In this Issue
* * * * * * * * *

• Bonne Fête / Happy Holidays
• Africa Programme: Snapshot of Key Achievements in 2005

Selected Links

• UPEACE HQ web site
• UPEACE Africa Programme
• UPEACE Central Asia Programme
• Institute for Media, Peace and Security
• Journal of Peacebuilding and Development
• UN Web Site Locator

UPEACE/Geneva eNews,
December 2005-II,
Issue 2005-07

Thanks for reading this issue of UPEACE/Geneva eNews. This newsletter is aimed at providing updates and news from UPEACE and its regional programmes with special focus on the Africa and Central Asia programmes, which are coordinated through the Geneva office. In addition it will provide information on UPEACE publications and new developments, new documents available on the Africa programme, and Workshops/Seminars / Conferences being offered through the Africa and Central Asia Programmes.
An online version of all newsletters is available at the UPEACE Africa Programme web site. If you do not wish to receive the newsletter, please send an email to enews@upeace.ch using “unsubscribe” as the subject.

Issued by UPEACE Geneva.
Editor: Ameena Payne, Executive Director University for Peace Geneva Office. For further queries please contact enews@upeace.ch

The UPEACE/Geneva eNews team thanks you for your contributions and encouragement during 2005. We wish you a happy and peaceful holiday season and look forward to our continued collaboration in 2006.

The Geneva and Addis Ababa Offices will be closed from 17 December 2005 through 2 January 2006.

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Africa Programme: Snapshot of Key Achievements in 2005

This issue focuses on key achievements of the Africa Programme in 2005 which are listed below. For further information please visit www.africa.upeace.org.

Short Course on Justice, Human Rights and Peace was organized in Addis Ababa in August 2005. The short course was hosted by Addis Ababa University, bringing together thirty participants from seventeen African countries. [30 particpants from 17 African countries] More..

A Faculty & Staff Development Seminar on Gender & Peacebuilding took place in Kitwe, Zambia in April 2005, to obtain feedback on the UPEACE contextualized teaching packages on gender and peacebuilding distributed during the first seminar in Zambia in July 2004 for immediate integration into African classrooms and training rooms. [21 Participants and resource people from 13 African countries] More..

The Africa Programme continued its ongoing support and collaboration with the Joint UNDP/UNESCO Project on Foundations for Africa’s Future Leadership. The project lays the foundation for sustainable leadership development in Africa by exposing future African leaders to current development challenges and offers practical internship placements opportunities for African students within African institutions.

The establishment of a UPEACE African Student Alumni Association as a network of Africans who have graduated from the University for Peace and are committed to promoting peace and development in Africa. [34 students from 13 African countries] View newsletters..

Publication > The second edition Glossary of Terms and Concepts in Peace and Conflict Studies continues the effort to establish a common dialogue base of terms and concepts in the field of peace and conflict studies. Download..

Publication > Reader in Peace and Conflict Studies – a West African Perspective: A reader of scholarly articles on issues of peace and conflict studies from a West African perspective was compiled in collaboration with Nigeria’s National Universities Commission and the University of Jos. [To be released in 2006]

Publication > Reader in Gender and Peace Building – An African Perspective: A reader of scholarly articles authored by Africans on issues of gender and peace building was published to increase the intellectual depth and Africa-specific nature of materials from the teaching packages distributed at the first faculty and staff development seminar hosted in Zambia in 2004. Download..

Publication > Afroscope: A student magazine for the UPEACE African Community serving as a record of African students’ experiences as they undertook their graduate studies in Costa Rica. Download..

Publication > Compendium of key documents on Human Rights and the African Union (published jointly with the Centre for Human Rights of the University of Pretoria). The compendium contains key documents on human rights adopted under the auspices of the African Union and its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity. Download..

Publication > Following a workshop held in Sudan in December 2004, a collection of essays on “Environmental Degradation as a Cause of Conflict in Darfur” is being published with the purpose of providing research articles to enhance teaching of this subject in African educational institutions, as well as encouraging further research, and strengthening policy formation. [To be released in 2006]

A Peace Research Capacity-Building Workshop was conducted in Dakar, Senegal from 23-25 October 2005 in partnership with the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, the American University Center for Global Peace in Washington, D.C., and the South-North Centre for Peacebuilding and Development. [34 African researchers, scholars, and activists from 17 African countries] Press Release..

In partnering with the Journal of Peace Building and Development, the network of the Africa Programme has been encouraged to contribute peer-reviewed research to the intellectual debate on the intersections of peace and development. [Copies have been circulated to over 120 universities to encourage subscription]

Two Nigerian National Staff and Faculty Training Workshops were held in Jos (for Northern universities) and Benin (for Southern universities) to train Nigerian university staff on integrating an undergraduate course in peace and conflict resolution studies into their respective universities, as part of the compulsory general studies foundation course. The foundational course, developed with UPEACE at the request of the National Universities Commission, will eventually be incorporated into all 74 Nigerian universities, colleges and polytechnics, reaching approximately one million students within three years.

A Youth Leaders Training Workshop on the Non Violent Transformation of Conflict was held in Port Harcourt, Nigeria during November 2005 in partnership with the Nigerian National Universities Commission (NUC), the University of Jos, the Centre for Social and Corporate Responsibility (CSCR); and the Joint UNDP/UNESCO Project on Foundations for Africa’s Future Leadership. The workshop attempted to help transform the Niger Delta from a theater of political upheavals, to a region where young people who are fighting for social justice can embrace realistic alternatives to armed struggle by channelling their energies to becoming active agents of social change and nonviolent transformation. [Gathered 33 representatives of youth groups and directors of youth programmes from 29 organizations across Nigeria] More..

Publication > A Multi-media video catalogue with over 20 hours of teaching resources including presentations, lectures, role-playing scenarios, interviews and press conferences drawn from all Africa Programme activities from 2003 - 2005 has been developed for broad dissemination and web-based access. The DVDs serve to encourage enhanced exchange of information on topics related to peace and security from an African context. [To be released in 2006]

To ascertain the state of formal peace studies in African universities, a Directory of Peace Studies in Africa has been produced in collaboration with ACCORD and is being updated annually in an on-line version of the directory in order to review the developments in this field with universities on the continent. Consult..

In order to help disseminate news aimed at strengthening the peace and reconciliation process in war-torn Rwanda, a newspaper Ibanga – News for Peace has been produced to spread positive reports on how the country is moving forward in its post-genocide society in collaboration with the National University of Rwanda.

The ‘Peace Builders’ Series was launched by the Daily Nation in Nairobi, in collaboration with the University for Peace on September 21, 2005 – designated by the United Nations as International Day of Peace. Every month, the Daily Nation features peacebuilders who, by personal example, perseverance and courage, have helped to resolve conflict and sustain peace at the community, national or regional levels. The Daily Nation is East Africa’s largest selling newspaper – read on a daily basis by around one million people. The series is also being reproduced in The Monitor in Uganda and The Citizen in Tanzania. More..

A Regional Masters Programme in Media for Peace in three universities of the Great Lakes Region (Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda) was conceptualized and developed following three consultative meetings engaging the key partners. The programme will be piloted to address how professional media can be utilized for the realization of a peaceful and secure environment. More..

A CD-Rom based, Pilot Distance-Education Training Programme on the role of the media in the Rwanda genocide was conducted in Rwanda in collaboration with Fahamu and the National University of Rwanda in Butare and its School of Journalism and Communication, based on work developed in collaboration with the UPEACE Institute for Media, Peace, and Security. [15 Rwandan journalists]

Following on the pilot run of the course to Rwandan journalists above, and following on a request from Rwandan Armed Forces division Commander, a similar course was organized for 15 senior officials of the Rwandan Armed Forces, Military Academy, and Ministry of Defence, in collaboration with Fahamu and the Center for Conflict Management of the National University of Rwanda. The 16-week course began with a launch seminar held in Kigali 25 of July 2005. The course consisted of an introduction to human rights, tutored by Fahamu, and the media and genocide part, tutored by Gerald Caplan. [Trained 15 senior army officials in Human Rights and in the role of the media]

To reflect true African leadership, the Africa Programme shifted its center of gravity to Africa after having been coordinated from Geneva, Switzerland since its inception in 2002. The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the University for Peace signed a host agreement in September 2005. Dr. Jean-Bosco Butera, Director of the Africa Programme, is managing the development and implementation of the Africa Programme from its Addis office. More..

Expansion of the programme into countries other than the ten visited during the consultative phase in 2002, now includes francophone countries of the Great Lakes Region, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya.

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