The GPPAC process in the Middle East and North Africa is coordinated by Regional Secretariat Permanent Peace Movement. For more information on GPPAC in the region, contact:

Mr. Fadi Abi Allam 

The Permanent Peace Movement in Lebanon

Regional Secretariat of the Arab Partnership for Conflict Prevention and Human Security ( APCPHS )
Mekalles - Salibi Tower - 7th Floor
Beirut - Lebanon
P.O.Box: 166492
Email: ppmleb@idm.net.lb
Tel/Fax: +961 1 501516
Mobile: +961 3 327729

• The siege of Gaza has reached new levels of intensity. Israel has imposed an embargo that effectively blocks the delivery of fuel oil supplies to the strip. Thousands of homes in the territory have been left without power. GPPAC is deeply concerned for the 1,5 million citizens of Gaza, who are hardest hit by these measures. Click here to view the statement text on the situation in Gaza,  initiated by the Arab Partnership for Conflict Prevention and supported by all fifteen regions of the globe represented in the GPPAC International Steering Group, or here to download it in PDF format.

   
• Non-violent resistance in Israel and Palestine: February 20th is the International Day of Non-Violent Resistance. Middle East Non-Violence and Democracy (MEND), a member of the GPPAC regional network, the Arab Partnership for Conflict Prevention, has produced a newsletter highlighting instances and regular gatherings of non-violent resistance in Israel and Palestine. Click here to download it. (PDF, 164 kb)
• Meeting of the Arab Partnership for Conflict Prevention: In December 2007 the Arab Partnership for Conflict Prevention organised a Regional Steering Group meeting. This two day meeting that took place in Beirut, Lebanon, brought together seventeen people from countries across the region such as Egypt, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq, to further discuss how to strengthen the regional network, current issues and challenges that civil society organisations working for peace are dealing with, and the 2008 work plan for GPPAC Middle East and North Africa. The website of the Arab Partnership will be launched soon. The report of the meeting will soon be available here.   

As long as deaths on our side are tragedies while « their » deaths are merely statistics, the violence will continue. Always we have to prepare ourselves for a new cycle of violence since we are living within this framework of values toward ourselves and the other as well.

This is the Middle East, generation after generation and a war after a war, a number of local regional, and international conflicts are taking place for many years ago and people are waiting for a comprehensive and just solutions to be concluded to have a sustainable peace whereas the circle of violence it seems endless, every war in itself is represent a sufficient given to prepare for another war.

In the Middle East there are numerous ethnic and religious differences that have been used to contribute to social tension and occasionally burst to the surface in acts of limited communal violence. In addition to the social, political and economic situation which is differ from one country to another.

For any reason we can have a war and not just a conflict that we can find a peaceful way to settle. As NGO's advocating for the basic needs of our communities, our activities for many years are just to manage the consequence of these war, without doing or even knowing how take preventive measures, in a logical process and in an efficient way.

A number of organizations in the Middle East work in fields related to conflict prevention and human security, but their skills are rarely recognized or effectively used. To assist in curtailing the potential for local communal or social violence, limiting the impact of isolated violent incidents, and mitigating the local impact of major conflicts in the rest of the region, there needs to be a more effective method of mobilizing and sharing conflict prevention skills and experience.

In response to this situation, the Arab Partnership for Conflict Prevention and Human Security was founded in February 2005 as part of the broader Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, a loose alliance between the United Nations, governments and civil society to develop a common platform for effective action on conflict prevention from the community to the global level. The current Middle East Action Agenda reflects the concerns and visions of committed CSOs from the Middle East to better define their role and to improve their capacities and skills to respond to their social responsibility of attaining decent peaceful life to people of the region.

Process

The Regional Steering Group of the Middle East and North Africa met in February 2005 in Beirut, Lebanon, and established the Arab Partnership for Conflict Prevention and Human Security (APCPHS), an interim network working towards the establishment of an official network.

The APCPHS brings together individuals and organizations that consciously understand their work as contributing to conflict prevention in the region. Collectively, the partnership has committed to a comprehensive action agenda, which, over the long term, aims to encourage greater activity in the field of conflict prevention and strengthen those who are already engaged in this work. These organizations and individuals will then be better able to contribute to a civil society that is capable of participating in conflict prevention activities and empowering indigenous organizations to be active in the field. APCPHS aims to make further progress in this field possible by tempering or transforming perceptions of conflict prevention and peacebuilding as a foreign or external concern, a common misconception in the region, and by fostering regional and international partnerships.

The February 2005 meeting, organised by the Permanent Peace Movement in cooperation with the European Centre for Conflict Prevention and the American Friends Service Committee in Amman, brought together some 21 organisations and individuals from countries ranging from Tunisia, Sudan, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. The secretariat of the interim network is currently hosted by the Permanent Peace Movement, based in Beirut.

At this meeting, the Arab Partnership broke into working groups on three different topics: Capacity Building, Human Security, and Dialogue and Awareness Building. A 10-point draft Regional Action Agenda (RAA) was based on the reports from these working groups, and would be presented at the next meeting of the full Partnership.

On 22-25 April 2005, the Arab Partnership for Conflict Prevention & Human Security convened in Beirut, Lebanon, with the aim of finalizing the Regional Action Agenda for the Middle East and North Africa. During the course of general discussion and small group workshops, the 10-point draft was refined into a set of guiding principles and action points and eventually expanded to an 11-point document that represented the broad consensus of the group. Although it was decided that a concrete plan of action would be developed after the July conference, brainstorming took place to identify the types of mechanisms that are required for effective conflict resolution and peace building in the region, which are highlighted in the most recent version of the RAA.

The participants of the April meeting recollected the mood at the first meeting, a mood set by excitement and hope that a strong network could be created to highlight the voice of conflict resolution organisations in the Middle East. However, they were also reminded of the fragility of the societies in which we live; only 10 short days after the February meeting Lebanon was shattered by bloody events that again brought back memories of violence and skepticism as to whether our work in fact has meaning or 'makes any difference'.

It is in this context that Middle East Action Agenda reflects the concerns, aspiration, hope and vision of a group of committed civil society organisations in the Middle East working in the area of conflict resolution and human security for the purpose of better-defining their role in the region, and to improve their capacities and responsibility of encouraging the peaceful, non-violent and constructive resolution of outstanding conflict at multiple levels in society. Each point in the RAA is accompanied by recommendations to specific actors, including the civil society community as well as governments, the United Nations and international organisations, which speak to the resources, training and cooperation needs of organisations working for conflict prevention in the region.

APCPHS has drawn from its Regional Action Agenda and its December 2005 working meeting to identify and define three key priorities for action over the first coming year in addition to another two priorities will be added in the second & the third coming years. The work will be undertaken within five predetermined task groups that have contributed to their respective components according to the following plan:

First year:

1. Awareness building and advocacy in support of the APCPHS and global action agendas:
2. Capacity building, empowerment and sustainability for the partnership and its members:
3. Knowledge building & ressource sharing :

Second year:

4. Early warning & early response mechanisms for the purpose of preempting violent conflicts:

Third year:

5. Establishment of a mobile conflict prevention task force to provide support and mitigate the reach and impact of incidences of violence: