April 28

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1884 Betty Boeke born Moseley, Birmingham, England (d. 1976). Quaker. Co-founded International Fellowship of Reconciliation Bilthoven, 1919. Imprisoned for tax resistance; gave birth to one child while in prison. Honored by Yad Vashem for saving Jews.

  • 1938 Sybil Oldfield born London, England. British professor; biographer of women peacemakers. Active in Committee for Nuclear Disarmament, 1968-present; member of WILPF, 1978-present.

  • 1954 Monica McWilliams born Ballymoney, Northern Ireland. Catholic professor, politician, and peacemaker. Worked in Colombia, Palestine, South Africa, Timor Leste, and Uganda on conflict-related issues; trained women of Afghanistan and Iraq.

  • 1966 Isabelle Alexandrine Bourgeois born Washington DC. Swiss journalist and Chief Editor of International Red Cross (IRC) journal Avenue of Peace. Delegate of IRC to Kosovo, 2000; Ethiopia, 2002; Iran, 2003; Iraq War, 2003; Libya, 2004-08. Took part in World March for Peace and Nonviolence, 2009.

  • 1968 Pauline Dempers born Aranos, Hardap, Namibia. Namibian human rights leader; anti-Apartheid protester; arrested as a spy and tortured by SWAPO in Angola exile 1986; national coordinator Breaking the Wall of Silence 1996 exposing SWAPO abuses and finding reconciliation.

  • 1974 Penélope Cruz born Madrid. Spanish film star. Founded Sabera Foundation for homeless Calcutta girls, 1999; partner of UN World Food Program, 2005.

  • 1988 Camila Vallejo Dowling born Santiago, Chile. Chilean Communist student leader in nonviolent protests for education, 2011.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1915 Birth of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) at Hague International Peace Conference, chaired by Jane Addams.

  • 1977 First Rally of Mothers of the Disappeared Plaza del Mayo, Buenos Aires.

  • 1987 Brundtland Report "Our Common Future" released, London. "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

  • 2006 Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee arrested in Darfur protest at Sudanese Embassy, Washington.

  • 2006 In New York, ten members of Raging Grannies acquitted for blocking recruitment center in Oct. 2005.

  • 2012 First Drone Summit opposing drone warfare co-sponsored by Code Pink, Washington DC.

  • 2012 One-week sex strike by Kansas women against anti-abortion law.