Peace News Staff

Social media is one of the most powerful potential tools for peacebuilding. At the same time, it has frequently been used to incite violence and promote war. While social media posts may seem harmless, they can create real-world harm. In addition to promoting violence, there are also many cases where communication on social media has […]

Welcome back to This Week in Peace, our weekly summary of events in global peacebuilding.  This week, peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas reach a critical point, the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo called for peace in his country amid an ongoing dispute with Rwanda, and some American colleges chose to address […]

Social media has become a source of news for billions around the world. This is especially true for younger people and in countries with limited traditional news sources. This transition in the creation and distribution of news is transforming journalism, and creating opportunities for news about peace to go viral. Opportunities for peace journalism to […]

Welcome back to This Week in Peace, our weekly summary of events in global peacebuilding.  This week, Armenia and Azerbaijan grow closer to a historic peace despite the ongoing threat of war, a potential window for peace opens in Haiti, and Qatar brokers a rare deal between Russia and Ukraine.  Armenia and Azerbaijan Armenia and […]

Welcome back to This Week in Peace, our weekly summary of events in global peacebuilding.  This week, Russia makes an offer for peace negotiations in Ukraine that could be a potential opening, or another part of a hybrid war. Saudi Arabia is set to host peace talks to attempt to end the war in Sudan, […]

Countries in the Global South, especially ones in conflict or post-conflict status, are often the site for peace journalism training and practice. This means that peace journalism is usually practiced more in the Global South than elsewhere. This article examines lessons for peace journalism from the Global South, based on a webinar on the topic […]

Welcome back to This Week in Peace, our weekly summary of events in global peacebuilding.  This week, a ceasefire in Gaza is closer than it has been since November, Switzerland announced plans to host a peace summit to bring peace in Ukraine, as Ukrainian civilians remain under threat, Colombia’s “total peace” initiative hit yet another […]

Welcome back to This Week in Peace, our weekly summary of events in global peacebuilding.  This week, we discuss a new initiative to negotiate peace between criminal groups in Mexico, progress towards elections that could cement long-term peace in South Sudan, and a French effort to convince China to push Russia to end its war […]

While peace journalism dates back to the 1960s, new innovative thinking on how to make journalism more responsible and solutions oriented (similar to peace journalism) has continued to evolve, with some notable success in recent years. With limited interest by mainstream news outlets in adopting peace journalism when reporting conflicts, the Media and Peacebuilding Project […]

Welcome back to This Week in Peace, our weekly summary of events in global peacebuilding.  This week, we cover a ceasefire vote at the UN, new negotiations in Colombia, and the important need for deescalation in the South China Sea and on the Israeli-Lebanese border, in order to prevent the out UN Security Council finally […]

Peace journalism aims to provide news from conflict zones focused on peacebuilding and the work of peacebuilders. This is in stark contrast to mainstream news coverage that focuses on violence, the voice of elites, propaganda and victory framing. However, research shows that this type of coverage exacerbates tensions and damages peace processes, even though it […]

Welcome back to This Week in Peace, our weekly summary of events in global peacebuilding.  This week, we discuss positive developments in Bosnia, recent Turkish foreign policy moves and their implications for regional peace, and the ongoing crisis in Haiti.  Despite challenges, Bosnia hopes for a better future During and after the breakup of Yugoslavia, […]

The October 7th attack on Israel and devastating war in Gaza point to decades of failure to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While many blame this on political leadership, long-lasting peace must also involve societal change. To that end, for any agreement to last, it  must also involve Israelis and Palestinian societies coming closer together and […]

Welcome back to This Week in Peace, our weekly summary of events in global peacebuilding.  This week, there has been non progress on finding a peaceful end to the war in Gaza, as civilians continue to suffer one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. In Mexico, a group of Catholic bishops attempted to negotiate peace […]

Welcome back to This Week in Peace, our weekly summary of events in global peacebuilding.  This week, the crucial Camp David Accords are threatened by the ongoing war in Gaza, as negotiations to find a plan to end the fighting continue without success. The Congolese national soccer team made a public call for peace in […]

Welcome back to This Week in Peace, our weekly summary of events in global peacebuilding.  This week saw mixed results for long-term global peace. Colombia extended a ceasefire with a leftist guerilla group – and extracted a crucial promise which could make an eventual peace deal more likely. Russia barred the only anti-war candidate from […]

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to dominate the news cycle. Over 27,000 people, mostly Palestinian civilians, have been killed during the war in Gaza, including dozens of journalists. Around the world, images of death, destruction, and violence in Gaza are unavoidable, and media coverage is often polarized. We spoke with two experts on peace journalism about […]

Welcome back to This Week in Peace, our weekly summary of events in global peacebuilding.  In our first February edition, we cover efforts to restart the peace process in Cyprus, a breakthrough in Northern Ireland, continued international mediation to end the war in Gaza – which could include the recognition of a Palestinian state, and […]

Welcome back to This Week in Peace, our weekly summary of events in global peacebuilding.  This week, we discuss the differences between Ukrainian and Russian peace proposals, a small diplomatic victory in Gaza, and continued progress towards peace in Colombia.  This series is also offered a weekly newsletter. You can sign up here to get […]

Welcome back to This Week in Peace, our weekly summary of events in global peacebuilding.  This week, we discuss international efforts to broker peace in Gaza, a complicated situation for peace in Yemen, and a blow to hopes for a ceasefire in Sudan.  This series is also offered a weekly newsletter. You can sign up […]

Welcome back to This Week in Peace, our weekly summary of events in global peacebuilding.  For the first edition of 2024, we cover events in Gaza, Sudan, Mali, and the Horn of Africa.  This series is also a weekly newsletter! You can sign up here to get future editions directly every week, and stay up […]

Peace News spoke with Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilders to learn more about the vital work they do to build peace and reconciliation on a human level, before and during the war in Gaza. We met with representatives of the Parents Circle, Combatants for Peace, and Standing Together, three peacebuilding organizations that bring together people from […]

As the war in Gaza continues, the future of the region remains up in the air. An end to the fighting is urgently needed, as the humanitarian crisis continues to worsen and Palestinian civilians face shortages of medical care, essential goods, water, and fuel. Israeli airstrikes and ground operations continue, despite a high rate of […]

Peace News is a proud member of the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP), a network of over 200 organizations around the world that work for peace. The concept of peacebuilding itself has always been difficult to precisely define and took some effort to publish in the dictionary, as featured in this story. The AfP chose to […]

While the world focuses on the human tragedy of the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, there are hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals actively working to build peace. Peace News spoke to some of these peacebuilders to understand their experience during this war. Yuval Rahami is the Israeli co-general director of the Parent’s […]

Welcome to this week’s edition of This Week in Peace, where we highlight recent events in global peacebuilding.  This week, we highlight positive developments in Sudan, where the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have agreed to return to talks in hopes of ending a destructive months-long civil war. We continue to cover the […]

Welcome back to the newest edition of This Week in Peace. Today is October 13, 2023, join us as we look back at the major developments in peacebuilding over the last week.  This week, global attention has bene focused on a recent outbreak of violence between Israel and Hamas, which threatens peace in the region […]

Chinese authorities have taken over the US consulate general in Chengdu, marking the diplomatic mission’s official closure and a new low point in ties between the world’s largest economies. At dawn on Monday, the American flag outside the consulate was lowered while police held back crowds that had gathered over the weekend to watch. At […]

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry visited Jordan and the West Bank earlier this month to reiterate Egypt’s rejection of the Israeli plan to annex parts of the Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank. Egypt believes that the chances of achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians should be based on a two-state solution to […]

“The climate emergency is a danger to peace”, said Miroslav Jenča, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, as he called on peace and security actors to play their role and help speed up implementation of the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change. “The failure to consider the growing impacts of […]

After months of negotiation and diplomatic wrangling, the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) on July 1 unanimously adopted resolution 2532, endorsing U.N. Secretary-General Guterres’ late March call for a global cease-fire. Diplomats in New York hailed the resolution as an overdue win for multilateralism, while Pope Francis called for the resolution to be implemented “effectively and […]

The U.S. government (USG) is preparing to unveil a new strategy over the coming months to tackle the underlying causes of fragility and conflict in vulnerable countries around the world. The strategy comes at an important time, just as the United States and other international donors seek to respond to rapidly increasing health, food, and […]

Religious leaders in northwest Nigeria are concerned about false COVID-19 information and rising tension caused by the closure of mosques and churches in the area. In Kaduna, rumors have circulated that the virus was created by secular European countries to deny residents the right to practice their faith. Mosques and churches have been shutdown across […]

Last week, in a historic development in the long-running southern Thailand insurgency, rebels announced a new, full, humanitarian ceasefire amid the global coronavirus pandemic. While the ceasefire constitutes a notable and encouraging event, how it will actually impact the dynamics of one of Asia’s deadliest conflicts remain unclear…. Read the full story here.

Renewed trust, confidence, and cooperation between international players and Syrians could finally “unlock progress”, putting the country on a political path towards lasting peace, the UN Special Envoy for Syria told the Security Council on Monday. Read the full story here.

Research on disasters and pandemics in conflict zones has long demonstrated that conflicts make societies more vulnerable to disasters through four main mechanisms: destruction of infrastructure, diversion of funding, restriction of movement, and damage to the social fabric. In conflict situations, disaster response can also be used for political and military gains. While disasters may […]

The United States on Friday stunned other members of the UN Security Council by preventing a vote on a resolution for a ceasefire in various conflicts around the world to help troubled nations better fight the coronavirus pandemic, diplomats said. Read the full story here.

The spread of the coronavirus has forced mediators and their international partners to halt the face-to-face meetings typically used in building peace. Feeling a sense of urgency, practitioners have scrambled to upgrade their use of alternatives—notably online consultations, dialogues and workshops. Digital tools are being quickly developed that could provide opportunities for peacebuilding unimaginable just […]

After several failed peace processes, a peace accord was signed in 2019 by the Central African Republic government and 14 armed groups. With the country now preparing for elections in December 2020, this research from Conciliation Resources looks to understand the views of local communities in Bossangoa and the Western Border Zones, in order to […]

U.S. residents have been protesting the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police for days in dozens of cities throughout the country. While tensions between police and demonstrators have heated up in many places, some officers have shown solidarity with the movement by hugging protesters, praying with them, mourning with them, and […]

As COVID-19 cases appear in the Middle East and Africa, United State’s Institute of Peace’s Nancy Lindborg talks about opportunities for peace amid the humanitarian and security risks posed by an outbreak. “The hope is that everyone uses this opportunity to put down their arms and think differently about conflict,” says Lindborg. Listen to the […]

With over 500,000 cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) worldwide, more and more people are being restricted to their homes. While online education tools, virtual hangout apps and celebrity ‘Together at Home’ concerts on social media have helped keep people connected, this is a difficult time for peacebuilders. Here’s five ways you can promote peace without leaving […]

A new film from Conciliation Resources, called “Parts of a Circle: History of the Karabakh Conflict”, tells the story of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorny Karabakh by combining perspectives from filmmakers on both sides. The documentary draws upon original interviews with eyewitnesses and participants in the events of 1988-94, from presidents to military field commanders, […]

Major powers should focus on opportunities to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and build momentum for cease-fires amid the pandemic, according to USIP expert Tyler Beckelman. Read the full story here.

Policymakers and analysts have paid much attention to Iraq during the past two decades. Yet there remains a knowledge gap, with a lack of reliable data on how everyday Iraqis perceive the possibilities for peace and stability. Understanding how Iraqis view the possibilities for peace is critical to policymakers, peacebuilding practitioners, and donor agencies working […]

The U.N. Mideast envoy warned Thursday that Israeli moves to annex parts of the West Bank and accelerate settlement expansion, combined with the coronavirus pandemic’s devastating impact, could ignite Israeli-Palestinian conflict and “destroy any hope of peace.” Read the full story here.

The global COVID-19 pandemic is having a profound impact on Colombia, but it cannot be allowed to derail the Latin American nation’s quest for sustainable peace after five decades of conflict, the Head of the United Nations Verification Mission in that country told the Security Council in a video conference meeting in April. Carlos Ruiz […]

Over the past months Lebanon has faced many challenges: an economic crisis, widespread protests and political upheaval. And now, the country is grappling with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).These layers of crises present a real challenge to the country’s already stretched public services, economy, social fabric and stability.It is too early to tell what the lasting […]

USIP is closely following the effects of the novel coronavirus around the world and are particularly concerned about its effects in fragile states and conflict zones, which are especially vulnerable to the impacts of these kinds of outbreaks. This week, Sarhang Hamasaeed looks at three of the major ways this crisis is affecting Iraq: its […]

Before COVID19 radically upended the lives of billions of people around the globe, peacebuilders were already facing enormous challenges in building safer and more inclusive communities. As we live into the new reality created by the pandemic, many of the same conflict dynamics and peacebuilding challenges still exist. Some challenges have been exacerbated by COVID19, […]

The Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is beset by ongoing conflict, violence and political instability, and atrocities – crimes of substantial magnitude that are carried out in a widespread or systematic way – continue to be inflicted on civilians, with devastating repercussions. Despite a change of national government in December 2018, violence has been […]

At a time when hate speech proliferates on social media, 120 young Sri Lankans are becoming the country’s first youth cyber guardians. Their efforts protect communities from the real-world violence that dangerous online rumors can generate… Read the full story here.

As the coronavirus ravages lives and economies, it is also pressing at the seams of societies. Severe political polarization has already been tearing apart many democracies, from India and Poland to Turkey and the United States. In responding to the virus, will polarized countries accelerate the winner-take-all battles that are undermining democratic norms, politicizing nonpartisan […]

As the novel coronavirus infects the globe, states compete for scientific and medical supplies and blame one another for the pandemic’s spread. Policy analysts have started asking whether such tensions could eventually erupt into military conflict. Has the pandemic increased or decreased the motive and opportunity of states to wage war? Read the full story […]

Top diplomats from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany discussed ways to advance the peace process for eastern Ukraine in a call on Thursday, but failed to achieve any tangible progress.The call follows a December summit in Paris where the leaders of the four nations agreed to make additional steps toward ending the fighting between Ukrainian […]

On October 23, 2020, the two main warring factions in Libya signed an agreement for “a permanent ceasefire in all areas of Libya.” The accord followed talks in Geneva under the 5+5 Joint Military Commission, a UN support mission to bring peace to Libya, with the two main warring factions. One side is the internationally […]

As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic grows, Peace Direct convened more than 450 peacebuilders from around the world in online consultations to discuss how the current crisis is impacting their work, changing their needs, and shaping their perspective. Their latest report, produced in collaboration with Conducive Space for Peace and Humanity United, shares the […]

The question of how long a further spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) into Gaza can be contained weighs heavily for this densely populated territory, long beleaguered by wars and severe deficiencies in its health care infrastructure, but the COVID-19 threat underscores the inter-connectedness of Israeli and Palestinian interests. Read the full story here.

The Afghan peace process has been at a stalemate for weeks, as President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban remain far apart on the logistics of prisoner releases. Intra-Afghan talks that were tentatively scheduled for March 10 have not got off the ground. Meanwhile, the disputed presidential election has led to two rival camps claiming the […]

In less than two months, the coronavirus pandemic has extended to all corners of the earth, posing a series of unique challenges to all spheres of national and international society.On the international level, members of the international community — whether states or international organizations — are called upon to follow the warnings, instructions, and professional […]

When Jennifer Le saw elderly people waiting hours in line outside pharmacies in Singapore to buy face masks, she decided to help. Peace News Network will be bringing you more stories of peacebuilding and humanity in a time of crisis, get our newsletter right to your inbox by subscribing here.

Fourth, fifth, and sixth graders at St. Anthony’s Home and School in Columbus, Nebraska, made get well soon cards for people affected by the coronavirus. Read the full story here. Peace News Network will be bringing you more stories of peacebuilding and humanity in a time of crisis, get our newsletter right to your inbox […]

Passengers say Captain Gennaro Arma did his best to keep quarantined passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, where coronavirus spread to over 700 passengers, in good spirits with informative announcements, encouraging signs, and a sense of humor. He was the last to leave the boat after making sure everyone had disembarked safely. Peace News […]

Given the restrictions on social contact, forming a community can require being inventive. The Atlantic takes a closer look at how people pull together, even at a moment of social distancing. Read the full story here.

As the number of known cases of coronavirus continues to grow, so does public anxiety and fear about the virus. Older adults are among those most at risk of getting sick from coronavirus and in Oregon, a woman stepped in to help an elderly couple in need. Rebecca Mehra shared her story in a viral […]

The US Peace Corps is suspending its global operations and evacuating all volunteers as concerns mount about the coronavirus pandemic, the organization said Sunday. “As COVID-19 continues to spread and international travel becomes more and more challenging by the day, we are acting now to safeguard your well-being and prevent a situation where Volunteers are […]

In Kenya, military operations against al-Shabaab ended up alienating the local population and exacerbating divisions. A grassroots peace effort brought together citizens, police and army leaders, and the government to find a shared solution—and drive the region out of a crisis. One of the leaders of that effort, Search For Common Ground Kenya’s Director Judy […]

It’s not known whether the next round of Syrian talks scheduled for March in Kazakhstan’s capital Nur-Sultan will be postponed, First Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Shakhrat Nuryshev said on Monday. Read the full story here.

Now that the U.S. has signed a deal with the Taliban to eventually leave Afghanistan, it will soon be up to Afghans on both sides of the conflict to decide what peace will look like.The stakes are high. Read the full story here.

South Sudan took new steps last week on its shaky path to peace, swearing in opposition leader Riek Machar as first vice president on February 22. Machar will serve in a unity government alongside his chief rival, President Salva Kiir, and three lower-ranking vice presidents, under the terms of the country’s current peace agreement. Read […]

The Taliban said Monday that a peace deal with the United States will be signed by the end of the month, with the top U.S. negotiator describing himself as “cautiously optimistic” about the process… Read the full story here.

Head of the internationally-recognized Presidential Council in Libya affirmed Tuesday that peace would not be achieved before ceasing all acts of hostility in the country. Fayez al-Sarraj, upon his meeting with Algerian Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum said that “talking about peace is futile without stopping hostilities, returning the displaced, and ensuring the capital’s safety.” Read […]

Five years ago the Minsk Protocol — also known as Minsk-2 — was signed on February 12 to bring the fighting in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region to a halt. The peace agreement’s 13 terms, however, were never properly implemented… Read the full story here.

Head of the internationally-recognized Presidential Council in Libya affirmed Tuesday that peace would not be achieved before ceasing all acts of hostility in the country. Fayez al-Sarraj, upon his meeting with Algerian Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum said that “talking about peace is futile without stopping hostilities, returning the displaced, and ensuring the capital’s safety.” Read […]

As the next deadline for the formation of the South Sudan Unity government approaches, the International Rescue Committee has called on all parties to resolve differences and focus on addressing the immediate and long term needs of its people. South Sudan has been at conflict for more than six years. More than two million South […]

Israeli settlers and Palestinians take a look at what it could mean to them if the U.S. peace proposal ends up making settlements in the occupied West Bank permanent… Read the full story, and listen to the NPR broadcast, here.

On April 4 last year, the commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Khalifa Haftar ordered his troops to advance on Tripoli and “liberate it from terrorists.” These orders came ahead of a planned UN conference scheduled for later that month that was intended to bring opposing factions to the negotiating table and avert a […]

The Spanish government and the regional leaders of Catalonia will start holding formal talks this month in a bid to end one of the country’s biggest crises since the return of democracy in the late 1970s… Read the full story here.

After decades of conflict, Colombia reached peace with the FARC. What lessons can be drawn for the Afghan peace process? Read the full analysis here.

Does the Trump Administration’s Israeli-Palestinian Plan Offer a Path to Peace? Without a basis for negotiation around which both sides feel they can come to the table, peace will remain elusive… Read the full analysis here.

Noor Ghazi was born and raised in Iraq’s capital Baghdad. In 2003, after Saddam Hussein was removed from power, her family left for Syria with hopes to soon return. But fighting in Iraq continued and life in Syria brought its own challenges, so Ghazi and her family traveled to the United States as refugees in […]

The Taliban have given the U.S. envoy their offer for a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan that would last between seven and 10 days, Taliban officials familiar with the negotiations said Thursday. Read the full story here.

The assassination of Qassem Suleimani by drone bombs, at the express request of the president of the United States, has thrown the Middle East – and the world – into the most serious global security crisis since the end of the cold war… Read the full story here. Photo: Protesters in Trafalgar Square/Twitter

In the wake of an Iranian ballistic missile attack on airbases which house US forces in Iraq, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said he would continue his active engagement to de-escalate tensions and avert full-scale war, which the “world cannot afford.” Read the full story here.

The Middle East has already endured “enough violence” amid fears of an escalation in conflict due to tensions between Iran and the US, said a UAE humanitarian champion. Dr Abdul Salam Al Madani issued a plea for peace on the sidelines of a press conference held to launch this year’s Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and […]

The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, in partnership with the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, recently launched the second edition of the global Women, Peace and Security Index (WPS Index) at the United Nations. Drawing on recognized data sources, this report ranks 167 countries on women’s comprehensive wellbeing and analyzes trends in women’s […]

Representatives of Russia, China, the United States and Pakistan have agreed that negotiation is the only road to peace in Afghanistan, including an early resumption of direct U.S. talks with the Taliban. The day-long talks in Moscow on Friday came ahead of an intra-Afghan dialogue to be hosted by China. The Beijing talks, which initially […]

Yolanda Perea Mosquera and other women’s rights advocates in Colombia are sewing a colorful quilt. They plan to spread it out over the central square in the capital Bogotá in late November. Their message: “cover me with your hope.” On each square, they’ve embroidered words about the armed conflict that engulfed their country for five […]

Last week 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… Read the […]

Last month, the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative’s (WPDI) staff and youth peacemakers in South Sudan organized a community dialogue to bring together the Madi community in South Sudan’s Torit state. Read the full story here.

From Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the only two cities in the world to be destroyed by atomic bombs, Pope Francis made an impassioned appeal for the total elimination of nuclear arms. “The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possession of atomic weapons is immoral,” he said. “We will be […]

Facebook took action against tens of millions of posts, photos and videos over the past six months for violating its rules that prohibit hate speech, harassment and child sexual exploitation, illustrating the vast scale of the tech giant’s task in cleaning up its services from harm and abuse. Read the full story here.

After Marcus Mumford visited Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan five years ago, he spent a few days in nearby Jerusalem — and met a woman whose words would change his life forever. Robi Damelin’s transformed her grief when her son was killed, after joining the Israel Defense Forces, into a group called the Parents Circle, […]

Quantitative studies of United Nations peace operations generally conclude that they are effective. However, the findings of these studies have been questioned on the basis that they show correlation, but fail to identify the causal mechanisms that can explain these results in specific cases. Despite the positive conclusions of these statistical studies, not enough is […]

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced Tuesday the planned release of three high-profile Taliban prisoners in exchange for kidnapped American and Australian professors, in a move to jump-start “direct talks” with the Taliban to end the prolonged conflict. Read the full story here.

In a speech to the Paris Peace Forum in Paris on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that to thrive, multilateralism had to adapt, mindful that “conflicts persist, creating suffering and displacement: our world is unsettled”. He was speaking as commemorations took place in countries across the world, marking the official end of the First […]

Less than two months ago, Yemen’s civil war threatened to engulf the broader Middle East. The stalemate between Iranian-supported Houthi rebels and forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition had already killed an estimated 100,000 people and spawned what the United Nations considered the worst humanitarian crisis in the world… Read the full story here.

Today, there is no shortage of countries in conflict. UN estimates suggest that in 2019, nearly 132 million people in 42 countries around the world will need humanitarian assistance resulting from conflict or disaster. Nearly 69 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced by violence and conflict, the highest number since World War II. Fortunately, […]

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. Here, Conciliation Resources captures the the voices of the peace process.

Less than nine months since rebel groups in Central African Republic signed a peace deal with the government, violence is once again on the rise in the countryside and opposition to the agreement is building ahead of next year’s presidential elections. Read the full story here. Photo: hdptcar/Flickr

The Syrian Constitutional committee’s drafting body on Monday began talks on political reforms that could lead to elections and an end to more than eight years of war. An agreement to form a 150-member committee comprised of government, opposition and civil delegates to draft a new constitution for Syria was reached at a Russian-hosted Syrian […]

Celebrated every November 10, World Science Day for Peace and Development highlights the significant role of science in society and the need to engage the wider public in debates on emerging scientific issues. It also underlines the importance and relevance of science in our daily lives. Read the full story here.

Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said Monday his government was working towards bringing peace to war-torn Darfur as he met hundreds of victims of the conflict who demanded swift justice. Read the full story here. Photo: Save the Dream/Flickr

With the approach of the twentieth anniversary of United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security (WPS), emerging global peace and security challenges are increasingly being recognized as part of this agenda. Among these challenges is the exponential growth of private military and security companies (PMSCs) and, with this, the growing privatization […]

Since October 17, hundreds of thousands of protesters have mobilized across Lebanon, calling for an end to corruption, sectarianism, and the broken political and economic system. The mass demonstrations, largely branded as “al-thawra,” the Arabic word for revolution, were triggered by plans by the Lebanese government to tax WhatsApp calls… Read the full story here. […]

For two decades, the women, peace, and security agenda has been the subject of policy development internationally, regionally, and nationally. But by many indicators, the global status of these commitments to gender equality is under threat. Read the full paper from the International Peace Institute here.

Peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebels have resumed in neighboring South Sudan after a rocky start saw one of the main groups threaten to pull out, accusing government forces of bombing its territory. Read the full story here.

A senior Syrian Kurdish official has said his forces will pull back from a border area in accordance with a US-brokered deal after Turkey allows the evacuation of its remaining fighters and civilians from a besieged town in northeast Syria. Redur Khalil, a senior official of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said the plan […]

The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who made peace last year with bitter foe Eritrea. He was awarded the prize for his efforts to “achieve peace and international cooperation”. Read the full story here, and see our story on the historic peace deal in our story below.

The recently collapsed peace process between the Taliban and the United States offered Afghans hope the group might be changing its policies. But opinions are divided over how much the Taliban is willing to give way, and whether it is enough to ensure lasting peace in the war-torn country. Watch the full story here.

A plan for Ukrainian and separatists to pull back their troops and weapons in eastern Ukraine remained in limbo after another round of inconclusive talks last week. Ukraine’s newly-elected president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has sought to revive a long-stalled peace plan by pressing for a troop withdrawal and local elections in the nation’s rebel-held east, where […]

The Creative Community for Peace’s second annual Ambassadors of Peace celebration honored Ziggy Marley, Atom Factory/Q&A founder Troy Carter, Warner Records co-chairman/CEO Aaron Bay-Schuck, Caroline/Harvest Records president Jacqueline Saturn and former Universal Music Latin president and founder of WK Entertainment Management Walter Kolm. Read the full story here.

The Afghan government has used its platform at the UN General Assembly to urge the Taliban to join the government “in peace”, days after a presidential election, boycotted by the armed group, was held in the country. Read the full story here.

Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg’s shaming of world leaders and air travelers over climate change has won her millions of admirers and attracted many new followers to her cause. But it just might cost her the Nobel Peace Prize. Read the full story here.

The Oslo Business for Peace Award recognizes leaders who are driven to create positive change—not solely in the form of altering company policies but those who also seek to address our world’s most pressing social and economic issues. The search is now on to find the 2020 Oslo Business for Peace Award honorees. Read the […]

The U.S. envoy to the Middle East met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, days after elections that left the Israeli leader’s political future in doubt. Read the full story here.

How to get peace processes off the ground sustainably and inclusively is a vital but comparatively uncharted challenge for peace support. This Accord Spotlight explores priorities for more effective policy and practice. Photo: Stuart Price/UN

The United States peace envoy will travel to Afghanistan next week and then Qatar to resume negotiations with the Taliban and iron out a deal that could end nearly 18 years of military intervention, the State Department said on Monday. Read the full story here.

A group of young former FARC rebels have shed their camouflage fatigues, boots and guns to help ease their way back into society following a 2016 peace deal. Read the full story here.Photo: Flickr

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described talks with his Russian and Iranian counterparts at a Syria peace summit on Monday as “productive.” “We are in complete agreement in aiming for a lasting political solution for Syria’s political unity and territorial integrity,” Erdogan told reporters. Read the full story here.

Longtime peace activist Frances Crowe has died at the age of 100, leaving behind seven decades of decades work towards justice. She died last Tuesday in her home in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she lived since 1951, surrounded by her family, who wrote that her motto was “Live simply so that others can simply live.” Read […]

Pope Francis heads this week to the southern African nations of Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius, visiting some of the world’s poorest countries in a region hard hit by some of his biggest concerns: conflict, corruption and climate change. Read the full story here.

Last September, South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir, signed a power-sharing deal with rebel leader Riek Machar, promising to bring an end to the five-year civil war that has crippled the world’s newest country, which declared its independence from Sudan in 2011. It wasn’t the first time. Read the full story here.

Drawing parallels between the bid to achieve permanent peace in the Korean peninsula and Myanmar’s effort to strike a deal with various ethnic armed groups, visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in yesterday expressed hope that both countries would be able to progress together. Read the full story here. Photo: NotComey/Twitter

The Taliban claimed responsibility for a large explosion in the Afghan capital Monday night, just hours after a U.S. envoy briefed the Afghan government on an agreement “in principle” with the insurgent group that would see 5,000 U.S. troops leave the country within five months. Read the full story here.

There is a “sign of hope for the long-suffering Syrian people” as a Syrian-led, Syrian-owned, credible and inclusive Constitutional Committee is set to start deliberations next month, the United Nations Special Envoy for the country told the Security Council on Monday. Read more here. Photo: UNICEF/Aaref Watad

The 10th World Assembly of “Religions for Peace”, one of the world’s largest representative, multi-religious gathering of religious communities, concluded on Friday in the German town of Lindau, with participants committing themselves to common action for the common good of humanity. Read the full story here and see the more on religion and peacebuilding below.

On Aug 30, 1999, the people of Timor-Leste cast their ballots in a United Nations–administered popular consultation to determine the fate of the country, but the Timorese paid a heavy price for reclaiming their independence. What does development look like, two decades after starting over? Read the full story here.

US President Donald Trump said Monday that his administration might release its Middle East peace plan before Israel’s elections in September, reversing earlier statements that it would wait until after the election re-do to unveil the long-delayed proposal. Read the full story here.

The Taliban said Saturday that they expected negotiations with the United States to conclude soon, finalizing a peace deal to end the 18-year-old war in Afghanistan. The crucial ninth round in the year-long dialogue between the two adversaries started Thursday in the traditional venue, the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. Read the full story here. […]

Born into poverty in Kano, Nigeria, Shehu was recruited into a gang when he was just seven years old. Later, his friend convinced him to switch over to the gang he was in. The gang was called Boko Haram. One night Shehu’s life changed. He saw his best friend die as a result of the […]

In 1974, Greece and Turkey both attempted to control Cyprus. Ever since the conflict, a 112-mile Green Line of ceasefire divides the island into the Greek side in the south and the Turkish side in the north. But two friends aren’t letting that stop them… Read the full story here.

Afghanistan’s president on Sunday rejected foreign interference as the United States and the Taliban appear to be closing in on a peace deal without the Afghan government at the table. President Ashraf Ghani spoke during the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Adha and as U.S. and Taliban negotiators continue their work in the Gulf nation of Qatar, […]

Some come to remember, others to show reverence. A few find their way to the hallowed ground after decades of regret. All come to honor and pay respect to three days that transcended time and place, that pulled together the counterculture of the 1960s into a defining moment of an era. Read the full story […]

Amnesty International issued a global warning to those traveling to the United States after violence left 31 people dead in two mass shootings last weekend. The travel advisory, issued Wednesday afternoon, calls for visitors to “exercise caution and have an emergency contingency plan when traveling throughout the USA.” Read the full story here.

With a handshake and a hug, Mozambique’s leaders hoped on Tuesday to close the book on a decades-long conflict. But an election in October and new causes of violence mean lasting peace is far from assured. Read the full story here.

The latest series of peace talks to resolve the conflict in South Sudan has concluded in Rome, under the auspices of the Sant’Egidio Community. Speaking at a press conference, the Vice President of the National Pre-Transitional Committee, Gabriel Chang, thanked the Community of Sant’Egidio “for hosting these days of reflection and dialogue on the future […]

Yemeni separatists took over most of the southern city of Aden on Saturday, a major blow to the country’s internationally recognized government and to efforts by Saudi Arabia to put it back in control of all of Yemen. Read the full story here.

Pope Francis has urged Syrian President Bashar Assad to put an end to his country’s eight-year-long conflict and seek reconciliation for the good of the nation and its vulnerable people. Read the full story here.

The UN deputy chief issued an impassioned plea on Sunday for Afghans to reconcile with the past and put “women at the center” of all efforts to forge a durable peace, and a truly inclusive political process where women’s voices are truly heard. Read the full story here.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, wants to flip the script and turn mobile games into tools for learning. It’s sponsoring a conference in India later this year that will address how to use digital technologies like video games to build more peaceful and sustainable societies. Read the full story here.

A Native American author whose writings have highlighted his indigenous culture is this year’s winner of a lifetime achievement award celebrating literature’s power to foster peace, social justice and global understanding. Dayton Literary Peace Prize officials selected novelist, poet and essayist N. Scott Momaday for the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. A Kiowa Indian, […]

It may feel like the closed-door talks about peace in Afghanistan have been going on almost as long as the Afghan war itself, but now they are actually going somewhere… Read the full story here.

Last week, the UAE announced the redeployment of its troops in Yemen. This is a significant step, as the country seeks to shift from a “military-first strategy to a peace-first strategy”, according to a UAE official… Read the full story here.

The United Nations Security Council took a firsthand look at the challenges of peace nearly three years into Colombia’s historic accord with leftist rebels as they visited Friday with the nation’s president, politicians and former rebels at a time of mounting concern. Read the full story here. Photo: NEDERUREG

Tarek Mulla was a software engineer in Syria before war forced him to flee to Lebanon. He was 25 years old and, like many refugees, he struggled to find work. But with the help of a new program from Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB), Tarek has found a job in Melbourne, Australia. This year he became […]

A landmark peace conference between the Taliban and influential Afghans, including government officials, has agreed a “roadmap for peace” that could hasten the end of the 18-year war. A statement called for an end to civilian casualties and the protection of women’s rights within an “Islamic framework”. Read the full story here.

The first talks between Afghan officials and the Taliban may have achieved some progress because of a mood of empathy that was created by the sharing of personal sorrows during 18 years of war… Read the full story here.

After months of unrest, before and after the toppling in April of the dictator Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s ruling military junta and the opposition alliance have reached a landmark deal. The two sides will share power for three years, after which an election will allow for a final transition to civilian rule. The deal is to […]

There is cautious optimism one year on since the Eritrean president and the Ethiopian prime minister signed a new agreement. The breathtaking speed of the Ethiopia-Eritrea thaw last year surprised many who had written it off as a lost cause… Read the full story here. Photo: CJTF-HOA

Iran wants its economic sanctions lifted. The United States wants an assurance that Iran will not acquire nuclear weapons. It is time to talk… Read the full story here.

Opinion: What is one way we can reinforce cultural diversity as a driving factor of peace and development? Here, the world’s leading peacebuilding NGOs answer the question in honor of World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. This story was first published in Generations for Peace. Monica Curca | Founder & Managing Director […]

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee marked up and approved the Global Fragility Act (GFA) by a strong bipartisan vote of 18-4 on June 25. The Global Fragility Act (officially called H.R. 2116) requires the U.S. government – in collaboration with civil society – to develop a 10-year strategy to enhance stability and to reduce […]

Rival Afghans will meet starting on Sunday in Qatar, officials said, in a fresh attempt to make political headway as the United States seeks a peace deal with the Taliban within three months. The international efforts to bring warring Afghan sides to the negotiating table comes as the Taliban, which has been fighting the West-backed […]

South Korea’s president on Tuesday called a recent U.S.-North Korean summit at the Korean border an end of mutual hostility between the countries, despite skepticism by many experts that it was more of a publicity stunt than genuine opinion. During their impromptu third summit at the Korean Demilitarized Zone on Sunday, Trump and Kim reaffirmed […]

The adoption of UN Security Resolution 1325 was supposed to be a turning point for women as it affirmed that women hold a unique experience during and after times of conflict. The resolution called for the strengthening of women’s and girls’ protection from conflict-related sexual violence and women’s equal participation in all stages of the […]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that progress in establishing peace in the east of Ukraine can be achieved only by political and diplomatic means. Zelensky discussed peace at a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Toronto on Tuesday, July 2. Trudeau has promised to support Ukraine in the wake of […]

Dozens of Afghan political leaders have attended a conference in neighboring Pakistan to discuss possible ways to achieve peace in the war-torn country. In the inaugural ceremony of the Afghan peace conference titled “Lahore Process” at Bhurbhan in Murree on Saturday, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Pakistan is committed in its efforts to […]

The first part of the White House Middle East peace plan will be launched at a conference in Bahrain today. Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and a White House advisor, is courting support for the proposal among attendees, including representatives and investors from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Neither Israeli nor Palestinian […]

Sudan’s ruling military pledged to release all imprisoned anti-government rebels as a step toward talks to end long-running insurgencies in Darfur and the country’s south… Read the full story here.Photo: LobeLog

At the end of World War I, leaders of the victorious allies—the United States, Britain, France and Italy—arrived in Paris to begin the Herculean task of ending the First World War and trying, as best they could, to prevent another… Read the full story here.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron has spoken by phone with his Iranian counterpart in what his office says is an effort to avoid a “dangerous escalation” of tensions in the Persian Gulf. Macron will be joining other world leaders at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, which starts Friday. High on the list will be discussing […]

September 21 is the International Day of Peace and yesterday we kicked off the 100-day countdown. Now is the time to start planning your #PeaceDayChallenge! Think about how you can volunteer in your community, raise awareness about issues you care about, help those in need, and get others involved. Read more here.

The U.S. Middle East peace plan may be delayed until after Israel forms its government in November, President Donald Trump’s special envoy Jason Greenblatt told The Jerusalem Post’s Annual Conference on Sunday. Greenblatt refused to disclose specific details of the plan, saying, “We hold something very delicate in our hands. If we keep a tight […]

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said it may be possible to hold new peace talks over the conflict in the east of Ukraine as he hosted new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on his first official visit to France. Macron praised the ambition of Zelensky, a former comic actor who stunned the world to win […]

Libya’s UN-recognized government in Tripoli has sought to break the deadlock in the country’s civil war by launching a peace initiative which will include a national peace forum followed by simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections to be held by the end of the year. Read the full story in The Guardian here.

The seventh round of the peace talks between the US negotiators and the Taliban members in Doha, Qatar, will take place next week, sources said, predicting that this time, the two sides will agree on one or two of the four key issues under debate. Read the full story here.

Climate change poses a threat to peace in countries around the world in the coming decade, according to an annual peace index released last week that factored in the risk from global warming for the first time. Nearly a billion people live in areas at high risk from global warming and about 40 percent of […]

Conflict is difficult, complex and political. There are no easy solutions for resolving conflict peacefully. So, the world urgently needs to find different ways to respond. Conciliation Resources’ Annual Report 2018 demonstrates how peace is being made possible. Download the full report here.

Palwasha Kakar, USIP senior program officer for religion and inclusive societies, testified on June 13 at the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women’s Issues’ hearing on “Women in Conflict: Advancing Women’s Role in Peace and Security.” Read her expert testimony here.

The 2019 Global Peace Index report was released today, and has revealed that the average level of global peacefulness slightly improved over the last year, for the first time in over five years. Iceland ranked the most peaceful country, followed by New Zealand. The USA ranked 128th and Afghanistan was the least peaceful at ranking […]

Recent research by the UN and the World Bank points to an urgent need for the international community to refocus on building peaceful societies and preventing violent conflict, which they calculate could save between $5 billion and $70 billion per year. Business, alongside all stakeholder groups, has a key role to play here, but all […]

The Norwegian government said Wednesday progress has been made in negotiations between representatives of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido. The Foreign Ministry said the two sides “have demonstrated their willingness to move forward” toward a negotiated solution to the Venezuelan crisis. Read the full story here.

The United States-Taliban peace talks have sparked fears that when the Taliban join a new political order, Afghan women, who suffered terrible atrocities and oppression under the Taliban rule in the 1990s, will suffer again. But it is both possible and necessary to negotiate peace with the Taliban while ensuring that women’s rights are secured. […]

On Saturday, an estimated 40,000 people attended the fifth Walk for Peace in Mexico, organized by the Diocese of Cuernavaca, with the goal of stopping the growing wave of violence caused by the country’s major crime gangs. The tens of thousands of attendees, most of them dressed in white, began the walk around 9am local […]

Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner is slated to meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Brussels today to discuss the U.S. administration’s Middle East peace plan. Read the full story here.

Unequal land distribution was a key reason why the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) took up arms in 1964 as a Marxist-inspired agrarian movement that fought to defend the rights of landless peasants. Now, granting land titles is part of government efforts to promote rural development as set out in the 2016 peace deal […]

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach has been given the CEM – Papandreou Peace Award in a ceremony in Athens yesterday. In his opening remarks, the Greek Foreign Minister, George Katrougalos, described Bach as a “champion of peace”. Presenting the award, former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou highlighted the IOC President’s efforts in […]

When members of the Taliban and Afghan politicians met on Tuesday in Moscow for talks aimed at ending the war in their country, one face in particular stood out: Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban and the head of its political office, who spoke publicly for the first time about the need for […]

The United States and Russia are in talks on a “potential way forward” that would see Syria come out of international isolation if it agrees to a series of steps including a ceasefire in Idlib, the US envoy for Syria said Wednesday. Jim Jeffrey told reporters following a closed-door UN Security Council meeting that Moscow […]

The South Sudan peace agreement suffered a serious blow when the deadline to form a government of national unity lapsed without fanfare on May 12. While parties have agreed to take another stab at forming the unity government in six months, there are many challenges ahead. Read the full story here.

The South Sudan peace agreement suffered a serious blow when the deadline to form a government of national unity lapsed without fanfare on May 12. While parties have agreed to take another stab at forming the unity government in six months, there are many challenges ahead. Read the full story here.

Palestinian officials said yesterday that they were not invited to a summit planned for Bahrain next month to discuss the Trump administration’s proposal to bring economic development to Palestinian areas, as part of a wider peace effort. But private Palestinian business people said they had been contacted about attending… Read the full story from The […]

A new report from the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) presents findings from a study about the participation of women in peace and reconciliation processes currently underway in Mali. The findings are based primarily on focus group discussions with men and women carried out in Segou and Mopti in central Mali, and Tombouctou in northern […]

A roundtable was held at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul in Jung District’s Myeong-dong neighborhood on May 20 by a European delegation for the 2019 Korean Peninsula Peace-Sharing Forum, an event organized by the archdiocese’s national reconciliation committee… Read the full story here.

President Salva Kiir and his rival Riek Machar’s recent decision to extend the deadline to form a transitional unity government was preferred over the possibility of the collapse of their cease-fire agreement. But it also was a clear indication of how tenuous the truce is, and how far off a lasting peace still remains… Read […]

UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths told the UN Security Council that withdrawal from Hudaydah was a significant step, but he also underlined the fragility of the good news. “Yemen remains very much at the crossroads between war and peace… There are also alarming signs, in recent days, there are alarming signs of the war… The […]

Yemen’s government wants the United Nations to give time-frames for next steps of a peace deal after Houthi forces began withdrawing from key ports in the most significant advance yet for efforts to end the four-year war and relieve hunger. Read the full story here. Photo: Felton Davis

French President Emmanuel Macron and New Zealand’s premier Jacinda Ardern will host other world leaders and leading tech chiefs on Wednesday to launch an ambitious new initiative aimed at curbing extremism online. The initiative, known as the ‘Christchurch call’, was pushed by Ardern after a self-described white supremacist gunned down 51 people in a massacre […]

As part of his efforts to increase interreligious peace, Ghana’s chief imam attended Easter Mass ahead of his 100th birthday celebration. Sheikh Osman Sharubutu recently captured the public eye after pictures went viral of his attendance at Mass at Christ the King Catholic Church in Accra. Read the full story here: Photo: GBC

Youth groups in South Sudan have called for nationwide demonstrations today, in response to the recent announcement that the two sides in the country’s civil war extended their May 12 deadline to form a transitional unity government, contravening a key requirement of the September 2018 “revitalized” peace agreement. Read the full story here. Photo: Al […]

The longest-running war appears to be coming to an end. The Taliban has been running an armed rebellion in Afghanistan since being dislodged from power in a US-led invasion following September 11 2001. Recent high-level negotiations between the two sides in the 18-year war did not produce a breakthrough, but “significant progress”, leading to “improved” […]

Emma and Ngala were still at school when conflict broke out in Central African Republic (CAR). Their school was in one of Bangui’s eight districts which was hit particularly hard by the violence: “The school was looted and inhabited by Séléka rebels. Sometimes they arrived in the middle of our classes. We had to flee […]

Matar Chaib lives in a war zone. His town of Bria, in the Central African Republic, has been controlled by warring armed groups since 2013. Despite living at the heart of conflict, he knew that peace was possible, and knew that he could make a change to help protect the people of the town. In […]

An apparent ceasefire has halted a weekend of deadly fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire went into effect early Monday morning local time, and reports from Gaza and southern Israel suggest it’s holding, at least for now. Read the full story here. Photo: Norsk Folkehjelp Norwegian People’s Aid

Sri Lanka deployed additional troops to one of the cities where the Easter Sunday bombings took place, after clashes there late Sunday between Muslims and Sinhalese. In a sign of how raw emotions remain after the deadly attacks last month that killed more than 250 people, the clashes in Negombo, a city about 20 miles […]

An Afghan grand council convened by President Ashraf Ghani ended last week with a resounding call for peace with the Taliban and a promise from the president to free 175 Taliban prisoners ahead of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month. The council – known as Loya Jirga – brought together more than 3,200 politicians, tribal elders, […]

In South Korea, it is a traditional time of year to celebrate Buddha’s birthday. The country’s national holiday on May 8 emphasizes peace and harmony with the North – despite its firing of more rockets. Buddha’s birthday is a holiday traditionally celebrated in most of East Asia to commemorate the birth of the Prince Siddhartha […]

Since the early years of the crisis, Nigeria’s international partners have cautioned that Boko Haram is unlikely to be defeated on the battlefield alone. They have stressed the need for a multidimensional response that tackles the drivers of insecurity in the region, including chronic weaknesses in service delivery, corrupt governance, and environmental degradation. This paper […]

Japanese Emperor Akihito, in his final remarks as his three-decade reign drew to a close today, thanked the people for their support and expressed hope for a peaceful future. Read the full story from Reuters here.

A comedian and actor with no prior political experience, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, 41, beat incumbent Petro Poroshenko by a landslide, promising change to a country at war with Russian-backed forces and facing some of the worst poverty in Europe. Now, one of Zelenskiy’s biggest challenges will be meeting the expectations of voters. Read the full story […]

Last month a peace agreement was signed between the Government of the Central African Republic and 14 armed groups, following talks in Sudan. Here, Conciliation Resource’s East and Central Africa program manager, Caesar Poblicks, joined an expert panel on Channel Africa to discuss what needs to happen now in the Central African Republic. Photo: UNICEF […]

The US envoy seeking a peace deal with the Taliban to end 17 years of war is heading back to the region for a new round of talks, the State Department said today. Zalmay Khalilzad will head to Afghanistan as well as neighboring Pakistan during the trip that began Monday and is scheduled to run […]

Following news of recent nonviolent victories in Sudan, the Metta Center for Nonviolence spoke with nonviolent conflict analyst Stephen Zunes, and Sudanese activists Mubarak ElAmin and Bakri Ali. Listen to the interviews here. Photo: NBN/Twitter

On Easter Sunday, many reacted in shock to the devastating bomb blasts against Christian churches in Sri Lanka, a country that appeared to have overcome its bloody terrorism chapter from a decade ago… Read the full story in the Observer here. Photo: Simon Yaqoob/Twitter

In 2011, the World Bank, with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, began to release the Global Findex database, which provides data every three years on the banking habits of individuals in over 140 countries. It was a game-changer in the way development actors tackle women’s financial inclusion. Read the full story […]

Senior White House advisor Jared Kushner said Tuesday that the Trump administration will put forward its long-awaited plan for peace in the Middle East after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in early June. Read the full story here.

Angelina Jolie and Amal Clooney added their voices in the calls this week to support a new United Nations Security Council resolution that included a mechanism to investigate sexual violence as a weapon of war. The resolution also called for full services for victims, including sexual and reproductive health care. Read the full story here. […]

More than 3,200 Afghans gathered on Monday in Kabul to seek a consensus on peace talks with the Taliban, but hopes for success were dampened by the recent cancellation of first-ever talks between Afghan and insurgent representatives in Qatar, and by the refusal of numerous Afghan political figures to attend the current meeting. Read the […]

Destruction and damage are widespread after five years of conflict over eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed separatists. Around 13,000 people have been killed, a quarter of them civilians, according to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. There are not many people left in Zaitseve, a village on the front line […]

As the 20th anniversary of the groundbreaking UN Security Council resolution 1325 approaches in 2020, experts and advocates on the women, peace and security agenda came together on 15 March to take stock of progress and the way forward at the event organized by UN Women, the Governments of Germany, Canada, Namibia and Uruguay, in […]

After 16 consecutive days of bare-knuckled diplomacy with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, U.S. Special Representative and former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad announced a preliminary draft agreement on two of the most critical issues in the peace talks: a U.S. withdrawal from the country and Taliban assurances that terrorists won’t be able to […]

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has called for a fourth summit with Kim Jong Un, despite Jong Un dismissing Moon’s mediating efforts between the North and the United States as “officious.” Read more about what this might mean in The New York Times and more on talks between Russia and North Korea in The Independent.

President Trump’s proposal for a “deal of the century” to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict promises practical improvements in the lives of Palestinians but is likely to stop short of ensuring a separate, fully sovereign Palestinian state, according to people familiar with the main elements of the effort. Read the full story here.

Inspired by the senseless murder of Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle, hundreds of current and former gang members joined anti-violence activists in the South Bronx on Sunday to march for peace. Read the full story here. Photo: 1010 Wins/Twitter

The Global Council for Tolerance and Peace, has awarded its highest medal of tolerance and peace to the people of New Zealand in recognition of their civilized behavior, positive attitude and interaction following the terrorist attacks on worshippers in Christchurch last March. Read the full story here.

On June 7th, 2018, the government of Afghanistan announced a unilateral ceasefire was to occur between the 12th and 19th of June for Eid al-Fitr, the Islamic holiday marking the end of Ramadan. The measure was adopted for the first time in four decades of fighting, instability, and unrest… Read more on how this could […]

Following her trip to Iraq, Nancy Lindborg discusses the country’s efforts to rebuild after ISIS. “There has been important progress, but it’s very precarious and completely reversible,” says Lindborg. Listen to the full podcast here.

Pope Francis got on his hands and knees before the leaders of South Sudan’s government and its opposition on Thursday, kissing their shoes and imploring the two men to maintain the tenuous peace that exists between them. Read the full story here

Following her trip to Iraq, Nancy Lindborg discusses the country’s efforts to rebuild after ISIS. “There has been important progress, but it’s very precarious and completely reversible,” says Lindborg. Listen to the full podcast here.

Central African Republic’s eighth peace deal stands best chance yet of ending years of internal strife, Faustin-Archange Touadéra says, after the president came to Washington this week seeking to bolster U.S. support for a peace deal with internal armed groups, saying steady international assistance will be needed to rebuild the state and end years of […]

The latest round of U.S.-Taliban talks concluded on March 12, with both sides noting progress but conceding that no breakthroughs had been made. After two weeks of discussions in Doha, Qatar, American officials said they were close to reaching a final agreement on a potential U.S. troop withdrawal and a Taliban pledge to no longer […]

Since the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) in 2000, the international community has devoted a great deal of attention to the importance of women’s participation in peace processes. The implementation of this ideal, however, often falls short. Myanmar, where the government is currently engaged in a peace process with multiple armed […]

Japan has unveiled the name for its new imperial era which will begin on May 1 when the country’s crown prince takes over from his father, who will abdicate. The name chosen is ‘Reiwa’ which is written using two Chinese characters, the first meaning ‘good’ or ‘beautiful’ as well as ‘order’ or ‘command’ and the […]

In the wake of the Christchurch shootings, a Winnipeg board game cafe is committing to bringing Muslim and non-Muslim Canadians together. Xiaoli Li from CityNews visits Across the Board for Play for Peace here. Image: Peace Generation/Twitter

In the USA, Venezuelan players and coaches can only watch their homeland and loved ones suffer from afar in the wake of a mounting humanitarian crisis that has erupted this year in clashes in the cities and border crossings. Read about what they are experiencing here.

Snow leopards and Marco Polo sheep have not been on the agenda for peace talks involving the Taliban, U.S. officials and Afghan opposition figures. But going forward, should they be? Read the full story on NPR here and another on how “greening” Afghanistan may bring divided negotiators together here. Photo: Haseebamjad88

Near the start of Peacekeepers: A Journey of a Thousand Miles, one of two main characters, Farida Parveen, stands on a rooftop and quietly vows to complete her mission with “the love and affection of a mother and the resolve of a soldier.”It seems a fitting beginning for a film that deliberately upends assumptions about […]

At a ceremony on the White House South Lawn presided over by President Jimmy Carter that took place on this day in 1979, Egypt and Israel, having fought four wars since 1948, signed a formal peace treaty. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (1918-1981) and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (1913-1992) signed the agreement. Read the full […]

Thousands of Colombians marched through Bogotá on Monday night, demanding that their government: “Give peace a chance”. Protesters demonstrated in favor of the country’s peace process with the former FARC guerrillas, warning that President Ivan Duque’s policies could undermine it and lead to a flare-up of violence. Read the full story here.

More than 50,000 people have signed petitions calling for New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her response to a pair of mosque shootings that killed 50 people. A change.org petition to the United Nations had gained more than 49,500 signatures as of Tuesday. A French petition calling for […]

A 16-year-old environmental activist from Sweden has been nominated for a 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, thanks to her efforts to halt climate change. Greta Thunberg, who was named one of Time’s Most Influential Teens of 2018 landed on the list of nominees this year after three Norwegian lawmakers put her name up. Read the full […]

As the process to implement a peace accord in South Sudan continues, Pope Francis met March 16 with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and expressed the hope that, finally, he would be able to visit the country. Read the full story here.

The crisis in Venezuela risks descending into civil war. The all-out power struggle between President Nicolas Maduro and Juan Guaidó is likely to escalate as Guaidó returned to Venezuela this week. President Maduro still has the backing of Cuba, China, Iran, Russia, Turkey, and dozens of states, while Guaidó is recognized by over 60 countries […]

White House national security adviser John Bolton said on Monday Pakistan’s foreign minister has assured him Islamabad is committed to de-escalating tensions with India and dealing “firmly” with terrorists. Read the full story from Reuters here and our op-ed from Areej Elahi on what ordinary citizens are doing to de-escalate tensions here.

The UN Special Representative in Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto, hailed on-going efforts made towards peace and the engagement of women and youth across the country, but warned the Security Council on Monday that “daunting challenges” remain ahead of elections. Read the full story here.

Seoul’s state-run Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) plans to investigate the potential for cross-border inter-Korean tourism, according to NK News. In a research proposal uploaded last week with the goal of finding subcontractors to work on the project, the KTO said it will establish a general plan for “peace tourism on the Korean peninsula.” Read the […]

Forty years ago this month, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in Washington. It was the first peace treaty signed by Israel with an Arab country. This article from Haaretz looks back on how songs and popular culture at the time played a role in preparing the nations for peace.

Rumors abound that President Donald Trump will soon declare the end of the war with North Korea. This is generally framed as a means to encourage the country to give up its nuclear weapons program… Read the full story here.

The US special representative for Afghanistan has met with one of the founding members of the Taliban for the first time, as the latest round of peace talks resumed in Qatar Monday. Read the full story here.

The U.N. assistant secretary-general for Africa says Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s declaration of a countrywide state of emergency and replacement of all governors will affect peace efforts in Darfur — but it’s too soon to assess the impact, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for Africa said Monday. Get the full story here.

The Trump administration’s team working on the Middle East peace plan began a round of meetings on Monday focused on the plan’s economic aspects in the region and said the plan will address final-status issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including establishing borders. Read the full story here.

Leaders of the estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities met today in Cyprus to discuss plans of resuming peace talks. Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades met with Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci in the UN zone of the divided island. Get the full story here.

In northeast Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the emergence of armed groups, such as the LRA, has caused an increase in violent crime, land-based conflict and displacement. Young people have been particularly affected by the instability, and are often targets for abduction by armed group. In the last year there have been over 280 civilian […]

Kim Phuc gained worldwide attention after a stunning photo of her in the aftermath of a napalm attack revealed the horror of war. Now she has been honored with the Dresden Peace Prize, and has spoken about her experience in Nick Ut’s Pulitzer Prize-winning image known as “The Terror of War” or “Napalm Girl”. Read […]

PeaceJam Northwest, in collaboration with the University of Oregon and the LEARN Foundation, will host its fifth annual PeaceJam conference beginning Friday at the University of Oregon. The event will feature 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee from Liberia, who received the award for helping to bring an end to the second Liberian Civil […]

Over the past weeks, the US government has been in peace negotiations with the Taliban. It has been 17 years since US and allied troops first deployed to Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban and support a democratically elected government. The current peace negotiations have progressed further than any other attempted during the conflict. But they […]

The talks between US and Afghan Taliban slated for Monday have been postponed, according to the insurgent group which alleged that some members of its negotiating team could not travel to Pakistan for the meeting due to sanctions imposed by America and the UN. Full story here.

The Trump administration will present its long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan after the Knesset elections in April, senior White House adviser Jared Kushner said on Thursday. Kushner was speaking at a closed-door session of a US-sponsored Middle East diplomatic conference in the Polish capital of Warsaw. More than 60 countries were represented at the two-day gathering… […]

Surrounded by the towering racks of second-hand clothes that fill the garage in front of his modest home, Mohamad is eager to share his approach to the challenges of displacement. “There is an Arabic proverb that says, need is the mother of innovation. I didn’t want to knock on doors and ask for help. I […]

The Pentagon’s top official made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Monday to meet with U.S. commanders and Afghan leaders amid a push for peace with the Taliban. Pat Shanahan, the recently installed acting secretary of defense, said he has no orders to reduce the U.S. troop presence, although officials say that is at the […]

The deadline for warring parties to form a unity government in South Sudan is three months away. South Sudan’s peace pact indicated that the former warring factions need to unify their armed forces before a unity government is formed. Read the full story here.

The United States will co-host with Poland a meeting on peace and security in the Middle East in the Polish capital Warsaw tomorrow, amid an international mixture of renewed hope and harsh criticism. Read the full story here.

U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is in a hurry to find a peace deal for Afghanistan that would allow America to bring home its troops after 17 years of war, but the road ahead is littered with obstacles. After years of U.S. insisting on talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, Khalilzad began meeting with […]

Pope Francis and the grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in Sunni Islam, have signed a statement with their hopes for world peace and human understanding. The two signed the document Monday night during the pope’s visit to the United Arab Emirates. It is the first papal visit ever to the […]

The Central African Republic (CAR) and 14 armed groups have reached a peace deal during talks in Sudan’s capital on Saturday, the CAR government and the United Nations have said. The renewed peace negotiations between the armed militias and the CAR government have been going on in Khartoum since January 24. Full story available here.

Ukrainians say the biggest problem facing their country ahead of a crucial presidential election in March is the same one that ushered in the current head of state in the first place: war. Get the full story here.

Officials from the United States and the Taliban have agreed in principle to a peace framework that could eventually bring Afghanistan’s long-running war to an end, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan said Monday. Get the full story from CNN here

Central African Republic’s government and militias who control most of the country held on Friday their first face-to-face talks since the country’s crisis erupted in 2012. Their arduously-arranged peace talks began on Thursday in a suburb of the capital of Sudan. Get the full story on News24 here.

There is no couch or television to furnish the lounge room of Hanane’s small home in Chtaura, in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. Instead, two second-hand barbers’ chairs, mirrors and a few purposefully placed shelves have transformed the room into a modest version of the beauty salon the 27-year-old, mother of two, owned and managed in Damascus. […]

More than 3,000 leaders from across the world, including Swiss President Ueli Maurer, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will attend the high-profile World Economic Forum Annual Meeting next week to discuss how globalization can work and to identify new models for peace, inclusiveness and sustainability. Get the full story here.

Israel’s election campaign has only just begun, but one key issue is already notable by its absence: peace with the Palestinians. To many Americans—especially American Jews, who overwhelmingly consider this the most important issue facing Israel—the fact that almost none of the candidates are talking about the peace process may seem surprising… Read the full […]

The international community is now willing to support the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement, announced South Sudan government spokesperson on Monday. Michael Makuei told reporters that the Troika countries including the United States, United Kingdom and Norway have positively responded to Juba call for support to the implementation process of the IGAD mediated peace […]

One year ago, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was declared “defeated.” Since then, much attention has been given to the fate of its male foreign fighters, in particular the security concerns regarding their return. Less attention has been given, however, to the children of these fighters—both those born in Iraq and Syria […]

The U.N. peacekeeping chief said Tuesday there is a chance for peace in South Sudan, with more progress since the warring sides signed a new peace deal in September than at any time since the conflict erupted five years ago. See the full story in the National Post here.

A cease-fire on Tuesday halted months of heavy fighting in Yemen’s port city of Hodeida, raising hopes that the latest U.N.-led peace efforts can end the civil war and alleviate the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Read the full story here.

As Iraqis celebrate the one-year anniversary of the fall of ISIS, USIP’s Elie Abouaoun says that there is a sense of relief in the country over the terrorist group’s defeat and that elections happened this year. Listen to the full podcast here.

Since the genocide in 1994, the Rwandan government has been working on setting a strategic direction for sustainable peace and socioeconomic development in the country. This new policy brief examines community perspectives on how the National Policy on Unity and Reconciliation can be utilized by decision-makers, to address not just the existing gaps within Rwanda’s […]

Awarding the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize to advocates for survivors of wartime sexual violence, Dr. Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad, indicates that the issue of sexual abuse has gained international recognition. This comes ten years after the adoption of the UN Security Council Resolution 1820, which declared that conflict-related sexual violence constitutes a war crime […]

In the last five years, international monitors in South Sudan have documented more than 100 violations of the country’s numerous cease-fire agreements. A new analysis of the monitors’ data published from April 2014 to August 2018 demonstrates how the conflict changed as the government’s military position strengthened. The statistics also show that the pace of […]

The Paris Peace Forum showed the need for realistic perceptions of international stability and state fragility. This story from the Rockefeller Foundation looks at what peacebuilders can learn from WWI and at fragility in the current political climate.

In the midst of the increasing political tension between India and Pakistan, beauty queens from the two states have come forth with the message of harmony with a pictures shared via social media. Get the full story here.

Peace has broken out at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires as US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to halt new trade tariffs for 90 days to allow for talks. Read the full story here.

Iraq now has a new government in place, six months after holding elections against a backdrop of a long period of political instability and social unrest. With the new leadership of Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and President Barham Salih—both widely touted as reformist, progressive, and Western-leaning—there are high hopes that the country will turn […]

The UN envoy to Yemen on Friday urged warring sides to “keep the peace” in Hodeida, saying the rebels agreed to talks on the UN taking a leading role in running the lifeline port. See the full story on France24 here.

Afghanistan has a better chance of finding peace than it has for many years, with more coordination in international peace efforts and willingness to include all parties, the top U.N. humanitarian official in the country said on Friday. Read the full story o Reuters here.

Multiple displacements of the Rohingya throughout history have shown that premature returns to Myanmar will only backfire. Caitlin Wake of the Overseas Development Institute argues that we owe them a better solution this time in this article in Refugees Deeply, See more on this crisis, and what returning could mean, here.

As President Trump weighs options for a second meeting between himself and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, public discussion increasingly has taken up this question: Should the United States declare a formal end to the Korean War as a new catalyst for diplomatic efforts to reduce risks of a nuclear confrontation? Two USIP analysts of […]

Fifty young women and men took part in a hackathon in order to find solutions to the barriers to Middle East peace on Friday. The young people came from all over Israel and from almost all of the country’s universities and colleges. Two-thirds of the participants were Jews and the rest were Arabs, Druze and […]

The Taliban held talks with U.S. officials in Qatar on ending the Afghan conflict last week, the militants confirmed today but said no agreement was reached on “any issue.” The statement comes a day after U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad expressed hopes in Kabul that a peace deal could be struck before the Afghan presidential election, […]

Yemen’s internationally-recognized government today said it will take part in proposed peace talks, hours after a high-ranking Yemeni rebel official urged his leadership to freeze military operations. The moves come ahead of a visit in the next few days to the war-torn country by UN envoy Martin Griffiths, who is once again trying to get […]

The United Nations peacekeeping department set out three benchmarks for the integration of troops that the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) plan to deploy in South Sudan within the UN peacekeeping mission and called on the East African bloc to discuss the matter with them. Read the full story here and more on what the […]

Conflict rocked more countries in 2016 than at any other time in nearly 30 years. The up-swell in violence led U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to call for a “surge in diplomacy for peace.” Part of that effort, he has advised, should be increasing the number of women mediators—and finding more ways to engage female civil […]

The Salam Institute for Peace and Justice, in collaboration with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers, has published its Analysis Guide on Religion in Conflict and Peace. This user-friendly publication – one of a series of Action Guides on religious peacebuilding – is written for those […]

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Syrian Arab Republic are working through back channels via the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to reach a political reconciliation, Almasdar News claimed on Wednesday. The publication said the Syrian government has been in discussions with the UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia regarding political reconciliation. The first step in this […]

Russia is hosting high-level talks in Moscow today which its Foreign Ministry bills as the “first direct high-level talks between the Taliban and Afghan government”. India has also confirmed its participation in the meeting, where five representatives of the Taliban will also be present. Get the full story here and here.

In many of the world’s most intransigent conflicts, women are mobilized to address the most urgent issues in their communities. Syrian women are negotiating humanitarian relief at the local level and are in the top ranks of the Syrian opposition negotiating team. Women in Central African Republic mediate between local armed groups. Former Central African […]

Tens of thousands of South Sudanese cheered, paraded and danced around the grounds of the John Garang Memorial Park in the capital city of Juba last week, celebrating a fresh peace deal. Rebel leader, Riek Machar, who once served as the country’s vice president, had flown back from exile and took the stage last Thursday […]

Secretary of Defense James Mattis this week called upon combatants in Yemen, including Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi faction, to negotiate a cease-fire in that war within 30 days while speaking to diplomats, military officers and conflict-resolution specialists at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Get the full story here.

South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar returned to the capital Juba on Wednesday to celebrate a peace deal, more than two years after fierce fighting erupted in the city and forced him to flee the country. To further reinforce the peace deal, President Salva Kiir ordered the release of a jailed advisor to Machar, and […]

The best bet to reunify the Korean Peninsula would be to adopt a peaceful approach, according to a recent study released by a leading think tank as the two Koreas undergo a historic warming of ties. The RAND Corporation, a U.S. government-funded research center based in California, published on Wednesday a rundown of “Alternative Paths […]

Four young women from the Global Peace Women Leadership Academy attended the 2018 International Young Leaders Assembly (IYLA) in Washington D.C. and New York City recently. Flying in from South Korea, Tanzania, Nepal, and Washington state, the women were selected by the women’s division of Global Peace Foundation for their unique grassroots projects that addressed […]

Can peace have a ripple effect? Abiy Ahmed, the new prime minister of Ethiopia with a PhD in conflict resolution, certainly believes so. In the six months since he took office as Africa’s youngest leader, Dr. Abiy has not only transformed the often-violent ethnic tensions of his own country with an approach he calls “love […]

After a three-year delay, Afghanistan finally held its long overdue parliamentary elections over the weekend. The lead up to the elections was marred by intense violence, leading to delays in voting in some provinces. USIP’s Scott Worden examines the impact of violence, the elections’ credibility and what implications the polls will have for the peace […]

Drawing on extensive field research in Kenya and Liberia around the 2017 elections, this report from USIP uses local survey data to evaluate the effectiveness of seven prevention measures thought to reduce the risk of election violence. Its recommendations, directed primarily to the international community but offering utility for regional and national agencies, offer ways […]

South Sudan’s government is spending millions of dollars next week to celebrate a “final final” peace deal to end a five-year civil war. One problem: The rebel leader who agreed to share power is reluctant to come home. Riek Machar’s hesitation amid security concerns is the latest sign that one of Africa’s deadliest conflicts might […]

A four-way summit on Syria attended by the leaders of Turkey, Russia, Germany and France has begun in the Turkish city of Istanbul. The meeting on Saturday, hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will see the participation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron. Staffan de Mistura, […]

Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, said on Wednesday that peace talks with the government were on hold due to its allegations of fraud in this month’s local elections. Get the full story here.

Like other younger generations around the world, Kashmiri youth are influenced by the hyper-connectedness brought about by social media. They share some of the same anger and frustrations of youth elsewhere, including in India. But they have grown up in a society where civil and political life have been hollowed out by conflict. What are […]

For 21 years, the people of The Gambia lived under the dictatorship of military strongman Yahya Jammeh. Now, The Gambia is working to step up to the challenge of unpacking the past with a Truth and Reconciliation commission aimed at ensuring that it never relapses into repression, violence, and exclusion. Read the full story at […]

Despite insecurity and violent extremism spreading across Mali’s borders, the United Nations peacekeeping chief cited reasons for hope, including Mali’s successful presidential elections, the signing of the new Pact for Peace and a drop in peacekeeper deaths, as he briefed the Security Council yesterday. Get the full story here.

The stakes in today’s parliamentary elections in Afghanistan have never been higher, coming just two days after the Taliban assassinated two top provincial officials in an audacious attack on a security conference attended by the top U.S. military commander in the country. Get the full story here and here.

The Central American violence that is driving refugees to the U.S. border is fueled by corruption, drug trafficking, gang culture and poverty—an interlocking pathology of ills that must be treated on multiple fronts, like an epidemic disease, say specialists on the region. Halting the bloodshed in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala will be difficult, but […]

Social networking giant Facebook has announced that it is setting up a special task force to check hate speech in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election in India. The task force will comprise “hundreds of people” in the country to prevent people from abusing its platform, Facebook said last week. The social media […]

One-third of today’s generation of youth—those ages ten to twenty-four—live in fragile or conflicted countries and are susceptible to the sway of ideological narratives of violent extremism. Evidence suggests, however, that they also play active and valuable roles as agents of positive and constructive change. Part of a USIP portfolio that engages youth leaders as […]

Serbia and Kosovo have been talking about a grand bargain to defuse lingering ethnic conflicts. Critics have been quick to weigh in but is a peaceful and mutually agreed-upon exchange of territories between Serbia and Kosovo possible? Get the full story from the Washington Post here.

The U.S. envoy on an Afghanistan peace initiative has met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah in Kabul, a day after he held talks with Taliban leaders aimed at ending the 17-year war in the country. Get the full story from the Wall Street Journal here.

When Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Deeyah Khan met with neo-Nazis she was scared. “I decided to pick up my camera and go and see if I could sit down with people who feel this intense dislike, or even hatred, towards people like me,” Ms Khan told Peace News. The daughter of immigrants, a Muslim woman, a […]

The Norwegian Nobel Committee today announced its decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2018 to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict. Both laureates have made contributions to focusing attention on, and combating, war crimes. Denis Mukwege […]

Words in the dictionary: Warmongering, Fighting, Battling, Warfare, Hate Speech. NOT in the dictionary? Peacebuilding. ‘Peacebuilding’ was coined in the 1970’s by Norwegian scholar Johan Galtung, who defines it as projects that involve “concrete action” towards peace. The word gets 7 million hits on Google, but isn’t in most dictionaries. Now a campaign has started […]

Tech giant Microsoft is stepping up to help save the world by offering its artificial intelligence (AI) technology for working on humanitarian efforts across the world. Microsoft announced on its blog recently that over the course of next five years, its ‘AI for Humanitarian Action’ program will invest $40 million towards initiatives focused in four […]

A steady, persistent grassroots peace movement is working hard to counter negativity between North and South Korea. By influencing stakeholders behind the scenes, building new coalitions and reframing the narrative to promote negotiation as a difficult but worthwhile process, this movement has risen above “fire and fury” to chart the way toward lasting peace on […]

As the United States and the Taliban attempt direct talks in hopes of ending the 17-year Afghan War, analysts say the Taliban’s control over large parts of the country has emboldened them to ask a high price for their cooperation.Any talks now are in the preliminary stages, but interviews with former militants and researchers, along […]

Civil war-torn South Sudan this year launched its first rugby league since it won independence from Sudan in 2011, finding in the rough-and-tumble sport a way to promote peace. More than 200 children between 5 and 13 have signed up for the South Sudan Rugby Club’s weekly practices run by volunteers, many of whom learned […]

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), whose troops are fighting Iran-backed Al Houthi Yemeni militia alongside government forces, said on Wednesday it would fully support new peace talks after UN-brokered negotiations broke down earlier this month. The UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash, said he had “very productive discussions” with UN […]

September 21 is the International Day of Peace – a good day to celebrate news about peacebuilding around the world. Here are 5 important stories to follow: 1. Ethiopia and Eritrea A historic agreement this year brought an end to a 25-year conflict. Now borders are opening and families are being reunited. 2. North and […]

A startup company is using blockchain to empower those living in Colombia’s post-conflict regions to transition from cocaine to cocoa production. The startup brings together suppliers and producers to find buyers and export product. Get the full story here.

The Peace Day Challenge exists to raise the profile of the International Day of Peace and to affirm peace as a real alternative to the violence we see every day in the news. It is all about inspiring a day of action on September 21, focused on building peace through real-life activities and sharing on […]

South Sudan’s warring parties signed what they call a final peace agreement to end a civil war that killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions. The deal, signed in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Wednesday, was witnessed by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other regional heads of state. Juba town residents […]

Twenty-five years later, peace remains elusive – though not for a lack of effort. With reports that the White House will unveil a new peace initiative, there are two key lessons from the post-Oslo experience that should inform any such effort today. Get the full op-ed by Shimon Fogel at The Globe and Mail here.

The scale of global conflict and displacement and the loss of confidence among states supporting a liberal peace agenda make it a sober moment to ask what peacebuilding will look like in 2030. Read the full article by Conciliation Resources executive director Jonathan Cohen in FriEnt Peacebuilding Forum here

For several weeks, speculation has abounded in Afghanistan about whether the extraordinary Eid al-Fitr cease-fire this past June would be repeated for Eid al-Adha, the Islamic holiday which in Afghanistan began on Tuesday. Afghan President Ghani signaled for weeks that government forces were open to a second pause, finally on Sunday offering a cease-fire formally […]

South Sudanese rebels have approved a peace deal with Juba that is expected to be formally signed at a summit of regional leaders. Sudan’s Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed, who is mediating the negotiations, said rebels had signed a key document aimed at ending the country’s devastating five-year civil war on Thursday. Read the full […]

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, on his first tour of Latin America since taking office in June, on Thursday offered any necessary support to push forward a peace deal between Colombia and ELN rebels. Colombia’s new President Ivan Duque, who is evaluating whether to continue the peace talks, said in a joint news conference with […]

After starting out as a diplomat from Ghana, Kofi Annan became the first black African to lead the United Nations. He went on to win the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the UN and his legacy continues in many ways. 1. He reformed the UN, introducing new management structures and peacekeeping roles. […]

South Korea has reportedly considered deleting a reference to North Korea as an “enemy” in the country’s biennial defense paper, the latest in a series of major changes at a time when Seoul appeared to be outpacing its U.S. ally in trying to make peace with their longtime mutual foe. Get the full story at […]

With the election of the right-wing President Ivan Duque on June 17, the 2016 peace deal in Colombia could be at risk, but many ex-rebels say they’re now even more determined for peace. Get the full story on Al Jazeera here.

Leaders around the world paid tribute to former United Nations Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kofi Annan, who died in hospital in Bern, Switzerland, in the early hours of Saturday aged 80. Read the full story on Reuters here.

The leader of the Taliban said Saturday there will be no peace in Afghanistan as long as the foreign “occupation” continues, reiterating the group’s position that the 17-year war can only be brought to an end through direct talks with the United States. Get the full story from the ABC here.

Despite renewed bloodshed dampening hopes for a breakthrough in the conflict that followed the June cease-fire, peace marchers say these setbacks make their mission more relevant than ever. Get the full story from the Washington Post here.

North Korea pressed its demand on Friday that the United States agree to declare an end to the 1950-53 Korean War, as South Korea’s leader indicated that the American secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, was preparing for his fourth visit to the North. Read the full story in the New York Times here.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. How has it changed the world as we know it? In 1948 the Declaration was signed to prevent the horrors of WWII from re-occurring. It set up human rights standards for all and is the world’s most translated document, in over 500 languages. […]

The United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen announced this week that after two years of stalled talks on resolving the crisis in the country, he plans to invite the warring parties to Geneva on 6 September for a round of peace consultations. Since the uprisings that broke out in Yemen in early 2011, the UN […]

Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, agreed on a truce on Thursday, an understanding that would end an escalation in fighting that has drawn mutual threats of war. Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire on the Gaza border Friday, but aside from protests the calm reached after a deadly […]

The president of South Sudan and head of the country’s main rebel group signed a final cease fire and power-sharing agreement last Sunday and hailed a new longed-for era of peace in the country. South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011, but civil war broke out two years later between the government led by […]

Returning to Syria during this eighth year of conflict is both an excruciating personal decision and a political calculation: by refugees, the government in Syria, and other nations with a stake in the war. As the government recaptures more territory from opposition groups, and fighting quells in certain areas, some refugees are considering returning, while […]

Fourteen former soldiers are being summoned by Colombia’s special peace tribunals for the killings of five young men who were abducted in 2008 and later presented as rebel casualties. During a hearing Friday a judge informed the soldiers of their obligations to confess any crimes if they are to avoid jail time. The victims’ mothers […]

Yemen’s ongoing conflict began in 2014 when Houthi rebels stormed the country’s capital, Sana’a, which led Saudi Arabia to form a coalition in an attempt restore the internationally-recognized government. Further complicating the situation, the conflict has become another battleground in the regional Saudi-Iran power struggle. As the world’s ‘worst humanitarian crisis’ festers, the local dynamics […]

Mali is facing escalating violent conflict that has spread from the peripheral Sahel regions in the far northwest to the centre of the country. Several interlinked micro-conflicts are causing communities to fragment into competing armed factions, with mass atrocities becoming increasingly commonplace. This report presents the findings of Peace Direct’s ‘Peace Exchange’ that took place […]

There is the opportunity now for progress towards peace in Afghanistan. The June Eid ceasefires showed that the Taliban leadership has the inclination and authority to deliver a suspension of violence across the movement – and that there is enthusiasm among the membership to embrace it. But to become reality, it needs a new step-by-step […]

An increasing number of analysts argue it is time for U.N.peacekeeping to focus on more limited protection missions, but it may be a mistake to say whether they should or should not engage in peacebuilding tasks, writes Cedric de Coning for the Global Observatory. Get the full story on Peacebuidling Deeply here.

After 20 years of conflict, the two countries have reconciled. On July 21, Eritrea appointed an ambassador to Ethiopia — the first one in 20 years.It’s the latest positive step in a series of shocking moves that signal a new peace between the two countries, which have spent the past two decades mired in conflict. […]

Just last Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he would be taking his fourth trip to North Korea this week, where he would announce Stephen Biegun as special envoy to Pyongyang. A day later, President Trump cancelled the trip, citing the lack of progress in negotiations. USIP’s Frank Aum looks at the ramifications […]

Former FARC guerrillas took their seats in Colobian Congress this week as part of a peace agreement that ended five decades of war., and outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos urged the nation to protect the nascent peace and put an end to violence. See the full story on Reuters here.

Somalia has been engaged in a civil war for almost 30 years, and with over 70 per cent of its population is under 30 years of age, youth and youth education appear to be the key to a peaceful future in the country. Now, a new study has revealed that increasing access to high school […]

The EU and the United States pulled back from the brink of a trade war this week, as President Donald Trump and European leaders agreed to open talks to lower tariffs and other trade barriers. In a joint statement, Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the talks would seek to resolve U.S. tariffs […]

India’s foreign affairs ministry said it hoped the new government of Pakistan would “work constructively” to end militancy in South Asia, in its first comments following this week’s general election in Pakistan. Cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan, who won the disputed election, has called for better ties with India. See the full story from Reuters here.

This week Facebook announced a new policy for removing misinformation from the social media platform that is aimed at inciting or exacerbating violence. The policy tackles misleading and inaccurate information spread through the social media site that has been linked to violence in South Sudan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. U.N. investigators have reported that extremist […]

The third round of peace talks between the Myanmar government and ethnic armed groups ended on Monday, but violence in the country continues against religious and ethnic minorities U.N. human rights investigators said. Earlier in the week, Myanmar’s 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference closed with an agreement on 14 new political, economic and environmental principles […]

South Sudan’s negotiating parties have postponed the signing of a “preliminary” power-sharing deal in neighboring Sudan, an official said today. South Sudan’s Information Minister Michael Makuei told state radio that the warring parties disagreed over some outstanding issues that must be resolved before inking the deal.

Hamas has reportedly accepted the terms of a deal proposed by Egypt to end a dispute with its rival Fatah. The Times of Israel reported early this morning that Hamas had accepted an Egyptian reconciliation proposal and is awaiting Fatah’s response. Read the full story at World Israel News here.

Next month’s planned cessation of fighting, the second since June, is aimed at bringing together the government, the Taliban and the U.S. for new talks. The Afghan government is planning a second cease-fire with the Taliban in August, during a major Muslim holiday, in an effort to kick-start peace talks. Read the full story in […]

The Nairobi Round of the South Sudan peace talks has been pushed forward, as mediators try to thrash out a consensus document on the outstanding issue of governance. The talks, to be chaired by Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, will focus on power-sharing in the national and state governments, composition of parliament, reforms in the judiciary […]

The deal signed with Hezb-e Islami in September 2016 was the Afghanistan government’s first major success at negotiating a peace agreement with an insurgent group. In return for Hezb’s renunciation of violence, the government promised to free Hezb prisoners, incorporate former insurgents into the security services, and resettle thousands of Afghan refugees living in Hezb-affiliated […]

Leaders of Colombia’s once largest guerrilla army made their first appearance at a new special peace tribunal Friday to respond to allegations of war crimes during five decades of bloody conflict. For the full story visit the ABC News here.

Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the country’s military commander Senior General Min Aung Hlaing have opened a major conference with representatives of ethnic minority groups to try to reach a lasting peace after seven decades of strained relations and armed conflict. Read the full story at SFGATE here.

Ethiopia and Eritrea have just made a breakthrough peace deal, ending what was Africa’s deadliest border war. The two nations were at war from 1998 to 2000, but a 2002 border ruling was not accepted by Ethiopia. Now, Ethiopia has agreed to the ruling, resolving two decades of hostility. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed traveled […]

With over 90,000 armed UN peacekeepers working around the world today — from Haiti to Lebanon to Kosovo to Darfur — critics have debated whether peace forces are generally isolated from the communities they are meant to protect. They often engage from the outside, with soldiers often patrolling in vehicles and retreating at the end […]

UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths has been in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, this week for two days of talks with leaders and representatives of the Ansar Allah rebel movement and the rival General People’s Congress, the party of the current and former President. “All parties have not only underscored their strong desire for peace, but have […]

South Sudan’s warring parties signed a deal on security arrangements on Friday, the latest step toward a final agreement to end the almost five-year civil war. Representatives of President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar signed the pact in Khartoum, the capital of neighboring Sudan. The agreement concerns key issues including unifying and reorganizing […]

A U.N. human rights official is urging the government of the Central African Republic to establish, without delay, a truth and reconciliation commission as a pathway to peace. Marie-Therese Keita-Bocoum welcomes progress made in institutional reforms this year. But, she says authorities in the Central African Republic have to do much, much more to repair […]

Leaders of the Philippine Army deployed in Negros Island and Iloilo have expressed support for localized peace talks with the New People’s Army (NPA) following the cancellation of negotiations between the national government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines-Communist Party of the Philippines (NDFP-CPP). Read the full story at BusinessWorld here. Photo: US […]

Following a meeting between U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton and President Vladimir Putin this week, the White House announced that President Trump will sit down with his Russian counterpart for their first formal summit on July 16 in Helsinki, Finland. While both presidents Trump and Putin have repeatedly emphasized the need for improved ties, […]

In a new series of reports from the United Nations, violence in Iraq is declining at a rapid rate – even during the holy month of Ramadan.The data, which was released by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Iraq Body Count database earlier this week, says that civilian deaths have fallen […]

Talks between President Salva Kiir and former First Vice President Riek Machar in the Sudanese capital Khartoum offer the only, albeit slim, hope of a breakthrough in South Sudan’s brutal civil war. African leaders should offer cautious support during the Nouakchott AU summit. Read the full story on Relief Web here.

The Duke of Cambridge’s four-day tour of Israel and Palestine proved a balance of diplomacy and has ignited further calls for peace. Prince William was welcomed by the Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas and spent time at sensitive sites in Israel and Palestine. Get the full story from The Jerusalem […]

Starting June 15, the world witnessed a not-so-minor miracle: a three-day cessation of violence across Afghanistan. Taliban fighters, young and old, crossed battle lines to embrace their erstwhile adversaries in the Afghan security forces. How can this momentum be used to push for peace? See the full Washington Post story here.

The 2018 Global Peace Index is out and it shows that peace declined slightly in the last year. Of the 163 countries ranked, 71 countries improved, while 92 countries deteriorated. Iceland ranked the most peaceful country in the world for the 10th year in a row, followed by New Zealand, Austria, Portugal and Denmark. Canada […]

The historic June 12 summit in Singapore between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was a breakthrough moment in relations between Washington and Pyongyang. Now we want to know how the rest of East Asia will react, especially countries where North Korea’s nuclear program has threatened regional stability and security. […]

The latest tour by US officials to the Middle East is aimed at building up support for Washington’s yet-to-be announced plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, much of which remains shrouded in secrecy. Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and top aide who was tasked last year with reviving the stalled peace process, along with Middle […]

Despite fighting resuming after a truce ended between Taliban in Afghan forces over the festival of Eid, observers are tentatively hopeful that peace may be possible. Get the full story from Arab News here.

Syrian women continue to be underrepresented in negotiations to resolve the conflict, which could undermine prospects for success and weaken the foundation for lasting peace in the country, writes gender and foreign policy researcher Renee Coulouris. Get the full story from Peacebuilding Deeply here.

The latest attempt at ending South Sudan’s five-year civil war failed Friday as President Salva Kiir rejected working again with rival Riek Machar after their first face-to-face meeting in almost two years. Get the full story here, from the New York Times.

This article was originally published in Peacebuilding Deeply. To achieve sustainable peace and reduce the need for humanitarian assistance, aid organizations need to address the underlying causes of conflict through peacebuilding efforts, write Jenny Vaughan and Joe Bubman of Mercy Corps. The humanitarian aid community has witnessed a dramatic shift over the past decade. Twelve […]

On June 12, the prime ministers of Greece and Macedonia announced that the two countries had reached agreement on a deal to end their twenty-seven-year name dispute. Make no mistake, this is a significant milestone for both countries that will not only resolve a contentious issue, but could also set a precedent for a more […]

US President Trump declared Wednesday that North Korea is “no longer a nuclear threat” to the United States even though the two sides had yet to forge a concrete disarmament plan and offered incomplete accounts of what they agreed to during this week’s summit meeting in Singapore. Read the full New York Times story here.

Myanmar and U.N. agencies signed an agreement this week that could eventually lead to the return of some of the 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled brutal persecution by the country’s security forces and are now crowded into makeshift camps in Bangladesh. See the full story from ABC News here. Photo: UNHCR

The Government of Afghanistan on June 7 offered a unilateral, week-long cease-fire to the Taliban beginning June 12, in observance of the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Of course, a cease-fire is not a peace agreement, but it can lead to one. See the full story from The Hill here.

The United Nations Security Council on Thursday gave South Sudan’s warring parties one month to stop the fighting in the country and sign a peace agreement or face possible sanctions. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will report by June 30 on whether a ceasefire agreed in December — the latest in a string of truce deals […]

Just days out from the historic U.S.-North Korea summit, USIP’s Frank Aum discusses past pitfalls that doomed previous negotiations and agreements with Pyongyang, the Trump administration’s fresh approach to North Korea, and establishing trust where there has long been a dangerous deficit. Hear the full podcast here.

Understanding Islamabad’s internal political processes is critical for crafting policy on the security challenges it poses. This summer, millions of Pakistani voters will have the opportunity to cast ballots to elect new representatives for the national parliament and provincial assemblies. Pakistan’s political landscape is fractious and has faced major upheavals in the year running up […]

Africa’s ‘longest war’ may finally end after Ethiopia says it will accept ruling on border with Eritrea. More than 80,000 people have died during the conflict that started twenty years ago and although both sides signed a peace agreement in 2000, Ethiopia refused to withdraw to the border. Now, Ethiopia’s new prime minister Abiy Ahmed […]

The 2018 Global Peace Index has been released, with Iceland ranking the most peaceful country for the 10th year in a row. This is the twelfth edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness. Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), […]

US President Donald Trump said his summit with North Korea’s leader could still happen, despite earlier cancelling the meeting. American diplomats have taken the rare step of meeting with their North Korean counterparts. CBS News foreign correspondent Ben Tracy reports here. More Peace Updates here.

Peace talks in Ethiopia between warring parties in South Sudan have ended without an agreement being reached. Network Africa talks to expert Declan Ihekaire here. More Peace Updates here.

Communist guerrillas in the Philippines have said they are willing to resume peace talks with the government after President Rodrigo Duterte revived the offer but they have reject any preconditions. In 2016 Duterte campaigned on a promise to end the nearly 50-year Maoist rebellion, which has been the cause of over 40,000 deaths, but he […]

Following the surprise win by controversial Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Sairoon coalition in Iraq’s May 12 parliamentary elections, a new coalition government has yet to form. USIP’s Sarhang Hamasaeed analyzes what led to al-Sadr’s victory, low voter turnout at the polls, the state of the political process in Iraq, and Iraqis’ expectations for […]

Colombia’s presidential election race is the most divisive in decades, with the future of the peace deal signed by the government and FARC rebels in 2016 at stake. Rightwinger Ivan Duque, who believes the deal is too lenient on FARC, leads after the first round, ahead of leftist Gustavo Petro. Hashem Ahelbarra of Al Jazeera […]

A tech project connecting ordinary citizens around the world has impressed global leaders like Barack Obama, and will launch new ‘portals’ across several continents this year. Shared_Studios have set up portals around the world, where video cameras connect to people in remote or conflict regions. In gold-colored shipping containers visitors get to meet each other, […]

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Online ‘bots’ are often seen as negative, and dangerous, but they can also be used for good, as one social enterprise group is proving. Peacebuilders have raised concerns over current social divisions in online media. “Increasingly, people use their media in a bubble, and it’s possible for you to hear news only that you agree […]

Mohammed Arif Urfi is a journalist and filmmaker based in Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistani-administered side of Jammu and Kashmir. Along with three other filmmakers, from either side of the divided region, he has made a series of films highlighting the need for collaboration across the Line of Control (LoC). As a journalist, I […]

Over 600,000 Rohingya have been driven out of the Rakhine State in Myanmar since August 25th, in response to Rohingya militants attacking police posts. Now a new deal may allow Rohingya to return, with observers such as Pope Francis calling for ethnic reconciliation, but experts warn repatriation cannot be rushed. Ronan Lee, a Myanmar expert […]

Despite harsh rhetoric from the USA and North Korea increasing fears of another Korean war, and concerns over nuclear threats, recent talk of peace negotiations have provided some hope. A ceasefire agreement ended the Korean War in 1953, but a full peace treaty was never signed, and now with North Korea testing its nuclear program, […]

When a Black Lives Matter group from New York protested at the “Mother of All Rallies” the unexpected reaction made headlines. Hawk Newsome, president of Black Lives Matter Greater New York, and his team were invited on stage to speak. By the end of Mr Newsome’s speech the crowd was cheering, breaking into applause when […]

Jessica spent her childhood in Marawai City in the Philippines, a region where insurgents and government forces often clashed. Her family moved to Iligan, a buffer zone with Muslim, Christian, and Indigenous populations, but Jessica’s darker skin marked her as an outsider and she was often harassed. It was through sport that she found a […]

Today, on the International Day of Peace, we celebrate 5 moments in the last year when peace broke out: 1. A peace deal in Colombia 50 years of civil war in Colombia ended with a peace accord. Now former fighters are being reintegrated and landmines are being cleared. 2. Coming together in the USA After […]

Source: Peacemaker360 /Maija Jespersen. At 17, Daniel Nwaeze was no stranger to riots, ethnic fighting, and street shoot-outs in his area of Nigeria, but when someone fired a gun right next to Daniel’s head he decided it was time to do something. He developed the idea of turning people’s real stories of resilience and activism […]

Karima, 45, lost her father-in-law and her home during war in Afghanistan, but she hasn’t let conflict diminish her resilience. A mother of four, Karima and her family had to seek refuge in Pakistan when violence broke out in her village. There they lived in poverty with little access to necessities, such as clean drinking […]

Kenya’s past elections have been marred by violence, and with citizens heading to the polls on August 8, observers are concerned about the impact of hate speech. SMS text messages, in particular, have been blamed for partially fueling violence that led to 1,400 deaths following the 2007 election. However, during this year’s election, SMS messages […]

Newsreader: Brandon Richardson Peace increased in 93 countries over the last year, compared to 68 in which it deteriorated, according to the recently released 2017 Global Peace Index. Iceland ranked the most peaceful country, followed by New Zealand. Syria was the least peaceful, after Iraq and Afghanistan. In the USA peace declined, ranking it number […]

I was drafted into the Israeli Army in 1987, at the beginning of the First Intifada. The most difficult thing was the arrests. One night we had to meet an agent from the security forces in order to find a wanted terrorist. My men surrounded a house and as we entered with our flashlights. People […]

With recent terror attacks in around the world, we wanted to know, from the perspective of peace-builders: What’s driving violent extremism? Melanie Greenberg, President and CEO of Alliance for Peacebuilding, said it’s important to distinguish between extremism and extreme violence. “…one of the arguments in the field right now, is ‘how do you know when […]

My name is Sulaiman Khatib. I was born and raised in the village of Hizme, northeast of Jerusalem; I now live in Ramallah, Palestine. Growing up, my family was badly impacted by the ongoing conflict; there was so much suffering all around me. I was determined to make a difference, but there was no peaceful […]

Being a woman in war-torn Afghanistan is difficult. Life expectancy is 52 years, the average woman has 6 live births, and 85% of women illiterate. But peace-builders say women are Afghanistan’s future. Digital Citizen Fund provides IT training for women and girls in Afghanistan, and has trained over 10,000 women in their I.T. centers in […]

Recent social media outlets have picked up on the current spate of sites aimed at changing the way Africa is perceived. Videos and images on Twitter, YouTube, and FaceBook, are promoting challenges to the stereotype of Africa as war-torn, violent nations of poverty-stricken people with little hope. Campaigns at #theafricathemedianevershowsyou, #changethenarrative, and #seeafricadifferently turn mainstream […]