Peacebuilding is often seen as a sophisticated process, aimed at restoring the ways society deals with conflicts and at strengthening institutional capacities; a complex series of actions that require in-depth technical knowledge and bureaucratic maneuver abilities. But very often too, this highly institutional approach diminishes the individual role that anybody can and should play to build peace, whether it is at their family and community level or broader.

With this approach in mind, and as part of the third edition of the Geneva Peace Week, we recently co-hosted with the United Nations Library in Geneva an interactive dialogue titled “The Personal Toolbox of a Peacebuilder”.  About 50 participants had the opportunity to learn from and interact with three outstanding peacebuilders, each of them with an extensive and practical experience on what it takes to engage for peace.

Jens Wilhelmsen, who spent decades working for reconciliation after World War II, said that “identifying with others is one of the preconditions for being a peacemaker”. To effectively promote and work for peace, he explained, peacebuilders should approach with “humility”, take time to listen carefully to people and to their own conscience, summon courage and have honest conversations with those they mistrust and fear, and engage with a vision: if you don’t believe things will change, they will not, he concluded.

His grandson Jonathan Nelson, who shared the stage with him, acknowledged his grandfather’s virtue of always looking at his own conduct. “My 90 year old grandfather apologized after an argument we had… it surprised me. I learned that no matter your age you should always reexamine your behavior”, he stated.

Amina Khalid, a British Somali activist working for Initiatives of Change UK, explained about the importance of community dialogues to build trust and fight against divisions in the society. “There is much disunity and dysfunction between countries, within communities and even within families… peacebuilding and reconciliation is right at the center, at the heart, of what we need today”, she asserted.

Displaying a powerful performance based on real stories and characters, Dr. Rama Mani took participants on a journey of conflicts, war and suffering that she has come across during her life as a researcher and a peacebuilder and from which she has developed her own tools. Her approach for peacebuilding remains simple, yet inspiring: witness what is, listen to people, suspend judgment, envision change, and enact transformation.

After an exchange between participants and peacebuilders, an open toolbox placed in the middle of the UN Library Room was filled with handwritten tools. Choose the most useful ones for your own peacebuilding work!

For the latest edition of our Human Library event, this time in Bern, we asked five human books to share their personal stories of migration with the local audience. About 40 participants attended the event and interacted with the human books in a unique way, getting to know how each of them has dealt personally with migration.     

The Human Library in Bern was the last of a series of events organized for the 70th anniversary of the CAUX-Initiatives of Change (CAUX-IofC) Foundation. It took place in the University of Bern Library.

Each Human Book (storyteller) was invited to sit in a separate room of the library and to tell their story for 10 minutes, followed by a Q&A segment for the same length of time. Participants could repeat this process once in order to listen to up to 2 books.

Stories covered a wide range of personal experiences:

Ahmed Al’Dbei, a civil engineer and refugee from Yemen, found refuge in Saudi Arabia in 2014. He shared his story of coming to Switzerland and speaking about human rights violations in Yemen at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. In doing so, his emergency visa for Saudi Arabia was revoked and he could not return home to his family. Now under a special status while awaiting review of his case for more than a year now, Ahmed is not allowed to work or volunteer in Switzerland. This can be very frustrating as he would like to be able to help others and lead a regular life.

Bawélé Tchalim, a project coordinator at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Bern from Togo, shared several stories from his career and also spoke of the difficulty of meeting people in Switzerland because of linguistic and cultural barriers.

Hassan Hawar, a refugee and computer science student from Syria,  spoke of his journey to Switzerland, by boat and by car from Turkey. German is his new language, which he speaks quite well after only a year of living in Bern. He now lives in Switzerland with his sister, while his parents and his brother still live in Damascus.

Vithyaah Subramaniam, a Swiss of Tamil origin who spoke about her will to help new migrants in Switzerland as her duty, being a second generation migrant herself.

Bernadette de Dardel, who was in charge of doing interviews and approving or refusing asylum requests at the Swiss Secretariat for Migration during 30 years, expressed the difficulty of determining the truth in each asylum seeker’s story as well as the dilemmas of having to refuse certain asylum claims.

The event ended with a closing aperitif where participants were invited to share their thoughts and impressions about the stories with each other.

Sharing and exchanging personal experiences is a different way to deal with migration from a  more human-focused approach and the Human Library proved once again to be a small but a very important step to build trust between migrants and local communities, groups which not often have the opportunity to talk to each other. 

The Swiss Responsible Business Initiative will be presented to the Swiss authorities today. The 80 civil society organizations supporting the initiative share one common goal: Swiss quality must incorporate the protection of human rights and the environment.

The 120'000 valid signatures gathered for the Swiss Responsible Business Initiative will be handed over to the Swiss government today. The constitutional amendment proposed by the initiative is based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, unanimously adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011. The initiative compels Swiss-based multinational companies to undertake human rights and environmental due diligence in all their business activities abroad. In practice, companies will have to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address their adverse human rights and environmental impacts and those of the entities under their control. If a corporation does not fulfill its mandatory due diligence, it may be held to account for abuses committed by a subsidiary abroad.

Switzerland’s reputation is a major asset of its economy. Swiss quality stands for high standards, meticulousness and fair business relations. Companies benefitting from this reputation abroad must comply with international norms. In reality however, a number of Swiss-based companies still do not take into account the human rights and environmental impacts of their activities, nor do they take the appropriate steps to avoid or eliminate abuses. By bridging this current loophole, the Swiss Responsible Business Initiative seeks to ensure that the protection of human rights and the environment becomes an integral part of Swiss quality.

This initiative is part of a wider international trend towards binding rules for multinational companies. In recent months, the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, as well as eight national Parliaments of EU Member States, have spoken in favor of mandatory human rights due diligence.

The Swiss Responsible Business Initiative is supported by a broad coalition of 80 civil society organizations, which will immediately begin to prepare for the referendum’s campaign. According to a recent survey, 89% of the population wants Swiss-based companies to be compelled to respect human rights and the environment abroad. Furthermore, 92% think that corporations should ensure that companies under their control do the same. Despite the lack of political action in this regard, these numbers indicate a wide public concern for corporate responsibility.

Peace is all about actions. It is a daily effort put forward by individuals and groups to set institutional, economic, social and cultural standards and boundaries, according to their own realities, to progressively upraise human dignity. It’s not an ending, but a starting point of an endless process that needs to be nurtured on a regular basis.

When peace has been spoiled, whether by war, conflicts or disputes of any kind, reconciliation efforts at the institutional level are mostly needed. Judicial and non-judicial measures are essential to restore social stability and regain governance, as we have seen across the world in countries that have experienced violent conflicts.

But all these measures are not enough, if not embraced by society as a whole, if values of peace are not internalised in people’s consciousness. Peace can only be effectively resettled by individuals, with a peaceful set of mind and ready to take on the challenge to positively impact their families, their friend circles, their workplaces, their community groups; in short terms, their society.

Over the past 70 years, Caux has been playing an active role in peace building processes, connecting individuals from around the world, breaking divides, building trust and creating interpersonal, interfaith and interethnic dialogues. Participants to our annual Caux Conferences –approximately 1500 each year- return to their personal and community settings inspired and equipped to be part of the change, to promote solutions to a wide range of local issues and to work for a more just, peaceful and sustainable world.

That was the case 25 years ago, when a group of women gathered at Caux and then decided to take action towards peace with a grass root community approach, bringing Initiatives of Change’s main tools, such as storytelling, inner reflection and community service, into practice. They launched Creators of Peace to promote community peace circles: small gatherings of women to deepen their understanding of each other and their peace creating capabilities.

Active in more than 40 countries, Creators of Peace has now become a mayor programme of Initiatives of Change International. They play a significant role in conflict transformation, as they identify issues in the community with a potential for conflict and take common action.

“We had this dream that this could come out as something unique, something that the world has never seen”, said Ahunna Eziakonwa-Onochi, one of the founding mothers of Creators of Peace during the Living Peace Conference, recently hosted in Caux to commemorate the 25th anniversary of this initiative.

“25 years later, there is a greater urgency for this kind of work… peace begins with the individual and then multiplies, therefore we need to reach the individual and increase the opportunity for people to connect and to participate in building peace”, she added.

Caux offers this unique opportunity, as we have seen this year when a delegation from Tulsa, Oklahoma (USA), was invited to attend the Just Governance for Human Security Conference to openly discuss the impact of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riots, a tragic event of a region that continues to experience racial conflicts. After their experience in Caux, members of the delegation decided to continue the dialogue in Tulsa itself, as a way of dealing with the past, healing the wounds and start a personal and a community reconciliation process .

An open and frank discussion never took place in Tulsa, according to the delegation’s members, maybe because they never had the chance during the last nine decades. Inspired by Caux, on the 15^th September 2016, the first public forum took place at the Tulsa Historical Society, gathering more than 125 community members. A great step forward to transform a society torn over race, hopefully.   

That is the reason why we are convinced of the transformative force of individuals. Peace building should not be seen as an exclusive domain of public officers, institutions, international organisations, laws, etc. It should also be a bottom-up, community based process, led by strongly committed people. 

Every effort, as little as getting to know your neighbor, or random acts of kindness, is a step towards peace: what will you do for Peace?

During the final morning plenary of the Just Governance for Human Security Conference in July, participants were presented with a 90-day action challenge. Members of a delegation from Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, at Caux to discuss the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, accepted the challenge. Participants were asked what they could do in their own communities in 90 days that was a direct result of their experience at Caux. 

Four members, of the nine member delegation from Tulsa, began meeting over meals, just as they had at Caux, to discuss lessons learned from the conference. They openly discussed the needs of the community to have honest and open dialogue with regards to the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot and the aftermath faced in trying to heal a racially torn community. Scores affected by the Riot fled, and migrated elsewhere in the United States, even as far north as Canada. The delegation members agreed their first step together, after returning from Caux, would be to hold an informal forum, similar to the conference morning plenary they had recently attended. They decided to share the observations and encounters experienced at Caux with members of the community in hopes of inspiring and engaging the community. The seed had already been planted in their community because they were having open and honest dialogue about a horrific event in their city's history that had rarely been discussed for decades.

The forum titled, “Why is There Global Interest in Tulsa’s Race Relations? Healing History — An African-American Experience.” Was held on Thursday, September 15th at the Tulsa Historical Society and was attended by over 125 members of the community, both Caucasian and African-American. The forum opened with Michelle Place, Executive Director of the Tulsa Historical Society, noting the 100 year anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot was less than five years away. With the anniversary quickly approaching, there has been significant and steady interest in the city’s a horrific event by numerous outside sources, which include talks of a Hollywood movie. Michelle stated, "It is important for Tulsa to share with the world what it did right and what it did wrong with regards to the Race Riot. It is also important that we, Tulsans, are able to tell our own story. We cannot tell our story to inspire others around the world if we do not discuss it ourselves”.  It is important to share what happens in a community when its history is not openly discussed." 

Members of the delegation hope the forum is the first of many open and honest discussions of race and healing for the community. There are talks of having open dialogues in the North Tulsa area, an area often racially disconnected from the city. Since returning from Caux, members of the delegation with close connections to North Tulsa’s predominately African-American community have joined Michelle and the Tulsa Historical Society to document audio recordings of African-American Riot survivors, a demographic often missing from the city’s historical documentation.  Michelle Place and Alesia Clement Latimer, who did not know each other before meeting in Caux, have joined forces to reach all members of the community, in the spirit of community, and invite them to offer their oral history. The two have taken the ‘elbow diplomacy’ of Caux back to their community in an effort to reach all members of their community by working together.

Shontaye Abegaz, Conference Coordinator "Just Governance for Human Security"

The Caux community had the bittersweet experience of celebrating the life, commitment and passion of Princess Bukiwe Maseko on 22 July 2016. 

She passed away shortly before the start of the conference season. Bukiwe has been coming to Caux for more than sixteen years, and lead the housekeeping team for the past six years. It  was a shock to everyone that only last year she brought her South African brand of care and management with such joy, and this year she has gone to fairer fields. 

Over 500 people gathered for a  Braai-style lunch in her honour, with photos around the Dining Hall, followed by a church memorial and a tea. A collection was taken and the CAUX-IofC Foundation supplemented it; finances will be sent to her family’s favoured charity.

She was the face of the ‘Volunteers of the Caux Conferences’ in the 2015 Conference Report. It is fitting that this peace-builder, guide, friend and mentor should have been in the spotlight just before leaving us.  She is deeply missed, but we live the spirit of Caux as described by her “Also, you have the spirit of the house. This place is so warm and welcoming. You have time to listen to one another and to experience the spirit of real teamwork. Above all, you get that fulfillment of caring for people. Because that is what the world needs. We need to care for one another. And here you get the chance to do so.”.

Thank you Bukiwe for all you shared and showed us.

In 1986, the first Week of International Community (WIC) in Caux was held to prepare the Caux-Palace for the upcoming conferences and to connect people through service. Since 1946, the Caux Conference Centre gathers every year over 1300 participants from all over the world for the International Caux Conferences held during the summer. The WIC changed to a new format in 2014 with a new program designed by Foundations for Freedom (F4F).

Every year, about 40 people with connections to Initiatives of Change (IofC) and F4F are invited with their parents or families for the WIC. They are introduced to IofC with a focus on community service. Apart from this, there is organized space for sharing personal stories, trust building exercises as well as cultural variety evenings, sightseeing, screenings of IofC films, etc.

‘In the beginning the purpose was to bring young Europeans to Caux, who would not necessarily come for a conference but find it easier to come for a working time,’ says Ulrike Keller, a co-organizer of the WIC in Caux. ‘Young people could meet people from other countries while carrying out practical work. Many of them aged 18 - 22 came from Germany. They were mostly school pupils and university students. This is how young people also learned about IofC. And today many of them are involved in one way or another with IofC in their respective countries.

Since the beginning, the Caux Conference Centre has positioned itself as ‘Home for the World’. Processes of reconciliation, dialogue and peace building between individuals and countries such as Germany and France took place in the former Caux-Palace. Those attending WIC also gave their indirect input into building peace in Europe and in the world.

In 1986, Eliane Stallybrass had the idea of holding the first Week of International Community which took place during the Easter holidays. ‘At that time there was an international community of about 30 people living in Villa Maria all year round. In the following years, people started coming from the Netherlands, Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, Italy,’ says Ulrike. ‘At one point we were 180 people and it has always been international’. Ulrike’s husband Christoph has been responsible for the practical part of the work – repairing, painting, gardening, etc. – for over 30 years. Ulrike has attended the WIC every year since then. ‘I myself have never missed one, taking on this or that’, she says. In 1996 the WIC shifted to June, with a short time for preparation before the summer conferences.

‘The shape of WIC changed over the years acting in ways that go with the times’, describes Ulrike of the progress. ‘After the fall of the Berlin Wall, people from Eastern European countries could join. Over several years I have heard from young people that it is difficult to explain to their parents what they are doing with F4F and why they are going to Caux. In 2011 I introduced the idea: ‘How would it be if your parents could come to Caux and find out in a very practical way, what IofC and Caux are all about?’ Angela Starovoytova (Ukraine), Diana Damsa (Romania) and later Anastasiya Maksimova (Ukraine) took on the idea and worked out a new program which was implemented in 2014.

Through storytelling, practical work and silent reflection, the 2016 edition of the Week of International Community continued to connect people from different countries and cultures to create a space for dialogue, understanding and community. 

Seeds of Inspiration 2016 – and the Caux summer season – ended in a riot of balloons. Each balloon had a label, on which a participant had described what the five-day event had meant to them: ‘Joy!’ ‘Unconditional welcome’, ‘Le donner et le recevoir (giving and receiving)’, ‘The biggest is to forgive each other’, ‘Rest and adventure’….

The theme of the event was ‘Without barriers’. Two refugee singer-songwriters, Jean Paul Samputu from Rwanda and Mer Ayang from South Sudan, moved participants with their music and stories. Crossing Borders, a performance devised specially for the conference, used song, dance and drama to reflect on the lives of its creators, Sudanese refugee Samah Bushra and British priest, academic and musician June Boyce-Tilman.

Lynne Barker, a textile artist from the UK, invited delegates to join her in creating a tapestry made up of individually sewn hexagons. She told how, after the sudden death of her husband, she had embroidered his shirts and created an art installation exploring her grief. Her story of bereavement, forgiveness and acceptance stimulated deep conversations in the daily community group meetings which followed the plenary Together Times. 

Other highlights included Commedia Gillet, Swedish clowns who help primary school children to talk about bullying, and June Boyce-Tilman’s presentation on the music’s power to heal and connect. The members of a group from Nottingham, UK, had only met each other on the flight to Switzerland. Aged from 17 to over 80, they included Hindus, Muslims, Christians and a Rastafarian. They wove their stories into a presentation on unity in diversity and returned home determined to work together on local issues. 

• Find the pictures of Seeds of Inspiration on Flickr.

"We must be fully authentic as Creators of Peace and advocates for a new story coming from the transformational liberation of our own hearts and minds", said Jean Brown, conference convener as the Living Peace conference came to a close on 10 August 2016.

The conference gathered 200 participants, mainly women, from 43 different countries to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of Creators of Peace (CoP), aiming to further connect and empower women to be peacebuilders, starting with their own lives and communities.  Over the week, the conference provided a safe space for sharing stories and reflecting on what it means to be “living peace” both on a personal and on a communal level, as well as an exploration of what it means to tell a new story.

A key moment was the Encounter with the Creators of Peace Founding Mothers on 5 August 2016 which saw the founding mothers share the journey that made Creators of Peace a strong network of women from around the world. Drawing inspiration from the legacy of the pioneers who founded Creators of Peace in 1991 in Caux and from each other, participants experienced an inspiring and emotional week of connection, intercultural exchange, healing and mutual empowerment. Watch our interview with founding mother Ahunna Eziakonwa-Onochi.

“Knowing who you are is the number one factor of empowerment” – Jin In, Founder of 4GGL

Participants heard from strong and inspirational speakers tackling what it means to live peace across the world’s divides, with head, heart and hands, in leadership, and through forgiveness. The panel on Living Peace in Leadership on 7 August 2016 saw speakers Maryam Bibi, Founder of Khwendo Kor; Dr Gill Hicks, Founder of M.A.D. for Peace, Dr Rosina Wiltshire, first CARICOM advocate for Gender Justice and Jin In, Founder of 4GGL share examples of women taking the lead about a cause they care about and turning it into something that makes a difference for others. As noted by Dr Gill Hicks, “leadership in seeking peace is to take initiative and not wait for someone else to do something about it”. 

“I met my enemy and I’ve seen his humanity” – Jo Berry, Founder ‘Building Bridges for Peace’

Speaker Jo Berry received a standing ovation from the audience on 9 August 2016 for sharing her poignant story of meeting and forgiving Patrick Magee, the man responsible for the IRA bomb that killed her father. They now work together, speaking and demonstrating their ability to see each other’s humanity, dignity and respect.

Some of the most heartfelt and powerful moments happened outside of the plenaries. Participants shared openly their stories with others, breaking down internal and external barriers to conquer inner fears and build trust. As summed up by a participant from Ukraine, “this was a transformational experience for me, thanks to all the stories and the love from so many women. One lesson that I’m taking away with me is that I cannot change my past but if I learn to be grateful for everything I have, I can change my future.”

On Sunday 7 August, participants spent a full day workshopping ideas around how to tell a new story and how to see our stories in a new way. Participants were challenged to draw new learning out of old narratives that they were living out of and in doing so, focus on some of the positive aspects that have come out of their story.

Parallel to the conferences, the annual Global Assembly of Creators of Peace saw the election of a new team, including a newly elected coordination team, elders and ambassador. Delegates also made changes to governance procedures and discusses how to bring the Creators of Peace network forward.

“The more we stand together, the more effect we will have” – Dr Gill Hicks

There have been many wonderful outcomes of the Living Peace conference – a renewed sense of connection between CoP women, new partnerships that have been formed, a deeper commitment to the work of CoP, and perhaps the most powerful is the unconditional love that was experienced by all who came.

The closing plenary left participants inspired, ready to take action and bring change to their communities. “I’m going back inspired, energized to do more work on Peace Circles”, concluded a participant from Nigeria. As they sang the Living Peace theme song written especially for the conference by Australian, Glenyce Durdin, these ‘women of courage, women of strength’ (download lyrics here) left the conference empowered to claim their voices and be part of a new story of love and peace that is so needed in the world.

• Click here for more information about Creators of Peace
• Download the Living Peace song lyrics here
• Watch our video interview with Ahunna Eziakonwa-Onochi, a founding mother of Creators of Peace 

The Living Peace Conference opened on 6 August 2016, bringing together women, and some men, from 43 different countries at the Caux Palace to celebrate all that Creators of Peace has achieved over the last 25 years and to look forward to what is ahead. 

“We are here united in our firm belief that we can make a difference, that we can bring positive change to the place in the world in which we live.”, said Dr Gill Hicks, survivor of the London terrorist bombings at the opening. 

Participants and visitors gathered in the Main Hall for the plenary on Living Peace Across the World’s Divides to hear from two prominent and extraordinary speakers: Dr Omnia Marzouk, President of Initiatives of Change International and Dr Gill Hicks, survivor of the London terrorist bombings on July 6, 2005 and founder of M.A.D. for peace. 

"Do what you are passionate about and take one day at a time" - Dr Omnia Marzouk

“People can make a change in their community provided they apply the same values in their daily life”, said Dr Omnia Marzouk, as she shared how her experiences as IofC President and as a pediatrician in one of London's busiest hospital has led her to enriching encounters with people of different faiths and values. Impressed by the global solidarity network created by CoP for last 25 years, Dr. Marzouk commented that interpersonal and informative dialogue during the conflict and in post-conflict situations is a must and that women’s engagement is needed in every level of peacebuilding. She remarked that peacebuilding is not a once in a life time decision but a daily commitment and on-going journey. 

"Living our peace is about living our example, advocacy, leadership. Living Peace is our collective responsibility" - Dr Gill Hicks

Dr. Gill Hicks shared with the audience the powerful and inspirational story of how her encounter with terrorism and the permanent injuries she suffered during the London bombings on 6 July 2005 led her to enter life with a different outlook and motivation and her process of healing encouraged her to advocate for sustainable peace. This experience taught her to value people as they have the capacity to make or break situations, make the right choices as to how to react and respond, overcome fear with confidence, and receive and give love as much as possible. Dr Hicks ended her poignant speech by asking the audience: “Does it have to take a tragedy or a disaster for us to feel deeply connected as human beings, as one species?”

The day continued with an enriching session with the seven of the original founding mothers of Creators of Peace. The session comprised of seven of the original group that planned the first CoP conference back in 1991, that saw 700 people come to Caux. Ahunna Eziakonwa of Nigeria, Vijaylakshmi Subarmanyan of India, Paige Chargois and Tata Mbugua of the USA, Amina Dikedi of the UK, Digna Hitzen of the Netherlands and Christiane Garin of Switzerland all shared how they started CoP regionally and then internationally; the challenges they faced; the initial conferences they pulled together in the absence of the internet and other technologies, the way they raised funds and so on.

The most important message the mothers gave the audience was that despite the odds and discouragement they faced, they kept moving forward towards establishing this movement. Deep listening, dialogue and trusting each other is what kept the women going and they were encouraged by each other’s dedication and passion towards bringing sustainable peace in the world. 

The session ended with a beautiful dedication to remember CoP women who are no longer with us and a touching moment when the children placed specially made scarves around the founding mothers who then distributed the scarves to all of the women at the conference as a symbol of gratitude and handing over to the next generation. 

The conference will explore what is means to "live peace" and will bring forward the incredible stories of women creating peace all over the world. 

• Follow the conference live on Facebook