Women Empowerment for Human Rights and Sustainable Peace is one of the programmes of which IHRICON can rightly feel very satisfied. As a result of conducting the programme IHRICON feels a sense of pride and prestige towards the achievements of the programmes. These programmes have been implemented in thirty Village Development Committees (VDCs) of Kailali, Dang, Gorkha and Sindhuli districts thereby empowering more than 1,000 women as well as significantly helping to contribute towards an increase in their income generation methods with the financial support of CIDA/LDF.

At the same time as implementing this project, IHRICON for the first time got an opportunity to introduce the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 introduced in 2000 into Nepal. During that time the Resolution 1325 had remained unnoticed amongst the right based activists and NGOs at the National level in Nepal. The call for the participation of women in the peace process had started to be raised at that time but in Kathmandu it remained a dream for the same to be heard in Nepal. The Community Peace Volunteers and the members of the peace group had started advocating at the village level for the participation of women in the peace process. It has become a historical event for Nepal and a matter of prestige for IHRICON.

Women who had little or no knowledge about their rights during the initiation of the programme have now become able to understand the politics from village level to National level and the result is that the women are now more involved in District level politics and developmental work. After four years of our regular efforts the situation has changed so that women who have previously been trained and worked as peace volunteers are established as leaders at a District level. The women involved in the peace group are even recommended as successful candidates for the new Parliament.

This programme has become worthwhile in making women better informed about the different aspects of human rights. Women whose knowledge had been falling behind (for various reasons) have been improved and thereby encouraging them to get involved at a grass-root level in the peace groups. The changes seen in women in the context of awareness of their rights and public advocacy can be measured easily and this assessment was carried out by IHRICON as a result of the programme. This programme has also helped towards making the social and economic status of women a great deal better in the locations in which the programme was implemented.

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