WFWP France - Participating in meeting at European Parliament.

‘Voice and Power: Strengthening Women's Leadership for Women's Rights’

On 24 April 2025, Women's Federation for World Peace (WFWP) was honored to be invited

by Aicha Bacha, President of ECDA (European Centre for Development and Geostrategic

Studies) to the European Parliament in Brussels. Aicha Bacha sent out a strong signal by

organizing a summit at this prestigious institution entitled ‘Voice and Power: Strengthening

Women's Leadership for Women's Rights’.

In a world where conflicts are redrawing maps and shattering lives, where fundamental rights

are threatened, and where women's voices are still too often relegated to the margins, this

meeting offered a rare space for dialogue, recognition and commitment, driven by the

conviction that peace cannot be built without women, nor without their rightful place in the

decisions that shape the future.

The meeting was divided into three sessions: the first brought together high-level experts in

diplomacy, international security and human rights for a cross-fertilization of fieldwork,

expertise and commitment.

The second session focused on painful testimonies of women from some of the world's most

sensitive conflict zones - Ukraine, Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Syria, Palestine

and Israel - who shared their experiences and fears, but above all stressed the need to affirm

the central role of women in peace processes and democratic reconstruction.

And yet, at the heart of all this pain, a message of peace and transcendence emerged:

Conveyed with remarkable dignity by an Israeli speaker, this message resonated with

particular force, calling for collective resilience and shared humanity.

This moment found a moving echo when, following on from the panel, a Palestinian citizen

took the floor. With sober dignity and restrained strength, she delivered the weight of a reality

marked by violence, injustice and loss. Her testimony, full of subdued pain, resonated in the

respectful silence of the room.

At the end of their respective speeches, the two women turned to face each other and

embraced. Spontaneously. Without a word. But with all the weight of symbolism. In this

gesture, there was more than a moment of humanity. There was the recognition of each

other's pain, the courage to look each other in the eye, and the hope - deep and silent - of a

future where two people can one day live side by side, in peace. The audience applauded,

moved, conscious of having witnessed not a speech, but an act. A simple but immense act.

A gesture we will never forget.

The third session invited civil society to speak and WFWP was able to share about its

Worldwide activities for Peace in different fields: Education, reconciliation through the bridge

of Peace, humanitarian aids and Global women peace network.

This summit reaffirmed that women must not only be heard but fully integrated as key players

in decisions relating to peace, justice and stability. He highlighted an inescapable truth:

peace cannot be decreed - it must be built. And it cannot be built without women, or by

sidelining them. It must be built with them, in their rightful place, because it is often, they who

bear the deepest scars and the heaviest responsibilities - those of surviving, protecting and

rebuilding, even in the midst of chaos.