Women, War and Peace series poster

I Came to Testify

The moving story of how a group of 16 women who had been imprisoned and raped by Serb-led forces in the Bosnian town of Foca broke history’s great silence – and stepped forward to take the witness stand in an international court of law.

Guest speakers: Zeina Chemali and Stacey Schamber

Zeina Chemali, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital
Professor Chemali is a leader in the emerging initiative for Peace in Medicine Education. The aim of the initiative is to education health professionals how armed conflict undermines health systems everywhere and why, from a public health perspective, it is important to help prevent such conflicts.  Applying this approach to war and other forms of violence, the Medical Peace Work developed by Professor Chemali introduces courses on violence prevention to doctors, nurses, public health workers, mental health practitioners and students. The courses are meant as a positive contribution to peace building and violence prevention with a key emphasis on structural violence. The courses provide insight on the active role and responsibility health care professionals play in Medical Peace Work.
Stacey Schamber, Wellesley College '99 is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and holds a Master in Theological Studies. In addition to working at the Codman Square Health Center for the last two years, she also works part-time outpatient neurology at Brigham And Women’s Hospital. Ms. Schamber has a particular interest in integration spirituality into her clinical work. She also has experience working in hospice and has knowledge of death, dying, grief, and loss. More recently Ms. Schamber has done major work in mediation, conflict-resolution and women at the heart of conflicts and war. She has volunteered in Uganda, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic. She has developed a course of Clinical and Family assessment, which she co-teachers with a Social Work Colleague to graduate students in psychiatry at Jimma University in Ethiopia. In addition to classroom discussion and lecturing she offers training to home visits, and collaboration with community organizations. Together with Dr. Chemali, Ms. Schamber has been involved with the Libyan initiative in Boston, proving medical and psychiatric care to injured fighters from the Libyan civil war.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell

The astonishing story of the Liberian women who took on the warlords and regime of dictator Charles Taylor in the midst of a brutal civil war.

Peace Unveiled

Three women in Afghanistan risk their lives to make sure women’s rights don’t get traded away in peace negotiations with the Taliban.

The Whistleblower

A drama based on the experiences of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska cop who served as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia and outed the U.N. for covering up a sex scandal.

Guest speaker: Madeline Rees

Madeline Rees qualified as a lawyer in 1990 and became a partner in a large law firm in the UK in 1994 specializing in discrimination law, particularly in the area of employment, and public and administrative law. She also did work on behalf of both the Commission for Racial Equality and the Equal Opportunities Commission mainly on developing strategies to establish rights under domestic law through the identification of test cases to be brought before courts. Ms. Rees brought cases both to the European Court of Human Rights and The European Court in Luxembourg. She was cited as one of the leading lawyers in the field of discrimination in the Chambers directory of British lawyers. In 1998 she began working for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as the gender expert and Head of Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  In that capacity she worked extensively on the rule of law, gender, and post conflict, transitional justice and the protection of social and economic rights. The Office in Bosnia was the first to take a case of rendition to Guantanamo before a court. The OHCHR office dealt extensively with the issue of trafficking and Ms. Rees was a member of the expert coordination group of the trafficking task force of the Stability Pact, thence the Alliance against Trafficking. In the film The Whistleblower, Ms. Rees is portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave.

The War We Are Living

In Cauca, a mountainous region in Colombia’s Pacific southwest, two extraordinary Afro-Colombian women are braving a violent struggle over their gold-rich lands.

War Redefined

The capstone of Women, War & Peace challenges the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men’s domain through incisive interviews with leading thinkers, Secretaries of State and seasoned survivors of war and peace-making.

Guest speaker: Tanya Henderson

Tanya Henderson, National Director of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
Ms. Henderson is a human rights attorney, specializing in gender, children’s rights and poverty law, with significant experience in program development, non-profit management, and peace advocacy. She received her JD from Suffolk University Law School and her LL. M in international law from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She has also earned several certificates in mediation and conflict negotiation. Prior to joining WILPF, Ms. Henderson worked as a legal consultant in Ethiopia as part of a research team in conjunction with Harvard Medical School, tasked with researching and drafting policy related to gender inequality, poverty, and mental health law; and as a research consultant for Microfinance Opportunities in Washington D.C.