News

On 16 November, three member organisations of the CyberMediation Network – USIP, CMI and NOREF – will convene a public roundtable on the development and use of online platforms for dialogue efforts.

NOREF and the Social Development Group (SDG), in partnership with the Colombian War College and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombia, co-hosted a three-day meeting for the Course of High Military Studies (CAEM) Class of 2021, in Cartagena de Indias, 17-19 August.

The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has appointed a new board for NOREF. The new chair is former Ambassador Kim Traavik. 

Syrian women and civil society actors receive advocacy and negotiation training to strengthen peacebuilding engagement.

The Board of NOREF has appointed Dag Nylander as the Centre’s new director. Nylander is one of Norway’s most experienced peace mediators, with more than 20 years of diplomatic service behind him, mainly in the area of peace and reconciliation.

NOREFs styre har ansatt Dag Nylander som ny direktør ved NOREF. Han er en av Norges mest erfarne fredsmeklere og har over 20 år i diplomatiet bak seg, med hovedvekt på freds- og forsoningsarbeid.

In mediation, where trust-building and confidentiality are vital, the current shift towards virtual and online interactions brings a set of new challenges for practitioners. In this NOREF brief, authors Florence Mandelik and Ayat Mohamed summarise early takeaways from online engagements with and between civil actors in the context of mediation projects, focusing on the opportunities and challenges that virtual tools and online engagements bring to process design and implementation. In particular, it emphasises how active steps should be taken to foster the inclusion of traditionally marginalised groups, including women.

Efforts to reach out to and include the voices of civil society in the Syrian political process continue. UN Special Envoy Pedersen and his Office have over the past three months conducted regional consultations through its Civil Society Support Room - including online consultations.

The UN Office of the Special Envoy for Syria reconvened the Syrian Civil Society Support Room (CSSR) at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 23-25 January 2020. The participants stressed the need for transparency and inclusivity in the political process.

A group of five high-ranking officers from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the President of the civil society organisation Balay Mindanaw visited Colombia in September as part of NOREF’s military dialogue programme. The visit allowed the AFP delegation to meet the Colombian and international actors involved in the implementation of the peace agreement with the FARC, and gave the Colombians and Filipinos several opportunities to exchange their views on the peace processes under way in their respective countries.

September 26 saw the launch of the Global Alliance of Regional Women Mediator Networks in New York. The purpose of the meeting was to create an inclusive space for connection and experience sharing between regional women mediator networks and identify key priorities and processes subject to engagement. The event took place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly 74th Annual Meeting.

NOREF has outgrown its residence at Grønland, and this week moved into new offices in Oslo. With a more central location, modern facilities and an expansive view of the city we are set to continue our work in new ways and new surroundings.

A ceremony in Cotabato city on 7 September marked an important milestone in the decommissioning of combatants of the armed Muslim insurgency in the southern part of the Philippines. In this upcoming phase the first 12,000 members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces will be decommissioned by next year, and all 40,000 members are due to turn over their arms by 2021. NOREF has supported the decommissioning mechanism with expertise since 2016.

The unprecedented active involvement of the Colombian Armed Forces in both the negotiations and the implementation of the peace agreement was one of the key features of the successful peace process. A new NOREF report by Omar Cortés and Juanita Millán describes the leading role that the Armed Forces played in the Colombian peace process, highlighting the infrastructure created to carry out this role, gender-related innovations in aspects of the ceasefire and laying down of arms, and the challenges the Colombian military had to face in assuming this role.