News and Insight

It is nearly ten years since the beginning of the Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria. Conciliation Resources and The Kukah Centre interviewed over 1,000 people living in the region to ask about their views on the current response and what they thought was needed for peace.

Participation of women and other excluded groups in peace talks and political bargaining is important for sustainable peace. Clear opportunities to support gender inclusion exist in all phases of a peace process – before, during and after a peace agreement. 

Asida Shakryl was the co-director of The Center for Humanitarian Programmes, one of Conciliation Resources’ longest standing partners in the Caucasus. She shares her positive experience of peacebuilding through partnership.

This week, Rev. Peter Price steps down as the Chair of the Board of Trustees at Conciliation Resources. We spoke to him about his time as Chair of Conciliation Resources, and what he thinks makes for peace.

New research from Conciliation Resources reveals that the majority of people living in the states most affected by the Boko Haram insurgency in northeastern Nigeria, support the idea of talking to elements of the armed group to negotiate a lasting end to the conflict.

Marina Elbakidze is Project Coordinator at the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development (CIPDD). She talks about the importance of peacebuilding partnerships in the Georgian-Abkhaz context.

Inclusive societies are more resilient and less prone to violent conflict, and achieving greater inclusion is a widely accepted peacebuilding goal. What’s less obvious however, is the journey people in less equal and inclusive societies need to take to get there.

On May 2 the Basque organisation ETA publicly announced its dissolution, 50 years after claiming its first victim. During its lifespan the organisation has left a bloody trail of more than 800 killings. Throughout the past few years, Conciliation Resources has been supporting the Social Forum and other civil society organisations in working to end the armed struggle.

This week, Conciliation Resources hosted a delegation in London representing the newly established Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence, and Non-Repetition in Colombia.

The ongoing instability in the Central African Republic (CAR) is not a religious conflict. There are undoubtedly some religious elements to it, but the popular story that it is an intractable war of Muslims versus Christians – of former Séléka rebels versus anti-Balaka vigilantes – is far too simplistic.

After more than 50 years of war, Colombia is now 16 months in to the implementation of an historic peace agreement.

This month, a meeting of the global Mediation Support Network explored the roles mediation and mediation support can play, once a peace agreement has been signed. Felix Colchester outlines some of the challenges and opportunities for mediation in this phase of a peace agreement.