News and Insight

Over the last 25 years we’ve worked with partners in conflict-affected contexts to support inclusive and sustainable peace. We’ve found that an intersectional approach to gender-sensitive conflict analysis – one that includes masculinities – can help understand and address the power imbalances among and between women, men and other gender identities that drive or contribute to violence. 
 

News that the two nuclear powers of India and Pakistan have agreed to observe a ceasefire across the Line of Control was an unexpected turn in Kashmir’s long history of conflict. It’s a small step in the right direction in one of the most militarised regions of the world. But for a lasting and sustainable peace in Kashmir, the people living at the centre of this conflict need to be involved in building their own future.

You had to look for it, but buried deep in the UK’s Integrated Review is the acknowledgement that during the coming decade “conflict and instability will continue to pose a major test to global security and resilience”. Teresa Dumasy argues that we must do more to address this challenge.

Exclusion from decision-making, economic opportunity and access to basic services leads to inequalities that can be both a cause and effect of conflict.

The UK Government’s Integrated Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy Review, published this month, sets out the UK’s vision and approach to national security and international policy through to 2030. The Review includes some positive ambitions for peace and security, but there are already signs that words may not translate into effective action.

When opportunities to kickstart or re-start peace processes arise, knowing how to seize and sustain these moments is key. In this webinar, hosted with the United States Institute of Peace, we explore how and under what conditions diverse stakeholders to conflict - such as non-violent movements, mediation support actors and conflict parties themselves - can seize opportunities to build early peace processes in the midst of challenging conflict contexts.

Conciliation Resources has appointed six new members to its Board of Trustees: Christine Cheng, Nesta Hatendi, Dorothee Hutter, Jamille Jinnah, Liz Muir and Lucy Salek.

A new online database of women mediators has been launched today, designed to enable more women to play crucial roles in peace and mediation processes around the world.

It was witnessing the devastation of the Somalia conflict that convinced Florence Mpaayei she wanted to become a peacebuilder. Living in neighbouring Kenya, she felt the ripples of unrest that spread throughout the region in its aftermath, including the Rwandan genocide.

On 27 September 2020, an entrenched dynamic of escalation culminated in an all-out war between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the contested territory of Nagorny Karabakh. As many as 7,000 were killed in action on all sides. More than 170 civilians, a majority of them Azerbaijanis, were also killed. Some 130,000 were displaced from their homes, the majority of them Armenians in Nagorny Karabakh.

On 9 November, a Russian-brokered ceasefire declaration was signed, mandating the deployment of some 2,000 Russian peacekeepers to the region. Through a series of interviews and articles, our South Caucasus Programme Director, Laurence Broers, analysed the developing conflict, the humanitarian crisis, the ceasefire declaration and what’s next for relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Peace and mediation processes have evolved rapidly over the past decade. How they are funded has a major impact on how effective such processes are. This webinar brought together peace practitioners with government and philanthropic donors to share insights, lessons and experiences of current practice for funding peacebuilding.

Conciliation Resources is saddened to learn of the passing of Senator Mohamed Yusuf Haji this morning in Nairobi. The organisation has worked closely with Senator Haji since 2012 in his capacity as the chairman of the Government of Kenya team, spearheading the peace talks between the Government of Ethiopia and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). Conciliation Resources was invited by the Kenya team to provide technical assistance to the peace process.