The ICIP has announced the call for nominations for the ICIP Peace in Progress Award 2024, which aims to publicly recognize individuals, entities or institutions that, outstandingly and extensively, have worked and contributed to promoting and building peace.
It is the thirteenth edition of the Award, corresponding to 2024, and the call will be open until April 11, 2024. The applications can be registered electronically, through this site (in Spanish), or they can be registered in person at any administrative register of the Spanish state and an embassy or consulate outside Spain.
The ICIP Peace in Progress Award consists of public recognition, a sculpture created by the Nobel Peace Prize winner, artist and activist Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, called Porta del Sol, and 6,000 euros. The award ceremony occurs annually in an institutional ceremony at the Parliament of Catalonia.
Any natural or legal person can submit nominations to the ICIP Peace in Progress Award, but self-nominated candidates will not be accepted.
If you submit from abroad, please check with the ICIP (convocatories@icip.cat) before registration deadlines. Nomination of candidates by e-mail will not be accepted.
Previous granted
In previous editions, the Award was granted to two associations from Bosnia and Herzegovina: Women Victims of War and Forgotten Children of War (2023); the Basque Country’s associative network in favour of peace (2022), the activist from Congo, Julienne Lusenge (2020), the Coalition of Families of the Disappeared in Algeria (2019), the Mexican organization Cauce Ciudadano (2018), the activist Arcadi Oliveres (2017), Peace Brigades International (2016), the Capuchin friar Joan Botam (2015), WILPF (2014), the ex-general Jovan Divjak (2013), Madres de Soacha (2012), and the struggle of conscientious objectors (people who refuse to do military service or any substitute social work) represented by Pepe Beúnza (2011).
In the same year, 2011, in a special edition of the Award, the Parliament of Catalonia was honoured for representing the continuity and legacy of the institutions “Pau i Treva” and “Consolat de Mar.”
From November 27 to 29, ICIP gathered in Barcelona more than twenty women from all over the world involved in the fight against enforced disappearances. Most of them are victims or direct relatives of missing people. The meeting aimed to create a space for the exchange of experiences and knowledge between the participating women and to put the needs and demands of the victims at the centre of the topic. The observations and recommendations of the women that have emerged from the meeting will be considered for the World Congress on Enforced Disappearances, which is expected to be held next year.
“Enforced disappearances constitute a cluster of serious violations of human rights with an enormous impact, not only on the people directly affected but also on the community and social sphere. The impact is even replicated from generation to generation”, explains Sabina Puig, ICIP officer and one of the meeting organisers.
“Although the obligation to prevent them and to offer truth, justice and reparation relies on the States, many times the families of the missing persons themselves undertake the task of searching for them and demanding measures for the protection of the human rights, as well as guarantees of non-repetition. And this, despite the multiple obstacles and risks it poses in many contexts”, she adds.
Women from a dozen countries
The meeting was attended by women from Algeria, Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, El Salvador, the Philippines, Honduras, Lebanon, Mexico, the Western Sahara and Syria, among others. There were also women from the Basque Country and Catalonia. What they all had in common was having lived through how a close family member had been forcibly disappeared and their struggle to find the relatives. The women participated in workshops and training sessions for three days with informal talks and care and self-care activities.
“The meeting has been beneficial to reflect on the relationship between peacebuilding and the search for missing persons and to value the contributions of these groups of searchers at the same time that, based on the exchange of strategies and knowledge, transfer knowledge and offer tools that can strengthen their work”, comments Sílvia Plana, another of the ICIP officers in charge of this event.
After the gathering, several participants stressed the need for more reunions like this. “These international meetings also serve as protection for us. It is necessary to place families at the centre of the decision-making processes and to give visibility to all the violence that is exercised when an enforced disappearance is committed: both towards the disappeared person and their relatives”, expressed a Latin American participant. Also, the mother of a missing young man emphasized the importance of initiatives like this to weave ties and generate networks of solidarity between women seekers.
ICIP will soon publish a study on the role of women in the fight against enforced disappearances and the links of their work with peacebuilding. This publication will collect some of the contributions made during the face-to-face meeting organized in Barcelona.
From 18-20 September, an ICIP delegation travelled to Mexico to participate in the second meeting of the Platform for Peacebuilding in Mexico, of which the institution has been a member since its inception. This platform began to take shape in 2019 after the First International Forum on Peacebuilding in Mexico, held in Barcelona and organized by ICIP, Serapaz and Taula per Mèxic. After three years of regularly working online, the Platform met in person for the first time in Chiapas in October 2022.
This second meeting took place at Casa Xitla in the southern part of Mexico City. It brought together some forty people from economic, cultural and journalistic backgrounds, as well as representatives of the organizations that make up the Platform.
Members of the Platform for Peacebuilding in Mexico during the meeting at Casa Xitla.
Drawing on the contributions of international experts such as Jenny Pearce, Guillermo Trejo and Alberto Solís, participants in the meeting delved into the diagnosis of violence in Mexico, a country strongly affected by the presence of organized crime and its collusion with public institutions. In the last 15 years, 450,000 people have been murdered, and more than 111,000 have disappeared. In addition, thousands of people have been forcibly displaced, and levels of social exclusion are alarmingly high.
In the face of statistics more typical of a country at war than of a peaceful democracy, the Platform provides a space for analysis, the exchange of information and reflection from which proposals for peacebuilding emanate. At the same time, the Platform also intends to be a sounding board for the concerns and demands of its member organizations, as well as those of the groups, movements and communities that these member organizations support in different parts of Mexico, especially in Chiapas and Oaxaca.
This second meeting of the Platform also provided an opportunity to define its internal organization and to identify strategies and methodologies for future actions.
In addition to the internal work sessions, the Platform convened a “Discussion group of citizen peacebuilding initiatives.” This event took place at the Centro Universitario Cultural on Monday, 18 September, and featured other proposals and projects related to peace in the country.
Platform members worked for three days in the southern part of Mexico City.
According to ICIP director Kristian Herbolzheimer, who attended the meeting: “Exciting initiatives are emerging in Mexico that seek to address the many forms of violence that occur in the country, which makes Mexico a real laboratory for peace. ICIP not only sees this as a valuable learning experience but also reaffirms its commitment to peace and its willingness to accompany and collaborate with local actors.”
National Dialogue for Peace in Puebla
One of these initiatives to comprehensively address the issue of violence and insecurity in Mexico is the National Dialogue for Peace, a meeting held at the Ibero-American University of Puebla from 21-23 September.
An ICIP delegation, accompanied by members of the Platform for Peacebuilding in Mexico, attended the event. This meeting was convened by the Conference of the Mexican Episcopate, the Conference of Major Superiors of Mexico, the Episcopal Lay Dimension and the Mexican Province of the Society of Jesus to generate a space for plural and inclusive dialogue on security and peacebuilding in the North American country.
After three days of work, the so-called National Agenda for Peace was presented
More than two thousand people from all over the country attended the event, many of whom had already participated in various forums held during the last year and a half. This initiative arose following the murder of two Jesuit priests in the Tarahumara Mountains of Chihuahua in June 2022. Since then, the Church in Mexico has organized days of prayer, discussion groups, forums on justice and peace and other initiatives that have brought together 18,000 participants in the country’s 32 states. All these efforts led to the Puebla meeting, which featured representatives from every social sector.
After three days of work, a National Agenda for Peace and a National Network for Peace were presented. The former is a document of over 30 pages that features various work proposals, and the latter is a network that aims to coordinate local initiatives – or people – that wish to undertake some peacebuilding process in their territories.
In addition, as a result of the meeting, 14 actions to eradicate violence in the country were presented. They were read by Father Jorge Atilano González Candia, a social worker with the Company of Jesus in Mexico and one of the main organizers of the meeting. The list includes, for example, actions to strengthen the procedures of restorative justice and to dignify and recover municipal and community police forces. The final document of the meeting and the 14 points are available here.
More than two thousand people took part in the National Dialogue for Peace.
On August 1st 2023, the report Wagner Group Unchained in Ukraine: Military, Political, and human rights impact of the Wagner Group since the large-scale invasion in 2022. The Novact Institute for Nonviolence has made the report in collaboration with Shock Monitor, the Observatory of Business and Human Rights in the Mediterranean, and the organization Suds. It has the financial support of ICIP thanks to one of the grants to entities and research work on the culture of peace that the institution convenes annually. The result has been presented in the framework of the United Nations Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries.
The investigation on the Wagner Group has been conducted by a research team coordinated by Felip Daza Sierra, along with Carlos Díaz Bodoque, with the assistance of Anhelina Hrytsei and Mathilde Machteld Romeo.
The report will be made public in September and analyzes the impact of the Wagner Group in Ukraine. The research includes testimonies from 40 experts, academic and human rights institutions, and Civil Society Organizations. Interviews have also been conducted with military personnel involved in the operations on the Ukrainian side.
The presence of the Wagner Group has dramatically increased the conflict severity in Ukraine, exacerbating deadliness, escalating confrontation, and causing fragmentation of non-state armed actors. Particularly noteworthy is the alleged implication of the Wagner Group in war crimes such as the killing of local authorities and the beheading of prisoners of war. Ongoing legal investigations by the Ukrainian Prosecution Office indicate the use of inmates as “forced human shields,” especially in the battles of Donbas. It is also highlighted that the Wagner Group designs combat operations and uses heavy weapons, artillery, and reconnaissance technology.
The group engages in predatory recruitment practices, such as incorporating inmates and marginalized youth from Russia and using foreign combatants from Syria, Serbia, and Afghanistan, among others.
According to the report, the Wagner Group plays an increasingly significant political role, combining social conservatism, patriotic claims, and cult criminal activity. The rise of their actions is also identified in the general apathy of the Russian population towards the war and a lack of understanding of the military goals, among other factors. In response, the Wagner Group has developed a business and media empire that sustains the group’s illicit activities and abusive hiring practices. Wagner is supported by far-right groups (RIM, TFRusich) and the new media elite composed of military bloggers and influencers.
The report also highlights how the Wagner Group provides critical political dividends for Putin, such as symbolic military victories, increased support for the invasion activities in Ukraine, and the ability to maintain military confrontation considering the general public apathy towards the war inside Russia. However, the possible disappearance of the Wagner Group will not prevent the use of other proxies in the war in Ukraine and the proliferation of the Russian Private Military Security Companies (PMSC) industry.
Therefore, the report makes a set of fundamental recommendations as a central message to the United Nations Working Group.
For International Organisms and National Governments:
To strengthen national regulatory frameworks to control PMSCs, including robust licensing, supervision, and redress mechanisms.
To create a comprehensive international legally binding instrument to regulate PMSC activity, with adequate standards to prevent human rights violations, protection of victims, and ensure effective remedies.
To designate the Wagner Group as a terrorist organization and an armed group financed by the Russian Federation.
To advance international criminal prosecution, including Universal jurisdiction principles.
For Civil Society Organizations:
Enhance monitoring and reporting mechanisms on PMSC activity and its intersectional impact on human rights, with particular attention to violations of women’s rights.
Raise awareness among the general public and communities affected by conflicts to distinguish private contractors from regular forces and understand the political and social impact of the privatization of war.
Undertake advocacy actions to promote international and national regulations for controlling PMSCs.
After the presentation at the United Nations headquarters, the report is scheduled to be made public in September. In the same month, the work will be presented in Barcelona.
The ICIP’s Governing Board has decided to confer the ICIP Peace in Progress Award 2023 to the candidacy that includes two associations from Bosnia and Herzegovina: Women Victims of War and Forgotten Children of War “for their work denouncing rape as a weapon of war, fighting against impunity, and empowering and drawing attention to victims of sexual violence.”
The award-winning associations work on the documentation of rapes during the Balkan War and the legal and social recognition of children born in situations of sexual violence. It is estimated that between 25,000 and 50,000 women and girls were victims of rape as a strategy of ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian War, and 4,000 infants were born due to the assaults. Beyond Bosnia, the awarded entities are also in contact with survivors of other conflicts, such as Ukraine, to accompany them in denunciation and recognition as victims of war.
The winning candidacy was presented by Cultura i Conflicte. This Catalan organization has reflected the work of the two Bosnian associations in the multidisciplinary project Encara hi ha algú al bosc (There is still someone in the forest), which includes a documentary, an exhibition and a play.
Women Victims of War
The Association of Women Victims of War (Udruženje Žena žrtva rata) was founded in 2003 with the aim of bringing together victims of rape during the Bosnian War (1992-1995). Since then, the organization has been working to document cases of rape (including sexual assaults on men), provide testimonies, help survivors defend their rights as victims of the war, and fight against the impunity that many of the perpetrators still enjoy.
Thousands of women and girls were victims of rape during the Bosnian War, although there is no official figure since many of them did not survive the attacks, and others did so in silence.
From the rape survivors’ testimonies, the association has gathered information to bring the perpetrators before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague and before local courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The association has collected testimonies from 5,495 female and 300 male survivors.
The organization’s work has made it possible to empower and accompany the war victims, provide psychological and social support, and fight against impunity in a difficult context since rape as a weapon of war is still taboo in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Forgotten Children of War
The Forgotten Children of War Association (UdruženjeZaboravljena djeca rata) was founded in 2015 by boys and girls born of rape during the Bosnian War and by human rights activists. It is estimated that at least 4,000 children were born of war in Bosnia, although only 62 are officially recognized, and they are now adults.
The association also assists the children of forced marriages during the war, prostitution rings organized by international forces, and relationships between military and humanitarian personnel who abandoned women and children after the conflict.
The association works at an international level for the legal and social recognition of children born of war rapes and to establish protocols to protect children, end the stigma they suffer and help mothers recognise their children. As a result of their work, legal changes have been made in Bosnian local administrations so that children born of war rapes are recognized and compensated as victims.
ICIP Peace in Progress Award
Since 2011, ICIP has called the Peace in Progress Award annually to award and publicly recognise people, entities or institutions that have worked and contributed in a unique and extended way to promote and construct peace.
The award includes public recognition, a sculpture created by the Nobel Peace Prize winner, artist and activist Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Porta del Sol, and a financial endowment of 6,000 euros.
The awarding occurs annually in an institutional ceremony at the Parliament of Catalonia, coinciding with September 21, International Day of Peace.
On 30-31 January, representatives of the three Nobel Peace Prize 2022 initiatives will visit Barcelona and Madrid in a delegation organized by ICIP and NOVACT.
The delegation will consist of Oleksandra Romantsova, executive director of the Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine); Natallia Satsunkevich, member of the Interim Board of the Viasna Human Rights Center (Belarus); and Alexander Cherkasov, chair of the Board of the Memorial Human Rights Center (Russia). These three civil society initiatives – one individual and two collectives – were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last October for their work in reporting war crimes and defending peace and human rights.
To mark the occasion of their visit, on 30 January, School Day of Nonviolence and Peace, the Parliament of Catalonia will host the first Conference on Peace organized in collaboration with ICIP and Lafede.cat.
“The Catalan social entities and institutions that work for the promotion of peace, together with the Parliament of Catalonia, are especially pleased to present the work of these three entities as part of the first Conference on Peace organized by the Catalan chamber,” declared ICIP director Kristian Herbolzheimer.
Oleksandra Romantsova, Alexander Cherkasov and Natallia Satsunkevich
The conference will consist of two roundtables. The first one, Peacebuilding alternatives for a paradigm shift: Contributions of Catalan organizations, will feature five representatives of Lafede.cat’s peace work area. They will talk about the challenges of peacebuilding concerning the evolution of armed conflicts and the interrelation between the concepts of peace and security. And they will also present proposals for a Catalan public policy for peace.
The second panel, entitled Civil society facing war and authoritarian regimes: Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, will feature the participation of the representatives of the three initiatives awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Gabriela Serra, president of the Catalan Council for the Promotion of Peace, and Pere Aragonès, president of the Government of Catalonia, will close the conference.
The event will begin at 4 pm and is open to the public. To attend this event, prior registration at the Parliament’s website is required before the deadline of 25 January.
On the same day, 30 January, the delegation from the three countries is expected to meet with various representatives of Catalan institutions, including a meeting with the president of the Government of Catalonia and with the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau.
Visit and activities in Madrid
On 31 January, following the events in Barcelona, the delegation will travel to Madrid, where they will participate in various meetings with government representatives and address the Congress of Deputies. An event organized by the Coordinating Committee of Development Organizations and open to the public will occur in the afternoon. This event will be held at Casa Encendida at 6:30 pm and will feature the participation of representatives of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates as well as the researcher Felip Daza. Daza is the author of the report entitled Ukrainian nonviolent civil resistance in the face of war, published by ICIP and NOVACT. This document analyzes a total of 235 actions of nonviolent civil resistance displayed in an interactive map. It includes a set of recommendations addressed to governments and Ukrainian and international civil society to strengthen nonviolence to transform the conflict.
“These activities aim to raise awareness of the key role that these three entities are playing. Over the last few years, they have promoted the role of protest, documenting war crimes, human rights violations and abuses of power. Their work is an important example of the significant role that civil society can and must play in preventing crises and building peace,” says NOVACT director Luca Gervasoni.
Biographies of the representatives of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureates
Oleksandra Romantsova is the Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine) executive director. She coordinates the management of war crimes documentation and promotion of the results of this documentation as part of the “Tribunal for Putin” global initiative. She participates in field missions around Ukraine.
Natallia Satsunkevich is a member of the Interim Board of the Human Rights Center of Viasna (Belarus). The Nobel Prize was awarded to the President of Viasna, Ales Bialiatski, currently imprisoned by the regime of Aleksandr Lukashenko. As part of the legal aid team, Satsunkevich helps victims of human rights violations to obtain reparations. She is currently undergoing criminal proceedings in Belarus due to her political activism.
Alexander Cherkasov is the chair of the Board of the Memorial Human Rights Center (Russia). Memorial has been documenting human rights abuses in Chechnya and assisting victims since the beginning of the armed conflict in 1994. It later expanded its work to neighbouring republics as human rights abuses spread to the broader North Caucasus region.
The ICIP has announced the call for nominations for the ICIP Peace in Progress Award 2023, which aims to publicly recognize individuals, entities or institutions that, outstandingly and extensively, have worked and contributed to promoting and building peace.
It is the twelfth edition of the Award, corresponding to 2023, and the call will be open until March 20, 2023. The applications can be registered electronically, through this site (in Spanish), or they can be registered in person at any administrative register of the Spanish state and an embassy or consulate outside Spain.
The ICIP Peace in Progress Award consists of public recognition, a sculpture created by the Nobel Peace Prize winner, artist and activist Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, called Porta del sol, and 6,000 euros. The award ceremony takes place annually in an institutional ceremony at the Parliament of Catalonia.
Any natural or legal person can submit nominations to the ICIP Peace in Progress Award, but self-nominated candidates will not be accepted.
Please check with the ICIP (convocatories@icip.cat) before registration deadlines if you submit from abroad. Nomination of candidates by e-mail will not be accepted.
Previous granted
In previous editions, the Award was granted to the Basque Country’s associative network in favour of peace (2022), the activist from Congo, Julienne Lusenge (2020), the Coalition of Families of the Disappeared in Algeria (2019), the Mexican organization Cauce Ciudadano (2018), the activist Arcadi Oliveres (2017), Peace Brigades International (2016), the Capuchin friar Joan Botam (2015), WILPF (2014), the ex-general Jovan Divjak (2013), Madres de Soacha (2012), and the struggle of conscientious objectors and “insubmisos” (people who refuse to do military service or any substitute social work) represented by Pepe Beúnza (2011).
The same year, in 2011, in a special edition of the Award, the Parliament of Catalonia was honoured for representing the continuity and legacy of the institutions “Pau i Treva” and “Consolat de Mar.”
Insecurity, armed violence and territorial disputes are an alarming reality that affects the lives of millions of people in Mexico and has a serious effect on human rights. Whether due to incompetence or collusion, the authorities – at different levels of government – are overwhelmed by this reality, which is characterized by the growing pressure exerted by organized crime. This situation is aggravated by the effects of global economic and climate crises that exacerbate structural violence. All of these circumstances entail significant challenges that need to be addressed through peacebuilding.
It is with this in mind that the International Forum on Peacebuilding in Mexico: Challenges and Keys in the Current Context will take place in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, on Tuesday 25 October. The Forum will bring dozens of people together to exchange knowledge, reflections and experiences on how to confront the diversification and escalation of violence in the country from a peacebuilding perspective.
This Forum will be held in parallel with the first in-person meeting and public presentation of the Platform for Peacebuilding in Mexico. This platform has been a space for dialogue and synergy for the past two years and has brought together people and organizations linked to the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), Civil Service for Peace, of Pan del Mundo, and the First International Forum on Peacebuilding in Mexico, which took place in Barcelona in 2019 and was organized by ICIP.
Peacebuilding trends
Structured around four roundtables, the Forum will first address global issues on challenges and trends in peacebuilding. It will also address more specific issues on the impact of direct, structural and cultural violence, highlighting the initiatives carried out by a wide range of actors to revert this violence and to chart paths towards a positive, just and sustainable peace.
Speakers who have already confirmed their participation include academics and activists such as Jenny Pearce, Dominic Barter, Marta Ruiz, Guillem Trejo, Yésica Sánchez Maya, Luis Jorge Garay, Abel Barrera, Marcela Turati, Rodrigo Aguilar and Pietro Amegli. Other featured participants include Lina Ibáñez and Carla Ríos from the “Diálogos Improbables” platform and Col·lectiu Marabunta respectively, as well as other civil society organizations. Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel will be joining the meeting virtually.
In the three days following the Forum, members of the Platform for Peacebuilding in Mexico will attend internal working sessions designed to develop a common vision regarding the various different challenges to peace that the country is facing, and to provide the Platform with its own strategies and methodologies. One of the working sessions will consist of a dialogue and an exchange of experiences, insights and reflections with social and community processes from a peace perspective.
The Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition of Colombia began its mandate in November 2018, intending to clarify the patterns and causes of human rights violations during the Colombian armed conflict, promoting the recognition of victims and contributing to coexistence. After more than three years of work, the Commission concludes this process in June 2022, presenting its Final Report and its subsequent dissemination, which will take place in July and August.
It has been an innovative mandate since, for the first time, a truth commission has included people living outside the country as participants. And ICIP has been a natural part of this process, acting as the Technical Secretariat of the Commission in Europe to accompany victims of the Colombian conflict in exile and promote their active participation.
In this capacity, ICIP has facilitated the creation of 15 working groups (nodes) in ten European countries, which have become spaces for participation, sharing experiences, and coexistence and dialogue among victims of the Colombian conflict living in Europe.
Additionally, several internodal groups have been created to address a range of thematic areas: gender, psychosocial support, recognition of victims, family members of victims of enforced disappearance, and second and third generations in exile.
Testimonies: Treasures of collective truth
For working with the Colombian exile community, 90 people were trained as interviewers and chroniclers, most of them victims and women, and a total of 822 testimonies were taken in Europe (2,000 worldwide).
This collection of testimonies has given visibility to life stories, silences, emotional impacts, coping, resilience and contributions to host societies and has also promoted transformative listening and self-recognition of the victims.
Recognition of the victims
Another aspect of ICIP’s work as Technical Secretariat of the Commission in Europe is the creation of spaces for the institutional recognition of exiled victims. The process, coordinated with the Catalonia Node in Support of the Commission and with the support of the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation, includes promoting institutional proclamations and approving resolutions by municipal governments and social organisations.
Lleida became the first city in the world to approve a resolution recognising its Colombian exiled and migrant community. On 30 July 2021, the local city council recognised “the contributions of civil society organisations in Lleida towards a sustainable and lasting peace in Colombia and support of the migrant and exiled community.” Subsequent resolutions of recognition were approved in June 2022 in Sabadell and the Barcelona Municipal Council of International Cooperation.
Documentary: ‘Para volverte a ver‘
In this work area, ICIP, together with Mandorla Films, has produced the documentary Para volverte a ver, which narrates the contribution of the Colombian diaspora in Europe to the work of the Commission through four testimonies. The film will premiere in Lleida on 8 July, as part of the Cinemón film festival. It will also be screened in Barcelona at the presentation of the final report to be held at the Catalan Parliament on 12 July.
This short documentary was produced with the support of the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation. More information about the film and its creation process can be found on the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Para volverte a ver.
ICIP, the Barcelona City Council and Taula per Mèxic are preparing the forum “Journalism and Peacebuilding in Mexico: Protecting journalists, guaranteeing freedom of the press,” which will be held in Mexico City on 20-21 June.
The event’s purpose is to reflect on the needs facing critical journalism in Mexico and create a meeting place for professionals exposed to constant risks and threats.
With eleven journalists murdered since the beginning of the year, Mexico is today one of the most dangerous countries to exercise freedom of the press, one of the fundamental pillars for building peace.
The starting point for the forum organization is the “Barcelona protects journalists from Mexico” temporary shelter program promoted by the Barcelona City Council and Taula de Mèxic. This program aims to facilitate staying in the Catalan capital of journalists who are threatened for freely practising their profession. That is why the conference will feature the participation of several journalists who are part of the program and will address the importance of protection mechanisms and psychosocial support for threatened professionals.
The “Journalism and Peacebuilding in Mexico” forum will be held at the Centro Cultural Bella Época and features the collaboration of various associations of Mexican journalists, such as Artículo 19, CIMAC and Periodistas de a Pie, as well as the Aluna Acompañamiento Psicosocial organization.
A peacebuilding perspective
Participants include prominent communication professionals who have long become essential actors in advocacy, social transformation and peacebuilding in a country, Mexico, where severe human rights violations occur. Their role is crucial in researching, documenting and analyzing the multiple instances of violence, identifying those responsible for these acts of violence, and raising awareness of citizen and community responses that challenge them and propose alternatives.
The forum will kick off on Monday, 20 June, with an institutional welcome by representatives of ICIP, the Barcelona City Council and Taula per Mèxic. Participants on the first day of the forum include the general director of the Mechanism for the Comprehensive Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists of Mexico City, Tobyanne Ledesma Rivera and the representative in Mexico of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Guillermo Fernández-Maldonado. The keynote speaker will be Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker Daniela Rea.
Several roundtables will be held on Monday 20 June and Tuesday 21 June with the participation of journalists from Mexico, as well as from Colombia, El Salvador and Catalonia. The issues that will be addressed include the current situation of critical journalism in Mexico, the challenges of investigative journalism in violent contexts, the contribution of journalism to peacebuilding, psychosocial support for journalists under threat, and the instruments of comprehensive protection for communication professionals at risk.
You can access the program of the forum (in Spanish) here.
ICIP and the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition of Colombia are preparing a documentary about the role of the diaspora of Colombian exiles in Europe. The film, Para volverte a ver (To See You Again), is a production of Mandorla Films, an independent audiovisual company that specializes in documentaries. The film will be released in July, a few weeks after the Truth Commission presents its final report on 28 June. This documentary short has the support of the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation.
Lizethe Álvarez, una de les protagonistes del documental ‘Para volverte a ver’
The production of Para volverte a ver began at the beginning of 2022. The idea of ICIP and the Commission was to portray the experience of several Colombians living in Europe who have given their testimony to the Commission from abroad, an innovative process that aims to inspire other truth commissions around the world. According to Sílvia Plana, coordinator of ICIP’s Memory, coexistence and reconciliation area, the objective of the documentary is to show “the importance of the active participation of the diaspora in peacebuilding, as a transformative process both on a personal and collective level, based on the specific and unprecedented case of the Truth Commission of Colombia.”
After a public call for proposals, the production company Mandorla Films was chosen to carry out the project. The production of the documentary began in February and filming took place in Denmark, Switzerland and Catalonia in March and April. The film’s four main characters, Yanira Restrepo, Juana Sánchez, Wilmer Torres and Lizethe Álvarez, live in these countries.
The shooting of Para volverte a ver was completed during the meeting of nodes that ICIP organized in Barcelona in April. The meeting was attended by commissioners Carlos Beristain and Lucía González, who also appear in the film.
Juana Sánchez, another one of the exiles featured in the documentary
The characters
Para volverte a ver compiles the testimonies of four Colombian exiles: Yanira, Juana, Wilmer and Lizethe.
Yanira is a farmer who lives in Catalonia. She was forced to go into exile and leave Colombia 20 years ago after being persecuted by paramilitaries, guerrillas and the Colombian government. She was a member of the M-19 guerrilla group.
Juana is a writer and amateur cook living in Barcelona. Her father was the victim of a kidnapping by the FARC. She has published a novel about her life story: her past and her experiences with her father.
Wilmer was born into a peasant family. His grandfather was a peasant leader and his mother later followed in his footsteps to become a respected leader and human rights defender. After years of persecution against her family, she decided to take Wilmer and his brother to Geneva, where she was a refugee.
Lizethe is a trans woman who fled Colombia after receiving several threats and realizing that her life was in danger. After seeking asylum in several European countries, she found love and moved to Copenhagen, where she was able to start a new life.
A moment during the shooting of “Para volverte a ver” in Geneva, Switzerland
A moment during the shooting of “Para volverte a ver” in Geneva, Switzerland
The production company
The production company behind this project is Mandorla Films, an audiovisual company headed by Nicolás Braguinsky Cascini and Juan Pablo Aris Escarena.
Braguinsky, a literature graduate and documentary filmmaker, is a creator of audiovisual content specializing in human rights, who has worked for various agencies of the United Nations, as well as for academic institutions such as York University and the University of Buenos Aires. He has also worked for NGOs such as Civitas Maxima, CCPR, Wayamo Foundation and Geneva Call, among others. Aris holds a PhD in social anthropology, and has extensive experience in ethnographic research in over ten countries and three continents. The two of them have been working together since 2017 on projects that apply audiovisual techniques to scientific research and social projects. Their productions include Solidarity Crime (2020) and Beyond Impunity (2021).
Para volverte a ver will premiere on 12 July at an event to be held at the Parliament of Catalonia during which the final report of the Truth Commission of Colombia will be presented.
For more information about the documentary and its creation process, you can follow the profiles of “Para volverte a ver” on Facebook and Instagram.
ICIP and NOVACT (International Institute for Nonviolent Action) have completed a visit to Ukraine to learn more about citizens’ initiatives of civil resistance to the Russian war and occupation.
A joint mission took place from 2-18 April, during which some fifty interviews were conducted throughout the part of the country not occupied by Russia, with the aim of obtaining firsthand knowledge of nonviolent actors and their needs.
“Here at home we have polarized debates about sending weapons to support the Ukrainian resistance against the Russian invasion. The resistance is not only armed. There are many people confronting the occupying forces unarmed, refusing to collaborate in the occupied areas, documenting human rights violations and offering humanitarian aid. These types of actions are not well known and need to become more visible,” says ICIP director Kristian Herbolzheimer on the reasons for the expedition.
Videos of the experiences
The participants in this mission were researcher Felip Daza and the photographer and camera operator, Lorena Sopena.
According to Daza, the visit has allowed them to verify that there are many local nonviolent movements that are doing very important work in Ukraine. “Each group and activist contributes what they can and know how to do, and in most cases without the use of weapons. The local society has developed an extraordinary level of organization that is expressed on multiple fronts, from the protection and evacuation of people to direct nonviolent actions against the Russian army’s control of the occupied areas,” he says.
In the coming weeks, ICIP and NOVACT will publish a series of videos dealing with issues such as the investigation of war crimes, community organizing, and the role of feminist organizations in Ukraine. These videos will be made available to individuals and organizations wishing to use them to highlight initiatives that have emerged during this conflict that go beyond the use of arms.
For its part, NOVACT has started a crowdfunding campaign to provide financial support to various organizations including the 5AM Coalition, which comprises 16 human rights organizations documenting and collecting evidence of war crimes committed by the Russian army and other armed actors in Ukraine.
According to NOVACT’s founder and co-director, Luca Gervasoni, the aim of all these actions is to give visibility and support to Ukrainian organizations working in the areas of community resilience, mutual support and the strengthening of community networks. “At the same time, we want to make the antiwar movement visible in Russia and Belarus and spread its message,” he adds.
In addition to the videos, the project will produce a report compiling the various initiatives and a document with recommendations that will be presented before the European Parliament.
Outreach events
During the months of May and June, several events will take place to present the project and the various experiences of nonviolent resistance that are being carried out in Ukraine as a response to the Russian invasion.
On Wednesday 25 May, an event will be held together with Ukrainian youth in the diaspora to talk about experiences of nonviolent resistance. Later there will be an institutional event to present the most important conclusions of the visit and the final report. The videos produced by ICIP and NOVACT can be seen on the ICIP YouTube channel and at this link.
