Women, Peace & Security
TIME Magazine named Ms. Bineta Diop, Founder and Executive Director of Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS), to the 2011 TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Ms. Diop of Senegal has led numerous peacebuilding initiatives in Africa with a focus on the protection of women during armed conflicts and their inclusion in peace processes. The TIME 100 list, now in its eighth year, recognizes the activism, innovation and achievement of the world’s most influential individuals. As TIME Managing Editor Richard Stengel has said of the list in the past,
―the TIME 100 is not a list of the most powerful people in the world, it’s not a list of the smartest people in the world, it’s a list of the most influential people in the world. They’re scientists, they’re thinkers, they’re philosophers, they’re leaders, they’re icons, they’re artists, they’re visionaries. People who are using their ideas, their visions, their actions to transform the world and have an effect on a multitude of people‖. In the past, the list has included luminaries such as Nelson Mandela, Bill Gates, President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton. Ms Diop said that she felt really honoured to have been included in this prestigious list. ―Nevertheless, this honour is not only for me but also for the entire women’s peace movement. I feel privileged to have been able to contribute to the women, peace and security agenda in Africa over the last 15 years, bringing women’s groups to the peace table, facilitating dialogue among them and with other stakeholders as government, UN representatives, and ensuring that, together, they all build a common peace agenda towards recovery in their countries‖. In carrying out her work, Ms. Diop has led teams to observe elections in post-conflict areas such as Liberia and has facilitated women’s participation in peace negotiations, notably in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2003, Ms. Diop played an instrumental role in the African Union’s decision to embrace gender parity principle with the election of five female Commissioners out of ten. As a result of her advocacy efforts together with others, the African Union adopted two landmark legal instruments to protect women namely, the Protocol to the African Charter on Women and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women (Maputo Protocol) and the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa.
In 2010, Ms. Diop was elected as co-chair of the Civil Society Advisory Group, alongside Ms. Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, which was established to advise the UN High-Level Steering Committee on the 10th anniversary of United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. Ms Diop has received several awards and participate in various international boards.