Bougainville Women’s Forums: In Pictures
We’ll be talking a lot more about the Bougainville Women’s forums over the new few weeks, but for today, we wanted to share some of the stunning photos captured by Harjono Djoyobisono for IWDA.
The Autonomous Region of Bougainville doesn’t get a lot of media attention, but it’s one of the most beautiful places on earth. It’s also a hotspot for women’s rights activism. For the past two weeks, some of IWDA’s staff have been in Bougainville for two of the biggest dates of the women’s rights calendar.
From the 21st to the 25th of November, we were at the Young Women’s Leadership Forum in Buka with IWDA partner Bougainville Women’s Federation. Over 130 young women and 12 male advocates from across Bougainville came together to develop leadership skills, network, and learn about their rights, the laws and the judicial processes in place to protect them.
From the 27th to the 1st of December, we were in Siwai with over 150 women’s human rights defenders from across Bougainville for the Women’s Human Rights Defenders Forum, run by IWDA partner Nazareth Rehabilitation Centre. The focus was for these legendary women to come together, share stories, learn from each other, and create action plans for their districts. They heard from local leaders and politicians about the importance of their work in building safer communities, and came away with renewed plans and strategies to campaign women’s rights.
We’ll be talking a lot more about the forums over the new few weeks, but for today, we wanted to share some of the stunning photos captured by Harjono Djoyobisono for IWDA.
