Catalan Peace Forum
The Catalan Peace Forum has been a participatory process of reflection and debate that will last two years (2024–2025), with the slogan “Less violence, more global justice”, and has addressed the following questions:
- How do we understand a peaceful Catalonia?
- How do we contribute from Catalonia to peace in the world?
The Forum is an institutional and social initiative promoted by the Government of Catalonia, the Catalan Council for the Promotion of Peace, the ICIP, and the associative network. It was an open process in which organizations and institutions committed to the values of a culture of peace and global justice participated.
The Forum was created with a dual objective:
To develop a Country Peace Master Plan
The creation of a public peace policy that provides greater coherence, visibility, and impact to the actions of the Government, municipal bodies, and supra-municipal bodies in promoting peace at the local and global levels. For the development of the Country Peace Master Plan, the Catalan Peace Forum created three channels for citizen participation: deliberative sessions, self-managed sessions, and online contributions.
To strengthen the peace movement in Catalonia
To strengthen the peace movement in Catalonia, the Catalan Peace Forum has given prominence to Catalan peace organizations, grouped mainly within Lafede.cat, the Coordinating Committee of Solidarity NGOs of the Girona counties and Alt Maresme, and the Federation of the Development Cooperation Network of Southern Catalonia. All organizations or institutions in Catalonia committed to the values of the culture of peace described in the Peace Promotion Law could join the Catalan Peace Forum and organize or promote activities throughout 2024 and 2025.
Background
Catalonia has a long tradition of promoting peace, both at home and internationally. As a result of this tradition, and of strong social momentum and advocacy, in 2003 the Parliament passed the Peace Promotion Law, an innovative piece of legislation that commits Catalan institutions to working for peace, both in countries affected by conflict and within Catalonia.
Based on the Peace Promotion Law, the Catalan Council for the Promotion of Peace and the ICIP were created. In parallel, various municipalities and local entities in Catalonia have launched peace-building initiatives, and civil society organizations have successfully fostered public awareness and commitment to peace promotion through campaigns and social mobilization.
We can safely say that Catalonia has a rich social, institutional, academic, and cultural ecosystem committed to the values and culture of peace. However, in recent years, social, political, economic, and cultural dynamics have changed significantly, generating new challenges related to coexistence, human rights, equality, and democracy around the world—and also here at home.
In this context, the Catalan Peace Forum was promoted as a participatory process of analysis and reflection to reinforce Catalonia’s public peace policy, as well as the agendas and social and political advocacy capacities of social organizations.
Participatory Process
To develop the Country Peace Master Plan (Objective 1), the Catalan Peace Forum launched, from March to June 2025, a citizen participation process with three participation channels:
Deliberative Sessions
10 sessions were organized across Catalonia, with the participation of more than 180 people, who contributed 301 proposals. These took place in Barcelona, Bellaterra, Girona, Granollers, Lleida, Olot, Tarragona, and Tortosa.
Self-Managed Sessions
Entities, institutions, unions, universities, neighborhood collectives, and social organizations initiated 26 self-managed sessions, generating 467 proposals, with a total of 322 participants.
Online Contributions
Through the Participa portal, 145 additional proposals were submitted. Several organizations used this platform, including Lafede, the School of Peace Culture, the Catalan Cooperation Fund, and the Network of Mayors for Peace.
In total, 505 people participated in this process. With the proposal collection phase now closed, the submitted proposals are being reviewed by the Catalan Council for the Promotion of Peace and will be sent to the Government. The results will help define the content of the Peace Country Director Plan, which the Government will present to Parliament for approval.
Thematic Areas
The citizen participation process of the Catalan Peace Forum was structured around five thematic areas:
Culture of peace
Security and justice
Conflicts, violence, and peace
Global threats and challenges to peace
Women, peace, and security
The aim of this process was to identify actions that the Government of Catalonia and other public bodies (Parliament of Catalonia, city councils, provincial councils, county councils, and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area) or private entities can carry out, and that will be incorporated into their public policies or action strategies both in Catalonia and globally.
To guide the deliberations and proposals, a diagnostic sheet for each area was prepared, describing the issues to be addressed and the actions to be developed, and setting out the challenges and guiding questions.