UK

‘Now I see it differently’, said one of the participants on our four-day course on conflict analysis and conflict sensitivity in Birmingham, UK last month.

The event, designed to train and prepare civilians for crisis management missions worldwide, brought together members of EU, UN and OSCE missions in Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kosovo and elsewhere.

In the Lancashire mill towns of Brierfield and Nelson, International Alert is training young people in a diaspora community affected by conflict at home and abroad, to be peace advocates.

Nilmini Herath – a member of the delegation of young British Sri Lankan professionals who visited Sri Lanka in March as part of International Alert and the Royal Commonwealth Society's Diaspora Dialogues initiative – shares her experience of speaking in the UK Parliament.

International Alert is bringing back the very successful photographic exhibition, Media and Modern Conflict: A Role for Peace just in time for the Olympics, in partnership with Getty Images and Panos Pictures.

by Phil Vernon, International Alert's Director of Programmes

From Alert's 2011 Annual Report

"We arrived as Sinhalese and Tamils, but we leave as Sri Lankans".
Participant in diaspora event

Through a participatory afternoon we will share experiences and approaches to working with young people on issues of conflict both in the UK and abroad. Contributors include the British Red Cross, Marsden Heights Community College, Refugee Youth, International Alert and Y Care International.

For more information and to download a booking form, see the attachments below.

Foreign Secretary William Hague announced this week a UK initiative on preventing sexual violence in conflict. This initiative, which forms part of the UK’s forthcoming Presidency of the G8 in 2013, will include the establishment of a dedicated UK team devoted to combating and preventing sexual violence in conflict.

International Alert, in partnership with Getty Images and Panos Pictures, are organising the photographic exhibition Media & Modern Conflict: A Role for Peace, which will be held at SW1 Gallery in London from 1st to 5th May to mark World Press Freedom Day (3rd May).

In early March 2012, seven British Sri Lankans and two British MPs met communities in Puttalam, Anuradhapura, Vavuniya, Killinochchi and Trincomalee in Sri Lanka to improve the understanding of British-Sri Lankan communities in the UK of the rapidly changing circumstances in Sri Lanka following the end of the war.

Browse through the images below of some of the comedians that have taken part in International Alert’s ‘Are You Taking the Peace?’ series, and find out what they think peace is and why it’s so important.
 
Want to know when our next ‘Are You Taking the Peace?’ event is taking place? Click HERE.

'I have loved this week and learnt so much.'
'This is an excellent opportunity for learning – very beneficial both professionally and personally.'
'I liked the course, it has given me lot of insights and practical skills.'
'This week has made me self-aware!'
 

A group of emerging political leaders from Sri Lanka’s Parliament and civil society have been spending the week here in the UK as part of a programme aimed at fostering reconciliation in that country’s progress toward peaceful development following the end of the three decade civil war there in 2009.