Joining in the day of actions held around the country on Saturday 12 September, UK WILPF held a short vigil welcoming refugees to the UK and reminding the UK government that “people need peace, not war.”
UK WILPF wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron, asking the government to “recognise UK partial responsibility for creating the situation by our military intervention in countries where, without sufficient understanding of the problems and without a commitment to dialogue, the intervention has led to destabilisation of governments and lack of governance.”
In addition, UK WILPF joins Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS) in calling on the UK government to support Syrian refugees and, specifically, better protect, assist and empower Syrian women in building peace. Two of the nine ideas from GAPS on how to do this are:
- Provide immediate funding at the onset of an emergency for the deployment of gender-based violence/violence against women advisors and gender/GENCAP advisors to support response efforts through the cluster system.
- At the regional level, call for the appointment of an EU-level regional champion on Women, Peace and Security.
You can read the GAPS letter in full here and the WILPF letter here.