Peacemakers are individuals and organizations involved in peacemaking, often in countries affected by war, violent conflict, and political instability. [1] They engage in processes such as negotiation, mediation, conciliation, and arbitration—drawing on international law and norms.
Peacemaking
The objective is to move a violent conflict into non-violent dialogue, where differences are settled through conflict transformation processes or through the work of representative political institutions. [1]
Peacemaking can occur at different levels, sometimes referred to as tracks. [1] "High level" (governmental and international) peacemaking, involving direct talks between the leaders of conflicting parties, is sometimes thus referred to as Track 1. [2] Tracks 2 and 3 are said to involve dialogue at lower levels—often unofficially between groups, parties, and stakeholders to a violent conflict—as well as efforts to avoid violence by addressing its causes and deleterious results. [2] Peacemakers may be active in all three tracks, or in what is sometimes called multi-track diplomacy. [3]
Selected peacemaking organizations
Selected list of prominent inter-governmental and non-governmental peacemaking organizations:
- Centre for Conflict Resolution (South Africa)
- Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (Switzerland)
- Center for Nonviolent Communication (international) [2]
- Christian Peacemaker Teams (roots in North America)
- Community of Sant'Egidio (Italy)
- Crisis Management Initiative (Finland)
- Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Djibouti)
- International Alert (United Kingdom)
- Initiatives of Change
- Organization of African Unity (Ethiopia)
- Responding to Conflict (United Kingdom)
- American Friends Service Committee, an arm of the Quakers [3]
- Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) the corresponding Quaker department in Britain [4]
- John Woolman College of Active Peace
- Reverend Sun Myung Moon of Universal Peace Federation
- Student Peacemakers
- Search for Common Ground (United States)
- swisspeace (Switzerland)
- The United Nations
- Borderless World Foundation
Famous peacemakers
See also
References
- ^ a b c Lundgren, Magnus (2016). "Conflict management capabilities of peace-brokering international organizations, 1945–2010: A new dataset". Conflict Management and Peace Science. 33 (2): 198–223. doi: 10.1177/0738894215572757. S2CID 156002204.
- ^ a b c Center for Nonviolent Communication
- ^ a b American Friends Service Committee
- ^ QPSW on the Quakers in the World website