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, scheduled for April 20 next year.
Read the full story here.
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 all sides around the negotiating table.
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 recent peace deal means to South Sudanese here.
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 society leaders—in peace processes.
Read the full opinion piece from Foreign Policy here.
With so much disunity across the United States, it can be difficult to find common ground. But one organization is taking steps to bring people together.
After working for 40 years to bring peace around the world, Paula Green co-founded Hands Across the Hills, bringing Liberals and Conservatives together to speak about their differences and similarities. The gatherings allowed the group of around 30 individuals to humanize each other.
Green and her organization won the first annual Melanie Greenberg Peacebuilding Award in 2018, at the annual Alliance for Peacebuilding conference, PeaceCon2018.
“The rising dehumanization perceptions of each other, and the development of good versus evil narratives was going to be very toxic for our country,” Green said at the conference.
“And it seemed to me that to any extent that I could create a program that would increase connectors and reduce dividers, seemed really worth doing.”
Hands Across the Hills brought conservatives from Kentucky and liberals from Massachusetts together in each of their states for two three-day intensive programs. In each of these communities they were able to share personal and political experiences. Green plans to take the organization to South Carolina in January 2019 to have conversations about race.
“One of the Kentucky women remarked ‘I was taught to hate and fear refugees and immigrants. I never met one. I will never think that way again.’,” Green said.
Green highlighted five key points for peacebuilding on the ground in the USA:
#1 Finding a community partner
#2 Hosting a multi-day residential format
#3 Preparing and Engaging
#4 Challenging tribalism
#5 Moving into action
“It just seems to be incumbent upon all of us that we put our hands into this US peacebuilding now, and use our wisdom and our talents to make the changes that we need here in our own country,” Green said.
Peace News Network aims to present stories from conflict zones we often don’t hear. Our stories are about people taking risks for peace. We highlight the opinions of ordinary people who want non-violent solutions to their political differences. Our stories aren't always about shootings and explosions, but they do tell you stories from war zones that hopefully go some way towards building trust and reconciliation.
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