Global Nomads Group workshop on Virtual Reality during PLURAL+2016 Festival. © Hernan Valle
Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser

Media and Information Literacy as a Means of Preventing Violent Extremism

UNAOC understands that censoring media which is perceived as potentially harmful will not effectively curtail the spread of media messages appealing to youth with violent extremist narratives.

A9 highway in Kilinochchi District, Sri Lanka. © Indi Samarajiva
Nadhiya Najab, Anupama Ranawana and Kulasabanathan Romeshun

The Gates of Paradise are Open…but Who Benefits? Experiences from Post-War Sri Lanka

This article is written in response to the theme of eradicating poverty as a means of conflict prevention. By asking whether the eradication of poverty prevents conflict, we reflect upon its complexity and interdependence with other aspects of modern day life. To focus solely on poverty reduction as a means of conflict prevention is somewhat reductive.

Rashid Alimov

The Role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Counteracting Threats to Peace and Security

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was established as a multilateral association to ensure security and maintain stability across the vast Eurasian region, join forces to counteract emerging challenges and threats, and enhance trade, as well as cultural and humanitarian cooperation.

Elizabeth P. Buensuceso

The ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation and Its Role in Preventing Crises

AIPR is still in its formative stage. In the coming years, it has the potential to play a significant role in promoting knowledge sharing and policy recommendations to help foster peace and reconciliation and the prevention of crises in ASEAN.

Kapinga Yvette Ngandu

The Panel of the Wise:Its Role in Preventing Violent Conflicts in Africa

The Panel of the Wise's role in preventing the outbreak of violent conflicts in Africa was meant to provide information and analysis on the experiences, to date, of an important pillar of APSA. The objective was to discuss the gradual institutionalization of the Panel over the last 10 years and provide reflections that can inform the Panel's operations in the future.

Vinod Saighal

The Ingredients of Prevention

The present great power policies are not conducive to peace in the world. A continuance of these policies threatens to dismantle the existing global order and plunge the world into deepening distress—for human beings as well as for the health of the planet.

Force Commander Lund. Cyprus, April 2015. © UNFICYP
Kristin Lund and Laura Mitchell

Preventing Crisis and Conflict: Women's Role in Ongoing Peace Processes

Women play a variety of roles in complex, multitrack peace processes. They can sit at the formal negotiating table, on a technical committee or subcommission, or they can be outside the talks engaged as civil society actors in following developments. All of these roles are critical.

Maher Nasser

Foreword

With this issue of the UN Chronicle, we hope to help inform the discussion on the culture of prevention, and contribute to the objective of strengthening and sustaining peace and security, human rights, the rule of law, and development, for current and future generations.

Farid Zarif

Advancing the Debate on a Culture of Conflict Prevention

Prompt political interventions give time for actors in society to come to terms with change and think differently about old problems. For example, during the first half of 2016, UNMIL mobilized to diffuse potential conflict between Liberian Christian and Muslim communities which emerged from the country's constitutional review process promoting a constitutional amendment defining Liberia as a Christian nation.

Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the Security Council ministerial-level open debate on conflict prevention and sustaining peace.  10 January 2017, United Nations, New York. ©UN Photo/Rick Bajornas
António Guterres

Meeting the Prevention Challenge

Preventing human suffering and ensuring progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are primarily the responsibility of Member States. But the United Nations has a vital supporting role. We need to become much better at it, building trust with Member States and all stakeholders. I see us doing this in four ways: a surge in preventive diplomacy; bold efforts to implement the Agenda 2030 and Sustaining Peace; strengthened partnerships; and comprehensive reforms to overcome fragmentation and consolidate our capacities to deliver.

Karan Jerath

Our Oceans, Our Lives

Sustainable Development Goal 14, Life Below Water, does not end with the oceans, but instead, starts with the oceans. By protecting our oceans, we are able to work towards living healthier more sustainable lives with fewer contaminants in our food, harnessing natural energy resources such as wind and tidal energy, and reducing the effects of climate change.

Yusup Kamalov, standing in what 40 years ago was a deep seaport, heads the Union for the Defense of the Aral Sea, a local non-governmental organization based in Nukus.  ©Eric Hilger.
Beatrice Grabish

Dry Tears of the Aral

The Aral Sea is only the epicentre of the tragedy, as Central Asians commonly refer to this legacy of environmental misuse; the damage has also consumed thousands of surrounding square kilometers. Called the most staggering disaster of the twentieth century by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Aral Sea basin intersects all five Central Asian republics - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - which lie in a 690,000-square-kilometer landlocked zone.