India

Displaced Women: From Violations to Voice

Wed, 09/14/2016 - 09:30
Wed, 09/14/2016 - 11:30
Subtitle: 
Afghanistan, India and Pakistan Cases Show How to Strengthen Women and End Impunity

People forced from their homes amid conflict—the majority of them women—face threats of deprivation, discrimination and a militarized society. During a forum hosted by the U.S. Institute of Peace and  the Women’s Regional Network, speakers discussed possible model solutions in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan for displaced women and girls.

 

The study, conducted by the Women’s Regional Network, suggested the use of regional tribunals and “community conversations” as possible mechanisms for exploring women’s experiences, fears and contributions, and for strengthening their often unrecognized contributions to justice, peace and social reintegration.

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USIP Youth Leaders’ Exchange with the Dalai Lama

Short Description: 

The U.S. Institute of Peace and His Holiness the Dalai Lama have joined to strengthen the abilities of youth leaders working to build peace in the world’s most violent regions. USIP and the Dalai Lama hosted a dialogue in May 2016 with 28 such peacebuilders drawn from networks of the Institute and its partners in 13 countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Many of these countries face the world’s deadliest wars, as well as campaigns by extremist groups to incite youth to violence. These leaders are among their countries’ most effective peacebuilders. The dialogue with the Dalai Lama helped them to build practical skills and personal resilience they need to work against the tensions or violence in their homelands.

The Problem

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Repairing the India-Pakistan Rift

Mon, 02/09/2015 - 14:00
Mon, 02/09/2015 - 15:30

Pakistan’s expression of alarm at President Obama’s recent visit to India became another example of how relations between the two South Asian nations have turned increasingly sour in the past year. On February 9, the U.S. Institute of Peace will host a panel discussion to explore the deteriorating India-Pakistan ties and the ramifications for the region and beyond.

Ties between India and Pakistan showed tentative signs of warming in late 2013 and early 2014. But optimistic calls for trade liberalization and diplomatic dialogue have given way to escalating tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors over how to address terrorism and the disputed territory of Kashmir. Foreign secretary-level talks have been scuttled, and exchanges of fire left at least 10 people dead and thousands displaced along the Line of Control in late December and early January.

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India-Pakistan Needs Trump Administration’s Focus

Relations between India and Pakistan are becoming less predictable as nationalist sentiments in India heighten political pressure there to escalate its response to clashes in the disputed territory of Kashmir, specialists on the two states said. The incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump should develop clearer U.S. policies to ease strains between the nuclear-armed states, the analysts said at the U.S. Institute of Peace. 

Fred Strasser

The discussion, in a USIP forum, followed a round of attacks in recent weeks across the Line of Control, a cease-fire line that divides the Indian- and Pakistani-administered sections of Kashmir. India’s announcement of a Sept. 29 retaliatory strike across that line into Pakistan-administered Kashmir was a paradigm shift in the view of many observers.

Tue, 12/27/2016 - 14:55
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Women, Religion and Peacebuilding

Women, Religion, and Peacebuilding: Illuminating the Unseen examines the obstacles and opportunities that women religious peacebuilders face as they navigate both the complex conflicts they are seeking to resolve and the power dynamics in the insti­tutions they must deal with in order to accomplish their goals.

Many women working for peace around the world are motivated by their religious beliefs, whether they work within secular or religious organizations. These women often find themselves sidelined or excluded from mainstream peacebuilding efforts. Secular organizations can be uncomfortable working with religious groups. Meanwhile, religious institutions often dissuade or even disallow women from leadership positions.

Susan Hayward and Katherine Marshall, editors
Tue, 09/15/2015 - 01:00
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Law and Disorder on the “Outlaw Ocean”

Tue, 08/18/2015 - 09:30
Tue, 08/18/2015 - 11:30
Subtitle: 
A Twitter Forum with New York Times Reporter Ian Urbina

The high seas are a lawless space where ships can hide their ownership, movements and practices, and thus escape the rule of law applied on land. A startling New York Times series, “The Outlaw Ocean,” reports this summer on how ships’ crews are abused and enslaved in the tens of thousands. Migrants are trafficked or killed, drugs and arms smuggled, and toxic wastes dumped – all beyond any effective law enforcement by governments or international agencies. Join a Twitter discussion August 18th with the Times’ lead reporter on the series, Ian Urbina, about impunity at sea and the connected issues of justice, international security, and human rights.

Read the Twitter chat recap, Twitter Forum Explores Lawlessness at Sea.

Experts: 

Urbina and colleagues at the Times tracked rogue ships that escape criminal charges in part by repeatedly changing their names and flags. They gathered databases on the unreported scale of violence on the high seas. They visited fishing vessels that do battle and floating armories from which squads of security guards battle boredom and pirates. 

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India’s Nobel Winner Takes His Fight for Children Global

“I am planning to launch the world’s most ambitious … mobilization of young people for the betterment of the whole world,” Satyarthi told USIP staff members June 17. “I’m aiming at 100 million young people … [who] should become the voices, faces, spokespersons, advocates, change-makers, leaders, champions” for 168 million children worldwide who are trapped in child labor, half of them as slaves, child soldiers, prostitutes, or in highly dangerous jobs, he said.

How to Stop Extremism Before It Starts

Endemic corruption is padding the ranks of militant fundamentalist groups. Here's how communities are fighting back.

In the global fight against violent extremism, a major element has been missing from the conversation that has focused on mostly top-down, official efforts: how ordinary citizens and communities are successfully challenging the acute corruption that drives young people and others into the folds of radicals.

Maria J. Stephan and Shaazka Beyerle
Tue, 03/17/2015 - 13:29
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Aid to Civil Society: A Movement Mindset

Supporting local agents of nonviolent change is critical to preventing violent conflict and advancing democratic development. Civic campaigns are key drivers of social and political development, as is clear from issues-focused movements in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and most recently the Middle East and North Africa. Effectively aiding civic movements that are fluid, diverse, decentralized, and often loosely organized is tricky. Drawn from a review of the literature and numerous interviews with international policymakers and civil society leaders, this report explores both the ways donors engage civil society and creative new approaches to supporting nontraditional actors.

Summary

  • Civic campaigns and movements are key drivers of social and political development but receive inadequate attention and support from development actors.
  • External support for diffuse, decentralized, and often leaderless movements that engage in nonviolent direct action, however, is neither straightforward nor uncontroversial. It differs from support for traditional NGOs.
Maria J. Stephan, Sadaf Lakhani and Nadia Naviwala
Mon, 02/23/2015 - 12:56

Articles & Analysis

Relations between India and Pakistan are becoming less predictable as nationalist sentiments in India heighten political pressure there to escalate its response to clashes in the disputed...

By:
Fred Strasser

When terrorists attacked India’s Pathankot air base near the Pakistani border in January, and India said the assailants had come from Pakistan, observers worldwide momentarily held their breaths,...

By:
James Rupert

Indian children’s rights campaigner Kailash Satyarthi is using his Nobel Peace Prize to build a global campaign to end child labor and enslavement. He outlined his plan at the U.S. Institute of...

By:
James Rupert

Videos & Webcasts

People forced from their homes amid conflict—the majority of them women—face threats of deprivation, discrimination and a militarized society. During a forum hosted by the U.S. Institute of Peace...

In celebration of International Women's Day, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a meeting of 12 women civil society leaders from India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Tanzania on Friday,...

Pakistan’s expression of alarm at President Obama’s recent visit to India became another example of how relations between the two South Asian nations have turned increasingly sour in the past year...

Learn More

Online Courses

Daryn Cambridge, Maria Stephan & Althea Middleton-Detzner

This course provides a multidisciplinary perspective on nonviolent, civilian-based movements and campaigns that defend and obtain basic rights and justice around the world, and in so doing transform the global security environment.

The rise of nonviolent, people power movements around the world has become a defining feature of the 21st century.

Publications

Women, Religion, and Peacebuilding: Illuminating the Unseen examines the obstacles and opportunities that women religious peacebuilders face as they navigate both the complex conflicts they are...
Supporting local agents of nonviolent change is critical to preventing violent conflict and advancing democratic development. Civic campaigns are key drivers of social and political development, as...