On Thursday April 11, The Light Millennium led and hosted a UN related side event under the theme of Peace, Women, Security & Secularism (PWSS) in reflection of the 19th Anniversary of the Unite Nations Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. Along with the UNSCR #1325 & Secularism main concept, the event presented in support of and in conjunction with the SDGs 5, 16 and 17.
Report on the UNSCR 1325 On PEACE, WOMEN, SECURITY & SECULARISM Event by: Jonathon CUMMINGS, Partnership Manager, World Human Accountability Organization & in collaboration with Bircan Ünver, The Light Millennium
CONFERENCE ON PEACE, WOMEN, SECURITY & SECULARISM Towards the 19th Anniversary of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women and Peace and Security and in support of SDGs #5, #16 and #17 by Sevgin OKTAY, Representative of The Light Millennium to the UN Department of Global Communications
“Women have fulfilled their responsibilities with humility and human dignity and strong spirituality. I have personally witnessed these heroic and sacrificial contributions in my native country of Zambia and Southern Africa region during decades of the fight for freedom and independence from colonial and racist domination, Victory and liberation would not have been won without the vigilant and steadfast contributions of women in these nations and region.”
“Raising children with required values and as useful members of the society requires high qualities. Therefore, women, being the nation’s mothers, need to be more enlightened and progressive than men.” Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK
Presented by Mirat YAVALAR, Co-Founder & Treasurer, ATATÜRK SOCIETY OF AMERICA (UN – DGC – CSO) at conference PEACE, WOMEN, SECURITY & SECULARISM
“If we care about advancing human development, if we care about equality, if we care about achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, then we need to run this race together—because when you want to go fast, go alone, when you want to go far, go together.” How far do we want to go?”
Presented by Jonathan CUMMINGS, Partnership Manager, World Human Accountability Organization
I am honored to be here as a contemporary author of modern Turkey where great leader Atatürk introduced secularism, ninty one years ago.
I feel so lucky to have grown up in Atatürk’s Turkey, and also in a family where girls, for generations, had been raised as praised individuals with rights to study, to choose their way of life, to choose their husbands with whom they stood beside with love all the way. Those women were strong and brave and they set a great example for me.
Excellencies, Mr. Faircloth, Colleagues, and Friends, I am Sermin Özçilingir, President of the Turkish Women’s League of America (TWLA). We are very excited to be a part of as one of the co-sponsors of the “PEACE, WOMEN, SECURITY AND SECULARISM” program. In my speech, I would like to relate our organization’s mission and programs with SDG-5 and SDG-16 in connection with the secular education and democratic societies and institutions.
“We face every single day and in all over the world, gender base violence, gender related killings, sexual harassment, intimate partner violence… the list is long. Knowing that women’s rights are never to be taken granted and always questioned and postponed with several excuses like political, economic, religious crises. We must remain vigilent all our life. And we have to be vigorous.”
Presented by Fatma AYTAÇ, Red Pepper Association (Kırmızı Biber Derneği) Co-Founder and UN-Representative
“We should always remember that without peace, development is impossible, and without development, peace is not achievable, but without women, neither peace nor development is conceivable.”
Keynote Speech* by Ambassador Anwarul K. CHOWDHURY Former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations; Initiator of UNSCR 1325 as President of UN Security Council and Founder of the Global Movement for the Culture of Peace (GMCoP)
at the P R O G R A M M E on PEACE, WOMEN, SECURITY & SECULARISM presented by the The Light Millennium and Co-Organizer/Co-Sponsors New York, 11 April 2019