13 June 2013 Starting the 100 day countdown to the International Day of Peace, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on “all combatants around the world to lay down their arms and to give peace a real chance.” Mr. Ban said in a message to mark the countdown. The General Assembly first established the International Day [...]

A major player in the South African Peace Process will be in Belfast on 28th May to take part in an event remembering former Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine. Roelf Meyer, who in his role as Chief Negotiator for the National Party was intimately involved in the negotiations which saw an end to apartheid [...]

The Freedom of Belfast has been conferred on our very own Peace Day Ambassador, Olympic gold medallist Dame Mary Peters. Dame Mary competed in three Olympic Games and five Commonwealth games, her first when she was 18. She won gold in the women’s pentathlon in 1972. The freedom ceremony took take place on Wednesday Belfast [...]

he Dalai Lama has said there is “no alternative to the peace process” as he begins a two day visit to Londonderry. “There is no other choice – you have to work and live together so we should not act like animals,” he said. The Tibetan spiritual leader is patron of the Derry-based charity, Children [...]

Two US senators have brokered a bipartisan deal to expand background checks on gun buyers, boosting White House hopes for a firearms control law. Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat, and Senator Pat Toomey, a Republican, unveiled their plans in Washington DC. The proposal would expand criminal background checks for buyers to include gun shows and [...]

Prime Minister David Cameron has hailed the Good Friday Agreement as a “truly momentous event” in Northern Ireland’s history, on the 15th anniversary of the accord. The deal, also known as the Belfast Agreement, was signed on 10 April 1998. It followed years of intensive peace talks between political parties in Northern Ireland and the [...]

Springboard Executive Director, Angila Chada was recently interviewed on Northern Irelands Q101 radio discussing the Holocaust Educational Project and how the awful events of the Holocaust should not be forgotten and the lessons we here can learn from the history of the Holocaust. Springboard are the delivery agents of the Holocaust Educational Project an exciting [...]

North Korea says it is scrapping all non-aggression pacts with South Korea, closing its hotline with Seoul and shutting their shared border point. The announcement follows a fresh round of UN sanctions punishing Pyongyang for its nuclear test last month. Earlier, Pyongyang said it had a right to carry out a pre-emptive nuclear strike and [...]

On Wednesday night Springboard Opportunities Executive Director, Angila Chada and fellow Northern Irish Philanthropists, Harvey McGrath and Michael McKibbin have been recognised at the prestigious Beacon Awards for Philanthropy. Angila who started the Peace Day Campaign in 2007, was named at a ceremony in London, along with 32 others, including JK Rowling and Sir Ronald Cohen [...]

Russia has expressed concern at an alleged Israeli attack on Syria, saying such a strike would be an unacceptable violation of the UN Charter. Syria’s army said Israeli jets had targeted a military research centre north-west of Damascus on Wednesday. It denied reports that lorries carrying weapons bound for Lebanon were hit. Russia has steadfastly [...]

The Holocaust Educational Project is an exciting new project funded under the European Union’s PEACE III Programme which is managed on behalf of the Special EU Programmes Body by the North East PEACE III Partnership. The project aims to bring an innovative and alternative perspective to informing people about sectarianism and racism. This project will [...]

The International Peace and Development Training Center (IPDTC) of PATRIR is inviting expert professionals, policy makers and practitioners for its upcoming 2013 Advanced Certificate & Executive Leadership Programs. The programmes are designed for UN Missions & Agencies, governments and national and international organisations. IPDTC programmes have been ranked by participants and their agencies as amongst [...]

Police in east Belfast have faced a fourth consecutive night of loyalist violence over a decision to limit the days the union flag flies over City Hall. A demonstration took place near the nationalist Short Strand area. But as several hundred protesters made their way back up Castlereagh Street bricks, barriers and bottles were thrown [...]

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to arrive in Belfast as part of a four-day trip to Europe. It is understood she will meet Northern Ireland’s first minister and deputy first minister, and attend an Ireland Fund dinner at Titanic Belfast. It could be one of her last foreign engagements as Washington’s most [...]

The Colombian government and rebels from the Farc have concluded the first stage of peace talks aimed at ending five decades of conflict. Top government representative Humberto de la Calle said the talks in Cuba were “advancing as expected”. Farc negotiators said the atmosphere during the meetings was “very good”, but stressed that there should [...]

Egypt’s prime minister has condemned Israeli attacks on Gaza as a disaster during a short visit to the territory. Hisham Qandil, who visited a hospital and talked to Palestinian politicians during his three-hour visit, said Israeli “aggression” must stop. Israel struck at more than 130 targets overnight and militants fired 11 rockets from Gaza. At [...]

Peace talks aimed at ending five decades of conflict in Colombia have been delayed until Monday. The discussions between Colombian government delegates and rebels from the left-wing Farc group had been due to start in Cuba on Thursday. Few details were given, but in a statement, both sides said they needed to work on “technical [...]

The African Union (AU) has backed a plan to send troops into Mali to clear the north of Islamist extremists. It endorsed the decision by West Africa’s regional bloc Ecowas on Sunday to send 3,300 troops to help Mali’s government retake the region. The plans will now go before the UN Security Council for approval [...]

Belfast City Council has granted Olympic gold medallist Dame Mary Peters the freedom of the city in a motion passed on Thursday evening. Dame Mary competed in three Olympic Games and five Commonwealth games, her first when she was 18 years old. She won gold in the women’s pentathlon in 1972. SDLP councillor Pat McCarthy [...]

Fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza appears to have calmed after an unofficial truce was reached following days of violence. Israel said a mortar shell landed in the south of the country on Thursday after no reports of exchanges fighting. Five Israelis have been wounded since Tuesday amid some of the heaviest barrage [...]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has opened a memorial in Berlin to Roma (Gypsy) Nazi Holocaust victims. The memorial – a circular pool of water with a small plinth in the middle – is in Tiergarten park, near the Reichstag, the German parliament building. The unveiling comes after years of delays and disputes over the memorial’s [...]

Gunmen have wounded a 14-year-old rights activist who has campaigned for girls’ education in the Swat Valley in north-west Pakistan. Malala Yousafzai was attacked on her way home from school in Mingora, the region’s main town. She came to public attention in 2009 by writing a diary for BBC Urdu about life under Taliban militants [...]

Wayne McCullough one of Northern Ireland’s best ever boxers has became an official ambassador for the Peace Day Campaign. Wayne known affectionately (and legally after changing his name) as the Pocket Rocket has represented Ireland and Northern Ireland in both the Olympics and Commonwealth Games winning silver and gold medals respectively. Wayne went on to [...]

~  Registration Is Now Open ~ 7th Annual International Conference on Engaging The Other: The Power of Compassion November 30 – December 2, 2012 ~ London, Canada At a time when polarization is the culprit, a multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary conference addressing the roots of fear-based belief systems, negative stereotypes, prejudice, polarization, scapegoating, enemy images, and artificial barriers [...]

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has suspended some services near the remote South Sudanese town of Pibor, amid escalating violence. Its locally recruited staff and other residents of the towns of Lekwongole and Gumuruk have fled into the bush. The threat appears to come from a local rebel leader, David Yau Yau. He has [...]

More than two thirds of people living near Northern Ireland’s peace walls cannot see a time when they will not be necessary, a new study suggests. The University of Ulster study was funded by the Office of the First and Deputy First Ministers. Among other findings was that 78% of people believed segregation of communities [...]

Today saw the 5th annual Official Observance of Peace Day held by Springboard Opportunities hosted this year by the Rt. Hon Lord Mayor Alderman Gavin Robinson at Belfast City Hall. The theme for this years event was “Sustainable peace for a sustainable future” in her keynote speech Springboard’s Executive Director Angila Chada remarked, “The UN [...]

On 21 September, the International Day of Peace, Irina Bokova calls for the full respect of all cultures and religions in the context of the current wave of extremist violence and protests. She joins the UN Secretary General and many world leaders in condemning strongly recent acts that seek to incite hatred against the values [...]

Undeniably the highlight of our Official Observance for Peace Day will once again be the presentation of the Inspiration Awards. There are three categories in total. The ‘Special Inspiration Award’ this year will be presented to Blind adventure athlete Mark Pollock for his truly inspiring achievements. A promising student at Trinity College and an international [...]

If you were down in Belfast on Saturday you might have had the opportunity to meet Percy the Peace Day Panda. Percy was in the city centre raising awareness of the International Day of Peace and was a sight not to be missed, as there was a big bunch of balloons trailing behind him for [...]

As part of our events for the UN International Day of Peace Springboard’s Options, Boston programme working in partnership with Disability Sports NI will host an Inclusive Games Day at Fleming Fulton School, Belfast. The group had their final preparation day this week and are very excited about the opportunity to run the event. This [...]

Dozens of people have been killed in a wave of at least 11 attacks in Iraq, some targeting the security forces. In the deadliest single incident, 11 soldiers died in a shooting and bombing attack on an army base near Baghdad. Two car bombs killed a total of at least 14 people and wounded than [...]

The United Nations observer mission in Syria has formally ended, in line with Thursday’s Security Council decision. The team was deployed to monitor a ceasefire between rebels and the government agreed as part of former UN envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan, but the truce never took hold. The UN decided to end the mission [...]

Young people from sectarian interface areas across Belfast will come together for the main event of the city’s Interface Games. Cross-community sports camps have been running over the past three weeks in the north, west and east of the city for children aged between nine and 13. Its flagship event is being staged at Crusaders [...]

The UN-Arab League joint special envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan has announced he is leaving his post. In a news conference, he said the Syrian people “desperately need action” but criticised the UN Security Council for “finger pointing and name calling”. Mr Annan authored a six-point peace plan for Syria which was intended to bring [...]

The UN chief has urged states to bridge differences ahead of Friday’s deadline for the draft of a new global agreement to control international arms sales. Ban Ki-moon said that “very limited progress” had been made during 30 days of talks in New York. However, a British spokesman was more upbeat, telling Associated Press a [...]

There has been more fighting during the night around Syria’s capital Damascus, activists say, days after rebels declared a final battle for the city. Reports say that a barracks overlooking the presidential palace is on fire. However, Syrian officials dismissed claims of an all-out rebel offensive. Meanwhile, UN chiefs have been trying to persuade China [...]

The Belfast Interface Games are under way for children living on either side of the sectarian divide. The games are a cross-community sports camps and will run during the London Olympics. Over the next three weeks, they will take place in north, west and east Belfast. The games are for children aged between nine and [...]

Senior Indian and Pakistani diplomats are holding talks to bolster a fragile peace process. Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and his Pakistani counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani are meeting in the Indian capital, Delhi. Last month, the two sides held inconclusive talks over a maritime boundary dispute and the demilitarisation of a glacier. Relations between the [...]

Talks at the United Nations aimed at creating a global treaty on the international arms treaty have stalled before they even began. A dispute over the status of the Palestinian delegation delayed the official start of talks, which are now set to begin in New York on Tuesday. Some reports suggest the delay may have [...]

Four police officers were injured when bottles and fireworks were thrown at them in east Belfast. The disturbances followed the annual Somme commemoration parade on Monday night. The parade passed off without incident but crowds gathered afterwards in Castlereagh Street, the Albertbridge Road and Mountpottinger Road. The officers sustained minor injuries. Ten people were arrested [...]

13 June 2012 – Starting the 100 day countdown to the International Day of Peace, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on people around the world to consider how they can help build a ‘sustainable peace for a sustainable future.’“If we are to build such a future, we must all play our individual part – I [...]

The assembly is debating a motion later calling for the government to press for a human rights-compliant Arms Trade Treaty. Final negotiations on the treaty are to take place at the UN next month. The assembly motion urges the government to insist that arms sales not be authorised where there is a substantial risk they [...]

Hundreds of people are expected to attend a conference in Belfast which will explore how Northern Ireland can provide an example of peace building. The European Foundation Centre’s annual three-day gathering will be discussing how £175m of philanthropic grants have benefited social justice. Delegates will debate how philanthropy can help divided communities resolve their differences. [...]

Special envoy Kofi Annan is to visit Damascus on Monday, the day after the UN condemned Syria for its use of heavy weaponry in the town of Houla, where at least 108 people were killed. Forty-nine children and 34 women were among Friday’s dead, the UN said. Syria’s ambassador to the UN rejected what he [...]

By Paulo Cabral BBC Brasil, Sao Paulo Brazil’s Truth Commission, created to investigate human rights abuses committed during the country’s military dictatorship, is set to meet for the first time on Wednesday amid criticism from both army officers and victims’ relatives. Military rule spanned 21 years, from 1964 to 1985. More than 400 people were [...]

Monday 14th May marks the start of the 10th Community Relations Week in Northern Ireland, aimed at showcasing work to deal with the legacy of the Troubles. The Community Relations Council has said while progress has been made, sectarianism remains deeply rooted. There are now nearly 90 interfaces by some estimates, compared to 22 when [...]

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is appealing for an extra $27m (£17m) to fund its operation in Syria until the end of this year. The ICRC, the only international aid agency working inside Syria, says hundreds of thousands of people remain in need. Despite the ceasefire which came into force last month, [...]

Sudan has promised to cease hostilities with South Sudan and comply with a UN Security Council resolution. However the foreign ministry also said that Khartoum reserved the right to respond to “aggression” from the South. The statement came hours after Juba alleged fresh bombing by the Khartoum government’s forces. A UN resolution on Wednesday backed [...]

Representatives of more than 40 countries will gather in Dublin later for a high-profile conference examining the lessons of Northern Ireland for resolving conflicts. The conference is being hosted by the Irish government, as part of its chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement [...]

Give More is a 12 month UK wide campaign to encourage people to share their passion for the causes they care about by making a public commitment to give more time, energy or money in 2012.  The Campaign launches in Belfast in the Castlecourt centre at 2.00pm on 26 April 2012 – so if you [...]

More than 40 countries are due to attend a high-profile conference examining the lessons of Northern Ireland for resolving conflicts elsewhere in the world. The first and deputy first ministers and the Good Friday Agreement talks chairman, George Mitchell, will be among those addressing the conference, hosted by the Irish government. The Irish Foreign Minister, [...]

Advanced Certificate Program (ACP) June 25th – 29th , 2012, IPDTC GLOBAL ACADEMY – Cluj-Napoca, Romania (For Costs see below) *** Click Here for the Full Programme Outline *** Click Here to read past Participants’ Reviews *** The PCTR Programme is implemented in affiliation with the Peace Operation Training Institute’s Certificate of Training in United Nations Peace Support Operations (COTIPSO). [...]

The wives of the German and British ambassadors to the UN have released a video urging Syria’s first lady to help end the bloodshed in her country. The film, posted on YouTube, asks Asma Assad to urge her husband, Bashar al-Assad, to stop violent repression. It contrasts glamorous pictures of her lavish lifestyle with graphic [...]

The UN and Arab League envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, has said he has received assurances from Damascus that it will respect his ceasefire plan. Speaking during a visit to Iran, Mr Annan said there could be “improved conditions on the ground” by Thursday morning, if all sides did so. On Tuesday, the government failed [...]

The Department of Peace Operations (DPO) and the International Peace and Development Training Centre (IPDTC) of PATRIR are pleased to announce 10 special scholarships for the upcoming Executive Leadership Programmes in London (April 16 – 21). The scholarships are intended to support experienced practitioners and experts working in peacebuilding from governments, civil society organisations, and [...]

Syria’s government has agreed to accept the peace plan put forward by the United Nations and Arab League envoy, Kofi Annan, his spokesman has said. Mr Annan said he considered it “an important initial step that could bring an end to the violence and the bloodshed”, but implementation was key. The plan calls for an [...]

What a night! Last nights Fuzion event at The Pavilion Bar, Belfast went down a treat, one has to say that Springboards Music Production/Promotion group excelled themselves and in the process raised over £500 for the charity Families with Up’s and Down’s. The group organised the event on their own from start to finish and [...]

Today marks the 6 months countdown to this years UN International Day of Peace and Springboards local campaign to raise awareness of this under represented day. It all started in 1981 when the United Nations established the International Day of Peace to ‘strengthen the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples’. [...]

After working through a maze of technical hiccups the Global Peacebuilders website is again 100% up and running but to appreciate the site in its current format you will want to see it now as we are planning a major redesign based upon feedback from the ever growing database of users and to keep Global [...]

Militants in Afghanistan have launched an attack on a government delegation visiting the site where a US soldier killed 16 civilians. Two of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s brothers and several top security officials were in the delegation in Panjwai in Kandahar province. One Afghan soldier and three militants were killed, police said, and the delegation [...]

Conflict-Sensitive Approaches to Development, Humanitarian Assistance and Peacebuilding: A Resource Pack is the product of a two-year process by a consortium of partner organisations. The goal was to identify, synthesise, complement and enable conflict-sensitive practice in the fields of development, humanitarian assistance and peacebuilding. This was undertaken primarily in Kenya, Uganda and Sri Lanka but [...]

A campaign by US activists to capture alleged Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony has gone viral on the web. Invisible Children’s half-hour film on the use of child soldiers by Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army has been viewed nearly 10 million times on YouTube. The group aims to bring Kony to justice at the International Criminal [...]

Israel says it has allowed the export of goods from Gaza to the West Bank for the first time in five years. The military has authorised the transfer of at least 13 lorry loads of date bars in the next few days. However it stressed this was a “one-off pilot project” and did not mean [...]

Last Friday Springboard’s Sports Coaching and Choices programmes took part in a sponsored walk for the Peace Day Campaign. Through Springboards Wider Horizons programmes young adults from disadvantaged communities in Ireland, north and south, continue to come together and engage in highly interactive development programmes. With programme time spent on locations at home and overseas [...]

Fourteen years after the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland remains “a very divided society,” a new report suggests. Peace walls have increased from 22 when the agreement was signed, to a current total of 48 walls, according to the NI Peace Monitoring Report. The policing deal is not secure with a greater drop-out rate for [...]

The Transcend Peace University TPU is an all-online university, currently headed by Prof. Dr. Johan Galtung. Their inter-disciplinary courses are designed to cover issues pertaining to peace and development studies. TPU seeks to promote trans-border, inter-disciplinary peace studies, and make them accessible to as wide a community as possible. For this, they have opted for [...]

The opening of a security barrier at a former north Belfast sectarian interface has been welcomed by the Northern Ireland Justice Minister David Ford. The barrier at Newington Street and Limestone Road junction in a section of Belfast which seen some of the worst violence of “the Troubles” will be opened later today for the [...]

During the International Day of Peace last year Springboard with support from The Ireland Funds unveiled a new Peace Mural at Northumberland Street in Belfast. Situated between the “peace-line” gates as part of the Peace Day Campaign events. Measuring an impressive 10ft x 50ft the mural is a mosaic composite of close to 700 images [...]

A two week festival promoting peace and community cohesion is celebrating its tenth year. Peace Week will run across south and central Manchester for the final time after a decade of events. Organisers charity Carisma are being forced to scale back their operations due to cuts in funding and say they can no longer afford [...]

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is in Pakistan for talks expected to focus on attempts to bring the Taliban into the peace process. Mr Karzai is likely to tackle claims that Pakistani military personnel continue to support the insurgency. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due to join the meeting later for talks focusing on trade issues. [...]

Syria has “categorically rejected” an Arab League resolution calling for a joint Arab-UN peacekeeping mission to end the country’s 11-month conflict. The resolution is also expected to state that the League will end all diplomatic co-operation with Syria. Damascus’s envoy in Cairo, Yusuf Ahmed, said the plan “reflected the hysteria of these governments”. The plan [...]

Sudan’s president has launched a governing body to oversee a peace agreement intended to end the war in the western region of Darfur. The deal was reached last year, but signed by only one of Darfur’s weaker rebel movements. The new Darfur Regional Authority aims to share power and wealth, compensate those affected by the [...]

An Arab and Western-backed resolution condemning the violent crackdown in Syria has been vetoed at the UN Security Council by Russia and China. They rejected the draft as “unbalanced” hours after activists accused troops of killing at least 55 people at Homs. Western countries said the move would encourage Syria’s government to continue its violent [...]

The Journal of Peacebuilding and Development is calling for papers for V7N3, to be published in December 2012. JPD is a tri-annual refereed journal providing a forum for the sharing of critical thinking and constructive action on issues at the intersections of conflict, development, and peace. Housed at the Kroc School of Peace Studies at [...]

A day of debate at the United Nations Security Council meeting on Syria has ended without agreement. The council was discussing whether to adopt an Arab League plan calling for an end to violence and for President Bashar al-Assad to stand down. Qatar’s prime minister urged council members to take action against what he called [...]

Libyan militias are out of control and holding thousands of people in secret detention centres, while the weak interim government struggles to assert its authority, the UN has heard. The Security Council was told recent violence in Tripoli, Bani Walid and Benghazi highlighted the problem. More than 8,000 pro-Gaddafi supporters are being held by militia [...]

Syria has rejected an Arab League call for President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power to his deputy. The league, meeting in Cairo, also called on Syria to form a national unity government with the opposition within two months. A government official called the plan “flagrant interference” in Syria’s internal affairs, state TV said. The [...]

The International Peace and Development Training Center (IPDTC) is inviting expert professionals, policy makers and practitioners to apply for its upcoming Online and On-Site Advanced Certificate Training Programmes for UN agencies, governments and national and international organisations. IPDTC programmes have been ranked by participants and their agencies as amongst the most professional, intensive and high [...]

The US and other countries pause today to remember the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights icon who would have turned 83 this year had a bullet not cut short his life. Best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, [...]

The International Criminal Court has extended a deadline for Libya to provide information on the health and status of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. The former Libyan leader’s son was captured in southern Libya in November. A spokesman for the court stated that the deadline – originally Tuesday – was now 23 January. The ICC, based in [...]

Scores of people have been slaughtered after fleeing attacks by fighters from a rival ethnic group in South Sudan, according to numerous reports. John Boloch of South Sudan’s Peace and Reconciliation Commission said at least 150 people, mostly women and children, had been killed over the past two days. Some 6,000 fighters from the Lou [...]

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are due to hold their first meeting in more than a year on Tuesday. Israeli envoy Yitzhak Molcho and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat will meet in the Jordanian capital Amman alongside international mediators. But officials from both sides have played down the prospect of any imminent resumption in peace talks. Negotiations [...]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died at the age of 69, state-run television has announced. Mr Kim, who has led the communist nation since the death of his father in 1994, died on a train while visiting an area outside the capital, the announcement said. He suffered a stroke in 2008 and was absent [...]

Tributes have been flooding in from around the world following the death of the Czech Republic’s first President, Vaclav Havel. The former dissident playwright, who was 75, died on Sunday morning after a prolonged period of bad health. US President Barack Obama said Mr Havel had “helped to unleash tides of history that led to [...]

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the resumption of the European Union-facilitated dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo, saying he is encouraged by the adoption of the agreement on border controls reached last week.The adoption of the EU’s “Integrated Border Management (IBM) Agreed Conclusions” in Brussels on Friday is expected to pave the way for the normalisation of [...]

Late Night Art A new initiative to encourage visitors to experience Belfast’s rich and diverse cultural life is the art gallery scheme whereby many galleries in Belfast will remain open until 9pm on the first Thursday of each month. Many exhibitions, artist talks and promotions are planned during these open evenings and many of Belfast’s [...]

Former Libyan rebels are still holding about 7,000 prisoners, the United Nations says. The detainees are being held without access to legal process because the police and courts are not functioning, and some may have been tortured. Many are sub-Saharan Africans suspected of being mercenaries hired by the Gaddafi regime. The UN said the new [...]

Sporadic clashes have continued overnight between demonstrators and security forces in the Egyptian capital as protests enter a fourth day. At least 13 people died and hundreds were injured over the weekend as troops launched a major assault to clear Cairo’s Tahrir Square of protesters. The unrest casts a shadow over elections due to start [...]

Organisers of the Confucius Peace Prize – China’s alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize – say they are determined to give the award to Vladimir Putin, despite opposition from Beijing. The Culture Ministry announced earlier that the award would not be given this year and disbanded the prize committee. But committee member Qiao Damo, a [...]

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has called for an investigation into the bombing of a refugee camp in South Sudan, which became independent in July. The UN has accused Sudan of carrying out the attack in oil-rich Unity state, just south of the border. Khartoum, which is fighting pro-southern rebels on its side of [...]

The UN cultural organisation has voted strongly in favour of membership for the Palestinians – a move opposed by Israel and the United States. Out of 173 countries voting, 107 were in favour, with 14 opposed and 52 abstentions. Before the vote, the US said it would stop its funding to Unesco if the Palestinians’ [...]

Nato’s mission over Libya is due to formally come to an end at one minute to midnight Libyan time on Monday. It follows the unanimous vote last week at the UN Security Council to end internationally military operations after seven months. In March, the council had authorised “all necessary measures” to protect civilians. The UN [...]

A new play developed by Springboards New Horizons participants and B-Dramatic is set to have the first official performance this November. This ground breaking play is based on the personal experiences of the Northern Ireland conflict through young peoples eyes. The venue is Farset International, 466 Springfield Road, Belfast at 7pm 17th November. If you [...]

Britain has set an early Olympic record by getting all 193 UN member states to sponsor the traditional call for a truce during the London 2012 Games. There was no expectation that any country would vote against the appeal for warring parties around the world to temporarily cease hostilities, but British diplomats wanted to go [...]

Former UN chief Kofi Annan will be among senior statesmen attending a conference on Basque separatism, seen as a possible prelude to the dissolution of Eta. The armed Basque separatist group called a ceasefire in January after more than four decades of violence. But Spanish politicians rejected the move, saying Eta remained a potential threat [...]

The authorities in Burma have released dozens of prisoners, including political detainees, in an amnesty. They are reported to include Shin Gambira, a monk who led street marches in 2007 that were crushed by the military. A popular comedian, Zarganar, was among the first to be freed. He was arrested in 2008 after publicly criticising [...]

Today, 10 October 2011 is World Mental Health Day, a yearly event celebrated around the world. The day was initiated by the World Federation for Mental Health to raise public awareness of mental health issues. It’s thought that around 154 million people around the world suffer from depression, so it’s likely that you or someone [...]

The Ministry of Defence has launched a campaign to promote better awareness of the mental health injuries of war. Called “Don’t bottle it up”, it aims to remove the stigma from wounds that cannot be seen – and urges servicemen and women not to ignore warning signs. The charity Combat Stress says 85% of veterans [...]

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to three women – Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen. They were recognised for their “non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”. Mrs Sirleaf is Africa’s first female elected [...]