International community. Posted by the u. S. Institute of peace, this is one hour and 20 minutes. Morning and welcome tor friends and colleagues in the room and online. For the last four years since in building please consult ive been honored to serve as cochair along with our moderator, megan buyer. It is fitting that we gather today in march, and month which the u. S. Celebrates womens history and the world acknowledges and preserves International Womens day. We are here to recognize for extraordinary women whose invaluable contributions to peace is an inspiration to u all. We celebrate their courage, their vision and their unwavering commitment. Fees for women the congo, kenya, syria and haiti. These women continue to advance peace by mediating c with armed actors, build the needs of marginalized women, youth and persons with disabilities. Peace builders and adopting creative forms of healing. The world needs the example to learn how to yield to a different kind of power and influence and one that9bowards d peaceful world. Yet these women are not alone. Countless women risk their lives to create peace in their community. Athis year as in years past, the women building peace cnc u. S. Il for nominations from 42 countries we are receiving 150 nominations of women from civil societie women working on the front lines. The council then began the very difficult at adjudication finalists into single awardee. And so it is mylege to introduce the moderator for todays conversation with the 2023 peace builders. Megan is a journalist,elong advocate and cochair of the women building peace council. [applause] thank you. Happy womensistory month. If you listen to the un last year in the report there was some history that we are not living up to what we should be doing for women and girls all around the world. But sometimes those moments of difficulty that havent returnec to action and so there is some hope in that and in the year 2000, there was some bad news as well and that was a threat and an opportunity that came toat t. It was a very obvious pivot on the battleground and in the places where terrorism and conflict occur, where civilians were the targets notably women and children were the targets. At the same time we were collecting so much data that the first impression, the first a veryobvious trends that came ous when you integrated the structural into the peace negotiations and Peace Process, that piece was much more sustainable and not by a little, but by 50 . And so with those two things, the Un Security Council with resolution 1325 it was unanimously accepted and there were promises made in the resolution to integrate women td try to get some of that dividend the data showed us that we would have, because you know, it was■o an appreci do. You take out the women, you take out the■e village. We put women on the lead and you have a durable peace. While its a bad news and good news situation, it clearly arises from the recognition that women are really the answer and thats what youre going to learn today with of the winner of our women building aw. The stories of the finalists this year trace the geography of some of the most wartorn conflicts in the area and we will begin in a syria. Please join me. What began as a protest aimed at the syrian president bashar■ many years in the civil war with a virtual proxy conflict taking place between the United States and allies and aired on, hezbollah and tohat its become internally 6. 9 million with more 5. 4 million abroad. Add to that the attacks its unimaginable destabilization so im setting stage. Please watch this video before. You start with tell us about your approach and how you feel motivated. When you feel that your neighbors are fighting or you might lose house, there is enough conflict around you. What came of this dialogue . There were so many outputs according to the group. So it m be around a domestic issue because we have lessresouc roots on the political background or based dialogues so there are several kinds of dialogues and each one has its own. The dialogue is over. Even the process at the beginning has had a lotf and tod anyone over personal conflict and stepping inside him area where we have a common understanding about the decision to the cou. So nows no time to have normal dialogues. It has to he or she is doing. When we hear about the situation, the dialogue process that you initiated and have been involved people the confidence to word some kind of a positive resolution . I almost wonder how you can do what you do. I would be surprised to see that they have enough so far especially the sians, 12 years of conflict. Regional conflict and so that you cannot say i am staying home im tired. The people are engaging from their own money for transportation that is so expensive just to be engaged and they want us to listen. Our duty isot they want, but its the only level of oxygen that we could provide for the people that had this conflict for so many its sort of the bottom line of the magic hours that we hold and it seems that this Peace Process and Peace Initiative is driven by that. What has come out of the communication and dialogue that has the traction . More resilience and hope for people to continue. Asking people not to hold an opinion against each other but a common understanding. Acknowledgment and devaluing the diversity in the community. We did not have t c to listen. Islands isolated but unfortunately there was something good inome together ad listen. We have the right dream, and it gives us the right to dre. Its mostly women. Easier to bring women to dialogue. And women have so much in th. There was an incident during that high level of conflict. Bothher to try any effort to stop more children and families to be killed. So they had this kind of Peace Initiative. Soe that they gave and they asked them tow fight. I did want to make one note about what happened at the other night when you got your award and we do have a woman leader within bessette or thomas can build. And you had a conversation with her and i just wondered how that went. It went very good. Believe ss support the women on all levels when they are displaced or in a decisionmaking provision. Things are happening so they can make the right decisions. The peaceecision and this i think is what you have been doing. Biggest mistake if womeno that. We are going to go now from the middle east to the caribbean. The next finalist, would you mind joining us. From haiti this sounds very familiar to what is going on in syria, the devastating 2010 earthquake and then the socioeconomic political and economic unrest over the past five years incdi the brutal assassination in 2021. Other crimes destroyed the■w social fabric of haiti in the city of portauprince where there were women and children particularly harmed by this. Everything, everywhere, all at once, peacemakers, doctors. We are going to see a little bit of your story. The center where i am located 8 health and Human Development h we had that video of the program. Now before you got involved, they had had this approach, did they . This was your creation . Yes. Good morning, everyone. I got to work on the fight against hivaids and so i the approach of communicating with myhients. You can hear andmunicate. From there i was talking to a few women. We realid the women were dependent on their partner and had to integrate because we were asking for more. But i had nowhere to send my kids to a house. Wehz created and said okay. Not too early because for them have access so i had not to worry about it. So that is how you started,nd st and in over and used women as their weapon because they need to control the sectors, so thats where we are now. They spreading. There is no 911nn to call. But amazingly every day i leave homeh■■. Do you think that you have been safe because people know what you are doing . Definitely. You cant be with gangs from another territory when they are fighting charter. It is an issue of poverty as well and the lack of leadership in the country where the Civil Society takes over. I rhad to work with the head of the family to convince them together. Now what is amazing is to see on this catastrophe situation access to school in the area but yesterday i heard there were shootings byhe campus airport so they had to run a is tragic. How do they get to School Every Day given this violence it certainly reflects the value and catch the education that could mean hope. What you are saying is right, what happened, and i think this■ model is the difference between you and i, the level of execution. I went■ to school. My parents insisted. If they send their kids and have access tobz education and we won care about our children and family. We want them to do better. They make sure the kids go to school but at the time that we say please be carefulometimes we have 60 , so we need to do better to address the security. What are the priorities. You said youve never thought of yourself as a peacemaker■f before. You do your dailya. Its amazing and i said this is what im going to. I said when men, we are peace builders and that is what we are going to don the program. We realized. The lesson we learn is to be really grateful we learned a lot on this meeting with you. Very good. So our next finalist works to empower people with disabilities. A finalist who is a woman with a disability. Could you please join us. She had polio as a child. She i committed to providing opportunity and security for all who work in kenya her focus is to stop terrorists from her community and she is supportive hundreds again we are hearing this theme of eo create some hon the future. We will take a quick look at the video and then start the conversation. C]n do you think that having a disability has made you sort of give hope to others . Stand up to thank you so much. Thank you everyone who is here. My disability was once a disadvantage to me and my society and even to my family. But today it is a very big advantage and changing what everyone was saying. I cannot do that. And thats something women say daunting feeling that maybe i am not the one who can do this. How did you feel when you lette . [inaudible] of. [laughter] until i learned for the fifth time and for some i know they nominated me so then i called my son, and i will show you one thing to make sure. I taught him to read and understand he was also confused and was mom, this is huge. It will remain■ can we call these and confirm . [laughter] and they said yes we just need the we decided after a few hours to apply until the response came and said we are going to take the process on. But you know what i find interesting it seemed from this imposter system it cannot be what you do every day you should get this attention. What do you think this does for people with disabilities . ■ the rest, i would say its huge. People say all dreams are valid but this one i didnt dream. I wake up every morning making sure ive supported as many people in my area possible. But for someone all the way froe and even say no, youre supposed to come for this, i had never seen it coming. So it is huge to myand family. Recognition■hat is something if cannot describe because i know that in the u. S. Ip it has been women every year but theyve never gin the need to out run that and this being my first time to have received this, i feel like flying. [laughter] well, youre not flying yet. E a few more questions for we will get into more of this later but tell me about any transformational efforts that have been put out into the world that your work has created inion kenya. Afterng that we cannot have peace, many of our youth have been lured into violent extremism, radicalization issues of drug and drug abuse, idealized that we need to reach further to the rest of tom we can give Economic Empowerment and so that we can transform them from where some people who have better in theeti came up with the Income Project for the youth, women and persons with disabilities so that we can all be transformed becau iwe leave them behind, we are seeing the and betterment. We decided now we would involve everyone that is being ruled into these activities so its why we began the project and the first transformation would be towards to change public. Everyone had not thoughtf this, but i usually say i had that dream, and my dream has become best when its a very vey in the this is where i dreamt i think that we can change them and give them to you and they become employment, so i think i knocked some doors a bit in and then we hired the youth, somewhat to transfer funds. If you want to take back a you r an oncall unit, you pay for what youre going to do before you go do it. So, you pay and benefits a short call also you also paid 30 because then we buy detergent and paper, we buy toiletries, so we started with 12 and also some three women with disabilities and for youth with disabilities and now more than 400 in that project and also the supply of the detergent come from the groups, so we taught them h to make liqd soap and how to go and purchase the toilet papers with the toiletries come from that group so each group would be supplied for six months so we have a long period of being transformed. Its all creating hope and empowerment so you can see how hard this was for us to choose among so many amazing women like this and now weve come to our selected candidate, the 2023 women building peace awardee if you could join us. From the democratic republic of congo she the province and today it is a humanitarian catastrophe, national armies, local militia, burned villages, prisoners, companies and gangs, valuable gems, natural resources, uncontrolled logging, ■mstri into moonscapes, it is a place that appears to have■n no hope and incredible violence living daytoday is a challenge. More than 1. 7 millionhave people, a quarter of the provinces in the population and before we view the video, a little background. She has said that her peace building courage is multigenerational and she tells st r grandmother going out to farm one day from the village and suddenly a huge leopard con was in the days that was the big danger, a leopard. The leopard was snarling so slowly she bent her knees to lower the knife and she told they began to talk to the leopard. I looked straight and his eyes and kept my voice calm and even amanda told him you and i are doing the same thing this morning. You are looking for food toat fo grow crops for my children. Let us not have nothing to feard i. The leopard went away so despite her fear, her grandmother you will hear that that is exactly what she does. She had driven or sometimes even walked into unprotected deep forests ruled by men with guns and. She had negotiated for ceasefires, freed hostages and saved lives standg to commanders and some of the worlds violent militias. Her children encouraged her to do it, so lets take a ok will r conversation with the winter. Ef■ i love that metaphor about fire you just have to stop it. So you were working and it was your idea to use approach as a humanitarian it was to help people in these camps if people get their they are sitting under these temps and there is no■2 water. There is no food. So there was this program, and i was the person responsible for this program. I was the one who had water. You wouldnt have anything to wash yourself with and i remember my first assignment as a humanitarian i had too through the territories and they were in that . I went through the territory and they said to me if the humanitarians are going, then we cannot let that happen so they asked me can you help reconciles with a humanitarian aid has been channeled and i had never done Something Like that so i started to reflect. I was talking and working together with■u chief and at the end he said to me that humanitarian aid can be channeled through our territory. Then my said can you not work for peace and i said no, look at what is going on around me. I have children. How do you want me to go to war. At that moment in time, the war separated me yet for seven years i didnt know where my husband wasnt my husband didnt know where i was so those were things that happened during the war and it took me eight am not going ts and at the end my boss said to me i really think you can do it. At the end i asked my children i said this is what they ask of me and i said that much because i. If my children how to said no, i wouldnt have done it but strangely enough they said you know, mother, i think that you cannd when the children said it, then i was proud. I saidkay going to go and i started out very slowly and here i am today. The children had confidence in you. What is it like . Are you feelingy when you talk about trying to do these negotiations and you are advocating for peace . In these very dangex÷ i think that is what my grandmother told me. I didnt know at that time how it was going to affect me but later when i was in a scenario of danger and facing armed men, then i was thinking about what my grandmother told me inere we, elephants which could run over me and so what is the attitude that i have and how am i going toface these militias and i think that to bring peace, you have to transform your self within your self. I was getting angry. The first step i undertook was to change myself and that was the most no to what you dont like and you have these traces in yr like because if you work for peace, that is very difficult. Sometimes i am not eatin for days. You have to deal with the sacrifices and it made me become very humble. I was an unarmed woman facingar. Why is war continuing . Because the whole entire world thinks that the war is the solution but then after all we see that its never the solution you have the guns and the bombs and on theer side you have the same thing and people fighting. I dont understand. On the other these weapons, if you have peace within you, you will win and this is what my grandmother taught me. You look the danger right in the eye then you are at peace with yourself and this is how i wondered sometimes it was veryi. I had to work on myself, i had to humiliateelf, but i was always the winner. You said something when you received your award the other night, and i thi w listen to you because you were the experts in peace building and you talked about h rich minerals, jams, forests, the beloved that you grew up in that was so beautiful and how that has become the reason for so much of the conflict and you proposed a peaceful unwinding of that. We knew that there was a lot of minerals, but later on it was discovered that in the eve of the congo there are so Many Minerals and you have the feeling that the ground, laptops, electri cars, there are people who are manufacturing bombs into these minerals are used to do these things and th some that have not even been found or discovered get. Everybody needs t■ihe minerals, right . So there are thieves coming to steal our minerals and there are so many weapons in the province. When we were on the disarmament we asked them to hand over the weapons and theyo it. Once i was the political authority, i was the governor, and instead of giving the weapons back to the United Nations were to the governmen came to me and gave me all of their weapons. Who needed minery exchange the minerals with guns. They rape the women in iill the. And so i use say look the United States is a huge a power and also our need of these mira to open freetrade market for this miner. And so the young people do neat not need their guns anymore. For the free training agreement. World. And so you could buy them. Just like any other good. That is a population can benefit from it. That would give a better life for the people live in our country. In the beginning i saw thought it was a conflict betweon this f the minerals. And the neighboring countries have their own divisions. And it is so strange the International Community at even the American Government they prefer to work then to work with the country that has the minerals. It is instead of coming to fish you were going to give money to the thief infill stealing money from our pond sets out whats happening. I am wondering why in this pond there are fish just come to the pond and for sure self instead of sending a thief and then who fish for you in your name. We have the wealth of the minerals i grounds. Who needs these minerals. That should be distributed in a fair way that should be marketed it is done with other merchandisers in the world. Thou. You have created something create something calledthe foune its a free trade agreement. No not at all. Because it was after my work as aarian where they told me i shoul w building. Its is the first ngo i created it was the foundation for sustainable peace. At that point in time i was convinced the was in the ethical communities. I started working with the communities. I told the groups to hand me their weapons. I did not have the vision that this was a problem of wealth. But it was only later when i was looking at it and i saw weapons came from everywhere. Who dont have one drop of gold the world says they are the since they come ty come and us e producer they dont have one drop of gold. Maybe later on■ the fine minds and their countries but after this moment in time it is in our ground. I had my eyes closed. And then later on my eyes open wide. The armed groups. They said to me the pblem because they were talking to me. They looked at the person that get dressed. Gold they would gie them money i would also like to add something. When i was governor this was the case. Today you have to armed groups whose working in the minds belong to the chinese. You see these minds are on our grounds they are in charge o going to china. This is very strange and we have to open our eyes. We really have to understand we have to find a solution if we clear. Higher prices than what we can offer. You have had the opportunity extrapolating for what was going on the ground. Having an epiphany about the big picture. I want to open it up now to all of you to exchange a please join us. Are there some collective . Are there some commonalities that you see are the things we can learn from the experience of all of you being simar . When you look at it from africa middle eastern we are all dealing with the common violenc. The worlds focusing more on war than we have investing more than bringing peace. Women are trappedortunately this institution instead of investing in war and bringingacy nation has when we look at it cynical pieces and the data shows this is a phenomenon when you hav gender equality. It can be reduced to the of war and seeing it through that lens. But when you add the women they take the lives we have heard about so vividly today, the lens of the f community and the economy that keeps families thriving. That is why the pieces more durable. I have learned at something going and inside each person there is a positive need. They need to discover things in each of our communitikkes. And inside us there is goodwill we need to discover and work around. It must be somebody who has a question. Ill take the question for the one who gets the mike first appeared in your name please . From the foundation i would like to ask which countries do u want to h freetrade agreements . How would this benefit mine workers . ■ this farsighted technology right now needs a minerals we have what country exists that we cod mention who doesnt have cell phones and does not have gold. What country is thinking about electrical vehicles what does it need uranium for their bombs. And how■ can i say this, that s the challenge. That is not just a concern of my country but really should be a concern to theorld. How to come together, you know how divided the world are. Thats why each tower comes and takes for itself. Perhaps we could come together a single market. Might country the democratic of the congo should describe in its policies how to interact and how to organize this market. And fortunately i do not work at that and i am under the impression that i wouldnt dare say this these are people at higher levels. The democratic congo think about this. Think the time has come to begin. I think t is not been that reflection. Otherwise thered be small advances discussions for example if that existed. The democratic republic of the co be attacking one another it is because they have not realize there might be a way there might be a way through dialogue, through diplomacy to find a path apart its a problem that to this date has not been broached positively. Such this does not leave it to death afraid thats all i can say abouthis. Th m level i have seen the situation but i am not at the level where these decisions are made. I have seen the situation but i am not at the level where these decisions are made. I am from afghanistan i must say by the discussion this i think it will stay always with me. It was very touching my question you mentioned regarding women and unity in syria. My own experience from my background is conflict fragment society. Women are not separate from society. So i would like to know what keeps women glued to each other they are so special that keep the unity together which is very much important. I also have question forgot the name. Yes. Yo s you by gangs and groups of four in conflict. I mentioned before in every conflict something human which is about peace. Because of your work that you are doing you get respect. You think she will answer a question, thank you. Are two main factors to come together more easily the first their losses. They do not want to have other losses. The community. Men with the office of envoy. Intert middleclass woman expert into the international where there is a peace negotiation. Which was one of the successes that we managed to do. This is because of the great sicilian■m woman they did huge work and educate to bring the women they were so engaged with the community thats a bottom up approach we worked with we workh women who have these losses and to ask them what they see and a chance to overcome these losses and the Advisory Board who also have lots of where that city is coming together for peace t yes thank you for the question. With the work i am doing i think we respond to their needs and not only the■o needs of the gang but the community of the women of the children of the use and the leaders as well. They seat work as an opportunity and not only that,ao the communication we establish anavy we are doing. Thats probably what is missing the dialogue and communication we are not there for war. We are there to respond to their needs. The country were well known for the work we are doing for 40 years now. Truc other questions . This will be our last one we are wrapping up if we could get a microphone. Im from the International Society action network. Thank you very much for all your remarks being here today congratulations to all of you im from the international Civil Society action network. Thank you very much for all your remarks being here today congratulations to all of you. I think it was in that video one of the greatest challenges is speaking with those actors who are funding the armed i think across all of your contacts in the conflicts in which you work there are people that have a vested interest in the conflict. So my question is how can the International Community best intervene in trying to bring them to the table. And a reference of that so i will let you start and any others want to chime in on that. That way we can stop war many of theimes need to come together without any cards on the table. We will put all cards on the table when one so we can put this to a stop. Quick shes also asking about one of the interests and moneta possibility the outside the outside influencet creating such a violence on the ground. How can they help to mitigate the influence from outside the community beyond your peace efforts on the ground . Outside that wants to what we are doing. We are going to have to end on that. And i am very. This is an amazing conversation you have seen the living representations. Would like to say one word or two . Go ahead. Facts very quickly i think those who are on the outside, first you have to begin by trying to understand what is happening far away from where you are. What is happening in syria . Enya . That is what has to comes firstk and when you know you can better understand and then read the reports. There are many reports by humanitarian workers. There are reports from the un mission that is on the ground. There are reports by experts. Who go do research you will get a better understanding for us, for me w need to support women. Whatever the reasons if the population support as such■y at the negotiations table they have their vision they have their way of going about things. Women think with their heads and their hearts, support women and we will all win. [applause] nobody could say better than that thank you very much for joining us the women in building the peace and counsel appreciates your support we look forward to seeing you next year. We will be in touch and connected to our finalist throughout the year here. Thank you veryma u. S. Supreme court ruledhis morning in favor of donald trump in a case of a challenge and is eligible to be on the ballo in 2024. The court overturned a Colorado Court rulin that said former President Trump was in eligible to run for office again because of his actions leading up to the generate six attack on the u. S. Capitol. In the unanimous decision the court said coloradoupreme court had wrongly assumed states can d■minepresident ial candidatn eligible under the provision of the constitutions 14th amendment you can read the courtsuling on our website cspan. Org. Cspans washington journal a live formnvolvingouoest issues n government, politics and public policy. Frton d. C. And across the country. Coming up Tuesday Morning we will discuss the latest on campaign 2024 and tomorrows super tuesday primary with Tea Party Patriots cofounder and then the congressional integrity projects former staffer for the generally sixth Committee Talks about her groups efforts gop investigations into president s joint and the conversation live at seven eastern Tuesday Morning free mobile app or online at cspan. Org. Congress returnso state facing another deadlinef midnight easterny to fund the government and avert a shutdown. The housesac at noon eastern along with the senate plan to vote on the first of two packages of federal spending bills to fund the government past the deadline. Later in the big members of an legislation requiring Security Department to take intoustody on documented immigrants who have been charged with theft while in the United States the bill is named after 22yearold nursing studtake and riley who was killed in athens, georgia allegedly by venezuelan immigrants in the country illegally. Thursday a law maks will meet t House Chamber to hear President Biden delivers state of the union address. These sat also returns tuesday a 3 00 p. M. Eastern they will consider several President Bidens exe nominations and vote to reauthorize a law compensatin americans exposed to radiation by the federal government. Watch live coverage of house on cspan, see the cspan2 and a reminder you can watch all of our congressional coverage are free video apps cspan now or online at cspan. Org. Cspan is an unfiltered view of government funded by these Television Companies and more. Including cox. Is extremely rare. But friends dont have to be. When you are connected you are not