Our guest on this episode of the podcast is Monica McWilliams, who led the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition’s negotiating team in the multi-party peace talks leading up to the Good Friday Agreement. Monica co-founded the Women’s Coalition, a political party that became a signatory to the peace agreement in 1998. She represented South Belfast in the first NI Legislative Assembly and acted as Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (2006 -2011) where she was responsible for drafting the advice on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland which was presented this to the UK government in 2008. Monica had served as an oversight Commissioner for Prison Reform in Northern Ireland and currently serves on the Independent Reporting Commission on the disbandment of paramilitary organizations. She has been involved in peace building in a range of conflict areas, in Colombia and with women negotiators in the Syrian opposition. Monica has contributed testimony to the US Congress Committee on Foreign Affairs on women, peace and security and is a recipient of the John F Kennedy Profile in Courage Award (1998) and holds honorary doctorates from University of York (2018), Lesley College, Massachusetts (1998) and Mount Mary College, Milwaukee (2004).
