Lina Zedriga Waru Abuku a lawyer and
an expert in “women, peace, and security.”
We bring you a story of one very charming and courageous alumni; Lina Zedriga who has beaten various
odds of life but refuses to be silenced and has ventured to speak for women’s
peace and security.
Who is Lina?
Born in 1961
to Magdalene and Karlo Abuku Lina was the third last and only girl. Which also was the case as she was still the only girl in her class at PLE and emerging
the best, she went to Sacred Heart Girls Secondary School Gulu. She married in
1982, and is mother to 5 children. Currently the Director Women Peace and
Security (RACI), Lina has served in various capacities right from being a
teacher to Magistrate. She is a very ardent advocate of UN SCR 1325 on Women
Peace and Security, a passion that has driven her into becoming an
International; Trainer of Trainers, Mediator, Mobilizer, Strategist, and Mentor.
Since the
disappearance of husband, an opposition politician 12 years ago ( August 2001),
she is the sole parent to five children
plus three she adopted. She went from being a magistrate to a war widow but she
refuses to be called a “victim.” And
says “We are the stakeholders. Nothing
about us without us.”
An experienced
leader in peace and conflict resolution matters; Lina has been the Director of Women
Peace and Security Program aimed at empowering women for durable peace and
reconciliation since 2011. With one of
her distinguished experiences being the staging of a media and grassroots
campaign to get women into the negotiations for the Juba Peace Talks leading to
a four-day march into areas of war and rape, and then flying into Juba where
she delivered a peace torch to the Chief Mediator in the LRA /Gov of Uganda, H.E Dr. Riek
Machar. She has consulted widely both nationally and internationally including
consultation for the ICAN/MIT carried in a report “What the Women Say on UN SCR”
http://www.icanpeacework.org/unscr1325caseassessment/2010.
She recently participated in high panel presentation at the UN SCR New York
among which she was on a panel with Mary Robinson the UN SC Secretary Generals
Representative on the ICGLR Frame work of Hope aimed at bringing peace in the
DRC.
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In 2005 while
serving as the Program Adviser to Northern Uganda Peace Initiatives, she
designed the Women in Peace Building and Reconciliation Program, which included
bringing together 300 internally displaced women and other Northern Ugandans to
advance peace in the region. And prior to that she was Associate Director of
the Center for Conflict Management and Peace Studies at Gulu University, where
she coordinated community outreach programs, led research, and helped develop a
post-graduate diploma in conflict management and peace studies.
She holds a
master’s degree in human rights, a law degree, and a certificate of laws from
Makerere University. She is a member of numerous professional associations,
including the Network of African Peace Builders, the African Judicial Network
Sharing her AWLI
Experience
I remember
very vividly the application process in 2006; I was actually given an exception
rule under the age bracket. I was working in Northern Uganda then, the whole
process of the AWLI was a complete turn of events and my life’s journey just
re-started. I got to put on a certain unique lens of being a driver of my
destiny, something within me that has closed in on me just gave way from the
inside, I was re-newed; re-born. Being very much older among the participants
was a blessing to me, the Africa wide experience of women’s issues from
exclusion, to being targeted as battle fields with rape and yet we continue to
keep together the social fabriq.
I was
determined to embrace this challenge and start an initiative that would not add
women but target them as primary stakeholders, it had to be grassroots, peace
and security of the person premised on the adage that Prof Sylvia Tamale had
shared “The Personal is Political” Hence I set to create a community of
practice where women were not considered victims but critical stakeholders and
where sustainable peace ultimately rests on their full participation at all
negotiation tables and implementation of outcomes of such negotiations be it
Peace Negotiations, Commercial negotiations, family name it. Secondly I had not
come to meet any woman mediator so I was convinced that we needed to have women
mediators.
For me the
unique aspects of the AWLI were the selection of the participants who were
practicing women’s rights defenders, social entrepreneurs, who had all personal
experiences that were so enriching. Secondly the mode of delivery of the
training was centered on experiential learning, the blatant honesty.
We created
a network across the Continent that was visionary we went out as determined
agents of change armed with the “tools” and confidence. The AWLI helped to
determine one thing I could die for, or work for no pay and yet get full
satisfaction and then conceived RACI, planned how it would operate, target
groups especially how we would invade the peace process in Juba creating women
actors.
Her advice for
sustained Advocacy of issues affecting women
We should move from organizing “events” to creating a
community of practice that is socially active and politically literate grounded
from the grassroots to the grass tops.
A glance into her next 10 years
Lina aspires to become an Icon of Women Peace and
Security influencing decisions at the AU, UN SC and preparing to retire from
active activism as there will be younger advocates in place at all levels
Long after we are gone…
She wants to be remembered for “UN SCR 1325 on Women
Peace and Security Monger, Advocate, Defender”
AKina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA) is one of the four partner institutes of the African Centers of Excellence (ACE) for Women's Leadership program run by the Institute of International Education (IIE) , Ethiopia Office.
For more on IIE , ACE or AMwA please follow the links below.
www.iie.org/
www.iie.org/en/Programs/ACE-for-Womens-Leadership,
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