From the 27 to the 30 of January, Francesca Caruso – MWMN’s member of the secretariat – attended the 2nd International Young Women Mediation Forum in Nairobi. The forum was organized by IPHRD-Africa, a non-profit organization registered in Kenya whose aim is to promote a human rights approach to governance and peace building for sustainable development in Africa.
This year the theme of the forum was “Young Women in Arts for Peace”, looking at the role of creative tools in reconciliation, conflict transformation, and conflict prevention. Arts have demonstrated to be crucial tools in bringing the implementation of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) closer to the community level, thereby helping to popularize it while contributing to peace consolidation. While there is considerable evidence of the role of art in reconciliation and conflict transformation, the Forum explored the contributions that the Arts make to conflict prevention and more specifically to mediation.
The Forum was also used as a platform to discuss the under-representation of young women in mediation, and other peace processes. It was also an opportunity to showcase the experiences of young women from across the world in this specific field while documenting their contributions to the implementation of UNSCR 1325.
Two third of the participants (20) were coming from African countries, while the other third were coming from Europe, Asia and South America.
