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 by a staggering 80% since the same 5-month period from last year.
Read the full story on Good News Network here.
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 Post here, and The Guardian here.
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 was 6th and the USA ranked 121st.
Syria was the least peaceful country, followed by Afghanistan, South Sudan, Iraq and Somalia. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remained the world’s least peaceful region. It is home to four of the ten least peaceful countries in the world, with no country from the region ranked higher than 40th on the GPI. Europe, which has been the world’s most peaceful region since the inception of the index, deteriorated in peacefulness for the third straight year.
In the last decade peace has declined 2.38% on average, and the gap between the least and most peaceful countries continues to grow. Since 2008, the 25 least peaceful countries declined on average by 12.7 per cent, while the 25 most peaceful countries improved by 0.9 per cent on average.
Violence cost the global economy $14.76 trillion (PPP) in the last year alone. That’s 12.4% of the world’s GDP, or $1,988 per person. The index shows that in the last 70 years, per capita GDP growth has been three times higher in highly peaceful countries.
In one positive trend, Sub-Saharan Africa saw four of the five largest improvements in peacefulness this year and countries like The Gambia, Liberia and Iraq all improved.
For the full report, released by Vision of Humanity, see here.
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