Despite the fact that landmark UN Security Council Resolution 1325 is soon going to celebrate its twentieth anniversary, the number of women who lead or participate in high-level peace mediation processes remains disappointing.
“What is conflict doing to me, how do I affect conflict and where can I engage to contribute to building and sustaining peace in Somalia?” To address these questions and strategise around them, mediatEUr’s board member, Kathrin Quesada, visited Mogadishu from 8 to 12 October, together with the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA).
We are heartbroken to announce the sudden death of our Board member, Luis Peral.
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.
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.
Last week I participated in a workshop organised by colleagues at swisspeace in Geneva, looking at social media and mediation. Under the #CyberMediation project and linking with the UN’s Digital Mediation Toolkit, we spent two days looking for ways to bridge the complex worlds of peace mediation and social media. Here are some of the thoughts that crossed my mind during the two days:
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.
Kathrin Quesada served as Senior Executive Officer and Member of the Board between 2018-2020, and is now an Associate. Prior to these appointments, Kathrin had been a member of mediatEUr. Kathrin is a trained lawyer and mediator with a strong belief in the transformative power of empathy and dialogue. Prior to becoming a member of MediatEUr, she worked in the Balkans and North Africa on the Women, Peace and Security agenda for DCAF- a centre for security, development and the rule of law.
A former staff member of mediatEUr, Miguel teaches mediation, communication and NGO management at the University of Valladolid. He advises mediatEUr on the use of technology for peacebuilding and dialogue, leading the technical and methodological work on our Voices of Syria project.
The Dialogue Support Platform in Ukraine supports various Ukrainian dialogue initiatives all across the country. The dialogues vary in terms of their participants: some involve stationed soldiers and local residents, others involve local women who come to discuss their role in the conflict and in peacebuilding. They all support a process of exchange and understanding.
