Annelise Ebbe and Ila Pathak, Whither Women’s Rights? A Report from Kandhamal, WISCOMP (2009)Navanita Sinha, Democracies in Transition: Opportunities and Challenges for Nepal- A Report, WISCOMP (2010)
WISCOMP (Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace) is a South
Asian research and training initiative, which facilitates the leadership
of women in the areas of peace, security and international affairs.
Initiated in 1999 by Meenakshi Gopinath who currently serves as the
Honorary Director, WISCOMP positions its work at the confluence of peacebuilding,
conflict transformation and security studies. The intersection of these
with gender concerns provides the focus of its engagement and is the
leitmotif that informs its programs.
WISCOMP
strives to:
Enhance the role of women as peacebuilders, negotiators and as agents
for nonviolent social change.
Contribute to an inclusive, people-oriented discourse on issues of
security, which respects diversity and which foregrounds the perspectives
of women and the hitherto marginalized.
Facilitate
theory-building and innovative research on holistic paradigms that
address the resolution and transformation of intra- and inter-state
conflicts.
Empower
a new generation of women and men with the expertise and skills to
engage in peace activism through educational and training programs
in conflict transformation.
Build
synergy at various levels – between theory, practice and policy;
between those working in academia, in the formal structures of foreign
policy and diplomacy and those engaged in grassroots’ peacebuilding.
Build
constituencies of peace through research, action and mentor programs
that focus on areas such as multi-track diplomacy, peace advocacy,
active coexistence and cross-border networks.
Wiscomp
was established as part of the efforts of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility
to build a culture of coexistence and nonviolence that is gender-sensitive
and inclusive. A not-for-profit, non-sectarian, non-denominational organization,
the Foundation promotes universal responsibility in a manner that celebrates
a diversity of beleifs and practices, and that contributes to a global ethic
of nonviolence, coexistence and gender equity. The work of the Foundation
is global in its reach and transcends nationalist political agendas.
