News

The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NOREF Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) invite you to a panel discussion on the barriers and opportunities for women's participation and influence in mediation and peace processes, and the role that women mediators' networks can play in redressing this gender gap.

The Colombian peace process has become a global reference point for negotiated solutions to armed conflicts. How did the conflict parties work to plan and lay the ground for the talks during the crucial first secret phases? What design elements stand out today as most important to the successful outcome of the negotiations? And what was the role of the guarantor countries Cuba and Norway, and the international community?

Véronique Dudouet and Janel B. Galvanek undertake a much needed analysis of the sources of financial support for non-state armed groups during ceasefires and peace negotiations.

In recent years growing evidence has emerged that inclusion is a critical factor for a successful transition out of conflict. Thus, a policy context has emerged that gives unprecedented emphasis to promoting inclusion in international support for peacebuilding.  

Drawing on examples as diverse as Afghanistan, Somalia and Nepal, researcher Clare Castillejo explores this current policy context. She identifies how international actors can strengthen their efforts to promote inclusion by learning from previous experience and drawing on new knowledge and approaches.

Twenty years have passed since the signing of the peace accord in Guatemala. Has Norway contributed positively to peacebuilding in this period? A report by the Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM) and NOREF sets out to answer this. The report is launched and discussed at the Nobel Peace Center 12 September, participants include Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Rigoberta Menchu and prominent experts.

The Colombian peace agreement signed in September 2016 was by far the most gender inclusive peace agreement in history. Norwegian facilitators Hilde Salvesen and Dag Nylander share firsthand accounts and analysis of how the historic peace agreement came to be.

The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has appointed a new board for NOREF. The new chair is Bård Glad Pedersen.

What is needed to make Mosul safe and stable following the awaited liberation from Daesh (IS)? Seeking answers to this difficult question, a group of influential leaders from the province of Ninevah have come together to form the Ninevah National Association (NNA).

Wilton Park and NOREF organised a three-day conference on March 29-31 with the purpose to learn from the process that resulted in a peace agreement in Colombia. A seminar report summarising the debates and discussions of the event, is now available.

The Board of NOREF Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution has appointed Dr Henrik Thune as the Centre’s new director.

The past two years have seen significant developments at NOREF. Following a strategic shift in 2014, the focus of NOREF’s work has increasingly been on Track II diplomacy and conflict resolution, to the point where the Centre is now an operational actor in the field of mediation support and conflict diplomacy. As a result NOREF’s board’s decided to revise the Centre’s name to better reflect how it currently operates.

On Friday 10 June NOREF’s Frida Nome successfully gave her public defence for the degree of PhD, at the Norwegian School of Theology. In the field of religious studies, her thesis Making Islam in times of crisis: The Friday sermon and the Syrian uprising explores how Syrian Islam was shaped when protests against the Assad regime began in the spring of 2011.

How can women’s meaningful participation in peace processes be increased? This was one of the key questions raised and discussed at a high-level meeting at the UN Headquarters in New York 11 May. The meeting was co-organized by the partner countries and operational partners of the Nordic Women Mediators’ Network

H.R.H Crown Prince Haakon, Nobel Peace Prize Laureates José Ramos-Horta and Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, State Secretary Tore Hattrem (Norwegian MFA) and Bishop Gunnar Stålsett are among the contributors when the English version of the Chega! report of the Timor-Leste Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) is launched tomorrow, 25 January, at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo. A number of East Timorese, Norwegian and international experts and academics also participate.

The Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre (NOREF) has hired Dr. Henrik Thune as Deputy Director. Thune will become central in strengthening the Centre’s profile on conflict diplomacy and mediation support.