Blue Ribbon Campaign

This campaign draws on public mobilisation for advocacy. By asking women, in particular, to wear Fiji blue ribbon (from the colour of that island's flag), organisers hope to create a unified stand toward promoting peace, reconciliation, and unity based on the principles of human rights, democracy, and the upholding of the 1997 Constitution. "We call on Fiji's citizens to wear a blue ribbon everyday, as a symbol of their support for peace, democracy, the rule of law and active non-violence," in the words of campaign founding member Sharon Bhagwan Rolls. In communicating their support for active non-violence, those who wear the ribbon are also supporting a further communication strategy: the importance of ongoing dialogue as a way to foster respect for others and to bring about sustainable long-term resolution to conflict.

Partnership is key in garnering participation in this effort. The small peace vigil collective and femLINKPACIFIC volunteers continue to distribute Blue Ribbons at community and national events and continue to convene the Blue Ribbon Silent Peace Vigil every Thursday at the Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral in Suva. "We believe that silence as a form of protest is not a passive silence, but critical opportunity to unite as women, regardless of our ethnic or faith based backgrounds to call for a return to parliamentary democracy, and that there is a critical need to address the root causes of our conflicts in order to ensure that we are able to unite to put at end to Fiji's coup cycle. Also at the same time, silence is further symbolic, because too often women continue to be marginalised from the mainstream or formal peace processes."

femLINKPACIFIC has also recognised the need to inform rural women about the Blue Ribbon Peace Initiative: "So through our mobile community radio broadcasts, we have taken our peace vigil and blue ribbon initiatives to women wherever we stage a broadcast or a women's media initiative and this is one way to share our initiative, aside from relying on mainstream media coverage, and also recognising that many of our rural sisters remain 'disconnected' from internet and email access." In 2007, during the rural broadcasts, women in Ba, Nadi, Labasa and Nausori also created peace banners and produced radio stories titled, "My Life, My Issues, My Peace".

In another effort of the promotion of non violence and continuing efforts towards ensuring gender-inclusive conflict transformation, in 2007 femLINKPACIFIC will be undertaking a series of Blue Ribbon Women's Community Media Exchange (dialogue) sessions in their four target communities commencing on the first anniversary of the December 5th coup: "This year, through funding available from the AUSAID Civil Society Support Programme, femLINKPACIFIC is taking the issues out of Suva - to go and listen to women in our rural communities, starting in the Northern Division (town of Labasa) on December 5th - through a series of women's media exchange programmes - this is a listening (and documentation) exercise for us - as we invite women leaders to highlight their concerns and also their perspectives on national developments, especially since (but not limited to) December 5th. As we all know, for too long, women have continued to be marginalised from the mainstream of major consultations - and with the recent national budget announcement as well as developments in relation to the People's Charter and all the discussions to work towards a return to parliamentary democracy, the question must be asked to the women themselves - how best do we proceed to ensure they feel they are fully integrated into this process of conflict transformation for our country? These issues will then be collated into another series of 'My Life, My Issue, My Peace' documentation as well as serving to inform femLINKPACIFIC of the issues we need to raise from the grassroots to the capital city and beyond."

Conflict, Women, Democracy and Governance, Rights.