The Dialogue Support Platform was set out in June 2015 to support the development of dialogue in Ukraine. This report collects the main outcomes of the meeting, and outlines a list of specific tasks addressing current dialogue needs that the platform can help the Ukrainian dialogue practitioners to achieve. This list will evolve as the work of the groups develops, and will help set the priorities for the following meetings. Together, the tasks form the ‘how’ of dialogue in Ukraine, a body of opportunities and areas of work.

On 2-4 February 2016, 22 participants of the Dialogue Support Platform in Ukraine (DSPU; 15 women and 7 men) met in Lviv for two and a half days of work on dialogue and facilitation.

'Engaging the EU in Mediation and Dialogue,' authored by Antje Herrberg with Canan Gündüz and Laura Davis, is a synthesis of findings on the EU's role in international peace mediation that have emerged from the Initiative for Peacebuilding's work on the subject in the course of 2008. The paper argues for a need for more systematized learning in order for the EU to upgrade its capabilities in the field of international peace mediation.

This document looks at lessons on coordination among different third parties that support particular peace processes, and their relevance for EU peace process support. In particular it seeks to contribute to the implementation of the recent EU Joint Concept on Strengthening EU Mediation and Dialogue Capacities, which stresses the importance of coordination.

On 21 September 2011, mediatEUr convened an expert seminar on mediation stand-by capacity options for the EU. The seminar aimed to inform in-depth discussions on different options for stand-by capacity on mediation, by bringing together experienced roster and rapid deployment managers from the fields of mediation, stabilisation, SSR, and civilian crisis response with relevant stakeholders from within EU institutions. Basis for discussion were four standing and stand-by models for deployment: the UK Stabilisation Unit roster; the Coffey International roster; the ZIF roster; and the NRC-managed MSU Mediation Stand-By Team of Experts.

The roundtable ‘Peace Mediation, Power-sharing and Transitional Justice: Challenges and Options for the EU’ on 10 November 2011 brought together a group of experts, policy-makers and practitioners to explore the mediation of power-sharing arrangements, and consider related challenges – in particular regarding transitional justice – in order to make recommendations to improve EU support in these areas. This document provides a summary of discussions and charts next steps to be implemented as part of mediatEUr’s ‘Strengthening EU Capacities for Peace Mediation’ project.

This expert seminar brought together EU policymakers working on crisis response, CSDP missions, and mediation, with academic experts and practitioners working on security arrangements, reforms of security sector institutions after war, and peace mediation. It discussed the EU’s track record on Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration and Security Sector Reform in particular, and generated a set of recommendations to strengthen EU peace process support in integrating a transitional justice perspective in these areas.

This discussion paper argues that a broader understanding can help overcome some of the tensions inherent in the transitional justice agenda during peace processes, by focusing both on past and future justice needs; victims’ rights and perpetrators’ accountability; as well as wider post-conflict needs that go beyond narrow retributive justice. It is hoped that such a wider understanding will energise a broader range of instruments and options for conflict parties, mediators and interveners at all stages of peace processes to deal with a legacy of human rights violations.

Using mediatEUr’s mission to Kosovo earlier in 2013 as a case study, this report presents some of the key aspects in the design and deployment of a mediation assessment mission.

Brendan McAllister shares insights from his experience as a mediator in Northern Ireland.