From 9 to 20 November, WILPF will participate in the 31st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP31) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in […]
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Mercy Osei-Konadu is a Gender, Rights and Development Practitioner, with experience in programme planning and management, policy advocacy and partnership development. Her career spans the United Nations, USAID, other Public and Private Institutions, and Civil Society, with expertise in gender equality, women’s empowerment, population and development, SRHRs, WPS, humanitarian response and sustainable development.
Mercy holds a Bachelor’s Honours Degree from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi-Ghana, and a Master’s Degree in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom. She is a member of WILPF Ghana Section, WGWYPS Ghana network, and other civil society advocacy networks. She currently serves as the WILPF Africa Alternate Representative.
Contact: mercy.osei@wilpf.org
Matt Mahmoudi (he/him) is a lecturer, researcher, and organizer. He’s been leading the “Ban the Scan” campaign, Amnesty International’s research and advocacy efforts on banning facial recognition technologies and exposing their uses against racialized communities, from New York City to the occupied Palestinian territories.
Hanne Petersen is a feminist peacebuilder from Denmark with expertise on gender and law, legal pluralism, and legal cultures (esp. Greenland, China, Nordic Countries, Germany). She is a retired Professor (emerita) of Legal Cultures at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen. Hanne has been a member of WILPF Denmark since 2003, increasing her activism since she retired 2024 on the national, regional, as well as international level within WILPF. She is an alternate board member of WILPF Denmark since 2022 and an executive committee member since 2024. She’s been active in regional initiatives and mobilisations since 2023. She currently serves as the Alternate European Regional Representative on WILPF’s International Board. Hanne grew up in post & cold world war Northern/ Western Germany (‘South Schleswig’) in the 1950s and 60s as part of the Danish minority.
Contact: hanne.petersen@wilpf.org
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Diana María Salcedo López is an anti-militarist feminist from Colombia. She has a solid track record spanning two decades incorporating gender and intersectional perspectives into public policy, advocating for victims of armed conflict, and consolidating territorial peacebuilding processes as an activist, but also consultant for NGOs, international cooperation agencies, the UN and government entities in Colombia. She is the director of WILPF’s national section in Colombia (LIMPAL Colombia), where she leads efforts on issues such as feminist approaches to the energy transition, the protection of women human rights defenders and the implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security agenda. She represents the organisation in the Special Women’s Body for Monitoring the Peace Agreement and in the Intersectoral Commission on Security Guarantees for Women Human Rights Defenders and Leaders in Colombia. Diana holds a degree in political science from the National University of Colombia, a master’s degree in Women’s, Gender, and Citizenship Studies from the University of Barcelona, and as well as in Human Rights, the Rule of Law, and Democratisation from the University of Alcalá de Henares in Madrid.
Contact: diana.salcedo@wilpf.org
Desirée currently serves as President of the Swedish Section (IKFF), a role she has held since 2023. Her engagement with WILPF began at the grassroots level through the local branch in Lund/Malmö during her university years. Desirée brings a deep substantive understanding of WILPF’s core issues, rooted in academic training in gender, peace and security (LSE), war studies (Swedish Defense University), peace and conflict studies, and human rights (Lund University), combined with several years of practical advocacy, movement-building and organisational leadership work in Swedish civil society.
Contact: desiree.sterner@wilpf.org
Sylvie Ndongmo is a Cameroonian peacebuilder, feminist leader, civil society actor and Women, Peace and Security expert with over 30 years of experience in peacebuilding, mediation, and gender equality advocacy. This is her second term serving as International President of WILPF. She is also the founder of WILPF Cameroon and Executive Secretary of Women Peace Initiatives. She coordinates the Women and Youth Early Warning Monitoring Room in Cameroon and was appointed to the African Union Advisory Panel on Democratic Elections and Governance in Africa. Her work focuses on advancing women’s leadership, conflict prevention, and sustainable peace through feminist, inclusive, and intergenerational approaches.
Contact: sylvie.ndongmo@wilpf.org
In response to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and its targeted attacks on civil society members, WILPF Afghanistan issued several statements calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan people and ensure that their rights be upheld, including access to aid. The Section also published 100 Untold Stories of War and Peace, a compilation of true stories that highlight the effects of war and militarisation on the region.
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WILPF uses feminist analysis to argue that militarisation is a counter-productive and ill-conceived response to establishing security in the world. The more society becomes militarised, the more violence and injustice are likely to grow locally and worldwide.
Sixteen states are believed to have supplied weapons to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 with the US supplying 74 % of weapons, followed by Russia. Much of this equipment was left behind by the US military and is being used to inflate Taliban’s arsenal. WILPF is calling for better oversight on arms movement, for compensating affected Afghan people and for an end to all militarised systems.
Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. WILPF shares a feminist analysis on the links between militarism, masculinities, peace and security. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists’ action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality.
WILPF has been working on challenging the prevailing notion of masculinity based on men’s physical and social superiority to, and dominance of, women in Afghanistan. It recognizes that these notions are not representative of all Afghan men, contrary to the publicly prevailing notion.
In WILPF’s view, any process towards establishing peace that has not been partly designed by women remains deficient. Beyond bringing perspectives that encapsulate the views of half of the society and unlike the men only designed processes, women’s true and meaningful participation allows the situation to improve.
In Afghanistan, WILPF has been demanding that women occupy the front seats at the negotiating tables. The experience of the past 20 has shown that women’s presence produces more sustainable solutions when they are empowered and enabled to play a role.
