The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado for her tireless efforts to promote the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.
The ICIP welcomes the fact that the award highlights explicit support for democracy in the face of authoritarianism—in this case, that of Venezuela—and the value of dialogue as a tool for conflict resolution.
The ICIP president, Xavier Masllorens, emphasised that Machado “is a figure of consensus within the highly fragmented Venezuelan opposition, a symbol of resistance, and a defender of civil rights and citizen participation.”
With a long history of defending human rights, María Corina Machado also represents perseverance and a steadfast commitment to peace —an “urgent necessity” in today’s context of rising authoritarianism.
On September 29, ICIP took part in the 29th session of the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances, held in Geneva. The annual meeting brought together representatives from 21 States and 44 civil society organisations from around the world.
The session aimed to share experiences, set priorities, and strengthen international cooperation to ensure the effective implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Discussions addressed issues related to the prevention, investigation, and reparation of enforced disappearances, as well as current challenges in the fields of human rights and international justice.
Representing the institution, Sílvia Plana, Head of Strategic Alliances at ICIP, highlighted the organisation’s commitment to victims of violence and war, particularly to women searchers, whom she recognised as peacebuilders. Plana emphasised the need to give greater visibility to their work and announced ICIP’s intention to promote a new international gathering of women searchers in Barcelona in 2026 or 2027.
ICIP’s participation built on the work initiated at the First World Congress on Enforced Disappearances, held in Geneva in January 2025, in which ICIP was a collaborating organisation. That event reaffirmed the importance of placing victims and their demands at the centre of international action and of promoting a joint agenda to advance truth, justice, and reparation.
Through this participation, ICIP strengthens its collaboration with international human rights protection mechanisms and reaffirms its commitment to truth, justice, and reparation for the victims of enforced disappearances.
The Catalan Forum for Peace has collected 913 proposals from citizens to help shape the Government of Catalonia’s new Country of Peace Master Plan. Between April and June, around 500 people took part in the 36 in-person sessions held throughout Catalonia, along with additional online contributions via the Participa website.
Specifically, ten deliberative sessions and 26 self-managed sessions were held by various groups, organizations and institutions, with discussions focusing on five themes: Culture of peace; Security and justice; Conflicts, violence and peace; Global threats and challenges to peace; and Women, peace and security.
Based on these thematic areas, the goal of the participatory process was to identify concrete measures to be included in the future Country of Peace Master Plan.
Debates across Catalonia
A total of 183 participants generated 301 proposals in deliberative sessions held in Barcelona, Bellaterra, Girona, Granollers, Lleida, Olot, Tarragona and Tortosa.
The self-managed sessions resulted in 467 proposals, with a total of 322 participants. These sessions were organized by various actors:
Public institutions, such as the Department of Justice, Interior, and European Union and Foreign Affairs; the Catalan Youth Agency; the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation; and ICIP.
Organizations advocating for peace, such as FundiPau, the Delàs Centre for Peace Studies, NOVACT, the Coordinating Committee of Solidarity NGOs of Girona, Aturem les Guerres, Terra i Pau, and Friends of UNESCO-Girona.
Trade unions, such as Comissions Obreres and UGT.
Community and social groups, such as neighborhood associations in Figueres, members of the African and Latin American diaspora, universities, the Network of Educators for Global Citizenship in Tarragona, CIEMEN, the Journalism for Peace Group of the Association of Journalists of Catalonia, and third-sector organizations like the Red Cross.
Finally, the participatory process also included online contributions through the Participa website. A total of 145 proposals were submitted, both individually and collectively. These include proposals submitted by Lafede, the School for a Culture of Peace, the Catalan Fund for Development Cooperation, and the Network of Mayors for Peace.
In total, 505 people took part in the participatory process. The Catalan Council for the Promotion of Peace – one of the driving forces behind the Forum – will now review the proposals before presenting them to the Government. The results of the process will help define the content of the Country of Peace Master Plan, which will later be submitted to Parliament for approval. All of the proposals collected during this process will be publicly available on the Participa website.
Less violence, more global justice
The Catalan Forum for Peace is both a space for public participation and a platform for reflection. Its aim is to develop a public peace policy for Catalonia while also strengthening the peace movement. The Forum is the result of joint efforts by institutions and civil society, promoted by the Government of Catalonia, the Catalan Council for the Promotion of Peace, ICIP and the network of peace associations, under the motto “Less violence, more global justice.”
In the face of global challenges such as the climate crisis, rising military expenditure, an increase in the number of armed conflicts, and the erosion of democratic foundations, Catalonia is committed to peace and seeks to encourage reflection on how we contribute to peace both here at home and abroad.
On Wednesday 10 September, Barcelona hosted “Artistic practices and a culture of peace,” an event that brought together artists, educators and activists to explore the role of artistic expression in peacebuilding.
Organized by ICIP, ConArte Internacional, Fundación Baketik, Fundació L’Arc, the Theatre Institute’s Social and Community Action Unit, and Dansalut, the event took place at the Fundació Carulla. The gathering underscored that fostering a culture of peace is a collective responsibility involving not only the pacifist movement but also numerous organizations using art and culture to transform society.
The program opened with the roundtable “Art for Peace,” where participants shared experiences of social transformation through art therapy, theatre and hip-hop. Participants included Silvina Merino (La Quinta Pata), David Martínez (La Nave Va) and Lucas Vico (Erol Urbà).
Merino presented Bud na bud, a project that uses embroidery and collective artistic practices to empower Afghan refugee women, turning trauma and exclusion into creative expression that strengthens a culture of peace through memory, dignity and community solidarity. Martínez highlighted the work of La Nave Va, which uses social theatre as a tool for inclusion, awareness and dialogue, taking art beyond the stage to strengthen community bonds. Finally, Vico presented Erol Urbà, a collective that promotes social intervention projects through urban art – rap, graffiti, dance and audiovisual projects – as a way to channel creativity into processes of critique, expression and community transformation.
Movement and words
Following the roundtable, artists Marta Galán and Montserrat Iranzo from Dansalut led a hands-on workshop focused on the body, identity and life stories as tools for theatrical creation and dramaturgy. Through creative dance, body expression, improvisation and free writing, participants explored the interplay between movement and words as a way of recognizing identity, sharing personal experiences and discovering new forms of artistic and collective expression.
The event was part of MONDIACULT 2025, UNESCO’s World Conference on Cultural Policies, which will take place in Barcelona from 29 September to 1 October, with thousands of participants from all over the world.
On Thursday, September 18, during the week marking the International Day of Peace, ICIP presented the 2025 Peace in Progress Award to Women Now for Development, a leading Syrian women’s organisation. The award honours the network for its work in supporting, protecting, and empowering Syrian women—both inside the country and in exile—as a powerful symbol of resistance and feminist solidarity in the face of violence.
Women Now for Development was founded in 2012 as a community initiative to support women and girls in the early days of the Syrian revolution. Its initial aim was to create safe spaces where women could meet, share knowledge, and exchange experiences. Since then, it has become a leading feminist organisation working both in war zones and in conflict-affected contexts, inside and outside Syria. The network has helped shape a generation of women who continue resisting violence and building hope amidst destruction.
The ceremony was opened by ICIP president Xavier Masllorens, who underlined the importance of “recognising people and organisations that work against the tide, upholding dignity,” which is the essence of the ICIP Award. In today’s turbulent context for peace, Masllorens lamented the lack of action on conflict prevention. He also stressed the need to work for peace: “Not preventing means giving up on deeply analysing the true causes of conflicts, and that constitutes a collective failure with devastating consequences (…). Today, we have the conditions to work with a new paradigm in conflict resolution between communities, peoples, nations, and states. A paradigm that is unprecedented but not impossible, which we call a culture of peace: a world without misery, more just and equal.”
Next, Palestinian poet and translator of Syrian origin, Mohamad Bitari, offered a tribute to the award-winning organisation and highlighted that the ICIP Award “is a homage to the memory of Syrian women, and to all that they have given for a more just, free, and safe country. It is also a tribute to every woman in the world who has refused to be only a victim, and has chosen to be active, courageous, and transformative.”
A recognition of women’s struggle
In his remarks, Bitari recalled many Syrian women who have marked the country’s resistance through their social and political activism. Many of them suffered repression at the hands of the Syrian regime and received support and protection from Women Now for Development.
On behalf of the award-winning organisation, the award was accepted by executive director Lubna Alkanawati and the organisation’s director in Lebanon, Roulah Al Rekbie. In their acceptance speeches, they emphasised the repression and displacement suffered by Syrian women for decades. They highlighted that the ICIP Award makes their struggle visible and places women at the centre of peacebuilding: “This recognition gives us strength to keep moving forward, to transform pain into action. It reminds us that the struggle continues, that we will keep working to ensure that Syrian women have a voice of their own,” said Al Rekbie. For her part, Alkanawati dedicated the award to the “women of Syria, Sudan, Palestine, Yemen, Iran, and Afghanistan, and all places where women suffer from occupation, extremism, and patriarchy.” The organisation will allocate the prize to funding support programs for survivors of sexual violence.
A third representative of the organisation, Muzna Al Jundi, who was unable to travel to Barcelona due to visa difficulties, participated through a video message to thank the organisation for the award from northwest Syria.
The President of the Catalan Parliament, Josep Rull, closed the ceremony with words of gratitude to ICIP and to the award-winning organisation. “Today is an act of recognition, of hope, and of collective dignity,” he said. Rull praised the work of Women Now for Development and ICIP for the quality of the Peace in Progress Award. He also warned that this award comes in an “absolutely devastating international context” and called for “the participation and perspective of women in peacebuilding and reconciliation processes.”
Solidarity with Palestine
The genocide in Gaza was a recurring theme throughout the ceremony. The ICIP president began his remarks with a moment of silence in solidarity with Palestine, which the audience joined, standing. Poet Mohamad Bitari also remembered the people of Palestine, “subjected to systematic genocide and constant aggression that continues day after day before the eyes of the world.”
The ceremony opened and closed with a musical performance by the Syrian duo Athrodeel.
The ICIP Peace in Progress Award, a fourteen-year trajectory
The ICIP Peace in Progress Award, established in 2011, aims to publicly recognise individuals, organisations, or institutions that have worked and contributed in a significant and sustained way to the promotion and construction of peace. The award consists of public recognition, a sculpture created by Nobel Peace Prize laureate, artist, and activist Adolfo Pérez Esquivel entitled Porta de Sol, and a monetary prize of 6,000 euros.
Over its fourteen-year history, the ICIP Award has recognised individuals and groups from Catalonia, Bosnia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, Mexico, and Algeria for their struggle in favour of reconciliation, truth, justice, or equality, with a focus also on the empowerment of women and a gender perspective.
Photos: Sergio Ramos Ledesma (Parlament de Catalunya)
This Thursday, September 18, at 6 p.m., the Parliament of Catalonia will host the ceremony of the ICIP Peace in Progress Award 2025, granted to the Syrian organisation Women Now for Development.
The event will feature speeches by the President of the Parliament, Josep Rull i Andreu, and the President of ICIP, Xavier Masllorens i Escubós. It will also include a tribute reading by Palestinian writer and translator Mohamad Bitari and a musical performance by the Syrian duo Athrodeel.
The award will be accepted on behalf of the organisation by Lubna Kanawati and Roulah Al Rekbie.
Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelona) will host the international Build Peace 2025 conference from November 21 to 23. The event is co-organised by the International Catalan Institute for Peace (ICIP) and Build Up, a collective that designs and implements technology- and arts-based tools and processes to address conflict and promote peace. The conference is also supported by the Santa Coloma City Council, Catalonia International, and the Government of Catalonia.
Held annually, the Build Peace conference brings together activists, technologists, researchers, artists, and civil society leaders from around the world to explore new approaches to peacebuilding.
The twelfth edition will take place at La CIBA, Santa Coloma’s hub for women, innovation, and feminist economics. Under the theme “Towards a Pluriverse of Peace”, the conference will focus on how creative and technological innovation can help transform conflict and foster more inclusive coexistence.
To attend, please register through the following link:
In today’s world—marked by oppression, division, inequality, and loss of trust—it is essential to rethink what it means to speak of peace. How can we reclaim and give new meaning to the concept of peace in this context? How can we harness new possibilities to connect, learn from the experiences of diverse communities, and cultivate interdependence?
Through art, technology, and other forms of innovation, Build Peace 2025 provides a platform to question, redefine, and collectively envision what a culture of peace truly means. To this end, the conference will centre on three sub-themes that address key dilemmas in the field of peace and conflict:
Between Polarisation and Deliberation
This subtheme will focus on the power of dialogue and narratives. What participatory and deliberative tools, methods and spaces can tackle rising affective and toxic polarisation? How can polarised digital spaces become deliberative? We aim to explore where and how that shift happens, the role of alternative narratives and what approaches (technological or otherwise) can be used to include all voices in social and peace processes and movements.
Between Deterrence and Nonviolence
This subtheme dives into peace and security policies. How can we reshape and reclaim the use of technology in surveillance states, regions and borders in the name of “safety”? What are existing and future alternatives to militarised security? We aim to reflect on how we understand peace and security, from pacifism and nonviolence to deterrence and the perceived need for militarized security.
Between Erasure and Memory
This subtheme invites us to consider how we collectively learn from the past, live in the present, and imagine the future. How do we heal from trauma that poses a challenge to coexistence? In what ways can/ do we collectively learn and heal from societal crises? What role do reconciliation processes, truth commissions and amnesties play in bringing lasting and sustainable peace? We aim to highlight the importance of creatively exploring innovative tools and ways to archive and preserve memories and foster intergenerational dialogue, thereby cultivating peaceful present and future societies.
The conference will feature plenary sessions, short talks presenting projects and initiatives, interactive workshops, and artistic installations, including exhibitions and musical performances.
On Monday, June 30, the participatory process of the Catalan Forum for Peace officially came to a close. Over the past three months, this initiative has taken place across Catalonia intending to gather public input for the development of the new Pla Director País de Pau (Peace Country Master Plan).
Between April and June, ten deliberative sessions were held, bringing together over 180 participants and generating approximately 300 proposals. In parallel, nearly twenty self-managed sessions were organised by a wide range of organisations and institutions, including the ICIP, the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation, FundiPau, the Delàs Centre, Girona Friends of UNESCO, the Peace Journalism Group of the Catalan Association of Journalists, the Network of Educators for Global Citizenship in Tarragona, the Departments of Interior and Justice, the Catalan Youth Agency, UGT, CCOO, the Technical Cooperation, Volunteering and Refugee Network of Catalan Universities, and Mujer Diáspora.
Among them, the ICIP hosted two self-managed sessions in June: one with members of the African diaspora in Catalonia (June 19), and another with migrant women from diverse backgrounds (June 27).
Throughout the process, additional contributions—both individual and collective—were submitted via the Catalan Government’s Participa platform. While the final tally is still being compiled, early estimates indicate that over 500 proposals have been received.
With the participatory phase now complete, the Catalan Council for the Promotion of Peace, which led the Forum, will analyse the proposals and submit them to the Government. All contributions will be made publicly available on the Participa portal.
The Governing Board of the ICIP has awarded the 2025 ICIP Peace in Progress Award to the Syrian organisation Women Now for Development for its work in “supporting, protecting, and empowering Syrian women, both inside and outside the country, as a symbol of feminist resistance and solidarity in the face of violence.”
The award recognises Women Now for Development’s outstanding contribution to peace, justice, and dignity in Syria—a country deeply affected by repression, armed conflict, and forced exile. The organisation was selected from among twenty international nominations for its transformative and resilient work over the past decade.
Founded in 2012 by Syrian writer and journalist Samar Yazbek, Women Now for Development was established as a grassroots initiative to support women and girls during the early stages of the Syrian uprising. Its initial goal was to create safe spaces where women could gather, share knowledge and experiences, and collectively explore ways to support their communities. Since then, it has evolved into a leading feminist organisation working in both war zones and conflict-affected contexts, inside and outside Syria.
Over the past thirteen years, the organisation has developed a model rooted in feminist values and community solidarity. Women Now for Development has strengthened the role of women in both public and private spheres by providing tools, resources, and knowledge. In doing so, the organisation has helped shape a generation of women who continue to resist violence and build hope in the face of destruction.
A Survivor-Centred Approach
Through its presence in Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey, Women Now for Development has accompanied communities facing severe human rights violations such as sieges, forced displacement, and chemical attacks. The organisation’s work is defined by its survivor-centred approach, emphasis on protection, participation, empowerment, and strong belief in community organising. It also leads international advocacy efforts to amplify the voices of Syrian women, often marginalized in mainstream political discourse, and to push for justice and accountability.
Guided by feminist principles and staffed by activists deeply rooted in their communities, Women Now for Development continues to imagine and work toward a more just and inclusive future for Syria.
Upon receiving the award, the organisation’s Executive Director, Lubna Alkanawati, shared a powerful memory: “In 2014, during one of the harshest periods of siege imposed by the Assad regime on Eastern Ghouta, we were deprived of almost everything. My 65-year-old neighbour Mariam, the head of a twenty-member household living in unimaginable conditions, always made sure to share a small portion of her food with me. That single bite—offered with care and solidarity—helped me hold on to my humanity when war showed me its ugliest face. It reminded me what it means to remain human in inhumane times.”
Alkanawati dedicated the award “to Mariam, to the team at Women Now for Development, who continue to show the world how women can lead change with determination, will, and passion; and to all Syrian women who, through care, resilience, compassion, and courage, continue to resist destruction and create hope.” She also stated that receiving the ICIP Award “is a powerful acknowledgment of the unwavering commitment of Syrian women, who have resisted violence, built alternatives, and imagined justice even in the darkest of times. It is also a tribute to feminist solidarity, which crosses borders and strengthens us.”
Women Now for Development has consistently worked to ensure that women’s voices are central to all peacebuilding, justice, and accountability processes. The organisation believes that there can be no sustainable peace without justice—and no justice or peace without women.
Rooted in community-based efforts, its work has led to key milestones: the formation of the Adala Network in 2016; participation in local civilian negotiations through the Civil Block in Eastern Ghouta in 2018; and most recently, support for survivor-led movements advocating for the creation of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic (IIMP).
The ICIP Peace in Progress Award
Since 2011, the ICIP Peace in Progress Award has been granted annually to publicly recognise individuals, organisations, or institutions that have made an outstanding and long-standing contribution to promoting peace.
The award includes public recognition, a sculpture entitled “Porta del Sol” (Gateway to the Sun), created by Nobel Peace Prize laureate, artist, and activist Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, and a monetary prize of € 6,000. The award ceremony will take place in September 2025 at the Parliament of Catalonia, coinciding with the International Day of Peace.
On May 25 and 26, the ICIP hosted two events featuring geographer and activist Ruth Wilson Gilmore, one of the most prominent voices in contemporary abolitionist thought. Throughout her talks in Barcelona, Gilmore addressed the structural limitations of the penal system and advocated for abolition as a collective practice focused on repairing harm and building more just, supportive, and violence-free societies.
Sunday, May 25 – Literal Fair Under the title “Abolishing the Punishment Industry: Challenges and Political Practices for Emancipation,” the first session took place at the Literal Fair and was facilitated by researcher Ainhoa Nadia Douhaibi. Gilmore presented some of the core ideas of her work, such as the notion of abolition as “emancipation in rehearsal”—a constant process of creating spaces of freedom and transformative relationships.
She also analysed what she calls the “prison industrial complex,” highlighting how the penal system efficiently organises state resources (land, labour, capital, and authority) to contain populations and reproduce inequality. This model prioritises repression and punishment over essential services, especially in contexts marked by austerity and budget cuts.
For Gilmore, freedom is a place built collectively, and abolitionist work is not only about eliminating prisons but about creating real, sustainable alternatives rooted in care, community accountability, and restorative justice.
Monday, May 26 – La Model The second gathering took place in the auditorium of La Model, a venue with deep symbolic significance. Under the title “Security and Justice: Alternative Models to Punitive Systems,” the session was facilitated by Afrofeminist activist Basha Changue and featured contributions from Áurea Martín (Tanquem els CIE), Iñaki Rivera (University of Barcelona), and criminal lawyer Laia Serra. ICIP director Kristian Herbolzheimer and the Ombudswoman of Catalonia, Esther Giménez-Salinas, officially opened the event.
Gilmore emphasized that abolition is a model—not a distant horizon—and advocated for a grassroots internationalism that connects diverse struggles and fosters solidarity among people and collectives resisting across the world. She outlined three imperatives for abolition: it must be green (sustainable), red (against racial capitalism), and internationalist (connected and plural).
Throughout the dialogue, participants also reflected on the challenges and contradictions of using legal tools strategically within abolitionist movements, highlighting that collective responses to violence must go beyond punishment and promote community-based approaches to conflict resolution and healing.
A vision rooted in community and transformation
With a trajectory that bridges academia and activism, Ruth Wilson Gilmore is a co-founder of collectives such as Critical Resistance and INCITE!, and the author of works like Golden Gulag and Abolition Geography.
Her visit to Barcelona, organised by the ICIP’s Alternatives for Security programme, offered a unique opportunity to open spaces for collective reflection on how to rethink security, justice, and freedom from a transformative, non-punitive, and community-rooted perspective. This approach aligns with the ICIP’s work in promoting security models rooted in peacebuilding, the protection of rights, and the eradication of all forms of structural violence.
In a press conference, ICIP has presented the study “L’arrelament de les idees involucionistes i bel·licistes a Catalunya” (The entrenchment of reactionary and militaristic ideas in Catalonia) (ICIP Report 24/2025). The report, conducted by journalist and data analyst Roger Tugas i Vilardell, analyzes which sectors of Catalan society are more susceptible to ideas contrary to democratic values, human rights and peace – such as racism, sexism, LGBTIphobia and militarism.
The data was drawn from seven public institution surveys. An in-depth analysis was carried out on ICIP Survey 2022 “Coexistence and cohesion in Catalonia” and ICIP Survey 2023 “Coexistence and security in Catalonia.” Additional surveys on values and habits conducted in 2023 by the CEO (Centre d’Estudis d’Opinió) and the CIS (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas), as well as the European Social Survey were also examined. Data from a total of 130 questions were cross-referenced using variables such as age, gender, education level, size of town of residence, level of social trust, income, and concern about security.
The study falls under the “Social and political dialogue” line of work promoting coexistence, dialogue and social cohesion in Catalonia. As ICIP director Kristian Herbolzheimer explained, “It is essential to manage disagreement and conflict in a constructive manner. That is why we want to understand in which segments of society antidemocratic values are most prevalent and what explains these attitudes, with a broad perspective and avoiding simplistic answers.”
Key findings
The study confirms that sexist, homophobic, transphobic, racist, authoritarian and militaristic views are more prevalent among men – especially young men – and among people with low social trust, heightened concerns about security or antisocial behavior, and those facing economic hardship.
However, there isno discernable generational trend towards more conservative views:young people arenot less feminist or more racist than the general population. On the contrary, they more strongly support abortion rights, LGBTI rights and new forms of emotional and sexual relationships. At the same time, though, young people are more supportive of punitivism and military defense.
According to the study’s author, Roger Tugas i Vilardell, “Those who most embrace reactionary ideas are often people facing uncertainty, insecurity and fear in the face of a pessimistic outlook shaped by precariousness and a changing society.” This profile often includes young men, a group highly exposed to social media – where hate speech is prevalent. They often face difficulties to become economically self-sufficient, and have less established political backgrounds, making them more susceptible to new ideologies. Still, the author stresses that it is not exclusively a generational or gender issue – it is multifactorial.
In this regard, the ICIP director emphasized that young men are often criminalized as followers of far-right ideas, but “there are reactionary attitudes across all segments of society.”
Cross-referencing variables
By cross-referencing various variables, the study finds that the perception of community cohesion is linked to expressions of racism, intolerance or militarism. For example, among those who believe that coexistence in their neighborhood or town is poor, only 43 percent would be comfortable if a son or daughter married a refugee. In contrast, among those who believe coexistence is very good, acceptance rises to 67 percent. Additionally, people who perceive coexistence as very poor are more likely to support military spending.
The analysis also establishes a link between personal perceptions of success or failure and views on immigration. Fifty-eight percent of people who see themselves as “losers” claim immigrants commit more crimes than native citizens. Among those who see themselves as “winners,” only 25 percent believe this.
The study also yields conclusions from cross-referencing age-gender and age-use of violence. In the first case, the report finds that men are more sexist than women – particularly young men. According to the data, 23 percent of young men (up to 30 years old) strongly or somewhat agree with the statement “men are better political leaders than women,” and 20 percent believe gender-based violence is an invention of feminism. Additionally, one in three young people would be willing to use violence to defend their ideas and values – twelve percentage points higher than any other age group.
Interactive web space
The study is complemented by the creation of a web space that allows users to interact directly with the data by cross-referencing multiple variables such as gender, age, education level and degree of trust. Specifically, the site lets users explore the data across four sections: Age and gender, Social trust, Economic precariousness, and Sense of insecurity.
The web space features some seventy graphs, which can also be consulted by topics: Sexism, LGBTIphobia, Racism, Militarism and Tolerance of difference.
Fourteen years after the outbreak of the popular uprising, Syria remains engulfed in a deep political, social, and humanitarian crisis. Yet, amidst the ruins of the conflict, a resilient civil society continues to nurture the desire for change. This was the central theme at the session “Syria, 14 Years Later: Resistance, Hope and Perspectives for Peace“, organized by the ICIP. It featured Syrian activist and historian Nour Salameh and journalist Oriol Andrés Gallart, moderated by professor and Arab world expert Lurdes Vidal.
The event, held on April 8 at the Hub Social in Barcelona, offered a reflection on the country’s current situation following the fall of the Assad regime last December and the massacres committed last March.
A Civil Society That Endures, Despite Everything
Despite years of repression, war, and exile, Salameh argued that Syrian civil society has never stopped fighting and has not only survived but has also transformed and diversified, primarily through the diaspora. “What remains of this civil society—of those who have fought for fourteen years against dictatorship and justice—is a lot, and it has even multiplied,” she stated. According to Salameh, various initiatives have emerged to preserve the memory of the victims, support the families of the disappeared, and promote women’s empowerment.
While material reconstruction is one of the country’s significant challenges today, so is the rebuilding of its social fabric. “The main challenge for civil society today is to create spaces for dialogue among the different factions in the country,” she noted. This task is made difficult by territorial and social divisions, the result of decades of sectarian policies and the open wounds of the conflict.
Both Salameh and Andrés agreed on the diagnosis of a fragmented country. Cities like Homs are telling examples: entire neighborhoods destroyed by the regime’s repression, while others aligned with the regime remain untouched. There are also tensions between Syrians who fled the country and those who stayed behind.
Justice, Memory, and the Fight Against Impunity
According to the speakers, achieving justice for victims remains a pending issue in Syria. The existence of organizations that document disappearances and denounce war crimes reflects a strong commitment to memory, but also exposes the limits of this struggle. Andrés highlighted how widespread victimization and the lack of a shared narrative make reconciliation difficult. “There is a competition to see who is more of a victim,” he warned.
Despite official declarations, little progress has been made in investigating crimes committed by the Assad regime, and individuals implicated in serious human rights violations have even been appointed to public positions. Without a true transitional justice process, breaking the cycle of impunity is extremely difficult.
The event concluded with a shared message of confidence in Syrian civil society: “The people will not allow another authoritarian regime and will continue to fight as they have for the past 14 years,” Salameh and Andrés agreed. And a final note of hope: “Despite everything, there is a civil society, there are capable and motivated people working to build a new Syria. We must support them and trust in their efforts,” Vidal emphasized.
The event also featured a reading—both in Arabic and Catalan—of the poem “I Shall Not Cry” by Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan, performed by Noor Ogly and FundiPau president Carme Suñé. The poem served as a symbolic bridge between the experiences of the Syrian and Palestinian peoples, connecting two realities shaped by struggle and resilience.
Watch the recording of the event below (in Catalan).
