and Hyun Sook Yoon, Chairwoman of IWPG, participated as speakers.
On March 9, the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare of South Sudan signed an MOA with IWPG and agreed to support the DPCW and IWPG Peace Education.
On March 10, the same MOA was signed with the Ministry of Women, Family, and Children of Côte d’Ivoire.
IWPG’s Yoon also met with Stephanie Copus Campbell, Australia’s Ambassador of Gender Equality; H.E. Maha Ali, Secretary General of the Jordan National Commission for Women; H.E. Claudine Aoun Roukoz, President of the National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW), and other multiple female leaders to discuss practical ways to achieve sustainable peace.
Through this year’s UN CSW67, IWPG was able to dive deep into Sustainable Development Goal (SDG4): “Peace Education,” and will continue to build sustainable peace education processes with the countries that it signed MOAs with.