Inclusive Security Testifies in US Congress – June 9, 2010
Watch the archived video of the hearing.
In testimony before the US House of Representatives, Ambassador Swanee Hunt, Inclusive Security chair, and Dr. Mishkat Al Moumin, Women Waging Peace Network member and former minister of the environment in Iraq, urged expanded support in US foreign policy of “Women as Agents of Change.”
At a hearing of the US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, Ambassador Hunt; Dr. Al Moumin; Kenneth Wollack, president of the National Democratic Institute; and Judy Van Rest, executive vice president of the International Republican Institute; Melanne Verveer, ambassador-at-large of Global Women's Issues; and Esther Brimmer, assistant secretary of the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, impressed upon Congress the importance of supporting women’s leadership as an integral part of US foreign policy.
Because Inclusive Security wanted Congress to hear directly from foreign women leaders working on peace and security issues, Ambassador Hunt ceded much of her time to Dr. Al Moumin to make remarks on her experience as Iraq’s first minister of the environment. The only foreign woman to speak at the hearing, Dr. Al Moumin’s remarks emphasized her advocacy for a more comprehensive definition of security, one that included providing basic services, such as clean water and sanitation, to the population. These measures deterred communities from joining the insurgency.
Inclusive Security also submitted testimony on behalf of Network members Visaka Dharmadasa and Monica McWilliams.
Watch the archived video of the hearing.
For more information on the June 9 hearing, or Inclusive Security's advocacy work to the US Congress more generally, please contact Michelle Barsa.