Vicenç Fisas, Director of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) School for a Culture of Peace (ecola de cultura de pau) and UNESCO Chair in Peace and Human Rights at the UAB has compiled the sixth edition of the Yearbook on Peace Processes. It contains analyses of conflicts between countries and regions in 2010 in which negotiations are being held to reach a peace agreement, regardless of whether these negotiations are formalized; are in the exploratory phase; are faring well; are stalled; or are in the midst of crisis.
The analyses are provided by countries under regional sections such as Africa; Latin America; Asia and Pacific; Europe; and Middle East.
The introduction includes exceptionally detailed descriptions of definitions. These include negotiation [“by negotiation we mean the process through which two or more clashing parties (either countries or internal actors within the same country) agree to discuss their differences in an agreed-upon setting to find a solution that will meet their demands. This negotiation can be either direct or through third-party facilitation. Formal negotiations usually have a prior, exploratory, phase, which enables the framework (format, venue, conditions, guarantees, etc.) of the future negotiations to be defined.”]
By peace process Fisas means a “process to put an end to violence and armed struggle.” The signing of a cessation of hostilities and the subsequent signing of a peace agreement are nothing other than the start of the true “peace process” which is linked to the stage called “post-war rehabilitation.” He also describes each of the main stages in the peace process. However, this yearbook limits itself to analyzing efforts made in the early stages of the long pathway to peace, without which the final goal would be impossible to reach.
This yearbook analyzes the peace processes of 2010 and the status of 58 conflicts, 51 of them in negotiations, four countries without peace processes (Somalia, DR Congo, Colombia and Spain) and three with finished processes (Mali, Niger and Central African Republic). In half of the armed conflicts today there are open or exploratory dialogues. During the year, 16 conflicts ended with a peace agreement being reached with the respective armed groups or neighbouring countries. Eleven processes are consolidated and 23 were interrupted. Due to numerous peace agreements reached with different armed groups in recent years, the number of negotiations analyzed has gradually declined, while the percentage of conflicts yet to be negotiated has risen (19). Subsequently, Fisas provides a chart of countries by the status of their negotiations at the end of 2010. The categories include: (1) going well; (2) in difficulty; (3) going poorly; (4) in exploratory stages; and (5) resolved. Generally speaking, in 2010 46% of the negotiations went well or ended satisfactorily. Another 24% of the negotiations encountered serious difficulties, and 24% truly went poorly. In some countries the armed groups have demanded preconditions for engaging in negotiations, such as demanding to hold negotiations in a neutral country, the release of some of their leaders, the withdrawal of foreign troops, the cessation of hostilities, or the ratification of previous agreements.
One interesting component of the yearbook is “the peace temperature in 2010.” Each year the School for a Culture of Peace has drawn up a monthly indicator of the status of the peace negotiations existing in the world with the goal of analyzing the overall dynamics of these processes. In 2010, this index analyzes a selection of 18 negotiations. The index is developed based on the average result after granting three points to the peace processes that have fared well during the month, one point to those that remained at a standstill or showed no new developments, and zero points to those that have experienced difficulties. The maximum score in a given month would be 3.0, and the average would be 1.5 points. The index (or temperature) is represented on a graph and sheds light on the obstacles keeping the majority of processes from remaining on a positive course in a sustained way.
The analyses by countries include narrative and tables of approximately 3-5 pages per country. The organization of the analysis of each conflict follows a similar pattern in most cases: (1) a brief synopsis of the context of the conflict, with a brief description of the armed groups and the main actors intervening in each conflict; (2) the background to the peace process; (3) the events that happened in 2010; (4) a table with the most significant events as a summary; (5) a selection of websites to monitor the conflict; and (6) a table illustrating relationships among the primary and secondary actors in each conflict. At the start of every country analysis, there is a box containing basic country statistics.
For anyone interested in global peace, comparative analyses of peace processes per country, or the specific details of a country’s or region’s peace developments, this yearbook contains a factual and informative account and analysis in one resource manual. There are no fancy photographs, neither on the cover, nor in the body of the yearbook. It is readable, organized, comparative and comprehensive.
(http://escolapau.uab.cat/)
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