PRESS RELEASE
London, 5th July 2012
International Alert launched its 2011 Annual Report, Peace Talks today. The report uses dialogue – a key tool in Alert’s peacebuilding work – as a theme, and looks at the organisation’s impact in 2011, when Alert celebrated its 25th anniversary.
Giving examples of how Alert uses dialogue to bring people together or to improve face-to-face communications where communication has broken down, the report highlights Alert’s work in four different areas of the world: Lebanon, Uganda, Sri Lanka and the South Caucasus.
Commenting on the Peace Talks report Dan Smith OBE, Secretary-General, said:
Dialogue is a vital tool we use in our peacebuilding work across the world. Yet the examples in this report show how each dialogue process is unique and based on its very specific context. But whatever its variations, the aim is to generate a shared vision that is lasting and a foundation for change. This is the essence of peacebuilding, and of Alert’s work.
Looking more broadly at the state of violence in the world today Smith continued:
While people try to work their way towards peaceful futures, the global background is mixed. On the one hand, there are far fewer open wars today – both inter-state and civil wars have steadily declined in number and lethality – yet the World Bank estimates that 1.5 billion people currently live in countries that are marked by large-scale violence, a lot of which is not civil war as we normally understand it. So the genuine progress that has been registered does not mean the job is done, but that we have to learn how to work in new environments on new problems.
Graphics and maps highlight how and where Alert works throughout the report, and are complemented by snapshots of the organisation’s work in other areas of the world in 2011, as well as quotes from the people who took part in Alert’s dialogue activities.
To download the report (PDF Format), click here [4].
To view the report online, click here [5].