/ Feminist policymaking for peace and empowerment
cfd is a feminist peace organisation that is active in international cooperation, migration politics, and promoting peace. It is a non-governmental organisation independent of political and religious affiliation.
cfd is oriented toward a vision of a good life for every human being, regardless of sex, ethnic background, and religion. Its approach is based on a broad understanding of peace. cfd lobbies for equal rights and opportunities for access to resources and public space and to participation in society and politics.
cfd asks critical questions about the political function of attributions of sex, culture, and ancestry. From a feminist perspective, it analyzes the connections between violence in war and violence in daily life as well as those between how exclusion is discussed and how it is practiced.
cfd develops concepts, policies, and projects to overcome relationships of dominance and violence as well as the ideologies that cement them in place. The empowerment of women as both a goal and a method is central to cfd. cfd is a place of learning for the local population and migrants, coworkers and project partners, activists and those who are interested. All these actors give cfd its form and content through debate and discussion.
The history of cfd
cfd has its roots in a commitment motivated by Christian principles. Its founder Gertrud Kurz acted on behalf of Jewish refugees from Germany after the fascist takeover there. After the Second World War, this initiative developed into cfd. As a recognized relief and peace organisation, cfd was active in aiding refugees; supported projects in conflict zones; and campaigned politically against racism, colonialization, and militarism.
In the early 1980’s in the context of its anti-military activities, cfd women began to ask questions. They questioned why peace policymaking was divided into private and public spheres. They also used the term structural violence in their analysis of gender relations. They formulated a feminist critique of military, political, and religious power structures, participated in the development of feminist theologies, and linked with peace and women’s networks. In 1981, the Women’s Center for Peace was established to anchor feminist reflection and politics structurally in cfd. In 1997, the meeting of members accepted cfd’s first feminist program.
Feminist peace promotion
cfd launches and supports empowerment projects, which it understands as an individual and collective process of gaining power. The goals are to improve access to resources, for women to control these resources, and to shift toward justice and equality in the relationships between women and men. Empowerment projects create space to reinterpret dominant images, negotiate perspectives, and test juster distribution mechanisms. These projects are spaces for extending competencies, developing policies, and drafting political activities. cfd carries out empowerment projects in the Swiss migration context that lay the groundwork for political networking and a critical feminist involvement in migration policymaking. cfd also accompanies and supports women’s organisations in the Mediterranean area that carry out empowerment projects in their contexts and are involved politically to increase women’s freedom of action.
The development of peace
cfd develops the foundations on which violence can be prevented and civil conflict resolution can be elaborated from a feminist perspective. cfd thus includes the various forms of violence and exclusion in peace and in war and gives visibility and weight to women’s security interests.
cfd is critical of the militarization of peace processes. It deconstructs the connection between peace skills and femininity and the link between militarization and images of masculinity. Security theories and policies that limit themselves to police and military surveillance of borders are contrasted with feminist approaches to peace that promote empowerment and networking and secure access to resources and political participation.
Resources for feminist peace policies
As an independent non-governmental organisation, cfd and its projects are supported by sponsors, private and public institutions, church communities, and parishes through donations and contributions as well as their non-material support.