Reporting on Conflict | Media Watch Blog

• News source:
• 31 December 2009
• ADR Campus Tech Blog
• By Bill Warters

An interesting new series of reports has been released exploring informal, community-based dispute resolution practices in Afghanistan. The qualitative research project was conducted by Deborah Smith and colleagues from the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit with funding from the United Kingdom Department for International Development…

A zipped up package of 3 pdfs provides the following…
- A Holistic Justice System for Afghanistan (Policy Note), by Deborah J. Smith and Jay Lamey
- Community-Based Dispute Resolution in Nangarhar Province (Case Study), by Deborah J. Smith
- Community-Based Dispute Resolution in Bamiyan Province (Case Study), by Deborah J. Smith and Shelly Manalan

• News source:
• 30 December 2009
• Global Voices Online
• By Onnik Krikorian

[A]n online project using new and social media to overcome negative stereotypes in the South Caucasus entered a second stage last week…

The project aims to promote positive examples of ethnic groups coexisting peacefully in a volatile region riven with frozen conflicts in an attempt to provide an alternative to what is usually a partisan local media that not only self-censors, but also spreads misinformation and negative propaganda…

• News source:
• 30 December 2009
• Guardian
• By Rebecca Smithers

Consumer spending on “ethical” products from Fairtrade food to eco-friendly travel has almost tripled in the past decade, a survey reveals today.

• News source:
• 27 December 2009
• Al Jazeera | YouTube
• By Al Jazeera interviewer with Richard Falk

Professor Richard Falk describes himself as an American Jew, but it is his support of Palestinian rights that has earned him the profile and abuse that is threatening to overshadow five decades of achievements as a lawyer, an academic and an author. One year after Israel’s war on Gaza, Al Jazeera talks to the UN special rapporteur on Palestine and asks him about his views on that war, the impact of the Obama presidency and the future of the peace process.

Part I

Part II

• News source:
• originally published 14 December 2009
• Institute for Policy Studies
• By Split This Rock. Edited by Sarah Browning

This Rock, the national organization of socially engaged poets and presenters of the biannual Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness (March 10-13, 2010, Washington, DC), offers the following poems for your vigils, demonstrations, and actions…

• News source:
• originally published 9 October 2009
• Seattle Times
• By Kristi Heim

In Afghanistan, possibly the least peaceful or secure place on earth, it’s time for Obama to shift the balance of U.S. troops from soldiers to armies of doctors, midwives, engineers and arborists, [Kavita] Ramdas [CEO of the Global Fund for Women] said, addressing the University of Washington School of Global Health earlier this week [October 2009].

“Stop feeding the beast,” she said. “We have too many guns and way too little butter.”…

Almost everywhere, a large presence of troops correlates with high incidences of rape, prostitution, domestic violence and other problems, she said. “Survival sex” is common — organizations working in such situations report that girls are often resorting to sex for food.

Conversely, where women’s health and education is improved, and more females enter the workforce, countries achieve rapid reductions in poverty.