Category Archives: Mideast

Amman, Jordan: #youth4peace – Redefining Youth as Peacebuilders

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article from Peace Is Sexy

There is a widespread perception that youth are trouble makers. Economists believe a large youth population to be problematic for a country. Police forces (notably in the US) distrust youth and often target youth. Youth are considered to be particularly susceptible to violent extremism. And even governments consider youth as too young and inexperienced to have any kind of value added in political participation.

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video of Global Forum

But there is a movement that is gaining traction to cast youth not as trouble makers, but as peace makers. And there is evidence to back it up. According to the 2015 Global Peace Index, “Poverty and youth bulges are typically considered risk factors for urban violence. However these factors were found not to be statistically significant in this study.”

Indeed, the Global Forum on Youth, Peace and Security which occurred on August 21 and 22 in Amman, Jordan was a watershed moment for shining light on how youth contribute to peace. The forum comes on the heels of Jordanian Crown Prince al Hussein bin Abdullah II, at the age of 20, being the youngest person to chair a UN Security Council meeting. Appropriately, the April 2015 session focused on discussing youth participation in peacebuilding and countering violent extremism.

The high point of the Global Forum was the adoption of the Amman Declaration which begins with the following:

We, young people from around the world, gathered here in Amman, Jordan on 21-22 August 2015 at the Global Forum on Youth, Peace and Security, express our commitment to live in a peaceful global society. Today, with more young people than ever globally, it is a demographic imperative to include us in working to achieve stability and security. […]

With this Declaration, we present a common vision and roadmap towards a strengthened policy framework to support us in transforming conflict, preventing and countering violence and building sustainable peace.

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Is there a renewed movement of solidarity by the new generation?

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This Declaration was developed by youth and is the outcome of an extensive consultation process with young people from all over the world to ensure an inclusive and integrated approach.

The Amman Declaration then builds upon existing frameworks including the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Guiding Principles on Young People’s Participation in Peacebuilding. It goes on to list four key pillars for implementation and list specific action items under each one:

– Youth Participation and Leadership in Issues of Peace and Security

– Youth Preventing Violence and Building Peace

– Gender Equality

– Young People’s Socio-Economic Empowerment

While the Global Forum is a highly visible event, it barely encapsulates the decades of work that the conference’s organizers, Search for Common Ground, United Network of Young Peacebuilders and UN Peacebuilding Support Office, let alone all the other actors in the field, have put into peacebuilding and empowering youth. Nor does it show what has been happening since the Forum: participants sharing the Amman Declaration in their home countries, teams monitoring the implementation of the declaration, the effort to get a UN Resolution passed based on the contents of the Amman Declaration and all the programs that youth peacebuilders continue to implement around the world.

Some of those youth-focused and youth-led peacebuilding programs were highlighted during the Global Forum. Participants heard from Yousef Assadiq, a young Norwegian who converted to Islam, became radicalized and now works to de-radicalize Muslims in Norway and prevent them from joining ISIS. Seventeen year-old Brenda Torres Garcia discussed her work with the National Movement of Children in Colombia and Victor Ochen shared his story of going from a child refugee in Uganda to an advocate for reconciliation and inclusion.

Perhaps one of the greatest achievements of the Global Forum on Youth, Peace and Security was to bring together not only youth and policy makers, but also youth from around the world who might not otherwise have the chance to exchange and learn from colleagues. For some, this was the first time they traveled outside their country. But now, thanks to the Facebook groups and listserves that have been created, they are highly plugged into a global youth-led movement for peace.

Search for #youth4peace on Twitter and on Facebook to see what participants themselves and doing and saying about the Forum and the Amman Declaration.

Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Letter of appreciation to the Palestinian Youth Orchestra

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

by Phyllis Kotite

“Music is the language of the spirit” –Khalil Gibran
 
May I express profound appreciation for the magnificent and outstanding performance of the PYO in Paris.  Having followed the evolution of these talented young musicians, ‘grace’ a Lena Saleh, have been astonished at the performances in the major European and Arab countries.  As a Lebanese Arab, and former United Nations staff inspired by classical music, am deeply proud of these creative young Palestinians whose talent enhances our great Arab heritage.  They were one of the best symphony orchestra’s I have ever heard !!  And the guest conductor was excellent also with his lively and harmonious style.

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You and your colleagues are to be congratulated on this brilliant initiative which has brought joy and pride to our beleagured region.  It is indeed remarkable that such beauty emerges from the oppression of occupation and sorrow.  Recalling the great poet Mahmoud Darwish:
 
   “I have found an opening to inscribe the national into the universal,so that Palestine does not limit itself to       Palestine, but finds her legitimate esthetics in a more vast human space.  The Middle East is the birthplace of mazcivilizations.Sumerian, Egyptian, Canaanian,…Mediterranean identity is universal”.
 
Indeed, this universal spirit was skillfully demonstrated by the PYO’s superb performance of composers from different cultures.  Having cooperated with numerous international development projects for Palestine, am certain that your future, your civic values and manner of governance will be a model for our region.
 
Mabruk mitte murra, bravo and sincerest gratitude for this moment of beauty, during this dreadful times for our region.   I hope we will meet one day.

 

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EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Mideast

A gathering of young peace-builders towards a strengthened policy framework on Youth, Peace and Security

. . TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY . .

An article by Meg Villanueva, based on the Forum website

On 21-22 August 2015, the first ever Global Forum on Youth, Peace and Security will bring together around 500 participants, including government representatives, practitioners and experts in peace and conflict work, youth activists and young peacebuilders from more than 100 countries. The Global Forum is a turning point towards a new international agenda on youth, peace and security. It stems from the themes debated at the Security Council Ministerial Debate on the Role of Youth in Countering Violent Extremism and Promoting Peace, organized by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan during its presidency of the Security Council, on 23 April 2015. The forum will build on the on-going efforts by a multiplicity of actors to decisively step-up global attention to young people’s positive contribution to peace and chart a common agenda.

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For the first gathering of this kind, young people, youth-led organizations, non-governmental organizations, governments and UN entities will come together to agree on a common vision and roadmap to partner with young people in preventing conflict, countering violent extremism and building lasting peace. The Global Forum will be hosted by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan under the Patronage of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II, and co-organized by the United Nations represented, on behalf of the Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development (IANYD), by Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, Peacebuilding Support Office, UNFPA and UNDP, in partnership with Search for Common Ground and the United Network of Young Peacebuilders.
One of the expected outcomes of this forum is the Amman Declaration, which will present young people’s vision and roadmap towards a strengthened policy framework in support of young people’s roles in preventing and transforming conflict, countering violent extremism and building peace. This Amman Declaration is entirely developed by young people, building on the Guiding Principles for Young People’s Participation in Peacebuilding (bit.ly/1Jz90F6 or bit.ly/1GPQ1QO). UNOY Peacebuilders is coordinating the drafting of the Amman Declaration, and has involved a lot of young people from all over the world, through written consultations, questionnaires and focus-group discussions.
The Forum will engage participants in conversations on key policy recommendations towards a new international agenda on youth, peace and security, which will be captured in a final Declaration. This forum will provide a platform for exchange of experiences, innovative ideas and programmatic frameworks that work. To learn more about the key topics to be discussed, as well as inspiring young speakers, please visit https://www.unteamworks.org/Youth4Peace.

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Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Algeria: Seminar on Islam and rejection of violence on 12 and 13 August in Laghouat

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article from the Algérie Press Service

Islam and rejection of violence, is the theme of the 10th seminar Abdeldjebbar Tidjani, scheduled for August 12 and 13 at the headquarters of zaouia Tidjania in Ain-Madhi (Laghouat). This was announced Thursday by officials of the zaouia. They indicated that the meeting will be attended by Shuyukh and teachers from different regions of the country, and it will be devoted to the path of Islam in the rejection of violence and the remedy of its causes.

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The participants in this religious event will address several issues, including “violence: the phenomenon and its meaning”, “the clash of civilizations and violence”, “moderate religious discourse and awareness”, and “the media and their role in awareness and spreading the culture of peace and tolerance “, said the organizers.

The theme for this year’s Tidjani Abdeldjebbar seminar is motivated by the “alarming and disturbing proportion” taken by this phenomenon which is “alien to Muslim society.” Hence the need to alert and warn against its spread and infiltration in society, they said.

The objective of this seminar since its inception has been to “raise awareness and spread culture and knowledge in society,” according to organizers.

This seminar is named after Abdeldjebbar Tidjani, the 10th General Caliph of the tariqa (brotherhood) Tidjania over the period 1991 to 2005, who died at the age of 85.

Tariqa Tidjania was founded in 1781 in Boussemghoune by Sidi Ahmed Tijani (1737-1815), and it has millions of followers worldwide.

(Click here for the original French version of this article.)

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Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Morocco: World Summit for the promotion of peace

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article by Driss Lyakoubi, Le Matin (translation by CPNN)

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The youth of Kenitra are mobilizig to promote the values ​​of peace and solidarity between peoples, through the World Summit for the promotion of peace and social development, organized by the Ibn Tufail University in partnership with the wilaya of Gharb Chrarda Beni Hssen and the association “Dar Lakbira “.

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This event brings together nearly 120 participants from 32 nationalities from around the world. It is an opportunity for reflection and exchange between young international leaders on topics related to the values ​​of humanism and solidarity. According to its initiators, the World Summit for the promotion of peace and social development is a unique event, designed to broaden the perspectives of international youth on the most pressing issues of the world through positive dialogue, cooperative and constructive.

This is a vision shared by Zineb El Adaoui, the Wali (governor) of the region of Gharb Chrarda Beni Hssen, who reminds us of the supreme interest granted by the Kingdom to the universal values ​​of peace, tolerance, dialogue and solidarité. Azzeddine Midaoui, president of the University Ibn Tofail, paid tribute to the young academic leaders of the association “Dar Lekbira” for the work that led to the organization of this unique gathering in the capital of Gharb. He commended, in this regard, the ties of cooperation that link the university Ibn Tofail and “Dar Lekbira” to promote the values ​​of social solidarity and openness. He highlighted the role of the University in anchoring the values ​​of peace and otherness among youth.

The president of the association “Dar Lekbira” Zinelabidine Taoussi, for his part, said that Moroccan youth had followed the footsteps of his ancestors, that of the consecration of peace and development for the benefit of all countries and peoples of the planet. It should be noted that the World Summit for the promotion of peace and social development, as has been announced by the various stakeholders, is the ideal opportunity for participants to explore cooperation opportunities for project initiation promoting innovative culture of peace, non-violence and social justice in their respective countries and around the world. A charter of principles will also be developed during this global youth forum to strengthen the ideals of peace and social justice within and among all nations and peoples of the world. This reflected the common vision of all summit participants from the world they hope for future generations.

The World Summit for the promotion of peace and social development has set as its main objectives the promotion of the culture of peace and nonviolence in international youth and strengthening youth culture of leadership in areas related to the building of peace and social development. There is also question of strengthening the role of youth in building inclusive societies, peaceful and resilient and the establishment of an international network of young leaders with the ability to serve their communities through innovative community projects.

(Click here for the original French version of this article) )

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FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Mideast

Women in Israel Fasting to Mark Gaza Anniversary

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article by Rochelle G. Saidel and Sonja M. Hedgepeth, Womens E-News

A group of women from the Women Wage Peace movement in Israel have been holding a vigil outside the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem since last week, part of their 50-day fast to mark the anniversary of last summer’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.

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Hadar Kluger at the Women Wage Peace tent near the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem. Credit: Sonja M. Hedgepeth

The group of Israeli Jewish and Arab women are calling upon the government of Israel to return to the negotiating table and initiate a resumption of the peace talks with Israel’s neighbors as the only way to ensure a safe and secure future for today and future generations.

Most of the women are wearing the organization’s white T-shirts with the turquoise and black “Women Wage Peace” logo in Hebrew, Arabic and English.

The women are taking turns fasting, and those who do so are also wearing small turquoise signs around their necks that say “I am fasting.” Every day at 11 a.m. the women ending their fasting period give these tags to the next group of fasting women.

The group’s numbers are hard to know since the fasters come and go. There are at least a couple of dozen and they could number as many as 60.

The movement, which is much larger than those staging this fast, was founded after last summer’s Gaza operation when thousands of Israeli women rose up and said “No more!” They state that their symbolic action is not a protest, but a sign of the support for a creative initiative towards a political self-sustaining agreement.

One participant, Hadar Kluger, told us: “Arab-Israeli women are part of this movement from all over the country and we share a common understanding. We should create an understanding between left, right and center that keeping negotiations and going back to the table is a shared goal. This is the first level. Most people want peace and quiet and this can increase hope.”

The group’s mission statement says its main goals are to influence politicians and opinion makers to work vigilantly towards achieving a political agreement, as well as to give women leadership roles in planning, decision-making and the negotiating process.

Rochelle G. Saidel is founder and executive director of Remember the Women Institute and was named a Women’s eNews 21 Leaders for the 21st Century in 2015. Sonja M. Hedgepeth is a professor at Middle Tennessee State University.

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Mideast, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

Malala marks 18th birthday by opening school for girl refugees in Lebanon

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Human Rights Activist and Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai has marked her 18th birthday with a renewed commitment to refugees and education by inaugurating a school for more than 200 Syrian girls living in refugee camps in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

Malala
Education activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai celebrates her 18th birthday in Lebanon with Syrian refugees. Malala opened a new school in the Bekaa Valley funded by the Malala Fund, the non-profit she co-founded with her father Ziauddin.
©HUMAN for the Malala Fund/M. Fezehai

Opening The Malala Yousafzai All-Girls School on Sunday (July 12), she said: “I am honoured to mark my 18th birthday with the brave and inspiring girls of Syria. I am here on behalf of the 28 million children who are kept from the classroom because of armed conflict. Their courage and dedication to continue their schooling in difficult conditions inspires people around the world and it is our duty to stand by them.”

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres welcomed the initiative.
“We are really heartened by Malala’s ardent support for the education of refugee girls whose aspirations have already been so cruelly cut short by war. These children are the future of Syria; we must not jeopardise that by denying them the basic right to education while they are in exile,” he said.

Malala, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, was attacked in her native Pakistan in 2012 because of her campaign for girls’ rights and education. The new school will offer education and skills training to girl refugees aged 14 to 18.

“Whenever I ask a Syrian refugee child what they would most like to do, the overwhelming response is ‘I want to go to school.’,” Guterres added. “In Malala, we could not have a better advocate for refugee education and are very grateful for her solidarity and support.”

Yousafzai added that she believed world leaders were failing Syria’s children.

“On this day, I have a message for the leaders of this country, this region and the world: ‘you are failing the Syrian people, especially Syria’s children’. This is a heart-breaking tragedy — the world’s worst refugee crisis in decades.”

Lebanon is hosting nearly 1.2 million registered Syrian refugees, though the total number in the country may be even higher.

The influx has placed strains on Lebanon, which has just four million citizens.

UNHCR itself has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on two occasions, the last time in 1981.

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article.)

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EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Mideast

Egypt: Women’s Voices Initiative for the Local Councils

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY .

Press release from Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights

The local councils are the cornerstone of political life, as they are directly responsible for all the services and the living conditions of citizens. Given the importance of the local councils, the 2014 Constitution granted new powers and parliamentary monitoring tools, so that the members of the local councils can effectively monitor the executive authority and ensure their accountability.

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Press conference by the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights, Cairo, March 20, 2015

The 2014 Constitution allocates that 25% of the local councils’ seats for women and 25% of seats for young people (young men and women) under the age of 35. This means women are allocated 13,000 seats, which is almost one third of the local councils. Therefore, it is necessary to unite the efforts of all societal organizations, including political parties, civil society organizations and initiatives to build the capacities and support women to become members of the local councils.

From this perspective, ECWR launches an initiative titled “Women Voices for the Local Councils.” This initiative seeks building the capacities and coordinating the efforts of active young women in the society in order to prepare a generation of young women leaders.

The initiative aims to:

Build the capacities of 1000 young women leaders from all Egypt’s 27 governorates to become members of the local councils.

Raise the awareness on the importance of the local councils.

Raise the awareness on the importance of women’s participation in the local councils

Female candidates would be selected according to the following criteria:

The age between 21 to 35

Young women active in public work through either being a member of a political party, NGO, youth initiative and are clearly active in their governorates.

To be provided with a Training of Trainers (TOT)

Each village, city, and governorate will be represented during the selection process

Educational attainment of the women should be a minimum of a diploma

Thereby, ECWR welcomes any nominations from political parties, civil society organizations, or initiatives for women with the aforementioned criteria.

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Mideast, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

The Elders welcome Iranian nuclear agreement as boost to Middle East peace

DISARMAMENT AND SECURITY .

A press release by The Elders

14 July 2015: The Elders warmly congratulate all the parties to the nuclear talks on the successful conclusion of these marathon negotiations.

The delegations and their political leaders have shown determination and tenacity to overcome the many obstacles in their path and arrive at an agreement which, if implemented in full and in good faith, could lead to a significant improvement in regional stability and security.

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Kofi Annan, Chair of The Elders, said:

“The people and the countries of the world can be grateful for the courage, commitment and persistence shown by the negotiators and their governments, and for the hope that this agreement has brought.”

“It is vital that tangible and early progress is now made on implementation, in particular on watertight verification mechanisms and the lifting of sanctions on Iran.”

The Elders call on all those who continue to resist or work against this ground-breaking agreement to put aside ideological preconceptions, historical grievances and narrow political interests, and see it as a chance to further the wider aims of peace.

The Elders urge the parties to the agreement and other regional powers to seize this opportunity to build on the goodwill and progress achieved to help tackle the religious extremism and deep sectarian divisions, which are creating enormous human suffering and massive devastation throughout the Middle East.

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How can a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Mideast

Addressing terrorism: A theory of change approach

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

Excerpts from an essay by Paul Lederach in Somalia: Creating space for fresh approaches to peace building

Introduction

The recent “Holder vs. Humanitarian Law Project” U.S. Supreme Court decision of June 21, 2010 has sharpened the debate about engagement with blacklisted groups and has directly impacted the wider communities where designated foreign terrorist groups operate. Anti-terror legislation has consequences and relevance for peacebuilding organizations . . .

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click on image to enlarge

since 9/11 and even more with the “Holder vs Humanitarian Law Project” decision we have witnessed a divide emerging between two competing theories of change. The designated foreign terrorists list proposes a change strategy based on isolation. Peacebuilding proposes a strategy of engagement. . .

Conclusion

. . . I would make the case that isolation in the form of wide ranging terrorist lists was driven by desire to control future acts of terrorism. But the approach has little, if any, clear projections of a theory of change that addresses the complexity around the different contexts where it has been applied. It seeks to control violence in the short term but does not suggest how as strategy it contributes to desired change in the mid to long-term. Engagement as an approach includes concrete ideas about change over the mid and longer-term but does not have within its purview specific strategies aimed at controlling or preventing a particular act of terrorism in the short-term. Its purpose is not policing. Engagement strategies seek to change the conditions from which violence emerges, to locate and create the opportunities that make that change possible.

Policy recommendations

• Delineate with greater specificity the theory of change that supports terrorist listings with a particular focus on how it will meaningfully and strategically engage the affected populations. The assessment of the basic theory requires a careful compilation of evidence that assesses, in particular, whether it has increased or decreased a capacity to recruit, solidified or weakened more extremist leadership, and provided for shifts in the wider population toward nonviolent strategies of social change.

• Develop a clear end-game scenario for how geographies most affected or controlled by designated organizations will shift the justifying narratives and behavior from violence (and the use of terrorism in particular) toward nonviolent processes. This requires a specific strategy for how isolation contributes to constructive shifts in the wider civil society most affected by the terrorist listings.

• Based on what now appears to be compelling evidence, pinpoint how isolation of leaders (similar for example to policing approaches for criminal behavior) combines with robust engagement of local populations.

• Develop strategies that constructively impact the rise of second tier and secondary leadership. Given that many of these movements rely heavily on youth, a strategy that strategically approaches the growth of new and alternative leadership requires significant and varied approaches to engagement. Isolation as a blanket policy seems to hold little, if any, strategy for how alternative or future leaders will be different.

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Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY