Per la Pau / Peace in Progress

The seminars on "Peace, conflict and security in Africa", organised by the ICIP with the collaboration of Casa África and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) and held between 3 and 5 November, brought together a dozen European and African experts to displace the challenges and perspectives in this field, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of African states. The seminars were attended by around one hundred people, and considered the role of the UN in the processes for constructing peace in Africa, cooperation between the European Union and the African Union, the feasibility and workings of regional security organisations such as the ECOWAS, the role of women in conflict resolution and reconciliation, and the successes and limitations of combatant demobilisation and reinclusion policies, especially in West Africa. The speakers agreed that it is necessary to deconstruct the monolithic and alarmist of Africa which has been prevalent to date in the more classic Afropessimistic view of the continent, and to consider new ways of dealing with conflicts that take their structural causes - historic, socio-economic and identity-based - into account that trigger and accelerate them, and to invest more effort in prevention and containment.

More information on the seminar: http://www.gencat.cat/icip/cat/noticies10.html.