CENTER FOR PEACE
AND CONFLICT STUDIES
Women Peacemakers - Before and After 1325
Learning Process on the Role of Women Peacemakers Globally –
Conversation with Christine Ahn, Founder and Executive Director of Women Cross DMZ
Session in commemoration of the 22nd anniversary of the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325
A discussion on the implementation of UN resolution 1325 and its implications in the Korean Peninsula. Event organized by the School of Diplomacy and International Relations - Center for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPCS), and co-sponsored by the United Nations Association of the USA, a program of the UN Foundation and by Inclusive Security.
We were honored to host Christine Ahn as the keynote speaker. Christine is the Founder and Executive Director of Women Cross DMZ, a global movement of women mobilizing to end the Korean War and ensure women's leadership in peacebuilding.
In 2015, Christine led 30 international women peacemakers across the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) from North Korea to South Korea. They walked with 10,000 Korean women on both sides of the DMZ and held women’s peace symposia in Pyongyang and Seoul. Ahn is the International Coordinator of the Korea Peace Now! transnational campaign, which Women Cross DMZ launched in 2019 with three other feminist peace organizations, WILPF, Nobel Women’s Initiative, and Korean Women’s Movement for Peace. Christine helped create the Feminist Peace Initiative, which Women Cross DMZ built with MADRE and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, to reimagine a feminist, movement-driven US foreign policy. She has addressed the United Nations, US Congress, Canadian Parliament and the ROK National Human Rights Commission.
Her op-eds have appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and she is a regular contributor on MSNBC, Democracy Now!, and CNN. Christine is also the co-founder of the Korea Policy Institute and the Korea Peace Network, and has worked with the Global Fund for Women and the Women of Color Resource Center. Christine serves on the board of Hawai’i Peace and Justice. She is the recipient of the 2020 US Peace Prize for her bold activism to end the Korean War, heal the wounds from the war, and women’s leadership in peacebuilding. Ahn has a master’s degree in International Policy from Georgetown University.
Her work as peacemaker both at the policy level and on the field provided us with valuable insights about the critical roles that women play in peacebuilding and foreign policy.