© 2024. IMAGE SOURCE: ISTOCKPHOTO

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In places where tension is a constant backdrop and the threat of escalating conflict is always present, the need for initiatives that build peace is undeniable. Especially for the younger generation, stepping into the realm of peacebuilding is both a critical and daunting task. Their projects need to navigate the complex balance between doing no harm, staying relevant to their contexts, and overcoming societal pressures that might silence their calls for peace. This was the central theme of a workshop organized by Peace Dialogue NGO, part of the Contact 3.0 project, aimed at addressing these challenges. The workshop, titled “Obtaining Effective Methodology for Designing Peacebuilding Local Initiatives,” took place from March 2 to March 3, 2024, and focused on deepening young participants’ understanding of peacebuilding, its challenges, and strategies for creating impactful local initiatives.

The first day of the workshop served as an introduction to the basics of peacebuilding for the 10 participants. They learned about UN Resolution 2250 on “Youth, Peace, and Security,” which emphasizes goals like involvement, protection, and cooperation. The participants were also exposed to various tools and methods for analyzing conflicts, aiming to equip them with the knowledge needed to address peacebuilding challenges effectively. This session encouraged them to share their thoughts on obstacles to peace they’ve encountered in their lives, facilitating a discussion on common stereotypes and challenges.

On the second day, the atmosphere shifted towards collaboration and creativity. Participants brainstormed ideas for initiatives that could foster critical thinking, increase political participation, and empower young people through innovative approaches. The Contact 3.0 team was there to guide them through defining their project goals, identifying their target audience, and assessing potential risks. With this support, the young participants developed strategies to mitigate these risks, ensuring their projects could move forward responsibly.

This workshop highlighted the importance of thoughtful preparation and support for youth-led peace initiatives by promoting a deeper understanding of peacebuilding, strategic planning, and mutual empowerment.

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The workshop was implemented in the scope of the project Contact 3.0.

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Peace Dialogue NGO invites young people from Lori region to participate in its new initiative Brainstorming Theatre.

It is implemented within the framework of the Contact 3.0 project led by Peace Dialogue NGO and German organization OWEN. This initiative aims to identify and develop the potential of young people to take active initiative and bring about positive change in their communities. Brainstorming Theatre is one of the actions in this direction, with the objective of forming public demand for civil activism among the youth of Lori region, as well as drawing interest in engaging in various local projects. With this initiative, we seek to encourage young people to think critically and contribute to building their desired future.

It is planned to hold 10-12 meetings, each lasting 2-3 hours (including a coffee break), in Vanadzor (Lori region) during the months of July-August 2023. The initiative will consist of interactive games, theater exercises, and improvisations that will promote group work efficiency and creativity.

To participate in Brainstorming Theater, please fill out the following application.

We inform you that the data mentioned by you will not be published and will not be provided to any other third party.

The deadline to apply for the project is June 26, 2023.

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Project’s German Partner – OWEN – Mobile Akademie für Geschlechterdemokratie und Friedensförderung e.V.

The project CONTACT 2.0 is supported by the zivik (Civil Conflict Resolution) programme of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa) with means from the German Federal Foreign Office.

 

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© 2023. IMAGE SOURCE: https://www.istockphoto.com

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By Nikola Turiere (France)

From 8 to 12 May 2023 in Tbilisi, Peace Dialogue NGO in partnership with the German organization OWEN, implemented a kick-off International Reflection Meeting as part of its new project CONTACT 3.0. Involving young activists from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Germany, these series of workshops aimed at understanding personal and dominant national narratives through the lens of young civil society members in conflict-affected areas and striving to identify needs- and human-centered topics on which they would like to work in the future with the communities they are coming from. During the encounter, in addition to the International Reflection Meeting, the project team and the participants planned next steps of the project and reflected upon the implementation of peace-oriented projects in Armenia and Azerbaijan.

• Understanding personal, national, and regional narratives linked to war / conflict perception in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Germany;
• Integrating the human security approach to peacebuilding, as a people-centered approach;
• Identifying and analyzing the obstacles that prevent youth from getting active in local initiatives.
• Developing ideas for local projects to be organized by young actors in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Germany in the upcoming months of the project.

By using interactive methods and working in groups, participants gained different perspectives on war and conflict narratives, both at the individual and regional level, and on the situation in the South Caucasus region as well as in the Western part of the Post-Soviet area and Germany. This focus on narratives allowed the participants to get a broader picture of the impact of the conflict and to raise awareness on confidence and trust-building topics for promoting peacebuilding efforts in conflict-affected societies. The various discussions on narratives gave deep insights on discourse shifts and enabled participants to critically question their own vision of both their personal narratives and the main narratives spread in their respective societies.

These discussions were completed by a human security workshop delivered by a field expert from Georgia, raising the importance of enriching peacebuilding and human rights fields by human-centered approaches rather than focusing only on state-centered security issues. Participants reflected upon how they can put into practice this theoretical approach in their local projects to be implemented in their particular contexts.

This series of workshops ended by a group work aimed at analyzing the obstacles preventing youth from getting active in local initiatives. These reflections helped the participants from Armenia and Azerbaijan to take the first step in designing project ideas to implement further in their respective contexts. In the course of the encounter, more precisions and reflections were added to the work from previous project phases, integrating all the work the participants did during the event. Throughout the upcoming five months, the key actors of the project will lead the local initiatives involving young people from their own communities to develop interest towards relevant topics and empower them to engage in and build sustainable and trustful relationships in their communities.

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PHOTO SOURCE: HTTPS://POLICE.NK.AM/

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07 March 2023

We, the following civil society organizations of Armenia, request the international partners to strongly and unequivocally condemn the killing of three servicemen of the Passport and Visa Department of the Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Nagorno-Karabakh by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces on 5 March 2023.

We believe that an organized attack of this nature could take place only upon the instruction and patronage of the highest leadership of Azerbaijan. It is corroborated by the fact that instead of ensuring an independent investigation into the actions, the official Baku came up with its own narrative to justify the killings, presenting it as a reaction to an attempt of “transportation of military equipment, ammunition and personnel” from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh․ To note, the Armenian officials have suggested several times deployment of an international fact-finding mission to Nagorno-Karabakh to also monitor the alleged arms supply.

Such violent cases will repeat in the absence of monitoring and fact-finding missions, which the authorities of Nagorno Karabakh and Republic of Armenia continuously request for.  Such gross crimes may repeat also because President Aliyev has chosen to ignore the international community by openly stating that:

“There may be calls, there may be some statements, but we don’t need to pay attention to them. We answer these calls simply out of political courtesy, but this will not change our position in the slightest.”

This effectively means that the condemnation by the international community is not enough – there must be concrete international consequences for Azerbaijan and its officials.

It is noteworthy, that the deadly attack took place more than ten days after the  binding Order of the International Court of Justice, which instructed the Azerbaijani authorities to

“take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions”.

Following the Court order, President Aliyev not only fails to ensure the implementation of the ICJ Order but does not hesitate to resort to bloody means to keep the population of Nagorno-Karabakh under terror. Most recently Azerbaijani Armed Forces fired at the civilians carrying out agricultural work. The official reports from Nagorno-Karabakh also suggest that the Azerbaijani side conveyed through its channels that either the people of Nagorno-Karabakh

“accept the integration policy, or there will be no solution to the existing problems, on the contrary, there will be tougher and more drastic steps”.

There are all the early warning signs of not only another military escalation in the region but also of serious and obvious intention of ethnic cleansing.  If not duly and properly addressed, Nagorno-Karabakh will soon be added to the list of human tragedies and logged as another failure by the international community.

The international partners, should use all political and legal instruments at their disposal to strongly condemn the actions of the Azerbaijani armed forces and demand from Azerbaijan:

• To ensure necessary conditions for deployment of the UN fact-finding mission to Lachin corridor and Nagorno-Karabakh to assess the human rights and security situation of the local Armenian population,
• To implement unconditionally the ICJ Order, restoring the unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions,
• To identify immediately the perpetrators of the 5 March 2023 killing and bring them to account.

If these lawful demands are not met, we expect our international partners to use legal instruments at their disposal to create effective mechanisms to protect the unalienable right to life of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

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• Democracy Development Foundation
• Transparency International Anti-corruption Center NGO
• Protection of Rights without Borders NGO
• Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly- Vanadzor office NGO
• Journalists’ “Asparez” Club NGO
• Union of Informed Citizens NGO
• For Equal Rights NGO
• Analytical Centre on Globalization and Regional Cooperation NGO
• Peace Dialogue NGO
• Public Journalism Club NGO

 

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© 2020. PHOTO BY Jean-Daniel Francoeur

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On October 21, 2022, the RA Government’s draft resolution on “Establishing procedure of implementing pre-conscription preparation at public schools, primary (craftsmanship) and secondary vocational education institutions” was published on the joint website of the Ministry of Justice where drafts of legal acts are published.

The following points were defined according to the draft decision:

• the goals of implementing pre-conscription preparation at public schools and institutions of  primary and secondary vocational education to prepare citizens for military service;
• the conditions and material-technical base of the conduct of pre-conscription education and practical (shooting) trainings;
• cooperation frameworks of competent state bodies in the process of pre-conscription education.

Peace Dialogue NGO believes that one of the goals of the implementation of the pre-conscription courses should be raising young people’s awareness on the mechanisms of human rights protection during the military service. Therefore, we recommend adding a subsection with the following formulation to the 2^nd part of defined list of the offered annex on “Establishing procedure of implementing pre-conscription preparation at public schools, primary (craftsmanship) and secondary vocational educational institutions:”

“Raise pre-conscription age young people’s awareness on protection of their rights during military service, and in case of the human rights violation, form knowledge and capacities on restoration mechanisms.”

According to the Peace Dialogue, the following points should be also considered as important in the pre-conscription preparation:

• intolerance towards the criminal subculture among military age youth;
• development of communication skills with future fellow servicemen.

The application of the latter will contribute to the establishment of the atmosphere of tolerance towards each other in the army, as well as to the reduction of cases of crimes and deaths caused by non-statutory relations, which simultaneously will have an impact on the army’s combat capability.

In the process of organizing pre-conscription preparation, it should be assured that conscripts are aware of the below-mentioned rights and mechanisms and will apply them when needed: 

• rights of conscripts during conscription period;
• appealing mechanisms against the decisions of the medical commission;
• right to receive a proper medical care during the military service;
• mechanisms to record and report cases of torture, inhuman or degrading treatments;
• awareness of rights and appealing mechanisms among conscripts who are subject to disciplinary penalties;
• conscripts’ rights while getting into contact with the law enforcement agencies during the military service.

 

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© 2022. Illustration by Peace Dialogue NGO

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On October 1-2, within the framework of the Open Narratives project, Peace Dialogue NGO held a meeting during which the participants discussed questions related to possible developments of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and the role of civil society in them, as well as realistic mechanisms and opportunities for activities addressing to the current situation.

Since the start of the Open Narratives project, Peace Dialogue has initiated a series of meetings dedicated to the promotion of discussions on political and civil impacts of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, identification of existing issues, as well as development of alternative approaches to existing dominant discourses and narratives on the conflict. Representatives of a number of state institutions, Parliament, NGOs, as well as journalists, political experts, human rights defenders, independent activists, local government representatives, psychologists, students from Yerevan, different regions of Armenia, and Nagorno-Karabakh took part at different stages of the discussions.

Emphasizing the significance of comprehensive, multi-layered observation and analysis of the issues, as well as the questions raised by the representatives of the civil society involved in the discussions, in May 2022, the organization also held two meetings in separate groups of women and men. The aim of these discussions was to identify the gender aspects of the approaches on the public impact of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and their significance in the processes aimed at peaceful resolution of the conflict.

To the meeting convened on October 1-2, Peace Dialogue invited women and men from the aforementioned groups who were presented the outcomes of the previous two meetings. In addition to the discussion on the results, the participants came up with recommendations for possible activities. A part of them was related to the protection of conflict-affected groups’ rights and interests, whereas the others referred to longer-term activities for prevention of war risks in the region and preparation of bases for building a sustainable peace. These recommendations will also be taken into consideration by Peace Dialogue while planning the activities of the project’s next stages and generally for designing future peacebuilding initiatives of the organization.

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The event was organized in partnership with  Conciliation Resources NGO within the frames of the EU4P program funded by the European Union.

 

 

 

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