A large part of our work in Iraq and the Middle East is dedicated to peace building and social cohesion initiatives to prevent more conflict.

In Iraq, after three years of Daesh occupation, we are back at work in Mosul and the Nineveh Plain, trying to build a peaceful coexistence for the country’s many different communities. By preventing revenge attacks, the creation of militias and discrimination between communities, we want to facilitate the creation of lasting peace and prevent more conflict. We have opened Youth Centres in the Nineveh Plain where specially trained men and women work on nonviolent conflict prevention and management, mediation techniques, peace journalism and  prevention of extremism, in order to rebuild the links broken by war.

We launched a national study programme to prevent new forms of fundamentalism which resulted in the creation of the Iraqi Observatory for the Prevention of Violent Extremism, run by Iraqi men and women researchers. In the Nineveh Plain schools we launched trains courses in Peace Education for teachers and headmasters.

“We have to take immediate action when conflicts split communities: the notion of grassroots peacebuilding is neither utopian nor unrealistic. It is the only possible solution” (Martina Pignatti, UPP Director of Programs).