Geneva Peace Week

Nov 16, 2015 - Nov 20, 2015 | Geneva Peacebuilding Platform
Geneva, Switzerland
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Geneva Peace Week 2015 is the umbrella for 33 events organized by 41 organizations. All events resulted from a public call for submissions of events to contribute in two programme tracks. The Main Programmehas beendeveloped collaboratively between UNOG, the founding partners of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform (CCDP, GCSP, Interpeace, QUNO), organizations hosted in the Maison de la Paix, and the University of Geneva.  The Side Events Programmereflectsevents organized by Permanent Missions, International Organizations, and non-governmental organizations in consultative status with ECOSOC. Overall, Geneva Peace Week has encouraged event partnerships across institutions and sectors.

 Key points

  • 35 events focusing on the cross-cutting nature of peace organized by 46 institutions.
  • Geneva Peace Week highlights that each and every person, actor and institution has a role to play in building peace. It also highlights the importance of working outside the silos that all-too-often characterize the international community to enable more creative responses in a variety of contexts.
  • Events focus on substantive and original contributions about building peace and resolving conflict. Each event is owned by its respective organizers.
  • Participants to Geneva Peace Week must follow the registration procedure noted in the detailed event descriptions.
  • Geneva Peace Week is a collective action initiative facilitated by the United Nations Office at Geneva and the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform.

 Why Geneva Peace Week?

Geneva is home to a large number of international organizations, including more than 40 United Nations entities, a thriving community of non-governmental organizations and renowned academic and research institutions. Together, all these actors work for peace, rights and well-being, touching the lives of individuals across the world. Geneva Peace Week offers an opportunity to connect and highlight the work of these actors and to expand the space for dialogue about building peace and resolving conflict. 

What is Geneva Peace Week?

By synchronizing meetings on different topics related to the promotion of peace during one week, Geneva Peace Week maximizes synergies between organizations in Geneva, focused on the cross-cutting nature of peace. Geneva Peace Week underlines that each and every person, actor and institution has a role to play in building peace and resolving conflict. It also highlights that peace promotion occurs in many different contexts and cuts across disciplines and sectors. In this sense, Geneva Peace Week highlights the importance of working outside the silos that all-too-often characterize the international community to enable more creative responses.

Natural Resources and Conflict: A Mediated Solution

 Tuesday, 17 November 2015, 15:00-17:00

Room VII, Palais des Nations

 Organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Department of Political Affairs’ (UNDPA) Mediation Support Unit (MSU), and the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG)

 Registration: Please register with Amanda Kron (amanda.kron@unep.org) by 13 November 2015, COB.

 Programme:

Session 1 Speakers

  • Michael Møller, Director General of the United Nations Office at Geneva
  • Päivi Kairamo, Ambassador of Finland to the United Nations in Geneva
  • Henrik Slotte, Chief, Post-Conflict and Disaster Management Branch,United Nations Environment Programme

Moderator: Enrico Formica, Senior Mediation Officer, UNDPA/UNOG

Session 2 Speakers

  • Alan Doss, Executive Director of the Kofi Annan Foundation and former Special Representative to the Secretary General
  • Michael Brown, Senior natural resources specialist and mediation expert, Professor of Practice in Natural Resources Conflict Mediation at McGill University
  • Isabelle Brissette, Manager of Security Risk and Human Rights, Rio Tinto
  • Renée Larivière, Deputy Director-General, Interpeace

 Moderator: David Jensen, Head of Environmental Cooperation for Peacebuilding, United Nations Environment Programme

UNDPA, UNEP and UNOG are co-hosting a high-level panel to discuss good practices in the mediation of resource disputes and to recommend how the UN system can improve its capacity on conflict management and resolution linked to natural resources. The event also serves to promote the new joint UNDPA-UNEP report: Natural Resources and Conflict. A Guide for Mediation Practitioners. The panel will consider high-value resources such as oil and minerals, as well as water and land. It will address resource conflicts at the local level as well as resources in the context of larger peace processes and peace agreements.

 The Existential Threat of Climate Change and Nuclear Weapons: The Marshall Islands Experience and Action in the International Court Of Justice

 Tuesday,17 November 2015, 10.00-12.00

Main Meeting Room, Inter-Parliamentary Union,(IPU) Headquarters

Organized by the World Future Council, the Basel Peace Office, and the Right-Livelihood Award Foundation

Speakers

  • Selina Neirok Leem, Marshall Islands student at the University of Freiberg, Germany
  • Daniel Rietiker, President of the Association of Swiss Lawyers for Nuclear Disarmament, Winterthur, Switzerland
  • Rob van Riet, Coordinator Peace and Disarmament at the World Future Council, London, United Kingdom
  • Alyn Ware, Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferati on and Disarmament, 2009 Right Livelihood Award Laureate

Nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands have had a trans-generational health impact and forced the evacuation of whole populations. Now the rising oceans may wash even more radioactive waste into the oceans and force the entire country to evacuate. This panel will discuss actions Marshallese are taking on these two threats to humanity including a case they have taken to the International Court of Justice.

Mining Communities in Post-Conflict Settings: New Challenges and Opportunities for Peacebuilding

 Tuesday,17 November 2013, 13:30-15:00

United Nations Library, Building B, Palais des Nations

 Organized by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and Friedrich-Ebert Foundation (FES)

Registration: Please register your attendance with Noreen Eberle at neberle@fes-geneva.org by 10 November 2015 COB.

 Speakers

  • Anuarite Ketu Chikwanine, Project Manager Dynamique Femme et Mines, South Kivu, DRC: “The Gender Challenge for Mining Communities in Transition from Conflict to Post-Conflict”.
  • Raoul Kitungano, Director of the NGOs and Networks: Justice for All, Asbl,Bukavu, South Kivu, DRC: “Artisanal Mining Communities and Illegal Cross-Border Trade of Natural Resources in Times of Peace and War”
  • Sandra Krähenmann, Geneva Academy, “Conflict free mining”12

 The workshop gives voice to actors from institutions normally absent from the international arena. More specifically, grassroots organizers from mining communities from the Eastern DRC will present their experiences with the intervention in the natural resource sector as their society and fragile state are moving towards a post-war future. The proposed debate targets UN diplomats, experts from international organizations and from civil society who are interested in the challenges for extractive industries governance at the transition from armed conflict into a post-conflict setting.