The Carter Center Forum on Women, Religion, Violence and Power

On LinkedIn on July 6^th and on my blog on July 14^th I posted a commentary on “What I Learned from President and Mrs. Carter”. Since these postings the Carter Center saw that I had posted these and asked me if I would post the link to the new forum on Women, Religion, Violence and Power. I indicated I would.

Besides addressing issues related to peace and violence related to international conflicts, major worldwide health issues and free elections the Carter Center also is focused on women, religion, violence and power. When President Jimmy Carter spoke to us in June he shared that over 200 women pass through the Atlanta airport every week that have been sold as sex slaves. A woman of color can be bought for a $1,000 and will net her slave owner typically $35,000 a year. It was also shared that annually there are 16,000 sexual assaults reported in the US military, one in five female college students is sexually assaulted. I had no idea.

The Carter Center has also been at the forefront of this issue. Check out the link above. The false interpretation of carefully selected religious texts coupled with a growing tolerance of violence and warfare are contributing to these issues.

Having personally been involved with mediations in public housing between multiple cultures speaking different languages as a co-mediator, I have some experiences that point out to me that when women lead everyone benefits. In the typical example the men have gotten into some sort of conflict with one another. This has led to a conflict between families. Public housing has said if they cannot work it out one of the families will be kicked out of public housing. Neither family has a viable alternative. We set up a two hour mediation through the Dispute Resolution Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. After an hour to an hour and a half the men have taken the lead, dug in and want apologies from the other side. Each family believes they have the moral high ground. The women ask if they can have a caucus with their spouses. The husband and wife meet in a room together for a short period of time. After the caucus the women come out and take the lead. They each apologize to each other. They each indicate that if there is a conflict on any issues in the future, then the woman should bring this issue to the other woman so that they can work to resolve the issue between the two families. The men sit silently as the women develop a solution to their own conflict so that both families can stay in affordable, safe, public housing. The women take the lead and negotiate a viable alternative.

I believe that when women lead everyone benefits and so does the Carter Center.

The Center advocates rejecting violence to secure human rights. Similar to KIVA they believe that providing low interest loans to women entrepreneurs in third world nations spurs economies and independence. For many women who are desperate, they may believe the only alternative they have is to sell their bodies. The Carter Center believes this has to stop and is taking corrective action to overcome this.

Love is the answer. Check out this video

This is just one more avenue of how the Carter Center is advancing human rights and alleviate human suffering. I thought you would find this of interest too.

Mike is a manager with over 25 years’ experience at all levels of management.Mike provides services related to negotiation, mediation, and value added services (business valuation reviews, research credit advice, transfer pricing assistance, strategic planning and leadership development) to help clients and boards of directors on a wide variety of issues.  When not serving clients as a consultant or blogging, Mike is an avid writer, speaker and educator. When not working Mike enjoys family, church, volunteering, and daily yoga, meditation and exercise.