Women and Orchestrated Violence: A Model for Intervention
The Women's Centre of Montreal
cfmwcm [at] centredesfemmes.com (Email)
Since its foundation, the Women's Centre of Montreal has always paid special attention to improving the lives of newly-arrived immigrant women. This action-research project helped to identify the needs of immigrant and refugee women from the Great Lakes region of Africa and Algeria who had suffered psychological and physical traumas; to develop and implement a model of support group aimed at maintaining a process of rehabilitation for these women in the host country, in our case, Canada; to increase and share expertise results with other women`s organizations in Canada and abroad.
Political Reconciliation and Issues of Trauma in the Great Lakes Region
Rosalind Boyd
rosalind.boyd [at] mcgill.ca (Email)
Globally, war-torn societies and military conflicts are producing more refugees, displaced persons and immigrants than ever before, many of whom are women coming to Canada. The overall goal of our research was to improve the capacity, through cultural understanding and diversity of methods, for assisting women refugees and immigrants, specifically at the Women's Centre of Montreal. In this research project, we 1) identified the various organizations that are working with women who are victims of the conflicts in the Great Lakes Region of Africa (see Discussion Paper 90); 2) shared the tools and methods being used to assist women and men through participation in a Workshop held in Kampala, Uganda with researchers, interveners and women's organizations; 3) held a Workshop in Montreal with all the researchers and women's organizations, including the Coordinator of EASSI to share our knowledge and methods of intervention; and 4) published two scholarly articles analyzing the problematic and action-research of this program (See Canadian Journal of Development Studies 22:2001 and Development in Practice 15:1, 2005 articles by Rosalind Boyd). We attempted to deal with the two domains of political reconciliation and issues of trauma which are generally treated separately.
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Human Security Issues in Post-Conflict Situations
Myriam Gervais
myriam.gervais [at] mcgill.ca (Email)
As opposed to natural catastrophies, internal conflicts have their roots in structural problems. Consequently, post-war rebuilding problems need to be addressed by the afflicted society. In fact, reconstruction programs could have an impact on gender relations and on social relations and if so, significant changes can emerge. Therefore, we need to scrutinize reconstruction activities in relation with human security issues. Our research is based on the Rwandan case (1994-2000) and we intend to look at the reconstruction program implemented, focusing on national strategies, donors and NGOs interventions, with a particular interest in CIDA and Canadian NGOs.
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The Girl-Child within Refugee and Immigrant Communities in Montreal: An Exploration of Sexuality and Human Security
Claudia Mitchell
claudia.mitchell [at] mcgill.ca (Email)
Our specific focus in this project is on the everyday lives of girls in refugee and immigrant communities in Montreal. The work on girlhood in a Western context within the framework of popular culture has paid little attention to the lives of girls who are outside the mainstream culture. Even more significantly, we know very little about the ways in which the links between the lives of girls and women, daughters and mothers, girls and their female teachers might contribute to understanding issues of the girl-child. Finally, as (adult) researchers, we have a great deal to learn about how best to work with young people in studying everyday lives, including addressing issues of sexuality. How, for example, can girls become partners in co-researching in studying their own lives? How can we look at participatory process in a "research as social change" context?" Most importantly, who are the communities who are addressing these issues and how could our project contribute to partnerships and networking with girls and about girls?
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- Discussion Paper no. 93
- A Facilitator's Guide to the Video: Unwanted Images: Gender-based Violence in the New South Africa
- Video: Unwanted images: Gender-based Violence in the New South Africa
After the Peace Processes: the Political Economy of Marginalization
Manal Jamal (PhD candidate)
In the post-Cold War Era, two phenomena have become increasingly pervasive: the first is the eruption of an increasing number of ethnic conflicts; and the second is the emergence of an international context that is more conducive to the resolution of long-standing conflicts. As a result, concerted international intervention has led to the beginning of several peace processes to resolve some of these long-standing conflicts. This research project explained how multilateral peace-building initiatives may contribute to the demobilization of grassroots organizations and other social sectors that were previously active both at the political and social level, in both community and national context. The two case studies under examination were Palestine and El Salvador.
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Women Refugees from South Asia: Uncovering the Exploitation Trail
Shree Mulay
shree.mulay [at] mcgill.ca (Email)
Each year, several hundred women come as asylum seekers to Canada from the South Asian sub-continent. Often "lured" to Canada by agents or so-called consultants, they are abandoned by the agents and they are left to fend for themselves with no resources. Many of the women are not necessarily political refugees, or facing gender discrimination in their home country. Rather they have to be regarded as economic refugees and part of the large number of women who are trafficked each year from the South Asian sub-continent. There is a need to understand the magnitude of the problem and reasons why women are prepared to take great personal risks when they seek asylum status in Canada; the South Asian Women's Community Centre (SAWCC) sees only a fraction of such refugee claimants. There is a need to understand the situation of these women and to provide assistance to them. In collaboration with the SAWCC, this research project uncovered the process and undertook to provide information that will help community workers assisting asylum seekers.
Training Workshop on Documentation of Peace Building Initiatives
Maude Mugisha, The Eastern African Sub-regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI)
maude.mugisha [at] eassi.org (Email)
The Training Workshop on Documentation of Peace Building Initiatives took place in Kampala, Uganda, with participants from the following six countries: Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan. These countries have experienced conflict and peace building programs are underway. The overall goal of the Training Workshop was to develop the participants' capacity to establish a documentation system that will enable them to capture their own experiences, as well as the lessons from their work in peace building initiatives and projects. The Training Workshop on Documentation of Peace Building Initiatives consisted of a series of activities in order to: 1) enable participants to share their work experience in their respective country and to learn from one another; 2) impart skills relating to documentation; and 3) develop guidelines for documentation.
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Post-traumatic Stress: Aid Programs for Women Refugees and Their Children
Miranda D'Amico
miranda [at] vax2.concordia.ca (Email)
This project aims to better understand the emotional issues that refugee women and survivors of trauma may experience in their resettled country. It also reports on a program that has been put in place at the CFM that helps meet the mental health needs of these women and their children and describes the creative interventions that have been integrated at the CFM along with other social services conducted at the CFM. A literature review discusses the support programs currently in place for women refugees in Canada. This project examined whether the effects of post-traumatic stress are taken into account in programs which seek to aid the integration of refugee women into Canadian society.
Overview of the Legal Protections for Women and Girls Victims of Sexual Violence During the Wars in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
Pascal Musulay Mukonde
mukonde [at] caramail.com (Email)
This project examined the current legislation, jurisprudence and doctrine of the DRC in relation to the violence perpetrated against girls and women during armed conflict. This research lead to the production of a scientific article aiming to determine whether there exists a compatibility or complementarity between the rights of Congolese women and those of their counterparts both regionally and internationally; and moreover, this project stimulated other research that will complete, confirm, or invalidate our conclusions. Research was conducted from the perspectives of consolidation, comprehension and popularization, at the national level, of the international norms established to combat violence
Civil Society's Role in the Peace Consolidation Process taking place in Democratic Republic of Congo
Hamuli Kabarhuza Baudouin
cenadep [at] yahou.fr (Email)
This project was intended to contribute to the promotion of peace in the DRC by documenting the numerous initiatives of civil society, and in particular of women organizations, in relation to peace consolidation, the restoring of human security and the respect of human rights by describing their work in the field. The research was also to identify the impact of these actions on the peace process taking place in the country and suggest areas of commitment for civil society that would further support peace consolidation, the restoring of human security and the respect of human rights without which democracy and development are not possible (Unable to pursue this project).