Peace and Women's Rights

Before reading "Women and Peace: The Meaning of Peace for Women," I took a moment to jot down some things that came to mind when I think about the word peace. I came up with getting along, without problems, calm, no conflict, and not at war. This reading showed me that my definition does not come close to describing the complexity of this term. First of all, I have never heard of negative peace and positive peace before. This reading not only explained these terms but it proved to me that the distinction is necessary when researching peace. The discussion of the word negative and positive peace is clearly summarized in a table that breaks it down into negative peace, two levels of positive peace (indirect violence leading to a shorter life vs. reduced quality of life), unorganized violence and organized violence. These conditions form six boxes that the author claims are independent from one another meaning that it is possible to have one of the boxes occurring or multiple in various combinations. The author says that it is possible for connections to exist between the boxes. I think it would be interesting to explore that idea further however it would require some extensive research.

Reading "Women's Rights Are Human Rights" reminded me how fortunate I have been in my life to not have experienced any violence and hardly any inequality. Even during my short lifespan there have been major changes to women's rights. The reading discusses how in 1993 women's rights were brought to focus due to the Global Campaign for Women's Rights. The conference lead to some important changes. States were required "to prevent violations where possible, investigate them when they occur and punish perpetrators." Not only has there been great progress in addressing violence against women in the US but internationally as well. In the last decade, international treaties have provided governments with guidelines on how to deal with the problem of violence against women. Although I know there are still places in the world where women's rights are not what we would consider just, the progress that has occurred internationally thus far gives me hope for these places.