Peacemakers 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.
A first for UVic! Produced by the International Women’s Rights Project at the Centre for Global Studies, and Rooney Productions, the documentary film, Constitute!, profiles the diverse history of women’s democratic activism in constitution-making in Canada and the world. The film focuses on how citizens across Canada organized and lobbied to ensure that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms would include the equality provisions that came to be Sections 15 and 28, in the newly repatriated Canadian Constitution. Celebrate Person’s Day for 2010 by joining us for the Canada wide preview of the documentary film Constitute!
With guest speakers Donna Greschner, Dean of the Faculty of Law; Marilou McPhedran, Principal of the Global College at the University of Winnipeg, founding mother of LEAF and a noted human rights activist; and Susan Bazilli, IWRP Director and producer of Constitute!
Wednesday, October 13th
7:00 to 9:00 pm
Fraser Building, Room 157
A reception hosted by the Faculty of Law will be held after the panel discussion.
Sponsored by Brown Henderson Melbye, Faculty of Law, and IWRP
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
"... we do not have guns or take sides."
The 2010 World Humanitarian Day project is a collaborative film shot in over 40 countries in under 9 weeks, on a shoestring budget – with the goal of showing the enormous diversity of places, faces and endeavors of humanitarian aid workers in 2010. It was filmed by humanitarian staff and freelance filmmakers from around the globe (over 50 contributors in total) with all time donated.
Drawing upon extensive field research in the region and informed by additional field study dating back to the mid-1990s, this study by Greg Hansen calls renewed attention to the politicization and instrumentalization of humanitarian action and to serious shortcomings in donor behavior measured against their own undertakings to Good Humanitarian Donorship.
A new research report from the Feinstein International Center is now available online:
Taking Sides or Saving Lives: Existential Choices for the Humanitarian Enterprise in Iraq is an in-depth, field-based study of how Iraqis caught up in the tragedy facing their country view humanitarian aid, its local relevance, and its place in the greater global politic. The project was led by Greg Hansen with researchers from the and involving Iraqi colleagues presently living and working in Iraq. The research was carried out between October and December 2006.
An Arabic translation of this report will soon be available at http://fic.tufts.edu. FIC’s earlier briefing paper, “Coming to Terms With the Humanitarian Imperative in Iraq,” as well as its other HA2015 country studies, are also available on this website.
Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs
Scholars and practitioners have devoted increasing attention to the roles played by religious leaders and communities, both in instigating and prolonging violent conflict and in negotiating and building peace. In much of the world, formal religious leadership tends to be heavily dominated by men, and so investigations of religion and conflict have tended to focus on men’s perspectives and roles. Women’s engagement in religious peacemaking has received far less attention and their perspectives, needs, and unique leverage are often largely ignored in the design of traditional religious peacemaking initiatives. However, women often play critical roles in conflict situations…. Recent Interviews
V.Finn Heinrich, CSI’s friend and until the end of 2006 CIVICUS’ Director of Programs, has published online his doctoral dissertation “What Makes Civil Society Strong?“.
The study addresses the most important research questions facing civil society scholars and practitioners today, i.e.
* How to conceptualize and measure civil society?
* How to explain the different strengths of civil societies across the world?
* How to support efforts to strengthen civil society?
By Researched and writtern by Naama Baumgarten-Sharon. Edited by Yael Stein. Translated by Shaul Vardi. English editing by Michelle Bubis.
The army uses different legal means in order to prevent demonstrations. Although most of the efforts are directed at the Palestinian organizers, some are directed at Israeli and International activists. Some foreign activists participating in the demonstration have been deported. In addition, On February 2, 2010, OC Central Command signed two orders proclaiming a closed military zone imposed on the villages of Bil’in and Ni’lin. These orders are issued for six months at a time, and apply to all the land lying between the built-up areas of the villages and the Barrier. Every Friday, between 8 AM and 8 PM, in other villages that hold demonstrations, specific orders are issued declaring the area a closed military zone.
Against the Palestinians, since the beginning of 2010, the army has used another means: renewed use of Military Order 101, which prohibits demonstrations in the occupied Territories…
Following renewal of the Order, B’Tselem is now publishing a position paper [pdf: http://www.btselem.org/Download/20100715_right_to_demonstrate_Eng.pdf] in which it provides a theoretical analysis of the Order and the restrictions it imposes on the freedom of Palestinians in Areas B and C to demonstrate, in light of Israel ’s obligation to ensure freedom of speech under international law. The position paper also compares the statutory provisions applying to Israeli citizens who demonstrate anywhere, whether inside the state or in the West Bank.
Kai Brand-Jacobsen, Director of the Department of Peace Operations (DPO) of PATRIR gives a TEDx Presentation on Peacebuilding: “Paradigm Shift from War to Peace” – exploring innovation, global challenges, and examples of peacebuilding and nonviolence. Also references the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace, Nonviolent Peaceforce, Combatants for Peace, trainings of the International Peace and Development Training Centre (IPDTC) and many others. May be freely posted, shared, and sent out through mailing lists and web-sites for those interested.
By Aon Benfi eld UCL Hazard Research Centre, University College London
This report intends to open up a dialogue on an issue, it asserts, that could put the lives and livelihoods of millions of people at risk in the foreseeable future. This issue is water – water as a vital resource and as a potential crisis driver in the Hindu-Kush Himalaya (HKH) region.
Fawwaz Traboulsi is Associate Professor teaching history and politics at the Lebanese American University in Beirut and American University in Beirut… He writes in both English and Arabic on Lebanese history, Arab politics, and social movements, with his most recent book A History of Modern Lebanon (published by Pluto Books, London, 2007…
Washington – With five volumes now published, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) releases its new and growing “Peacemaker’s Toolkit,” a multivolume series of handbooks for people working in conflict zones around the world.
Recently the upper house of India’s Parliament agreed on something rather contentious – a quota system for women in government. According to the bill, a third of the Parliament seats will be reserved for women. The bill has moved to the lower house, but support there seems likely.
Maryland’s Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office has made three very interesting conflict resolution-related videos available on their website… (go to videos)
The desire to belong. To belong to a pandilla, a mara, a barra brava. That is what drives Central American youths, as noted by filmmaker Marco Nicoletti while recently shooting a documentary for the NGO Interpeace, that works with building lasting peace in various conflicted areas around the world.
I recently stumbled upon this animated 3D mediation demonstration. A conflict has developed between members of a team working in an online course. Two of the students come in to meet the professor who will mediate.
Mediator and Mediation Trainer Zena Zumeta has released a nice new learning module providing tips for framing issues during mediation… (more including video)
AMMAN –– A majority of Jordanian women consider cultural traditions as the main cause of violence against women (VAW), according to a study issued on Tuesday.
“Violence Against Women: Breaking the Circles of Silence”, a case study compiled by the Arab Women’s Organisation of Jordan, in cooperation with the EU, revealed that 12 per cent of women consider misinterpretation of religion to be the main cause for such violence.
Clint Eastwood’s latest film ‘Invictus’ is not his best film but it celebrates a man – Nelson Mandela – who enabled a society to make a huge transition. He defeated the dynamics of violence through connecting people and showing magnanimity.
Eastwood built a reputation as an actor-director who became famous playing men who killed without trouble and sometimes with pleasure. His outsider heroes were angry enforcers of order, defined not by law but by primal notions of justice and revenge. ‘Nothing wrong with shooting as long as the right people get shot’ – Dirty Harry in ‘Magnum Force’ (1973).
It is the great film ‘Unforgiven’ (1992) which makes a significant transition.
