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.
Central America: Can violence be reduced?
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 can be achieved with a broad approach, experts said in a discussion at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
Read the full analysis and commentary from USIP here.
Photo: U.S. Air Force
Facebook targets election hate speech
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 platform has been criticized for allowing the spread of hate speech online, and many peacebuilders have been addressing the impact of hate speech in conflicts around the world.
Kenya: Youth-led peacebuilding report released
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 critical partners, this report documents an initiative undertaken in Kenya in 2017 and 2018 and explores its utility and effectiveness as an approach for youth-led peacebuilding in marginalized communities marked by violent extremism.
Read the report summary here.
Can Serbia and Kosovo define their own peace?
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.
