As a national, nonpartisan, independent Institute, the U.S. Institute of Peace draws on our exceptional convening power to create opportunities for diverse audiences to exchange knowledge, experiences, and ideas necessary for creative solutions to difficult challenges. We serve as an important, neutral platform for bringing together government and nongovernment, diplomacy, security, and development actors, and participants across political views. The Institute’s events help shape public policy and priorities to advance peaceful solutions to conflict and strengthen international security.
Colombia’s government and the FARC movement achieved their September 23 breakthrough in peace negotiations by setting down basic principles on the rights of victims to truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-repetition. USIP’s Colombia Peace Forum, on September 30, analyzed the role of historical memory in these transitional justice issues.
On the United Nations-declared International Day of Peace, September 21, USIP highlighted an essential process for any country to heal from a violent conflict: reconciliation. USIP convened this reconciliation discussion as part of a daylong celebration of the international day of peace. If you took some action for peace, share it with us at #PeaceDayChallenge. Read the event coverage, Reconciliation as the Road to Durable Peace.
In early July, a group of 26 religious leaders of different faiths called on the negotiators to accelerate peace talks and offered to help lead the country toward reconciliation. On July 15, the U.S. Institute of Peace held a discussion with a group pursuing such work, the Ecumenical Group of Women Peacekeepers (GemPaz).
With Colombian public support waning for the peace talks between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the peace process can be strengthened by finding ways to engage a broader set of civil society stakeholders. One important group excluded so far, the Afro-Colombian population, is working to have its needs and proposals heard at the peace table. How can Afro-Colombians and other excluded groups enhance their participation in the process, and what are the risks if they cannot? The U.S. Institute of Peace held an event on May 26 that answered these questions in the Colombia Peace Forum series.
As lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) communities campaign for constitutional rights across the world, USIP gathered the United States’ new special envoy on the issue, along with international LGBTI activists, to discuss the movement and its future. Ambassador Randy Berry joined campaigners from South Africa, Ireland, Fiji, and Grenada in the May 26th forum, which was co-hosted by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).
From Iraq to Burma, from Peru to Yemen, from Nicaragua to Nepal, the personal stories of widows, children, workers, and soldiers often are lost in the cacophony of war. The U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a discussion and launch of "Speaking Their Peace: Personal Stories from the Frontlines of War and Peace," a book that tells the extraordinary stories of "ordinary" people from eleven conflict zones. This event included a moderated discussion with the book's author, Colette Rausch, and two members of the team that captured these memorable interviews, followed by a reception and book-signing session.
Amid Colombia’s half-century of armed conflict, with peace talks progressing, the government’s High Commissioner of Peace, Sergio Jaramillo, has called for building “paz territorial,” or “peace from the ground up.” This idea is meant to engage regional institutions, local authorities and diverse social sectors and communities in translating an eventual peace accord into practice. But much is still to be defined. Who will lead and organize the process? How is it to be supported logistically? On March 27, 2015, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a session of the Colombia Peace Forum to explore these and other questions with a panel of experts.
The U.S. Institute of Peace hosted Dr. Jelke Boesten on Wednesday, February 18, 2015, for a panel discussion on the implications of wartime sexual violence on the gender and power dynamics in post-conflict settings.
Peace negotiators seeking to end Colombia’s five-decade-long conflict are beginning to tackle the final issues, including how to reintegrate former insurgents into civilian life. On January 29th, the U.S. Institute of Peace held a discussion of this vexing question with experts including a former negotiator at the peace talks in Havana.
On January 5, USIP held a policy-level discussion about mission mandates for long-term, locally-owned solutions, the first in a series of conversations on advising as a means to provide foreign assistance and capacity building to partner countries.