WILPF 31st Triennial Congress

 For more information, contact:Tana Hartman, 619-6546 (c) OR Miriam Thompson, 919-370-4114  

The 31^st triennial congress of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom  (WILPF) opens on June 1 on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel  Hill, hosted by the League’s Triangle branch.  Its theme, “End War – Local to Global,”  will be explored by such outstanding speakers as Rev. Dr. William Barber II, President of  the North Carolina NAACP; Kathy Kelly, head of Voices for Creative Nonviolence; and  Madeleine Rees, former head of office of the U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights  in Bosnia and international Secretary General of WILPF. 

Kelly will speak on her recent visit to Afghanistan Friday, June 3 in Chase  Hall, Ridge Road, UNC campus, 12 noon, free.  Rev. Barber’s keynote speech “The Long  Road to Freedom, Equality and Justice” on Friday, June 3, is also free to the public, 7  p.m., Hanes Arts Center on campus.   A reception and film gala on Saturday,  June 4 will begin at 6 p.m., Hanes Arts Center, with the film “The Whistleblower,”  an expose of sexual atrocities perpetrated during the Balkan war, showing at 7:15 p.m.  Discussion with Rees and Donna Bickford, Director of the Carolina Women’s Center,  regarding the film and human trafficking will follow.    

Workshops will examine such issues as “Corporations v. Democracy;” “Water for Life,  Not for Profit;” nuclear energy, the status of women. For more information: www.trianglewilpf.org , or contact 919-370-4114 regarding  registration, scholarship, transportation and volunteer information.