International Peace Day in Suva

from w
Maybe most people won't be bothered but some Pacific women are meeting this weekend to remember International Peace Day, though only a handful went to the Suva Peace Garden for reflection. I was interested to read in the Daily Post that Anne Walker is back in Fiji at present. Anne Walker, now based in New York (I think) came to Fiji in about 1962 and together with Ruth Lechte they set up the YWCA in Fiji. - A long time ago it seems now.

from the Fiji Daily Post:
International Peace Day was first celebrated in 1982 and in 2002 the UN General Assembly official declared September 21 as the permanent date for IDP. During a discussion on the UN Resolution the established IDP, it was suggested that Peace should be devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples.

Meanwhile, former Executive Director of the International Women’s Tribune Centre in New York, Dr Anne S Walker wants women in the Pacific to know their voices are being heard.

She was referring to the links between local and national women’s media networks, working in collaboration at regional and international levels to advance women’s human rights.

Highlighting the role and contribution of global women’s media networks, Walker noted that women’s information and media networks have been responsible for sharing information from global and regional conferences to women at the community level, since 1975, when the first UN Conference on Women was held in Mexico.

“For the past 33 years, international, regional and national women’s media networks have worked to build a truly global women’s movement. With a solid basis of leadership and linkages built from the work of more traditional international membership organizations such the World YWCA, women have set up and expanded networks of communications and information that stretch into the farthest reaches of the world,” she said.

Bhagwan-Rolls says Walker will be keynote speaker at femLINKPACIFIC’s Peace Talks reception today.