News and Insight

On Saturday 23 November the people of Bougainville (an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea) started voting in a referendum on Bougainville’s political future. There are two options on offer – independence or greater autonomy. This vote marks a key moment in the Bougainville peace process, but does not mark the end of the process.

Conciliation Resources works with two local partners in Mindanao, southern Philippines, to resolve clan conflicts, and strengthen relationships between communities and local authorities. Tenduray Lambangian Women’s Organisation (TLWOI) is a network representing indigenous people, and United Youth for Peace and Development (UNYPAD) is a predominantly Moro (Muslim) youth organisation working to promote peace in the region through dialogue and reconciliation.

The international peacebuilding NGO, Conciliation Resources, and Brussels-based mediation organisation mediatEUr, have decided to recognise the closeness of their missions and come together, combining their objectives and operations.

I and many others have been thinking about this question for some time, and I can tell you we have not found a definitive answer yet. But we are getting there.

The current situation in Kashmir puts the potential of peace in the region even further away. Can the Kashmiri people provide the way out?

31 October marks the 19th Anniversary of the UN Security Council resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) on Women, Peace and Security. This commitment reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and stresses the importance of their equal participation.

Under the framework of the European Resources for Mediation Support Contract, mediatEUr supported the analysis of the peace dynamics in CAR to inform AU, UN and EU engagement in support of the peace agreement implementation.

Last week I participated in a workshop organised by colleagues at swisspeace in Geneva, looking at social media and mediation.

One year ago, the Ogaden National Liberation Front and the Government of Ethiopia signed an historic peace deal, ending nearly a quarter of a century of armed conflict in the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia.

We were there, as we have been for the past seven years of negotiations, helping these two parties to reach a peace deal.

This film brings together some of the voices of this extraordinary peace process. Together, they tell the story of how over 20 years of fighting came to an end, and an armed group moved from war to peace.

On this day, one year ago, I was in Asmara in Eritrea, witnessing the signing of a declaration ending over 20 years of armed conflict in the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia (commonly referred to as ‘Ogaden’). For six years, I’d accompanied every twist and turn of these peace negotiations, and to see how far we had come was a moment of real pride. But we all knew that although this singing marked the end of the Ogaden insurgency, the hard work of transitioning from war to peace was just beginning. So, one year on, how far have we come and what needs to happen next?

For the third year in a row, mediatEUr was honoured to give an intensive mediation training seminar to 10 selected diplomats from the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The phases of peace processes before formal talks are marked by deep distrust, security challenges, and the need for discretion and secrecy. This results in sparse analysis or documentation of this crucial but unpredictable period of supporting pathways to peace talks. In many ways this phase remains uncharted territory compared to later phases – once public negotiations begin and when a ceasefire or peace deal is struck.