09 December, 2009
GENDER EQUALITY IN PEACEBUILDING PROJECTS
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SUMMARY: The study session organized and implemented by UNOY Peacebuilders, Peace Dialogue NGO, Peace Action Training and Research Institute of Romania, in cooperation with the Council of Europe was held in the European Youth Center in Budapest from November 29th-December 6th with the participation of 29 participants from different parts of Europe as well as Egypt, Kenya, and Pakistan.
During the study session, aimed to exploring how youth peace NGOs can address and challenge gender inequality when implementing projects and activities, participants had the opportunity to attend a number of different topics such as Gender Concepts through the Human Rights Lens; Gender, Youth and Peace; Gender Sensitive Project Management; Gender Mainstreaming; and were given resources to develop gender projects. Participants also developed ideas on follow-up networking projects.
As a valuable basis for the whole study session the implementation team perceived the use of cultural diversity to challenge existing gender roles, individual perspectives of participants towards gender, their experience on work related to gender, youth, and peace building, and gender’s place in daily life as deserving special attention. For that reason the implementation team did its best to plan a tentative program every day according to the needs of participants, evaluated and changed at the end of each day as necessary. Every day the implementation team fitted the optimal methodology to deliver each day’s training course to the needs of the participants. Space was given to participants to deliver their own workshops on gender issues that, according to participants, gave them the greatest opportunity to get to know each other and each other’s work in their countries and regions better. Apart from that, participants were given space to get answers to questions that came up during sessions from their peers in order to facilitate peer-to-peer learning.
Most of the participants have indicated that their participation in the study session gave them energy, knowledge, tools, and contacts in different parts of Europe that they hope to use in their daily activities for peace building.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, accompanied by his wife and representatives of the Russian government, arrived in Yerevan on August 19 on a state visit to cement the Russo-Armenian military alliance with a new defence agreement. During his visit he also took part in unofficial summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). 
“The Role of Youth from the South Caucasus in Peaceful Resolution of Conflicts: Possibilities of Participation” youth seminar was held in Kutaisi on the 1st and 2nd of May by the Sukhumi Foundation. The aim of the seminar was to actively involve youth in peace building processes. The seminar was organized with the support of OMNIBUS 1325 International Peacebuilding Network and was one of several seminars organized by the network within the framework of peace building issues within the region. 
From 1st-2nd of May, 2010 in the city of Kutaisi, Georgia a training session called “The Role of Youth from the South Caucasus in Peaceful Resolution of Conflicts: Possibilities of Participation” will be organized. The goal of the training course is to unite youth from the South Caucasus in order to make them active participants in the peace processes. 
The Peace Action, Training and Research Institute of Romania (PATRIR) is recognized as a leading organisation in the fields of peacebuilding, conflict transformation, violence prevention and post-war recovery.