This issue focuses on the importance of fostering and maintaining a commitment to a culture of prevention. The articles provide a variety of perspectives on building and sustaining peace. They explore the relationship between conflict and crises, and themes such as the empowerment of civil society, media and information literacy, women’s role in ongoing peace processes, and desertification.
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.
We can jump-start economic and employment opportunities for young people and rural populations by creatively building on the sustainable development and inclusive growth opportunities laid out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Initiative on Sustainability, Stability and Security (3S) in Africa launched in 2016 by Morocco and Senegal is a good example.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Data shows that among the 25 countries with the highest rates of femicide in the world, 14 are in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).The region also has very high rates of violence against the LGBTQ community, although it has some of the most progressive laws for LGBTQ equality and protection.
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.
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.
