Miriam Labanue is serving as a mediation and peacebuilding trainer in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea in the Pacific Region. Her focus area is building bridges and engaging with emerging leaders and youths in remote rural areas. She is also doing counselling and peer to peer dialogue with the conflicting parties and mostly targeting women and girls who are victims of the violence.
Nolliettie is a peace and mediation advocate and communication expert. She is engaged in full time peace and security efforts which has allowed her to mediate in over 50 cases ranging from institutional conflicts, land conflicts, family cases and gender-based violence. Nolliettie believes in women’s empowerment and strives for equal opportunities for women’s inclusion in peace processes and mediation.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
