By Roy Lie A Tjam.
The PeacePalace’s AcademyBuilding was the venue for a lecture on Friday 7 March by Judy Cheng-Hopkins, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Peace building Support.
One of the key guests attending the lecture was Ruud Lubbers, the former Dutch Prime Minister and former UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Mr Lubbers is also a member of the University for Peace (UPEACE) advisory council.
Also present at the lecture were Mr. Steven van Hoogstraten, General Director of the Carnegie Foundation, Marius Enthoven, Chairman of UPEACE, and Petra van der Ham, Managing Director of UPEACE The Hague.
Judy Cheng-Hopkins is United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Peace building Support. The title of Cheng-Hopkins’ lecture was: Peace building: What, Why and How?
When answering the question of what is Peace building, Cheng-Hopkins set out the elements required for peace building under the acronym SCHLEP (schlep means to drag from Yiddish).
S – Safety and human security
Security sector reform (SSR), disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR), the Rule of law and human rights.
C – Civil society
Civil society mobilization and civic education, the civilian oversight of the army.
H – Healing
Reconciliation, mediation, transitional justice, protection, psychosocial therapy, IDPs and returnees/integration, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), reparations.
L – Livelihoods
Job creation, short-term employment generation, youth, public works.
E – Empowerment of women and youth
Restarting economic activities, resettlement and shelter, land reforms, natural resources.
P – Public administration and accountability
Re-establishing state authority, basic services provisions, institutions and local governance, constitutional reform, electoral reform processes, civil service reform, public finance management.
How? – the UN envisages working towards peace building via the UN peace building architecture. Established in 2005 this consists of three pillars: the Peace building Commission, Peace building Fund and Peace building Support Office.
According to Cheng-Hopkins, the role of women in peacebuilding if often not officially recognized and could be seen as the missing link in the peacebuilding process. She continued by stating that women are the ultimate victims of conflict, but also the ultimate agents of change because of their levels of responsibility for agriculture and family in developing countries. Women also play peace-building roles daily, typically at grassroots levels, for example the Acholi women groups vis-à-vis the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda. Cheng-Hopkins sees these women as important, every-day peace builders with importantly an innate interest for peace and a growing role in post-conflict parliaments.
More lectures on peace building will follow, www.upeace.nl
