Kompetenzzentrum Friedensförderung Centre pour la promotion de la paix Centro per la promozione della pace Center for Peacebuilding NEWSLETTER KOFF 1 September 2005 / Nr. 40 From the Center for Peacebuilding / swisspeace South-Eastern Europe Roundtable on internally displaced persons in the former Yugoslavia Do no Harm training workshop Event on transformation of land conflicts KOFF evaluation report now out KOFF member organizations now 40 nd 2 edition KOFF report on „dealing with the past“ „From Reaction to Prevention“: GPPAC Conference at United Nations headquarters in New York ACSF electoral training project in Afghanistan Focus Striving for improved cooperation between UN and civil society News from Swiss NGOs „Peace perspectives 1945–1989–2100“: Peace Council seminar in Trogen „Play for Peace“ - intercultural youth camps at Pestalozzi Children’s Village HEKS: Emergency aid, repatriation projects and conflict prevention in Southern Sudan The two new KOFF member organizations: „mission 21“and „Society for Threatened Peoples“ News from Swiss Government Agencies Switzerland part of Aceh monitoring mission Swiss federalism: a model for Bosnia Herzegovina? New COPRET head Publisher: Center for International Partner Organizations Peacebuilding KOFF Sonnenbergstrasse 17 Conciliation Resources, ECCP, EPLO, FriEnt, SPICE CH - 3000 Bern 7 Tel: +41 (0)31 330 12 12 www.swisspeace.org/koff Events, Publications, Web tip KOFF-Newsletter Nr. 40 2 From the Center for Peacebuilding / swisspeace Links South-Eastern Europe Roundtable on internally displaced persons in the former Yugoslavia Documents : Walter Kälin, Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, was guest speaker at the KOFF South-Eastern Europe Guiding Principles on Roundtable on August 22. The motive on this occasion was his visit last June to Internal Displacement Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro, including Kosovo. (E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2) Kälin opened his talk with an overview of his activities so far. His mandate entails Guiding Principles on two main tasks: On the one hand, there is dialogue with the governments, and on Internal Displacement the other, mainstreaming the problem area of „Internally Displaced Persons“ (IDP) annotations W. Kälin within the UN. So far the UN has followed a ‘collaborative response’ approach to Press release dealing with IDPs, though it faces frequent snags. The UN reforms should bring W. Kälin on June 9, 2005 changes in that regard. regarding Croatia visit The situation varies from one Balkan State to another. Despite a complex legal Press release situation in Croatia, it does seem possible to solve the problem of IDPs there. In W. Kälin on June 15, Bosnia-Herzegovina the security situation has improved remarkably. The problems mainly concern the durability of repatriation, and especially vulnerable groups. The regarding Bosnia- Herzegovina visit greatest problems at present are still to be found in Serbia, Montenegro and Koso- vo, where virtually no repatriation is taking place. There are other problems asso- The Situation of IDPs in ciated with the registration of IDPs, as well as with discrimination. Serbia and Montene- gro. ICRC Issues Paper Broadly speaking, the findings are the following. There are three elements crucial to the success of repatriation: First, guaranteeing security, second, sorting out Websites: ownership issues under the law, and third, the promise of durability. This third Global IDP Project aspect is clearly the main problem, as representatives from various organizations showed with concrete examples during the roundtable. Moreover, the emphasis The Brookings-Bern on repatriation is complicating the local integration of IDPs. Still another problem Project on Internal stems from the emergency humanitarian situation of especially vulnerable groups, Displacement the Roma in particular. The future clarification of the issue of status for Kosovo and Further information: Montenegro, as well as the return of refugees on a larger scale from Western KOFF Jonathan Sisson Europe could engender further problems. 22.08.05 Do no Harm training workshop Links At the end of August, 20 staff members from development cooperation organiza- KOFF Trainings 2005 tions in Switzerland and Germany took part in KOFF’s 2-day Do-no-Harm training workshop in Berne. The participants learned how to use this most important instru- KOFF website ment of conflict-sensitive work to better assess possible negative and positive im- „Do no Harm“ pacts of their everyday project work in a context of conflict and on that basis, to develop alternative options. The course was led by Wolfgang Heinrich (Protestant Development Service, Bonn) Further information: and Anita Müller (KOFF). It was the third of four KOFF training courses scheduled KOFF Anita Müller for this year. 30.08.05 KOFF-Newsletter Nr. 40 3 Event on transformation of land conflicts Links An event was jointly organised by KOFF and NCCR North-South on August 19 at NCCR website swisspeace under the theme „Development cooperation and the transformation on the event of land conflicts: experiences and strategies“. Two case studies by Irina Wenk and Sabrina Beeler from the ethnological seminar at Zurich University and a lecture by Tobias Hagmann of NCCR North-South formed the basis for a discussion of the potential contribution by development cooperation players to the transformation Further information: of land conflicts. The Focus section of the next KOFF Newsletter on October 1 will KOFF Steffen Rottler carry a full article on the event. 19.08.05 Links KOFF evaluation report now out The Center for Peacebuilding underwent and outside evaluation in the spring of KOFF-evaluation: this year. The purpose of the evaluation was to have an independent assessment Final report of target achievement, and come up with thoughts and ideas for further strategic Summary development. The final report is now available. Over and above the study of documents, the two evaluators Angelika Spelten and Mark Schmid based their analysis mainly on interviews with representatives of the KOFF member organizations. In their report they conclude that KOFF had „succee- ded in large measure“ in fulfilling the tasks and expectations laid out in its „Gui- ding Principles“. The products are appreciated for their quality, output is high, resource management is efficient and project implementation professional. The report further states that KOFF is helping to give impetus to the process of accu- mulating civil peace-building skills within member organisations. As a shared pro- ject between governmental and non-governmental entities, KOFF is regarded as innovative by comparison with similar organizations abroad. The evaluation’s most important statement regarding the development of strategy refers to KOFF’s role as „promoter“ of joint strategic development processes amongst members. The evaluators observe that since the „Guiding Principles“ were formulated in 2002, the policy role has had to be scaled back for pragmatic reasons, and greater emphasis placed on the range of services being offered. A minority of members feels somewhat disillusioned as a result, and this could jeo- pardise the project’s long-term financial security. On that basis, the evaluation recommends that in the medium term, a second area of activity should be built up in relation to the coordination of strategies discussed above. Furthermore, it is recommended that the membership should be expanded to take in more non- governmental organizations from French-speaking Switzerland. At its latest session, the KOFF Steering Committee described the report as very Further information: valuable. Its recommendations should be studied seriously, though they should KOFF Anita Müller not be allowed to preempt strategic development. 23.08.05 KOFF-Newsletter Nr. 40 4 KOFF member organizations now 40 Links Two new member organizations joined KOFF in summer, namely, „Society for Thre- KOFF members atened Peoples“ and „mission 21“ (see article under „NGOs“). KOFF’s member- ship now numbers 40. 01.07.05 nd 2 edition KOFF report on „dealing with the past“ Links Links The second edition of the KOFF-Report with the title: „Dealing with the Past: Criti- Report cal Issues, Lessons Learned, and Challenges for Future Swiss Policy“ is now avai- lable at swisspeace. The report examines the main challenges and obstacles with respect to „dealing with the past“ with a view to identifying and outlining policy Further information: options. It is available as a pdf document on the KOFF website under „publica- KOFF Jonathan Sisson tions“ or as a printed version for CHF 15.- from swisspeace. 14.08.05 „From Reaction to Prevention“: GPPAC Conference at Uni- Links Links ted Nations headquarters in New York Global Partnership In mid-July, national and international peace-building non-governmental organi- for the Prevention zations (NGO) heeded UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s 2001 call for the holding of Armed Conflict of an international conference on role of NGOs viv-à-vis the United Nations in (GPPAC) violence prevention and conflict transformation. Together with hundreds of repre- sentatives from NGOs, governments and regional and international organizations, People Building Peace the Center for Peacebuilding (KOFF) and the swisspeace FAST early warning sys- Mailing lists tem took part in the conference on a „Global Partnership for the Prevention of to the electronic Armed Conflict“ (GPPAC) at