Reporting on Conflict | Media Watch BlogPeacemakers Trust posts news, reports or announcements of interest to people studying or working in the field of dispute resolution, conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Inclusion of an item on the media watch blog does not imply endorsement or agreement of Peacemakers Trust with views expressed by authors of posted items.
The Federal Court of Canada Thursday struck down a refugee agreement between Canada and the US, noting that the US does not meet international refugee protection requirements or respect international conventions against torture…
The court also held that the agreement discriminates against refugees based on how they first arrived in Canada and thus violates Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
(...more)DAR ES SALAAM – Increasing international co-operation in exchange for guns and improving the sense of domestic security are promising strategies for reducing the number of small weapons in the hands of civilians in developing countries, a leading expert on the matter says.
(...more)Torture, including torture by Americans: Who could have predicted that this would be a live topic here in the twenty-first century?
We know how to associate torture with the accused and accusing other, with Inquisitors and witch hunters five centuries ago, or with far-away twentieth century totalitarian regimes and religious terrorists. But today the theological, humanistic, and tactical themes connected with torture have appeared close to home, giving new significance to those distant times, places, and events.
(...more)NAIROBI – A woman awarded one of Sweden’s “Alternative Nobel” prizes for her mediation work in a conflict-riven region of north Kenya pledged on Thursday to use her $77,000 prize money to found a “Peace University.”
Dekha Ibrahim Abdi will travel to Stockholm in December to receive one of the four 2007 Right Livelihood Awards for her work since the 1990s promoting solutions to feuds and deadly conflicts in Kenya’s remote and neglected north-east.
(...more)The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) is pleased to present a case study on ‘Negotiating peace in Liberia: Preserving the possibility for Justice, as part of its project ‘Negotiating Justice: strategies for tackling justice issues in peace processes’.
This case study provides an in-depth examination on how specific justice issues came to be included and potentially excluded in the Accra peace accord, which was the foundation of the current peace process. The report also examines how justice issues have developed after the accord, and where appropriate, strives to provide advice on how justice issues might have been handled in a different
way.
Full report (pdf)
(...more)Next week is seen as crunch time in the fight against global warming. Representatives from some 130 nations will gather in Bali, Indonesia, beginning a two-year effort to agree on a new pact to cut greenhouse-gas emissions – one that goes well beyond the goals of the current Kyoto Protocol.
Though it’s a complex task, there is some sense of optimism.
“There is an unprecedented awareness among the public and leaders now,” Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told the AFP news service. “My information is that some of the delegations who have been obstructionist in the past will be much more cooperative this time,” said Mr. Pachauri, citing “developments in Australia” and rising interest in climate change in the US.
(...more)KATHMANDU- Chief of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) Ian Martin Thursday pointed out a need for a review of the peace process including an assessment of Parliamentary declaration guaranteeing 33 percent of all political and civil service appointment to women.
Addressing a program on National Consultation of Women Human Rights Defenders organized by the National Alliance of Women Human Rights Defenders to End All Forms of Violence Against Women in Nepali capital Thursday, Martin said that women have key roles to play in maintaining the unity of the Seven-Party Alliance which remains fundamental to the success of the peace process.
(...more)A UK based Christian charity today has launched a new version of the Christmas nativity scene with a difference.
The traditional nativity set has been updated by the Amos Trust with a modern day touch by including the Israeli Separation wall.
This traditional olive wood nativity scene, made by local craftsmen in Bethlehem, now includes the Israeli Separation wall, which surrounds the little town.
Today the wise men would not be able to make it into Bethlehem, the Amos Trust points out, as they would be turned away at the security gate and refused an entry permit.
(...more)GAZA CITY – As Sunday dawns in Gaza City the traditional Islamic call to prayer mingles melodically with church bells.
Side by side, mosque and church doors swing open, welcoming the faithful. Greetings are eagerly exchanged…
Currently, Palestine’s Christian community hovers between two and 10 percent.
(...more)From November 25 to December 10th, the Women’s International Network of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC-WIN) will highlight the 16 days of activism against gender violence with a second Annual Internet campaign. This year, the theme of the broadcast will be: Demanding Implementation, Challenging Obstacles: End Violence against Women.
Community radio producers from Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa, Europe, North America and Latin America and the Caribbean will dedicate these 16 days to highlight the effort of women and men working to put an end to gender violence. The programs featured will include documentaries, interviews, debates, poetry, music and much more.
(...more)With an increasing number of armed conflicts being resolved through peace processes supported by mediators, and the number of such actors involved in conflict mediation activities growing fast, an urgent need for standards of good practice has arisen.
The HD Centre has responded to this need by producing this easy-to-use and accessible resource that offers a simple frame of reference to support ethical and professional decision-making…
“Peace talks – like all negotiations – involve making difficult decisions about the substance of talks, the process and venue of talks and the relationships around the table. Mediators can help get this right and this publication sets out some key principles to guide them” says Martin Griffiths, Director of the HD Centre. “They are the result of HD Centre’s experience and reflection and we hope they will be useful to others too”.
(...more)The promise of the Annapolis meeting can only be achieved if negotiations end the siege of Gaza, lift debilitating restrictions on the movement of people and goods, and end settlement expansion in the West Bank, while ensuring all parties uphold international humanitarian and human-rights law and protect civilians. As UN Under-Secretary General John Holmes stresses, ‘it is increasingly hard to see how the desperately needed political progress in the peace process can be made on the back of the kind of human suffering we are seeing today’.
Progress towards peace will equally require the meeting to establish an inclusive process engaging all political actors and relevant stakeholders, including civil society, refugees, and women, in efforts to resolve the final-status issues that have been at the heart of decades of conflict.
(...more)When children in Cambodia were asked what they considered to be a “good man,†overwhelmingly they described the same person – a family man who was strong but not violent, who provided food and protection for his children and who did not drink too much or behave in a way that harmed the family reputation.
Sadly, too few of Cambodia’s children are living in a family with this “good man.†Gender-based violence, both at home and in the community, is rife in this culture…
Over 90% of children surveyed in the study said they had seen or heard of a child being beaten by their father. As these children grow up, they are in real danger of inheriting the same values that have allowed domestic violence to continue unchecked in Cambodia’s villages and towns…
World Vision’s Reduction of Gender-based Violence Project (RGVP) has recently started to use stories to open communication between victims of violence and the people who can work to stop it.
(...more)A delegation of religious leaders mainly from the Horn of Africa, who have just visited strife-torn Somalia, have stressed that a solution to the crisis there lies within the country and not outside, while Pope Benedict XVI has called for peace in Somalia – writes Fredrick Nzwilli.
“The solution to the conflict in Somalia lies in the hands of the Somalis. That’s what we heard from religious leaders. Any international interference or influence is bound to fail because they suspect it has ill motives,” said Sheikh Shaban Mubaje, the grand Mufti of Uganda.
Mubaje was the leader of a delegation composed of Muslim and Christians who visited the country from 17 to 19 November.
(...more)Tehran – As the United States pressures Iran over its nuclear program and its alleged support of militant groups across the Middle East, it also has decried human rights abuses in the country. The Bush administration has refused to rule out military intervention against Iran.
Inside the country, a small number of activists continue to struggle peacefully for change. They are protected by a cadre of lawyers, including 2004 Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, the first Iranian to receive the prize.
But such defenders are few: Out of 27,000 licensed lawyers here, perhaps no more than 100 take on tough politically charged cases.
(...more)Conciliation Resources has announced the following new publications.
Thirty years after the events, it is hard to believe that justice will be done for Cambodians who lost people they loved to the ruthlessness of the Khmer Rouge. But there is sense in the argument that the United Nations-backed tribunal, expected to begin in earnest next year, will help reassure Cambodians that there is a chance for justice in future….
Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, convincingly presents his argument on the benefits of the tribunal in an article posted on the website of the Cambodian Tribunal Monitor…
Two reasons which Youk Chhang puts forward for insisting that the tribunal matters are persuasive.
”We need prosecution before we can ever reach the point of true
forgiveness,” he writes…
The years of delay in the setting up of the tribunal – officially called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) _ have given Cambodians and observers of Cambodia ample time to debate questions of crime, punishment and reconciliation.
(...more)RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — President Gen. Pervez Musharraf bade farewell to the military Tuesday, a day before he steps down as army chief and restores Pakistan to civilian rule in an effort to ease the country’s political crisis.
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf ousted in a 1999 coup, said the president’s departure from the army would make “a lot of difference,” but insisted he needed to do much more to defuse tensions. Relinquishing the post of army chief has been a key demand of an increasingly adamant opposition to Musharraf both at home and abroad…
However, Sharif said Musharraf must also lift the emergency and reinstate the ousted judges in order to ensure the elections are fair — a condition the president is highly unlikely to meet.
(...more)BRASILIA – Iceland has overtaken Norway as the world’s most desirable country to live in, according to an annual U.N. table published on Tuesday that again puts AIDS-afflicted sub-Saharan African states at the bottom.
Rich free-market countries dominate the top places, with Iceland, Norway, Australia, Canada and Ireland the first five but the United States slipping to 12th place from eighth last year in the U.N. Human Development Index.
But the index, blending 2005 figures for life expectancy, educational levels and real per capita income, finds that all 22 countries falling into its “low human development” category are in sub-Saharan Africa, with Sierra Leone last.
In 10 of these countries, two children in five will not reach the age of 40, said the compilers at the U.N. Development Program. Last year’s report said HIV/AIDS had had a “catastrophic effect” on life expectancy in the region.
(...more)UNITED NATIONS, Nov 26 (Reuters) – U.N. arms embargoes are always breached and rarely change the behavior of the targeted country but can be a powerful symbolic tool, a report published on Monday found.
The report by Swedish researchers examined the 27 mandatory U.N. arms embargoes implemented since 1990 on states such as Iraq and Somalia, and groups including al Qaeda.
“Of all the 27 cases … none has completely stopped the transfer of weapons to the target,” said Siemon Wezeman of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute who wrote the report with Peter Wallensteen, professor of peace and conflict research at Uppsala University in Sweden.
“Always there will be breaches. Does that make arms embargoes useless? No, it doesn’t,” Wezeman said.
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