News

On the road to democratic transition, after times of troubles and violence, Guinea today stands between two crucial votes: on 27 June 2010, Guineans were called to vote in the first general multi-party Presidential Election since independence; on 19 September the second round will be held, a run-off which will hopefully result in a democratically elected president for the country.

GPPAC’s Third National Consultative Meeting was held on 1 and 2 June 2010 in Conakry. Its purpose was to gauge the state of preparedness and to consult with key stakeholders from the government and civil society on the pooling of resources in order to support and promote peaceful, transparent and credible elections. The meeting was significant and effective, and its participants continue to monitor the situation as Guinea continues on its road to democracy

Read the full article…

21 September, the UN International Day of Peace, is drawing closer! It is a day of ceasefire and non-violence, which has been celebrated annually since 1981. It provides a great opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to engage in practical acts of peace.

Every year the GPPAC network encourages people to celebrate together, spreading a worldwide call for peace, and collects examples of events and initiatives which it then publishes in a newsletter: the 2009 edition is available for download here.

What are you doing to celebrate this year? We would like to know, and share it on www.peoplebuildingpeace.org! Send an e-mail to Matteo at pbp@conflict-prevention.net, telling us what you are planning, who can participate, and how they can contact you! This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

As Argentina suffered one of its coldest winters in memory, heated debates took place during a strategy planning meeting of GPPAC regional network members and a conference on multilateralism and civil society: CRIES (Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económica y Sociales), indoors GPPAC’s regional initiator for Latin America and Caribbean, organized both the events.

In short, Preventive Action will become the heart of the activities of the Latin American and Caribbean GPPAC network PLACPaz (Plataforma Latinoamericana y Caribeña para la Prevención de Conflictos y la Construcción de la Paz). Its members came together on 25 and 26 July for a 5-year Strategic Planning Meeting. They reflected on contributions of PLACPaz in recent years, defined key areas, identified strategic directions for the future and refined the strategy for the selection and the prioritisation of partners and stakeholders.

The members see the network as a strong and participatory system, able to provide precious expertise and knowledge. During the meeting, they identified a need for improvement in translating information into action and giving more continuity to the agenda. Moreover, they decided that special attention will be given, in the next decade, to such areas as early warning, early response; diagnostics and analysis; mediation and dialogue; capacity building; and knowledge generation.

As a clear step towards more action, the participants selected a few priority matters which will be developed in the immediate future, including a communication strategy, an operational model for conflict analysis, as well as a fixed series of criteria to follow when selecting partners for Preventive Action.

Shortly after the meeting, a conference offered a series of round table discussions on Multilateralism, Civil Society and Conflict Prevention in the Americas. A diverse group of researchers, diplomats and academics participated in panel discussions, including “The United Nations, Conflict Prevention and Civil Society“, “Conflict Prevention Mechanisms and Civil Society Participation at the CARICOM”, and “Multilateralism, Civil Society and the Prevention of Violence and Armed Conflict Within the Framework of the New Hemispheric Relations”. All debates were fruitful and worthwhile, and the whole conference, together with the previous Strategic Planning Meeting, represented a significant step forward for Preventive Action in Latin America.

Zahid Movlazadeh is the Regional Coordinator for GPPAC Central Asia, The Caucasus, Eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa. In this article, he tells us how the network in the region has been expanded and strengthened, increasing its quality and effectiveness in a very short time. How it has been, in a word, revitalized. An inspiring experience for the entire network.

Two years ago I met with Andre Kamenshikov, the Regional Initiator for GPPAC Western CIS. We had coffee in a Moscow café and we talked about the position and state of the GPPAC in the region. I remember asking many questions, mainly about its composition, internal processes and dynamics. Andre was honest in raising concerns about the added value of the network, its practical use and its ability to effectively respond to existing conflict threats. Many of the network members were questioning the rationale for the existence of the GPPAC in the Western CIS. We tried to deconstruct the key components of the process and extract the main tools that could be used, as Andre called it, to "revitalise" the network in the region.

A strong network identity is only possible when the member organisations unite around very practical initiatives which directly address conflict issues. We decided that this was crucial in order to improve the situation in the region.

Approximately two years later, the general atmosphere was very different. When the network members came together for a Regional Steering Group meeting in Odessa, Ukraine, in May 2010, most of the members shared a feeling of achieving tangible results and having made a qualitative leap. They had shifted from a rather idle network, based on internal information sharing, to a network which implements a number of practical programmes and projects that are coherent and consolidated.

This vital change was made possible as a result of continuous work in identifying needs in the region, assessing the capacity of member organisations and understanding the patterns of interaction and internal processes in the region on many levels. The role of the Regional Secretariat, Non-violence International-CIS was fundamental: it was able to both strategically position itself as a facilitator of relationships between the member organisations, and attract resources for different projects and initiatives implemented in the region.

In the past two years, the GPPAC Western CIS has implemented a number of network projects: a Civil Organisations Assessment Mission in Moldova/ Transdniestria (pdf, 5MB); a programme on identifying the social roots of xenophobia in Russia and Ukraine; engagement with and monitoring of the media on hate speech and xenophobia language; and development of an online platform for knowledge sharing, which also serves as a communication space for the members of the regional network. The network also implemented a broad programme on Peace Education and Neighbourhood Culture in Crimea, Ukraine, which was followed by a series of high level experience exchange visits with the GPPAC network in Western Balkans.

On top of the efforts of the Global Secretariat in raising funds for specific regional projects, the members of the regional network themselves were very successful in finding additional financial resources to match the existing funding. This combination made it possible to expand most of the activities in the region.

During the meeting in Odessa, the members came up with a few important decisions: they refined the network composition and identified more specific guidelines for membership. They also identified the key strategic directions for the regional network for the next few years. One of the decisions taken during the meeting was to adjust the name of the network to existing realities: all participants unanimously agreed that the GPPAC Eastern Europe better represents the nature and composition of the network.

The meeting participants agreed that the GPPAC Eastern Europe can share a few success stories with the rest of the network. The successful experience of network revitalization might come in very handy for a few other GPPAC regional networks. Programmatically, the GPPAC Eastern Europe can share a few good examples on how civil society can play an effective and successful role in sustaining a peaceful situation in a multi-cultural and multi-confessional region like the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Ukraine. The plans of the GPPAC Eastern Europe also include sharing knowledge and rich experience on other programmatic directions including Preventive Action, Dialogue, Peace Education and Security.

All the members of GPPAC Eastern Europe are confident that the momentum gained by the network during the last two years will continue to translate into practical activities and consolidated network projects to address existing and potential conflicts.

Zahid Movlazadeh, Regional Coordinator for GPPAC Central Asia, The Caucasus, Eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa: z.movlazadeh@conflict-prevention.net

Under the Interaction and Advocacy Programme of GPPAC South Asia, a Regional Roundtable on ‘Promoting People to People Interaction Through SAARC’ was held in Kathmandu, Nepal on July 14-16, 2010. It was organized by the Centre for South Asian Studies (CSAS) in close collaboration with the Global Partnership on Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) and the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS). The event saw participants like the Regional Initiator for GPPAC South Asia. Prof. Amal Jayawardane, Executive Director of the RCSS, Mr. Nishchal N. Pandey, Director of CSAS, Mr. Darynell Rodriguez Torres, Programme Manager Interaction and Advocacy at the GPPAC Global Secretariat in The Hague, The Netherlands, erudite scholars and experts on SAARC issues from South Asia. Mr. Nishchal N. Pandey, the local partner for the event, hosted a reception in honor of the delegates at the Radisson Hotel, Kathmandu which saw Ambassadors from SAARC countries represented in Kathmandu, the Director from the SAARC Secretariat, civil society leaders and journalists attending.

During the Inaugural Session of the meeting, the key-note speaker, a well known Nepali journalist and editor of the Nepali Times Weekly Mr. Kunda Dixit shed light on the shortcomings of SAARC despite its 25-year existence and elaborated on militarized and overly security conscious governmental regulations in the region being a hindrance to more connectivity between countries and its people. Participants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka as well as from Nepal highlighted the importance of promoting track II and track III approaches and initiatives in South Asia which would be a big step forward towards achieving a South Asian Economic Union as envisaged by the leaders of SAARC. Prof. Amal Jayawardane and Mr. Darynell Rodriguez Torres also spoke on the occasion.

 On July 16, the participants visited the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and Pacific under the Office for Disarmament Affairs and acquired information on the activities of the Centre. Likewise, they visited the SAARC Secretariat and discussed the work both of the Secretariat and of SAARC itself, with Director of SAARC Secretariat from Nepal, Mr. Niranjan Man Singh Basnyat. They also visited the Secretariat’s library and made a pledge to regularly send publications of their respective institutes and universities to the library which is commonly used by South Asian researchers, academics, and students.  

Four members of the GPPAC network took part, along with around twenty other CSO representatives involved in the implementation of youth programs in sub-regions of the North Caucasus such as the Chechen republic, the Republic of Dagestan, the Republic of North Ossetia and Stavropol.

The experience gained in the implementation of these projects and the development of network activities among the various organisations enabled them to develop and present to the authorities an alternative youth policy. The main objective of such a youth policy in the North Caucasus is to engage young people not as passive objects of activities designed by others, but as active subjects of community development programs on a local level.

GPPAC has been supporting these network building and advocacy efforts.

A. Kamenshikov, Regional Initiator GPPAC Eastern Europe

The idea of having an exchange visit of peace education practitioners and policymakers came about during a conversation between two GPPAC Peace Education Working Group members at the International Peace Education Conference in Nairobi in the early days of December 2008. While talking about their own experiences, Irina Brunova-Kalisetska from the Ukraine and Ivana Gayovich from Montenegro realised that the multicultural context in which they implement peace education and peaceful coexistence projects was similar on many levels.

A year and a half later, after intensive planning and successful fundraising in both regions, the first part of the exchange programme took place in Podgorica, Montenegro.

Click here to read the full article

Added on 23 June 2010

On the eve of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference that will take place May 3-28 at the United Nations in New York, thousands of NGO representatives and engaged citizens from around the world will come together to participate in a series of actions and events calling for nuclear weapons abolition. After the failure of the 2005 Review Conference, expectations from citizens around the world are high, calling for the Conference to take serious steps towards the abolition of nuclear weapons and make the most of the current global momentum enhanced by President Obama's calls for a world without nuclear weapons.

Many members of GPPAC in Northeast Asia, a region where nuclear disarmament is a high priority, are in New York to hold a series of activities around the NPT Review Conference. This will include several workshops on Northeast Asian issues, including disarmament, military spending and nuclear weapon free zones. Furthermore, Regional Secretariat for Northeast Asia, Peace Boat, is also bringing a delegation of atomic bomb survivors to New York as part of its Global Voyage for a Nuclear-Free World - Peace Boat Hibakusha Project. The group set sail from Yokohama, Japan on April 16 on the third such voyage, where they will be visiting 22 ports in 20 countries to give testimonies of their experiences of the atomic bomb and spread their messages from Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the world.

For more details of activities by GPPAC Northeast Asia members around the NPT, including follow up events, click here

"It will be a voyage of discovery as this is not only my first trip abroad, but also an opportunity to travel with the Peace Boat," says Sulueti Waqa, who is representing femLINKPACIFIC aboard the Japan-based international NGO Peace Boat . The Peace Boat will be docking in Fiji on 29 March for the first time since 2006, on its tenth visit to the Pacific island nation, as part of a 103 day around-the-world voyage to promote grassroots exchange and education about global issues.

23-year-old Sulueti, who hails from Ba, has been a member of femLINKPACIFIC's Generation Next Project for Young Women Producers and Broadcasters since 2007. This year, she has become a community media correspondent based at femLINKPACIFIC's Community Media Centre in Suva, while continuing to contribute to the staging of the organisation's weekend "suitcase radio" broadcasts. She departed Fiji this week to join the Peace Boat in Tahiti.

While on the Peace Boat, Sulueti is sharing information about Fiji and the work of femLINKPACIFIC, as part of a partnership programme between GPPAC members. She is one of the guest educators from all over the world, who have joined the voyage to share their expertise and experiences, and are helping participants to learn about a range of issues including climate change, sustainable development, disarmament, indigenous cultures, and responsible tourism.

FemLINKPacific has been the regional secretariat for GPPAC in the Pacific region since last October, and the Peace Boat is the Northeast Asian region's secretariat.

Peace Boat was founded over 25 years ago by university students in Tokyo who had a vision of travelling around the Asia Pacific region to learn about war-time history from the victims and survivors of Japanese aggression. Since then, Peace Boat has evolved into an NGO with United Nations consultative status and is an influential member of Japanese civil society and the global peace movement. It organizes 3 global voyages and 1 regional voyage each year, and to date has brought more than 40,000 participants to over 80 countries onboard a total of 68 voyages.

Co-founder and Director, Mr Yoshioka Tatsuya says, "I believe in the power of ordinary people to make positive changes in our world. Peace Boat helps to empower people by exposing them to a range of social, political, cultural and environmental issues that they otherwise may not encounter. Most importantly, we try to do this at the grassroots level by promoting people-to-people centered exchange."

The current 68th Global Voyage for Peace, with around 500 participants on board, departed from Japan in December 2009 to visit 15 ports of call around the world including Taiwan, South Africa, Brazil and Chile. In the Pacific, this voyage also called to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) on March 15, and Tahiti on March 22.

Suva is the very last port before the ship returns to Yokohama, Japan on April 9, 2010 and an exciting arts, culture and NGO Networking programme is being organised for the day.

"The upcoming visit of Peace Boat to Fiji is another example of how GPPAC members in the Asia Pacific are working together for peace and conflict prevention in the region," said femLINKPACIFIC's Coordinator, Sharon Bhagwan Rolls.

For full itinerary and voyage reportsclick here.

Contact: Meri Joyce, GPPAC Northeast Asia / Peace Boat International Coordinator: meri@peaceboat.gr.jp or

Sharon Bhagwan Rolls:
sharon@femlinkpacific.org.fj M: 679 9244871

Added on 24 March 2010

Representatives from regional intergovernmental organizations such as the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Central American Integration System (SICA) agreed to engage in preventive action efforts in Central America in cooperation with civil society.

The workshop participants developed a four-step framework for preventive action: In the coming months, civil society organisations (CSOs) will create the conditions to start implementing preventive action, including the development of a conceptual framework and general methodology, an overview of experiences by other actors, and identify organizations with capabilities to prevent potential violence.

In the second phase, CSOs will identify sources of conflict and select areas for pilot activities, and begin a participatory assessment with various stakeholders to analyze the root causes of the potential violence. The following phase will see the actual deployment of preventive action, based on the proposed methodology. An action plan will be developed using the Outcome Mapping methodology.

The facilitation of dialogue, mediation, citizen diplomacy and advocacy are possible tools to carry out prevention "in the truest sense", according to the meeting's outcome document. The workshop also identified collaborative awareness and mobilizing public opinion as other activities contributing towards prevention. Finally, CSOs will systematize the experiences, as part of a continuous process of monitoring, tracking and evaluation.

Added on 24 March 2010

As part of its efforts to connect Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to different peacebuilding and conflict prevention processes, GPPAC has been engaged in making the voices of local organisations from Sierra Leone and Burundi heard at the UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) ever since it started work in those countries in 2007.

The consultations were held on 3 March in Bujumbura, Burundi and on 5 March in Freetown, Sierra Leone. They brought together representatives of CSOs from across both countries, including women and youth groups, business organisations, human rights groups, academics and others. In Sierra Leone, representatives from the government and from the UN team operating in the country also participated in the event. The consultations were organised in cooperation with the Biraturaba Association of Burundi and the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) of Sierra Leone. Darynell Rodriguez Torres, GPPAC's Programme Manager for Interaction and Advocacy, attended both meetings, representing the GPPAC Global Secretariat.

The Peacebuilding Commission, which is an intergovernmental organ, was established as part of a broader peacebuilding architecture that includes the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) and the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF). On 29, 30 and 31 March 2010, a GPPAC delegation will go to the UN to meet with different policy makers involved in the review of the PBC, to deliver the recommendations formulated during the consultations.

Added on March 17, 2010

Over sixty participants from fifteen African countries participated in this seminar, jointly organized by UNDP, GPPAC, NPI-Africa and WANEP . Participants represented national government agencies, civil society organizations and local UNDP offices. GPPAC's chairman Emmanuel Bombande, Executive Director of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding, was one of the two main facilitators of the event that took place from 2 to 4 February 2010 in Naivasha, Kenya. UNDP staff from New York as well as GPPAC representatives from The Hague also participated.

Infrastructures for Peace looks at institutionalizing the response mechanisms to conflicts in order to transform those conflicts in a peaceful way. Part of such Infrastructures can be Local or national Peace Councils, where multiple stakeholders come together in dialogue or mediation. Stakeholders can be traditional chiefs, religious leaders, authorities and unions.

The seminar began by examining the meaning and elements of Infrastructures for Peace. On the second day participants discussed the roles of government and civil society in such institutionalization. The final discussions were on the next steps and how to develop the infrastructures in the different countries.

Ghana and Kenya, plagued by violence in the past, served as examples of building their own architectures for peace. In both countries, these infrastructures are believed to have resulted in violence prevention. Participants concluded that thorough research, assessments and analyses need to accompany the development of Infrastructures for peace. Several countries, such as Togo, announced steps to institutionalize new initiatives, or link existing activities on peace building, dialogue or mediation.

Added on February 18, 2010

Background documents: 

1 .Concept note Infrastructures for peace seminar 15 Dec 2009
2. Infrastructures for Peace

3. A peace architecture for Ghana - amended 26 April 2007
4. Local Peacebuilding in Ghana
5. Final version of Peace policy - Kenya
6. Local Peace and Development Committees in Kenya
7. District Code of Conduct Monitoring Committees in Sierra Leone
8. Local peace Councils 

Concerned Citizens for Peace (CCP) was officially launched by five peacemakers at a media conference held on December 31, 2007, just a day after the onset of the violence following the announcement of the contested presidential election results. The five initiators immediately established an operational base in Nairobi's Serena Hotel where they were joined in the following days by a corps of Kenya's peacebuilding community, including professionals, religious leaders and community organizers. For the next three months, the hotel became synonymous with efforts to save Kenya as it was chosen to host the official mediation process led by former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan.

In preliminary fashion, this new report by CCP, Nairobi Peace Initiative-Africa and GPPAC recounts the launch and the subsequent activities undertaken by the CCP in response to Kenya's post-election upheaval in early 2008. Presented here in story form, it is to be considered, firstly, a work in progress and, secondly, an invitation to participants in and observers of the CCP process to submit additional stories, impressions, activities, and analysis as part of an open-ended chronicle of Kenya's 2008 post election crisis experience.

Added on February 9, 2010

The 2010 regional steering group meeting of the GPPAC network in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), will be remembered as a major milestone in the consolidation of GPPAC in this region. The meeting held in Beirut on 29th and 30th January, hosted by Permanent Peace Movement (PPM), as GPPAC's regional secretariat, brought together CSO representatives from different countries in the region including Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Syria, among others, as well as organizations based in the West Bank / Palestinian Authority area.

One of the key decisions taken during this conference was to transform the ‘Arab Partnership for Conflict Prevention' into the MENA Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, MENAPPAC. This will allow room to include organizations from non-Arab countries who have expressed their interest in joining GPPAC, providing for a broader regional remit.

During the meeting, the participants defined the main work priorities for the region and created different commissions to work in the areas of advocacy, awareness raising, knowledge sharing and training and conflict prevention. The idea is to align the work in the region with the strategies undertaken by the GPPAC programmes at the global level. Preparations are also starting for a regional conference on non-violence to be held next year.

Added on February 8, 2010

The August 2008 war between Russia and Georgia has altered the geopolitical situation in the Caucasus and has heavily affected a broad range of security issues in Eurasia. Since then, there has not been any visible progress in Georgia-Russia relations, which has resulted in further polarization of public perceptions between all sides involved in the conflict.

In November 2008, following the crisis in the region, a meeting of prominent independent political experts and opinion leaders from Georgia and Russia was organised by the International Center on Conflict and Negotiation (ICCN) within the framework of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC). Held in Istanbul, Turkey, the symposium was entitled: "Georgia-Russia Relations: Ways Out of Crisis" . Participants analyzed the fundamental causes of the conflict and the key factors which triggered the eruption of violence and discussed the mechanisms to support the strategies to stabilize relations.

The members of this unique initiative have decided to continue their work together under the title of the "Istanbul Process". For this reason, a second round of dialogue meetings was organized in November 2009 with participation of the enlarged groups on both sides. Participants in the process assessed the current state of relations between Georgia and Russia, presented very detailed analyses of the root causes and possible scenarios of further geopolitical development in the region and have identified future steps that should be taken in order to overcome the crisis. One of the key messages that clearly came out of the meeting was that the dialogue process between Russia and Georgia has to be continued on different levels, and that civil society should play a more active role in this process.

Following the two day discussion on a broad range of issues the participants have come to the following conclusions:

For more information about the Istanbul Process please contact

Dr. George Khutsishvili, Director,  International Center on Conflict and Negotiation; GPPAC Regional Initiator for the Caucasus: george@iccn.ge

Zahid Movlazadeh, Regional Coordinator for the Caucasus, Central Asia, Western CIS, Middle East and North Africa, ECCP: z.movlazadeh@conflict-prevention.org

Added on November 19, 2009

Prior to the Regional Steering Group (RSG) meeting, a workshop was organized for local level Central American organizations, dealing with environmental and climate issues that often result in unrest and sometimes in conflict. The participants, often struggling with complex local issues, had a chance to not only share experiences, but also benefited from presentations and support materials. During the RSG meeting itself, several current topics such as the Honduran crisis and the stance civil society could take were discussed, and plans were made for activities in Bolivia, Cuba, Paraguay and several Central American countries.

In the light of the development of GPPAC's Preventive Action strategy, the creation of a work plan for the second phase of the Mobilizing Early Response Project (MERP) in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua was an exciting step from the assessment to an Action Plan. In a way, it forms a first example on how to bridge the gap between Early Warning and Early Response in the GPPAC network. The work plan was drafted in a workshop, during an open discussion and developed in more detail by two separate working groups. Another exciting element was the workshop on Context Analysis. During the work on the Assessment Report, the first phase of MERP, the capacity for analysis was identified as an area of improvement. Peacebuild in Canada provided a capable expert, who led a day-and-a-half-long exercise providing background and methodologies on Context Analysis.

Honduras formed the most dominant topic throughout the week. The developing topic on the complex political conflict was often used as an example in the different sessions and workshops. It found a climax in a round table discussion on Honduras, facilitated by Frank. The discussion ranged from frustration over not foreseeing the coup to the role civil society can play and the implications for neighboring countries. It showed once again that civil society still has a lot of work to do in preventing conflict.

FemLINKPACIFIC 's partners in Bougainville, Buka based Leitana Nehan Women's Development Agency is gearing up for the local launch of the regional women's network's 2nd annual policy document "Women, Peace and SecurityPolicy for Peace in Our Pacific Region" and the DVD "The Thirteen 25 report" on Friday 6th November 2009.

Aside from the President of the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG), James Tannis, other members of the ABG will be present alongside civil society partners including the Bougainville Inter-Church Women's Forum, Catholic Family Life, and Bougainville Aids Council as well as development partners NZAID, UNDP and AUSAID. Representatives of the Bougainville Police Department, the Council of Chiefs and churches will also attend.

By Suzanne Jimbul.
Buka, Bougainville (PNG)

To read full article click here

Added on November 02, 2009

Celebrations for the 21st of September, the United Nations International Day of Peace, were held all over the world. Like every year GPPAC collected news of celebrations everywhere, giving voice and a global echo to people and organizations commemorating the event all around the world. If you would like to have a look at how the International day of Peace was celebrated in different countries of the world you can have a look here .

Furthermore, this year, for the first time, GPPAC also promoted a global campaign for the International Day of Peace, aimed at involving people in the international call for peace. People were asked to send us a picture of themselves symbolizing that "Peace is possible", along with a short sentence or a slogan. We have created a video out of the pictures collected, which gives a visual idea of how big the global call for peace is. You can have a look at the results of our campaign here: 

We would still love to hear how you celebrated the 21st of September. If you would like to share the news of your event and to have it posted on our People Building Peace website, send a short report - with pictures if you have them - to People Building Peace at pbp@conflict-prevention.net

Added on October 26, 2009

Yet, women are much more than victims. They play an active role in how conflicts evolve. Sometimes in their escalation or prolongation, but more often in their prevention and resolution. The enormous importance of the role that women play in conflict prevention and peacebuilding has long been recognized, amongst others through UN Security Council Resolution 1325 . In 2010, 1325 will celebrate its 10th anniversary. A moment to reflect and review the effectiveness of the resolution.

GPPAC has always recognized the role of women and has affirmed its belief in the importance of 1325.

Close to sixty GPPAC peacebuilders from all over the world came together from September 30th to October 7th in Davao City and Manila, the Philippines, and worked on developing new strategic directions and plans for the coming years. The group also met with different parties and actors involved in the armed conflicts that continue to destroy lives, especially in Mindanao.

During these meetings the importance of the role of women in conflict prevention and peacebuilding came up again and again: the Mindanao Commission on Women stated that ‘gender equality is an important goal in itself and a crucial factor for achieving sustainable peace'. In meetings with representatives of various Negotiation Panels, discussions touched upon the importance of women's participation in official peace processes and the change in dynamics such involvement brings to a peace process.

Taking all of these developments into account, GPPAC re-emphasized its recognition of the importance of gender equality. During its strategic planning process, the network agreed upon a renewed gender framework and appointed Ms. Sharon Bhagwan Rolls of FemLINKPacific as the new Gender Liaison Person of the GPPAC International Steering Group.

GPPAC believes that the suffering and destruction of war and violence can be prevented. Yet, for peace to be sustainable, it is essential to ensure the involvement of women at all levels of conflict prevention and peacebuilding work. Together we can make peace possible.

Added on  October 14, 2009

From GPPAC / Initiatives for International Dialogue

DAVAO CITY - After more than 25 years of armed conflict, the civil war in Sri Lanka ended in May 2009.

The military victory of the Sri Lankan government over the rebel Tamil Tigers is now touted by hardliners and hawks as a model for resolving festering armed conflicts in the world. In fact, some government and military officials in the Philippines have been advocating the same "Sri Lanka solution" in ending the armed insurgencies in the country.

But did the conflict really end in Sri Lanka? A gathering of peacebuilders from all over the world meeting in Davao City this week believes that this solution is not applicable nor even workable. In fact, it would spell disaster if applied in the Philippine or Mindanao contexts.

Representatives from the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) met with peace advocates from Mindanao for learning sessions on peacebuilding amidst ethnic differences, and experiences with early warning and early response at the Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao.

Sri Lankan Professor Amal Jayawardane said that the Sri Lankan solution should not be a model for other nations seeking to achieve peace.

Jayawardane, the Executive Director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, GPPAC regional secretariat for South Asia, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka said that the conflict ended neither as a military victory nor with a successful peace agreement.

The Government of Sri Lanka declared victory in May this year over the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) when they captured the last remaining LTTE stronghold and killed their leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran, ending decades of bloody civil war. However, the defeat of the LTTE did not address the root causes of the conflict. It is essential to find a political solution for these urgently, Jayawardane said.

Other areas dealing with conflict can learn from the experience of what happened.

The disengagement of the LTTE from the negotiations, left no other option for the government than an all-out military response. Jayawardane warned legitimate revolutionary armed groups in Mindanao, "If you want to prevent what happened in Sri Lanka from happening to you, it is essential to continue to engage in dialogue." He at the same vein said that government must also leave room for the same.

The learning session was attended by participants from Burma, South Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines and Vietnam. GPPAC South Asia, Caucasus, Western Balkans and West Africa and the GPPAC Global Secretariat also took part in the session with members of the Mindanao Peaceweavers (MPW), an organization of civil society groups in Mindanao and Manila active in conflict prevention and peacebuilding.

The Davao-based IID is the Regional Initiator of GPPAC in Southeast Asia. From September 30 - October 7 the different peacebuilders of GPPAC met to update each other and plan activities for the coming years. Part of this work is learning from each others' experiences. The GPPAC delegates visited conflict-hit communities in Central and Southern Mindanao, local government and military officials and armed groups.  

Added on October 6, 2009

GPPAC's International Steering Group, Regional Liaison Officers and Southeast Asia Regional Steering Group are currently meeting in Davao, Mindanao, the Philippines.

On Friday October 2nd, the GPPAC Executive Committee, consisting of Emmanuel Bombande (WANEP, West Africa), Raya Kadyrova (FTI, Central Asia), Augusto Miclat (IID, Southeast Asia) and Florence Mpaayei (NPI-Africa, Central and Eastern Africa), GPPAC Secretary General Paul van Tongeren and the global secretariat's executive director Peter van Tuijl undertook a mission to Cotabato. The area has been affected by the conflict between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) since its inception in the 1960s. A peace process has been ongoing since 1997 but has not yet been concluded

The GPPAC delegation met with MILF Chairman Al Haj Murad Ibrahim, Chair of the MILF Negotiating Panel Mohagher Iqbal and MILF Secretariat Head Jun Mantawil along with other members of the MILF Central Committee.

The delegation offered GPPAC's involvement in the International Contact Group of the peace process between the MILF and the GRP. The MILF leadership expressed its gratitude for the offer, and will respond following further discussion with various stakeholders.

The group later met with Major Carlos T. Sol Jr., Head of the Secretariat of the Government Coordinating Committee for the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) and Toks Ibrahim of the MILF CCCH.

DAVAO CITY - A global network of peacebuilders is offering its help to break the impasse in the peace process between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and also sustain it.

Gus Miclat, executive director of Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) said the Global Partnership for the Prevention of the Armed Conflict (GPPAC) is offering itself as a potential member of the International Contact Group (ICG) of the peace process. The IID is the regional secretariat for GPPAC Southeast Asia.

Miclat said the group can share its experience and knowledge from peace processes in other conflicts in its involvement with the ICG if chosen as a member. The ICG will be a body of both governments and international non-government organizations that aims to restore the mutual trust between the GRP and MILF.

The GRP and the MILF both agreed to the formation of the ICG during their talks held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last September 15.

The IID is hosting the annual meeting of the GPPAC-International Steering Group in Davao City, Manila and Jakarta between October 1-9, 2009, bringing together around 55 peacebuilders from around the world.

The peacebuilders will visit local communities in Mindanao, particularly those affected by the conflict, and meet with various local peace organizations, policymakers, donor and diplomatic communities in Manila.

The group hopes to meet with President Macapagal-Arroyo and the MILF leadership to discuss issues of peace and conflict prevention in general and specifically its offer to join the ICG. Then they will go to Jakarta to meet with Secretary General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Dr. Surin Pitsuwan.

Tatjana Popovic, peace education programme coordinator at Nansen Dialogue Center-Serbia, pointed the similarities between the conflicts in Mindanao and the Western Balkans. She said that sharing experiences and approaches to conflict can be very beneficial for civil society organizations to develop more effective peacebuilding mechanisms,.

Marte Hellema, program manager awareness raising of the GPPAC Global Secretariat, emphasized that sharing and learning from each others' experiences in conflict prevention and peacebuilding is indeed one of GPPAC's key strengths.
This is the capacity that the network would bring to the table if joining the ICG. "Together we can make peace possible. Also for Mindanao." (PR)

Click here to read the article in the Mindanao Times

Added on 29 September 2009

The world celebrated the UN International Day of peace on 21 September. Many events were organized all around the world to commemorate the day, raising awareness on the importance of peace and conflict prevention.

If you would like to know more about the International day of Peace, how the event has been celebrated this year or during the past editions, have a look at the People Building Peace website www.peoplebuildingpeace.org. We will be adding more events and news as it comes in, so check back frequently! If you have organized an event, or know of one, that you would like us to post on the website, please send an e-mail to Chiara Massaroni at pbp@conflict-prevention.net

Get Involved

This year, GPPAC coordinated a common activity that was taken up by many people celebrating the International day of Peace around the world, namely collecting their pictures and messages of peace. The aim of our campaign was generating a link between everyone marking the day, and give a visual representation of how huge the call for peace is in every corner of the world.

Even though the 21st of September is already passed, you can always join our campaign! All you have to do is take a picture of yourself - either individually or as a group - that symbolises Peace to you. How do you see peace, how do you know that peace is possible? It is completely up to every individual to choose how to represent this. The pictures should be accompanied by a short caption explaining the picture, as well as include the country where the picture was taken.

You can see the pictures that have been collected here. They will also be available as a video on  GPPAC's Youtube channel, where you can watch or download it. The final slide show will be a testimony of the call for peace worldwide.

If you want to take part in the activity, send your picture, your message and any questions you may have to Chiara Massaroni at pbp@conflict-prevention.net.

Also, the International Day of Peace saw the launch of iblogforPeace.org, an online platform which aims at broadening the discourse on peace by providing a space for civil society, particularly the blogging community, to take part in the conversations in their own contexts and to engage in dialogues with likeminded individuals and groups. It will attempt to aggregate blog articles, videos and podcasts primarily on ordinary peoples' take on peace, stories of victims of war and of individuals and organizations working for peace. It also offers a regular channel for peace journalists to showcase their stories, video-documentaries and photo essays. The blog will be running until the 2010 International Day of Peace and will be set up, hosted and maintained by  Initiatives for International Dialogue, the Regional Secretariat of GPPAC for Southeast Asia

The blog is open to anyone who wants to participate although its targeted primarily to bloggers, peace journalists and members of GPPAC.

Added on 23 September 2009

The event drew the attention of several representatives of the different diplomatic missions of Latin American countries in Washington DC, as well as officials from the OAS and NGOs from the area working in the field of conflict prevention and peacebuidling, who brought their particular insights to the debate.

From October 17 to 21, 10 young people aged 18 to 22 from Thailand, India, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines will take part in the SIGNIS Video Journalists (VJs) project. Under the guidance of professional communicators, the VJs will cover the activities of the Congress and produce daily video reports. The project aims to offer the VJs a unique media training experience which will foster collaboration and team spirit and develop a critical awareness of issues on Children's and Human Rights.

The SIGNIS World Congress 2009 will take place in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from October 17 to 21, 2009. Hundreds of communication professionals from all over the world are expected to attend the 4-day event built around three strands: Current Global Issues on Human Rights and Children's Rights, Emerging Perspectives on Media and Social Transformation and The Challenges of Growing Up in a Digital Age.

GPPAC and the Initiative on Conflict Prevention through Quiet Diplomacy, in cooperation with the Folke Beranadotte Academy, organised a workshop to explore and enhance the possibilities for civil society organisations to constructively engage with regional and sub-regional intergovernmental organisations in various ways. This event, which was held in July 9-11 at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, is envisaged as the first in a series of events with the goal of building a community of confidence and knowledge within GPPAC and among Inter-governmental Organisations representatives.

The workshop brought together representatives of civil society organisations (CSOs) from regions belonging to the GPPAC network to explore the possibilities for constructive CSO engagement with regional and sub-regional intergovernmental organisations (RIGOs) in various ways. Reflecting critically on their own experiences of engaging - or seeking to engage - RIGOs, participants considered challenges, opportunities and successes, and identified lessons learned.

This cross-regional exchange contributed to the identification of concrete rationale and options for engagement, including through approaches for contact, confidence-building and collaboration. Specific activities such as advocacy, information gathering and analysis, early warning and early action were discussed. Participants also identified a menu of options for consideration by civil society actors in their engagement with RIGOs. Consideration of the role and capacity of GPPAC in facilitating and supporting members' engagement with RIGOs also led to the identification of some specific functions and actions that GPPAC might undertake in the short, medium and longer terms.