Reporting on Conflict | Media Watch Blog

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The Transcend Peace University TPU is an all-online university, currently headed by Prof. Dr. Johan Galtung, widely recognized as the core founding-figure of the academic discipline of peace-studies. Our inter-disciplinary courses are designed to cover issues pertaining to peace and development studies.

As specialists in this domain, we emphasize solution-oriented approaches. Our faculty members are leading peace scholars and internationally recognized mediators. The purpose of TPU, the educational institute of TRANSCEND, is to impart to our students the knowledge and skills required for professional peace and development work.

TPU equips students with analytical and practical competence in conflict-transformation and -resolution. Our methodology draws from more than fifty years of knowledge provided by distinguished researchers and practitioners from all over the world.

1st term 2011: March 7th – May 27th (12 weeks)
Summer Sessions – July 18th – August 26th (6 weeks)
2nd term 2011: September 26th – December 16th (12 weeks)

Our 12-week and 6-week (Summer Sessions) online courses are addressed to government and non-government practitioners – including students – in need of high level analytical peace & conflict competence. The Galtung-Institut offers additional on-site tutorials in southern Germany – for further information please visit the homepage of the institute: www.galtung-institut.de.

E-mail: tpu [at] transcend.org
Contact person: Karoline Weber, Executive Secretary, weber [at] transcend.org

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• 7 July 2011
• Globe and Mail
• By Christina Trotter

Four years ago , my husband and I bought a house in an old Toronto neighbourhood. What we didn’t realize when we signed the purchase agreement was that we would be sharing the property – with raccoons.

Our first encounter was shortly after we moved in and were eating dinner outside. As night fell, the raccoons emerged from between the houses. They sat on our fence and watched us. Disturbingly, they were unafraid of us higher mammals.

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• originally published 6 June 2011
• New Yorker
• More and more Americans are going to college, but how many of them are actually learning anything?
• By Louis Menand

My first job as a professor was at an Ivy League university. The students were happy to be taught, and we, their teachers, were happy to be teaching them. Whatever portion of their time and energy was being eaten up by social commitments—which may have been huge, but about which I was ignorant—they seemed earnestly and unproblematically engaged with the academic experience. If I was naïve about this, they were gracious enough not to disabuse me. None of us ever questioned the importance of what we were doing.

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• 7 July 2011
• Mongabay

A new study says that giving local communities control over forest resources can help slow and even reverse deforestation.

The research, published by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) on the eve of a forestry workshop in Lombok, Indonesia, analyzed trends in countries that have either maintained or expanded forest cover since 1990. It found several factors contributing to forest recovery: expansion of community rights over land and resource management; support for afforestation, restoration, and reforestation projects; and “opening of markets to support sustainable forest management practices.”

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• 7 July 2011
• UN News Centre

The top United Nations relief official for Somalia today welcomed an announcement by Al-Shabaab insurgents that they would lift their ban on international aid, but asked for guarantees against workers being targeted or taxed.

“I welcome the suspension of restrictions on aid agencies and I am happy to cooperate with anybody who can help to alleviate the current crisis and save hundreds of Somali lives,” Mark Bowden, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said in a news release.

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• 6 July 2011
• Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• By Nathan J. Brown

“The third intifada has already begun,” a very mild-mannered Palestinian told me last week when I asked her if she expected a new uprising should Palestinian diplomatic efforts fail. My initial reaction was that either her words were overly dramatic or that the uprising was too gentle to be noticed. But on further reflection, I was less certain.
She was, of course, exaggerating—there are few overt signs of popular mobilization. Her claim should not be quickly dismissed, however. The third intifada—if it does develop—may begin far more gradually and remain less violent than the second of the early 2000s. Even though I differ with her assessment—the third intifada has not yet begun—signs of change and motion are unmistakable. It is simply not clear where they will lead.

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• 6 July 2011
• Human Rights Watch

DHAKA – The Bangladesh government should take urgent measures to make sure that religious fatwas and traditional dispute resolution methods do not result in extrajudicial punishments, Human Rights Watch said today. The government is yet to act on repeated orders of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court, beginning in July 2010, to stop illegal punishments such as whipping, lashing, or public humiliations, said the petitioners who challenged the practice.

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• 5 July 2011
• IRIN
• It is estimated that 10 percent of pregnant Palestinian women were delayed at checkpoints while travelling to hospital to give birth
• By Kobi Wolf

LONDON, 5 July 2011 (IRIN) – For three years now a UK medical journal, the Lancet, has been working with Palestinian health professionals and researchers to document the effects of stressful living – coping with economic difficulties and shortages, restrictions on movement, political tensions and fear of outside attack – and has just published its latest findings.

Restrictions on movement are an everyday irritant in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt): Apart from tedious and humiliating searches at checkpoints, residents never know for sure how long their journeys will take, or whether, indeed, they can be made at all. But in a medical emergency these restrictions can be a matter of life or death.

Last year the Lancet’s collaborators described vividly the terror of women waiting to give birth during Israeli bombing raids on Gaza in early 2009: They knew they might need urgent medical care at a time when they were trapped in their homes during the attacks. This year another of their researchers has looked at what happens to women already in labour who are caught at oPt checkpoints.

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• report published 23 March 2011
• abstract on Human Security Gateway
• By Peacebuild

Abstract : Almost a decade after the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the government of President Hamid Karzai is promoting talks with them as well as other insurgent groups. Facing a never-ending cycle of instability and conflict; escalating violence and high numbers of civilian casualties as well as pressure for an exit strategy from troop-contributing countries, there is strong domestic and international consensus on the need for a negotiated settlement.

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• report published 23 March 2011
• abstract on Human Security Gateway
• By Peacebuild

Abstract : This paper is a gendered analysis of peacebuilding capacity in the context of forced migration… This study of women from Burma in exile reinforces the need to implement UNSCR 1325 in a way that strengthens the peace capacity of diaspora women?s organizations in host countries as well as those at home.

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• report published 23 March 2011
• abstract on Human Security Gateway
• By Peacebuild

Abstract : Liberia is a country in transition from war to peace. The end of the 14-year war (1989-2003) and the journey towards post-conflict recovery were enabled by the concerted efforts of a myriad of actors operating from different tracks but with a common goal to end the war… Among these many actors and actions, the active and visible engagement… of the „Women of Liberia? and their „Mass Action for Peace Campaign? was the “straw that broke the camel?s back” and ushered in Liberia?s post-war era.

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This July and August, there will be a contest on the Peace Portal: The Stories of Peace Challenge! The 25 best stories will win a publication in “People Building Peace 2.0″ and receive ten copies of the book. One of these winners will be offered customized features and professional services on the Peace Portal, worth € 500,- for free! Please go here for more information: www.peaceportal.org/web/stories-contest

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5th ASIA PACIFIC MEDIATION FORUM (APMF) EVENT
ASIA PACIFIC MEDIATION LEADERSHIP SUMMIT:
‘FROM TALK TO ACTION’.
BANGKOK, JULY 6, 7 & 8, 2011

The first ever Asia Pacific Mediation Leadership Summit will be hosted by the Asia Pacific Mediation Forum (APMF) in Bangkok, 6, 7 and 8 July, 2011, in collaboration with key organisations in Bangkok and in other countries in the Asia Pacific region. Please note that the date has been moved because of the political unrest in Thailand. The APMF proposes to act as the umbrella organisation for this and future leadership meetings, as it has representatives from a wide range of countries and organisations in the Asia Pacific region on its Steering Committee and has conducted four successful conferences in the region (Australia, Singapore, Fiji & Malaysia) since 2001. One of our APMF Executive members, Martine Miller, has agreed to convene the Summit with support from the other Executive members.

We seek to collaborate with a range of organisations in this and future initiatives and invite relevant organisations in the region to contact us to express interest. Please note that this activity is not-for-profit.

Purpose: To bring together experienced conflict resolution and mediation practitioners, researchers, educators, trainers and policy makers from different cultural, organisational and professional backgrounds who are culturally fluent, creative and innovative, want to contribute (and build on) their knowledge and expertise, and are prepared to play a leadership role in transforming the way that conflicts are handled in the Asia Pacific region.

Aims:
1. To identify challenges, build capacity and promote collaboration, cross-cultural awareness and understanding regarding approaches to conflict and mediation in the region.
2. To mine the collective depths of the participants’ knowledge and experience and strategise for change initiatives that can expand the field and promote peace in the region.
3. To produce concrete, written outcomes from focused, facilitated roundtable discussions that can be implemented by organisations, and which have real potential to impact on and transform the mediation and conflict resolution fields in culturally fluent ways.

Draft format for the Summit

1. We propose to identify key themes, and sub-themes, in collaboration with the participants, in advance of the meeting via an interactive internet site and/or an on-line survey.
2. We will identify and invite an inspirational keynote speaker for each of the chosen themes to identify key issues and their relevance to the Asia Pacific region in order to stimulate round-table discussions.
3. We will identify and invite expert facilitators and recorders who can focus and inspire a number of round table discussions over three days; each table will focus on a different topic and identify specific and achievable outcomes.
4. We will invite participants to forward a 2000 word paper prior to the Summit which will be distributed on a CD to all participants. Authors will be able to choose to have their paper peer reviewed for possible inclusion in an edited book after the Summit.

The themes will be developed with the participants on-line prior to the conference via a special interactive website – they need to be cross-cutting and of interest to people from all fields of practice in the Asia-Pacific region.

We would be pleased to receive an indication of interest from organisations who wish to collaborate with us in this event and from individual mediators who are interested in attending the Summit. We will be posting information onto the APMF website (see address below) and circulating more specific details about the Summit by email in the next few weeks.

Please circulate this information to others in your network.

Asia Pacific Mediation Forum: http://www.apmec.unisa.edu.au