Author: whads

In June 2012, a group of victims of ETA, GAL, BVE and the Spanish Security Forces of several different periods of time, who had been secretly meeting for 5 years, presented itself publicly on a press conference. The Glencree Experience had been born in 2007 as a project oriented to explore the possibilities of constructive dialogue among victims from the two communities.
Ondas en el agua narrates the process through which these people mutually recognized each other as victims, and their work together to achieve a shared version of their experiences, a positive and constructive message for the Basque society.
The authors
The authors of Ondas en el agua are the members of the team of mediators of the Glencree Experience. Carlos Martin Beristain is a doctor with a great experience working with victims of violent conflicts from several South American and African countries. Galo Bilbao is professor of Ethics at the Deusto University and has specialized on theoretical reflection on victims of violent conflicts and political violence. Julian Ibáñez is a well-recognized and experienced psychologist.

The ICIP Library collection will increase this month with the arrival of many new publications. A compilation of the most important new titles, most of which are available for loan, can be found in this document.
The ICIP Library, located at Tapineria, 10, 1st floor, in Barcelona, is a center specializing in peace culture, security and conflicts that aims to enable and encourage research in these areas. The Library offers support to ICIP and to its researchers and experts in the field of peace studies. It is part of the network of specialized libraries of the Generalitat and is in permanent contact with similar institutions and centers from around the world.

The International Catalan Institute for Peace (ICIP) has launched a grant call to non-profit organizations, foundations and cooperatives, based in Catalonia, for participation in networking and research projects promoting peace. The total amount for this call is 40,000 euros and the deadline to present applications is September 15.
Grants can be applied for electronically here.
ICIP is an institution of research, dissemination and action and, according to the law by which it was created, its objective is “to offer support and advice to organizations, initiatives, campaigns and activities that require this assistance, and to promote activities that civil society and peace movements, public administrations, international organizations, universities and research centers carry out in the area of training, research and action committed to peacebuilding and peacekeeping”.

On November 19, after four years of work, the International Research Network on Business, Conflict and Human Rights (BCHR Network) was established in Geneva, led by ICIP. It is the first network of its kind in the world and one of its major features is that it brings together members from universities around the world, NGOs and important research centers in the field of armed conflict and the promotion of peace. Participants include the universities of Georgetown, Quebec, Sorbonne, Leiden, Greenwich, Ottawa and Australia; and centers and foundations such as SIPRI, FAFO, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Global Witness, PeaceNexus and DCAF. A total of over eighty researchers from around the world have signed the Network Founding Document.
The network is part of the ICIP research program “Armed conflict: law and justice”, coordinated by the Professor of International Humanitarian Law and ICIP vice president, Antoni Pigrau. Its main objective is to investigate the causes, dynamics and consequences of business activity in the context of armed conflict, the impact of this participation on human rights and the legal responsibilities that may arise. Activities of the network are published in a monthly newsletter.
The initiative to create a research network of this nature arose in the autumn of 2011, when ICIP organized the first international seminar on business and armed conflict in Barcelona, with the intention of unifying the various agendas on this issue. The seminar has been followed up by subsequent editions: in Barcelona in 2013, London in 2014 and Geneva in November of this year, coinciding with the celebration of the United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights.

Students of IBEI-Pompeu Fabra University’s International Relations Abroad program, who are studying the subject “United Nations: International Peace and Security”, and a group of Social Education students from the University of Barcelona visited the ICIP Library on Wednesday, November 25, to learn about the library’s holdings of almost 65,000 volumes (mostly books, but also audiovisual materials). The head of the library, Guifré Miquel, showed the center to the students and introduced them to ICIP’s lines of activity.
The ICIP Library is a center specializing in peace culture, security and conflict, and aims to enable and encourage the pursuit of knowledge in these areas. The library offers support to ICIP and to researchers and experts in the field of peace. It is part of the Generalitat’s network of specialized libraries and is in permanent contact with similar centers and institutions worldwide.

The ICIP Library has increased users access to full text articles on specialized academic journals. The service provided by the Taylor & Francis Social Science and Humanities Library gives its users access to 1.250 journals and their old repository.
The subject areas are divided into two packages: “Politics, International Relations and Area Studies”, which deals with Political Theory, Globalization and Diplomacy amongst others, and “Strategic, Defense and Security Studies”, with articles on Intelligence, Peace Studies, Terrorism or Strategic Studies. Also, amongst the most relevant materials are the Military Balance, the Adelphi Series, African Security, Democracy and Security, and the Journal of Peace Education.
You can access the full publications list here. All journals are accessible from the ICIP Library, which has moved to a new location in Carrer Tapineria, 10, 1st Floor (Barcelona).

ICIP president Rafael Grasa has been appointed to the Advising Committee for the project ‘Historical memory of violence in the context of armed conflict in the city of Medellín (Colombia): 1980 – 2013’, launched by the Medellín City Council, Colombia’s National Center for Historical Memory and the Colombian government.
The project aims to build an explanatory narrative of the armed conflict that the city of Medellín has experienced for decades, identify the damages caused by the violence, and describe the plurality of memories that exist in the context of the conflict. The project is scheduled to last eighteen months and involves the participation of experts in peacebuilding, memory, truth and justice, and reparation for victims.
The first meeting of the Advisory Committee will take place in Medellín on July 14-15.

On February 24, the International Catalan Institute for Peace (ICIP) presented the 2014 ICIP Peace in Progress Award to the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) at a ceremony at the Parliament of Catalonia. The event was chaired by the president of the Parliament, Núria de Gispert, the vice-president of the Government of the Generalitat, Joana Ortega, and the president of ICIP, Rafael Grasa. It was attended by WILPF’s international president, Adilia Caravaca, and other members of the award-winning organization, as well as representatives of various pacifist feminist movements.
The 2014 ICIP Peace in Progress Award honors WILPF for “its century-long involvement in the work of women for peace, as well as its commitment to disarmament, the defense of human rights and the persistence to obtain the recognition of the role of women in the building of peace.”
The award was accepted by the international president of the organization, Adilia Caravaca, who defended the commitment of WILPF to numerous struggles over the last century, such as “the struggles for independence, the liberation of colonies, the self-determination of indigenous peoples, the struggle against apartheid and against all wars.” The president of WILPF highlighted the validity of the objectives and principles of the founders of WILPF: “We live in a world of intolerance, of permanent wars and insecurity. We are far from having societies that focus on satisfying human needs. Peace seems as elusive as ever.”
During the ceremony, a video about the award-winning organization was screened and a brief account of WILPF’s centennial history and the conferment statement were read. Afterwards, ICIP president Rafael Grasa stressed WILPF’s influence on the international agenda. In his speech, the president of ICIP recalled that WILPF “has been at the center of a pacifist internationalist feminism” and that “it has been able to accomplish an enormous amount of work in a world that is off-limits to civil society and tailor-made for men.”
Following the presentation of the award, the vice-president of the Government of the Generalitat, Joana Ortega, recalled that the ongoing crises in countries such as Iraq, Syria, Nigeria or Ukraine “make it necessary to work harder than ever for peace.” The vice-president congratulated WILPF for the ground covered in favor of peace, and ICIP for the initiative of an award that, year after year, gains international prestige.
Finally, in her closing statement, the president of the Parliament, Núria de Gispert, praised the courage of the first women of WILPF who, one hundred years ago, in the middle of the First World War, got together in a congress in The Hague to talk about peace and disarmament. De Gispert recalled the pact-based tradition of Catalan institutions and defended the need for WILPF’s struggle for peace to continue moving forward.
Previous recipients of the ICIP Award
The ICIP Peace in Progress Award originated in 2011, with an extraordinary edition of the award honoring the Parliament of Catalonia for representing the continuity and legacy of the institutions “Pau i Treva” and “Consolat de Mar.” That same year, the first regular edition of the award recognized the struggle of conscientious objectors and “insubmisos” (people who refuse to do military service or any substitute social work) represented by Pepe Beunza, the first conscientious objector to compulsory military service for ideological reasons in Spain.
Then, in 2012, the ICIP Award was granted to five Madres de Soacha (Mothers of Soacha) for their work in favor of peace and human rights in Colombia. With this award, ICIP wanted to recognize their courage and perseverance in pursuit of truth, justice, and reparations for the killings of their children by the State security forces, and other cases of extrajudicial executions known as false positives.
In 2013, the ICIP Peace in Progress Award was granted to the ex-general born in Belgrade, Jovan Divjak, for his courage in the defense of Sarajevo during the Balkans War and his work in favor of the victims of that conflict.

The ICIP Library collection will increase this month with the arrival of many new publications. A compilation of the most important new titles, most of which are available for loan, can be found in this document.
The ICIP Library, located at Tapineria, 10, 1st floor, in Barcelona, is a center specializing in peace culture, security and conflicts that aims to enable and encourage research in these areas. The Library offers support to ICIP and to its researchers and experts in the field of peace studies. It is part of the network of specialized libraries of the Generalitat and is in permanent contact with similar institutions and centers from around the world.

ICIP has launched a new call for grants to fund peace research projects (R-ICIP 2015-2016) for a total amount of 40,000 euros. The grants are managed by the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) and the deadline for submitting applications is Wednesday, September 30, 2015.
Those interested in requesting these grants will find the proposal requirements and application form here.

Victims and resistance fighters, displaced and refugees, guerrilla fighters and peace builders; traditionally, the experiences of women have been ignored when it comes to studies on armed conflicts. Their voices have been silenced and this has led to a biased and partial vision of the real impact of wars.
Women and Wars is an interdisciplinary work in which gender analysts tackle different aspects of war, militarism and peacebuilding. The multiple experiences brought to debate in this book help us understand the dynamics and the complexity of armed conflicts. One cannot properly understand the relation of women and wars, nor war itself, without having a clear vision of the gender dimension, as the nexus between gender and war are established within patriarchy. This compilation of texts provides the reader with the necessary tools to have a better understanding of the experiences of women in armed conflicts.
Women and Wars is a compulsory reading handbook for all those people who have a true interest in International Politics, Security and Gender Studies.
The editor
Carol Cohn is director of the Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights, and a teacher of Gender Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Her research areas are gender and security, weapons of mass destruction, and the gender dimension in armed conflicts and peacebuilding. Cohn has been an active member of the UN Group of Work on Women, Peace and Security since 2001.