UPEACE/Geneva
eNews
- November 2005

University for Peace

   
   

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UPEACE/Geneva eNews,
November 2005, Issue 2005-05

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

     

Winter -Spring Seminar Schedule 2006 for UPEACE Institute for Media, Peace and Security

The Institute for Media, Peace and Security of the University for Peace is organizing three two-day Seminars in Geneva, Switzerland (download poster) with top media experts on the following topics:


Media, Conflict Prevention & Peacebuilding - January 24-25, 2006
Intensive introduction to the study of interactions between media, conflict, peace and security. Frontline case studies, using TV news clips, documentaries and articles, help participants draw practical lessons and test theories of media in wartime. DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS 16 December 2005.

Jim Bittermann is CNN's senior European correspondent. For CNN he covered NATO air strikes on Kosovo in 1998 and many of the decade's major international stories in Eastern Europe, Northern and Western Africa. He won a national news Emmy Award for his coverage of the 1988 Sudan famine.

John Owen is a long-time journalist and national TV news editor who currently is a visiting professor of journalism at City University, London. He is also executive producer of NewsXchange, the international broadcast conference group underwritten by the European Broadcasting Union. He is also first chair of the Frontline Club Forum.

Media Challenges in UN Peacekeeping - March 7-8, 2006
Viewing UN peacekeeping from headquarters and the field, this course illustrates vividly the problems of both
media and peacekeepers, and shows how reporting deeply affects outcomes. Participants acquire new tools
to plan and/or assess such UN missions.
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS 13 February 2006.

Dr. Ingrid Lehmann was a Director of the UN Department of Public Information in Vienna from 1991-2003. She previously served on the political staff of two UN peacekeeping missions. Her book, Peacekeeping and
Public Information - Caught in the Crossfire, is a standard work in this field.

Media and Genocide: Rwanda & Bosnia - April 5-6, 2006
Piercing, ground-breaking analysis of how ethnic rivalries, scheming politicians and manipulated media caused the most appalling genocides since World War II. The seminar also dissects how world media, plus Western electoral concerns, allowed mass murder to happen. DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS 15 March 2006.

Dr. Gerald Caplan - Author of Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide, report of the International Panel of Eminent Persons to Investigate the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, named by the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union. He founded Remembering Rwanda and teaches a course on the genocide to Rwandans in Rwanda.

Dr. Nel Ruigrok - Assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam, specializing in international media issues. Co-author of a report on Dutch media and the Srebrenica massacre (Dutch UN troops were to protect the UN “safe haven” in Srebrenica.) Author of the book: Journalism of Attachment: Dutch Newspapers During the Bosnian War.

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Why attend? To understand how media in conflict situations influence policy and on-the-ground decisions.

Who should attend? Anyone dealing with, or working in, the media before, during or after conflict.

What will you learn? Principles, complexities and lessons of landmark events where media significantly shaped conflict or peace.

Admission: Please complete and send the application form to University for Peace, Ms.Sophie Hemne at shemne@upeace.ch . Click here to download the application form or visit www.mediapeace.org for further details.

Fees: CHF 500/seminar (includes lunch and learning
materials).

Special offer: Sign up for more than one course and get a 10% reduction on the total price.

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Youth Leaders Training Workshop on the Non Violent Transformation of Conflict, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, 13-17 November 2005


The University for Peace (UPEACE) partnered with the Nigerian National Universities Commission (NUC), the University of Jos, the Centre for Social and Corporate Responsibility (CSCR); and the Joint UNDP/UNESCO Foundations for Africa’s Future Leadership to conduct a Youth Leaders Training Workshop on the subject of non-violent transformation of conflict during 13-17 November 2005 in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. 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 channeling their energies to becoming active agents of social change and nonviolent transformation.

The underlining principle of the workshop was hinged on the fact that young people are able to embark on the path of peace and nonviolent approaches to issues when they have a firm understanding of the philosophies, principles and theories of strategic non-violence. Since strategic nonviolent action has historically been a major technique for pursuing social justice, the workshop was structured to provide a prism through which participants could gain greater awareness that the pursuit of social and political goals is possible without resorting to bloodshed and without injury to life or limb. The structure of the workshop allowed participants to develop their own analyses, to learn how to define their own goals, to consider how to make assessments, to prepare how to guide their vision of the future, to learn how to build constructive plans, and to identify resources for their struggle.

Nigerian journalist Dapo Olorunyomi led the team of facilitators and influential author Robert L. Helvey, an expert and leading theoretician on non-violent struggle, handled the actual training at the workshop.

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"Information and Communication Technology for Peace: The role of ICT in preventing, responding to and recovering from conflict"

By Daniel Stauffacher, William Drake,
Paul Currion and Julia Steinberger

During the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held in Tunis from 16-18 November 2005, the ICT for Peace project launched it's report entitled "Information and Communication Technology for Peace: The role of ICT in preventing, responding to and recovering from conflict". The aim of this report is to raise awareness of the topic, to profile a range of the ongoing activities, to identify the key issues and to make recommendations for next steps.

The ICT4Peace initiative studies and promotes the current use and future potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in humanitarian and peace operations. It is funded by the Swiss Federal Government and hosted by the University for Peace Geneva Office.

The Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action of WSIS Phase 1, held in Geneva 2003, emphasized the potential of ICTs to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. However, in many countries, armed conflict undermines progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. The ICT4Peace initiative highlights the use of ICTs to prevent and respond to conflict and to support and promote peace. ICT4Peace aims to review the status of ICTs in humanitarian and peace operations, create a community of knowledge by networking and information exchange, promote and facilitate the identification of good practices in use of ICTs and raise international awareness of the role that ICTs can play in responding to conflicts. For further information and to download a copy of the report please visit http://www.ict4peace.org

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