300926 Young Bougainville Women Leaders Attend the 2026 Regional Women, Peace, and Security Convening in Sydney

Young women leaders from Bougainville participated in the 2026 Regional Women, Peace, and Security Convening held in Sydney from September 21 to 22, 2026.

Melvine Waim Giobun, Acting Executive Officer for the Bougainville Women’s Federation, and Antoinette Ropa, Program Manager for the Nazareth Centre for Rehabilitation, joined civil society leaders, researchers, and advocates from across the Asia-Pacific region for the two-day gathering.

Hosted by the Australian Civil Society Coalition on Women, Peace, and Security, the event provided an essential platform for participants to reflect, share experiences, and strengthen collective action around the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda.

The theme of the event was "Elevating the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda in the Asia-Pacific: Challenging the Backlash Against Women's Rights and Growing Social Division."

Discussions were centred on how militarisation, shrinking civic space and anti-rights movements are playing out across the region, gendered disinformation, conflict-related sexual violence, intersectional feminist movement building, countering the far right, and locally led peacebuilding.

The Australian Civil Society Coalition on Women, Peace and Security shared that the conversations were honest, generous and were grounded on lived experiences.

 As Bougainville’s continues to embark on her journey of peace and self-determination, it can do a bit more to support and empower women leaders and focus on women in its own peace and security efforts.