Talk:Lesley Abdela

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I have shifted the following unreferenced material from the article page -- it has been there since October 08. It can be moved back if references are added. --Bob Burton 16:15, 4 May 2009 (EDT)

The 2009 Winners of the Dods & Scottish Widows Women In Public Life Awards were announced at the Commonwealth Club London WC2 on Wednesday March 4th 2009. The winners were chosen by a vote of the Parliamentary Press Lobby, Members of Parliament, and Members of the House of Lords. For further information see www.womeninpubliclifeawards.co.uk.

Lesley Abdela works as a consultant on women's human rights and gender, implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (which addresses the impact of conflict on women and urges women's greater inclusion in peace and reconstruction efforts), women's leadership, civil society advocacy and civil society development, and the advance of women in politics in over 40 countries plus in post-conflict situations including in Aceh, Indonesia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Nepal, Sierra Leone and Bosnia. Fifty-six reels of her boots-on-the-ground experiences have recently been recorded by Imperial War Museum archivist Lyn Smith, covering Lesley Abdela's time in Kosovo 1999/2000, attached to the OSCE, to Nepal 2007/2008, attached to UN OCHA, via Sierra Leone (British Council), Iraq (RTI/USAID), Afghanistan and Aceh (IOM), The reference number for the Lesley Abdela Imperial War Museum archive is 31557, which also appears on the IWM online database.

In February 2009 she was the Plenary speaker at the War Crimes conference – Retrospectives and Prospects ‘Identifying war crimes and the perpetrators is a key part of post-conflict resolution’ which was held at the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, University of London. Conference report at www.research.plymouth.ac.uk/solon/journal/issue%203.1/maya%20edited%20final.pdf Her particular emphasis was on gender as a key factor in reconstructing citizenship after deadly conflict or Natural Disaster, and she talked of the issue of rape as a war crime, and its wider implications for the legal process.

Lesley Abdela is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Society for Arts, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Journalists.

She was educated at Queen Anne's School, Caversham, the Chatelard School, Les Avants, Switzerland, Hammersmith College of Art and Building and the London College of Printing, now part of the University of the Arts London. As a Political journalist she was the first Political Editor of a major UK women's magazine, Cosmopolitan. She stood for election to Parliament in Britain, and has led innumerable advocacy campaigns as an activist.

Worldwide, Lesley Abdela has conducted hundreds of workshops worldwide for male and female participants of all backgrounds, from grass-roots civil society activists to senior officials in international organizations and governments.

She has worked in the following regions: Aceh in Indonesia, Afghanistan, Armenia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, Hungary, India, Indonesia (Jakarta), Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malawi, Malta, Moldova, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestinian territories/West Bank and Gaza ,Poland, Romania, Senegal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Suriname, Swaziland, Tanzania, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan. From September 2007 to March 2008 she was based in Kathmandu, Nepal, as Senior Gender Adviser to the United Nations' OCHA Chief Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator.

Her paternal ancestry came from Corfu in the 19th Century. Her Grandfather Isaac Abdela was a Marine Architect and proprieter of the Abdela & Mitchell Shipyards on the Manchester Ship Canal.