There was also considerable International collaboration regarding the connections between globalization and the increase in the use of prison, women's issues, human security and human rights concerns, international discussions of trafficking and local prostitution issues, connections between international security and human rights issues of violence against women and the criminalization of women.

Unfortunately, the combination of the late notice of receipt of funds from CIDA and the tragic events of September 11, 2002, meant that a number of the women who we anticipated would be able to attend the conference were unable to obtain travel documents in time to do so. Furthermore, one woman from Cameroon who planned to attend and for whom we had already purchased an airline ticket notified us on Friday, September 28, 2001, that she had just been refused a travel visa by Canada. In addition to continuing to maintain our contact with her, CASAC has developed a sistering alliance with her group and they have contributed resources to them as well.

One of the most common responses the organizers received both during and following the conference was appreciation expressed for the provision for a women's conference at all. A number of the women who attended the conference have never experienced a women's conference and most found it quite an intensely positive experience.

One of the most overwhelming recommendations was that the conference organizers continue the momentum and plan to develop additional conferences in the future. While there is some interest in this possibility, in the immediate future, the plans are to continue to work with the groups who participated in the conference and to assist other equality seeking organizations to incorporate some of the strategies and learning from the Women's Resistance Conference into their conferences, event planning and plans for action.

2. Conference Evaluations

a) Participants

CAEFS and CASAC have received many accolades for having provided 10 outstanding plenary sessions and a very impressive and rich array of 130 workshops. Indeed, our first success and one of the issues about which we have received considerable feedback is the success in terms of the number and quality of workshop proposals, which we offered. Initially, we intended to refocus a number of the workshops in order to decrease the number of presentations. When we examined the workshop proposals, we decided to reconsider this strategy and instead decided to reorganize the conference in order to accommodate the quantity, quality and expertise of the workshops that were being proposed.