News and Insight

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.

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?

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.

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.

We would like to say a huge thank you to all of the BBC Radio 4 listeners and Conciliation Resources’ supporters who so generously supported our appeal broadcast in September. The appeal has raised over £15,200 for our peacebuilding work, with donations still coming in!

What lessons can we learn from West Africa about preventing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the Ebola outbreak?

The story of one of the most significant periods in Georgia’s modern history is to be revealed in a new exhibition of never-before-seen original historical material in Tbilisi. 'The Corridors of Conflict: Abkhazia 1989 – 1995', will be held from October 4 at the State Museum of Literature until 29 October.

The United Nations (UN) was founded to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” Now, 75 years later, will we reaffirm our commitment to collective action, centered on a vision of a peaceful and prosperous world for all? On the International Day of Peace, read this shared statement by peacebuilding organisations.

In January 2019, following a meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers in Paris, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe announced that the ministers had agreed on the necessity of ‘preparing their populations for peace’. This commitment, alongside a significant reduction in frontline violence and the power transition in Armenia, has driven speculation that the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process may be gaining momentum.

mediatEUr supported the organisation of the High-Level Internal Peer-Coaching Seminar on "Mediation Diplomacy in the Context of the EU Common Foreign Policy" alongside the Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF) and the European External Action Service (EEAS) in La Hulpe (Brussels) on the 9th and 10th September 2019.