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Prevention, resolution and transformation of violent conflict
- Strengthen local capacities.
- Strengthen the United Nations' capacity to maintain peace.
- Prioritise early warning and early response.
- Promote the training of civilian peace professionals.
- Refine the use of sanctions.
- Strengthen mechanisms for humanitarian intervention.
- Engender peace building.
- Empower young people.
- Support unrepresented peoples' right to self-determination.
- Strengthen coalition building between civil society organisations.
- Strengthen regional and sub-regional capacities for peace
- Mainstream multi-track diplomacy.
- Utilise the media as a proactive tool for peace-building.
- Promote the conflict impact assessment of policies.
Strengthen Local Capacities
Too often, violent conflict is "resolved" by external actors with little or no reference to the wishes of those who must live with the solution. As a result, the solution reached is often short-lived. If efforts to prevent, resolve and transform violent conflict are to be effective in the long-term, they must be based on the strong participation of local civil society groups committed to building peace. Strengthening such "local capacities" is vital to the maintenance of peace and may take many forms from education and training and nurturing the volunteer spirit in society, to increased funding of local peace-building initiatives and highlighting the work of local peacemakers in the media.
Strengthen the United Nations' Capacity to Maintain Peace
The United Nations still constitutes the best hope for achieving world peace through multilateral cooperation. Now more than ever, strong civil society support of the aims and purposes of the United Nations is vital to achieving its full potential as the guardian of international peace and security. In particular, this support should be directed towards the reform of the UN, leading to its greater democratisation, and towards the strengthening of the UN's capacity to prevent violent conflict, mass violations of human rights and genocide? For example, through the creation of standing UN peace forces for use in humanitarian interventions, and through the identification of alternative sources of finance for UN peace operations.
Prioritise Early Warning and Early Response
The resources expended by governments and intergovernmental bodies in efforts to prevent violent conflict are insufficient, especially when compared with the resources expended on activities that become necessary once violent conflict breaks out? Humanitarian intervention, emergency relief, peace enforcement operations, and the general rebuilding of war-torn societies. Civil society must take a lead role in demonstrating that conflict prevention is possible and that it is preferable? In terms of human lives and suffering, as well as cost? To reacting to violent conflict In particular, priority should be given to: (1) dedicating more resources to conflict prevention, (2) creating and further developing conflict early-warning networks, and (3) generating the political will necessary to responding quickly to warnings received.
Promote the Training of Civilian Peace Professionals
The demand for civilian peace-builders, be they election monitors, human rights workers or general observers, is growing fast; the pool from which such specially trained civilians can be drawn is not. There is a strong need to further promote the specialized training of civilian women and men in the techniques of conflict resolution, mediation, negotiation, etc., and to promote their deployment in conflict areas in order to order to carry out peace-building tasks. The long-term aim should be the development of an international body of specially trained "civilian peace professionals" that can be called upon to intervene in conflict areas at short notice.
Refine the Use of Sanctions
The imposition of economic sanctions is one of the bluntest tools of international diplomacy. Sanctions have the capacity to destroy the fabric of the society against which they are aimed, as well as to inflict terrible hardship on the innocent members of that society. UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has demanded that economic sanctions become "more effective and less injurious." To meet this demand, we must develop ways of better targeting economic sanctions so that their effect cannot be transferred from the leaders whose behaviour they are intended to change, on the one hand, to innocent civilians, on the other. In the interest of children, sanctions should not be imposed without obligatory, immediate and enforceable humanitarian exemptions, along with mechanisms for monitoring the impact on children and other vulnerable groups.
Strengthen Mechanisms for Humanitarian Intervention
In order to help avoid future acts of genocide and gross violations of human rights, it is necessary to develop mechanisms that will allow for humanitarian intervention to protect the lives of people in danger.
Engender Peace Building
Conflict and war are gendered events. After reproduction, war is perhaps the arena where the division of labour along gender lines is most obvious. Therefore, women and men experience conflict and war differently and have different access to power and decision-making. There is a need for (1) specific initiatives aimed at understanding the interrelationships between gender equality and peace building, (2) strengthening women's capacity to participate in peace building initiatives and (3) equal participation of women in conflict resolution at decision-making levels. To meet these needs, governments must commit to including women representatives of civil society in all peace negotiations; peace and security institutions must incorporate gender-sensitive perspectives into their activities and methods; and civil society must build and strengthen women's peace networks across borders.
Empower Young People
Wars are initiated by irresponsible leaders, but it is young people who are their most vulnerable victims, both as civilians and as conscripts. Their experience, fresh perspectives and new ideas must be heard, integrated and acted upon at all levels of society. There is ample evidence that young people in conflict situations can find ways to overcome traditional prejudices, to creatively resolve conflicts and to engage in meaningful reconciliation and peace-building processes. The opportunity for youth to participate in peace building is essential for breaking the cycle of violence, for reducing and avoiding conflict. Let us all share our vision, open-mindedness, solidarity and willingness to learn in a truly inter-generational exchange based on mutual respect, trust and responsibility.
Support Unrepresented Peoples' Right to Self-Determination
Many of today's violent and persistent conflicts are between states and unrepresented peoples and are characterized by an extreme power imbalance. As a result, unrepresented peoples, by themselves, often are unable to engage states in negotiations for peaceful conflict resolution. Consequently, these conflicts tend to continue for decades and result in grave suffering and cultural annihilation. To counteract the power imbalance which drives these conflicts, it is necessary for the international governmental and non-governmental community to actively support peoples' right to self-determination, to prioritise these conflicts and to promote their non-violent resolution.
The denial of the right to self-determination has led to numerous long-term conflicts, most of which remain unresolved. It is important to recognize that it is not the right to self-determination which leads to conflict, but rather the denial of this right. It is therefore imperative that the internationally recognized right to self-determination be actively promoted as a tool of conflict prevention and conflict resolution.
Strengthen Coalition-Building Between Civil Society Organizations
The diversity of civil-society activity in the area of conflict prevention, resolution and transformation is one of its main strengths. However, the effectiveness of civil society activity is often hampered by a lack of coordination between groups operating in similar fields. The result is often that scarce resources are wasted through the duplication of tasks and the failure to achieve synergy. To increase effectiveness in this area, it is vital to create networks that promote coalition- and constituency-building between Civil Society organisations.
Strengthen Regional and Sub-Regional Capacities for Peace
Strengthening regional capacities for peace, for example, in the form of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Organization for African Unity (OAU), the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the organisation of American States (OAS), etc., would help to ensure that largely ignored conflicts receive the attention, and efforts at resolution, that they deserve.
Mainstream Multi-Track Diplomacy
In the next century, we must aim to make "multi-track diplomacy" the standard approach to preventing, resolving and transforming violent conflict. Multi-Track Diplomacy involves the cooperation of numerous sectors of society? Governments, non-governmental organizations, religious groups, the media, business, private citizens, etc? In preventing conflict and building peace. It is a multi-disciplinary view of peace-building that assumes that individuals and organizations are more effective working together than separately and that conflict situations involve a large and intricate web of parties and factors that requires a systems approach. Each "track" in the system brings with it its own perspective, approach and resources; all of which must be called upon in the peace-building process.
Utilise the Media as a Proactive Tool for Peace-building
The media play a vital, and controversial, role in situations of violent conflict. They have the capacity to exacerbate or to calm tensions and, therefore, to play an essential role in preventing and resolving violent conflict and in promoting reconciliation. Apart from their traditional role in reporting on conflict, the media may also be used to build peace in a wide variety of alternative ways. Special attention needs to be directed towards (1) promoting objective, non-inflammatory reporting of conflict situations so that the media serves the cause of peace rather than war and (2) to further explore the use of the media in creative new ways to build peace and promote reconciliation.
Promote the Conflict Impact Assessment of Policies
Civil society must encourage national, bilateral and international agencies and international financial institutions to infuse their policy formulation and implementation with conflict prevention dimensions that include (1) conflict impact assessment of proposed economic policies and development projects and (2) the introduction of institution-building and human resources-strengthening elements into various forms of dispute resolution and peacebuilding ? i.e., mediation centres, training in negotiation skills, conflict resolution education, tolerance-building and the promotion of coexistence.
