Women Peacekeepers of UNIFIL
WINNIPEG, MB – A United Nations (UN) delegation of women from many countries, wearing the distinctive uniforms and blue berets of peacekeepers, will march to the UWinnipeg campus to begin a “gender toolkit” training mandated by the UN, this Sunday, September 28, 2014 at 1:45 pm*. The peacekeepers will make their way from the Manitoba Legislature to UWinnipeg’s Wesley Hall (515 Portage Ave.). They are in Winnipeg for the International Association of Women Police conference.
They will return to campus on Tuesday, September 30, for more UN training. Co-hosted by the Institute for International Women’s Rights at Global College, these closed UN “gender toolkit” training sessions are backed by over 30 volunteers – including French rapporteurs from UWinnipeg and University of St. Boniface led by human rights student Katrina Leclerc, English rapporteurs led by a UWSA vice-president, Lee Chitty, and many community members and photographer Evan Roberts, also a UWinnipeg human rights student.
UN training on responses to sexualized gender based violence (SGBV) in conflict and post-conflict zones, usually held by UN Peacekeeping in New York and other UN bases, came to the UWinnipeg campus at the invitation of Marilou McPhedran, Director of the Institute for International Women’s Rights at UWinnipeg’s Global College, who will also be a guest lecturer and serve as an expert advisor in the closed sessions.
McPhedran noted, “our Human Rights UniverCity has reached out to support the women peacekeepers as they train to fulfill UN responsibility to protect and promote human rights through their often dangerous and isolated work.”
Praising how the generosity of Diversity Foods, UWinnipeg Events under Susan Reid, and Global College is being matched by community members, McPhedran recounted how the manager of the Subway across from UWinnipeg, Cindy Gallagher, donated half the lunch order when student coordinator Jennifer Pacaud told her why the women in blue berets are coming to UWinnipeg.
On Tuesday, September 30 at 1:00 PM in 3L08, classes will combine for a dialogue with UN Peacekeeping veteran Assistant Police Chief Kjaersti Helland of Norway, who served in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Afghanistan, Palestine and is currently responsible for developing a new SGBV-project in MINUSTAH, the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti. Limited seating is still available to members of the UWinnipeg community, through support from the Uniter Speakers Series.
*This is an approximate time of departure.
