Webinar: Promoting Peace or Selling Norms? Promoting ‘Inclusivity’ in International Peace Mediation
Join us in our next conversation on Promoting Peace or Selling Norms? Promoting ‘Inclusivity’ in International Peace Mediation by Dr. des. Julia Palmiano Federer, on Tuesday, June 30, 2020, at 12:00 PM EDT. In this webinar, Julia will use results and analysis from doctoral research conducted on NGO mediators promoting ‘all-inclusiveness’ in the Myanmar peace process to lead a critical discussion on the consequences of using mediation processes to promote international norms.
Peace mediators are no longer only tasked with brokering ceasefires between negotiating parties in armed conflict situations. They are also increasingly expected to promote international norms such as gender equality, transitional justice, democracy and inclusivity to the negotiating parties. This shifting role is well documented in policy documents, most prominently in the UN Guidance for Effective Mediation. In particular, the onus of designing inclusive peace processes that include women, youth, civil society organizations, business actors, religious leaders and other actors has also increasingly fallen on the shoulders of mediators. This ‘inclusivity’ norm is usually taken for granted as a vehicle for sustainable and legitimate peace.
However, the role of mediators in promoting inclusivity and the consequences this may have on peace processes has not been examined in depth. At the same time, a growing number of peace practitioners and peace research scholars are critically discussing the positive and negative consequences of norm promotion. Using results and analysis from doctoral research conducted on NGO mediators promoting ‘all-inclusiveness’ in the Myanmar peace process, this webinar launches a critical discussion on the consequences of using mediation processes to promote international norms and discusses the following:
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- What does it actually mean to promote international norms? Is it appropriate to do so?
- If mediators should promote norms to the parties, can they? What are the mechanisms at play?
- What are the consequences (both positive and negative) of promoting norms in peace processes?
- What can peace mediators and policymakers learn from these consequences?
With the ongoing pandemic and calls for racial justice unfolding around the world, social and international norms we have taken for granted are in a state of upheaval. Against this backdrop in which liberal peacebuilding normative frameworks are increasingly questioned, this webinar seeks to discuss these issues and new ways forward for peace mediation theory and practice.
Dr. des. Julia Palmiano Federer
is an Associated Researcher with the Mediation Program. She recently defended her doctoral research on the role of nongovernmental mediators in norm diffusion in Myanmar. Her dissertation was completed in the framework of the Swiss National Science Foundation-funded project on the role of norms in peace mediation. During her doctoral studies, she was a visiting researcher at the University of British Columbia and the University of Yangon. She has also published academic articles and policy papers on Myanmar politics and diverse topics in mediation such as norms, gender, and counter-terrorism. Julia also worked as a Program Officer in swisspeace’ Mediation Program from 2013-2020, where she provided support to civil society actors and the negotiating teams involved in Myanmar’s peace processes.
Before joining swisspeace, she started her career with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Human Rights Watch and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. She has also worked as a research assistant for the Political Science Department of the University of British Columbia and as a project assistant for Global Affairs Canada.
Please note that the deadline to register for this webinar is one day before the event. We will send the Zoom access link to registrants after the registration closing time and again on the day of the event. For further information about this our other webinars, contact us at webinars@mediatorsbeyondborders.org.
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