Global Network Login

Celebrate International Women’s Day 2009

on Capitol Hill March 12

Women as Peacemakers: Building a Culture of Peace

Date Thursday, March 12, 2009

Time Registration 4:40 – 5 pm
Program: 5 – 7:30 pm

Cost FREE

Location U.S. Capitol, Rayburn House Office Building, B339

Evening Includes:

Speakers

H.E. Kolinda Graber-Kitarovic, Ambassador of Croatia

Patricia Smith Melton, Founder of Peace X Peace

Congresswomen (tba)

Entertainment

Bridge of Peace Ceremony

Book Signing by Patricia Smith Melton
Sixty Years, Sixty Voices: Israeli and Palestinian Women

Refreshments & Networking

For more information and to RSVP visit www.womenaspeacemakers.com

Bridge of Peace Ceremony for Reconciliation and Healing

The Bridge of Peace Ceremony is a tool for reconciliation and healing and making new partnerships for peace.

As women cross the Bridge, any internal blocks are left behind and empathy, forgiveness and unconditional love emerge, such as that shown by a mother to a child, a neighbor toward someone in need, or a nation helping another to rebuild. These qualities are essential in creating a culture of lasting peace.

Take Action

You can belong to the new Bridge of Peace Circle in the Global Network whether or not you are able to attend. Just join the Global Network (if you are not already a member) and look for it under Featured Circles.

International Women’s Day

The United Nations’ Charter, ratified in San Francisco in 1945, proclaims gender equality as a fundamental human right and asserts that “no enduring solution to society's most threatening social, economic and political problems can be found without the full participation, and the full empowerment of the world’s women.”

The United Nations officially recognized International Women’s Day for the first time in 1975, stating:

When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.

And—they might have added—we can look forward to the decades ahead, in which women support each other in claiming our full power for peace. The culture of peace begins with each one of us—and it is truly something to celebrate.