Young Women in Countries of Conflict

Since the end of the Cold War, a distressing number of countries around the world have fallen into chaos and have become failing states. More often than not these countries have been torn by civil war based on religion, ethnicity, tribalism, power sharing, or a combination thereof. One of the terrible consequences of these conflicts has been massive humanitarian crisis. Where in the past the civilian populations were removed from the actual warfare between different armies, we have seen over the last 20 years the same populations being used as a weapon of war. Massive abuses of human rights have been prevalent and the numbers of casualties within the civilian population has been unimaginable. Caught in the middle of these humanitarian disasters are children, who have suffered not only displacement and loss of security, but they also have been used as instruments of war. The most sinful instance has been the sexual abuse of young women and their employment as child soldiers and sex slaves. In his presentation, Romeo Dellaire will describe his research and advocacy work as well as demonstrate how education, poverty reduction, and in particular the empowerment of women, are essential solutions to not only conflict resolution but more importantly conflict prevention.