Geneva Peace Week

About Geneva Peace Week

Geneva is a global hub for governance and international cooperation. It hosts 37 international organizations, a thriving community of non-governmental organizations and renowned academic and research institutions. It is also a diplomatic center with near universal representation of states. Together, all these actors work for peace, rights and well-being, touching the lives of individuals across the world. Geneva Peace Week offers an opportunity to connect and highlight the work of these actors and to expand the space for building peace and resolving conflict through dialogue and negotiation.

Geneva Peace Week emphasizes that each and every person, actor and institution has a role to play in building peace and resolving conflict. It recognizes that peacebuilding occurs in many different contexts and cuts across disciplines and sectors. In this sense, Geneva Peace Week breaks down professional silos in order to enable creative responses to violence, exclusion and insecurity. By synchronizing meetings and events on different topics related to the promotion of peace during one week, Geneva Peace Week maximizes synergies between organizations in Geneva and their international partners, focusing on the cross-cutting nature of peace. Piloted in 2014, Geneva Peace Week has grown from a small handful of 10 events with 9 event organizers and approximately 500 participants to now more than two thousand attendees online and nearly 280 event organizers. To find out more about Geneva Peace Week, please consult www.genevapeaceweek.ch

Geneva Peace Week is a flagship initiative of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform in collaboration with the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), and the Platform’s five partners – the Graduate Institute’s Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP); the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF); the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP); Interpeace; and the Quaker United Nations Office, Geneva (QUNO). Geneva Peace Week is also supported by Switzerland.

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Programme Archive

Geneva Peace Week 2020

Geneva Peace Week 2020 was held from 2-6 November 2020, online for the first time. In its seventh edition, Geneva Peace Week events featured eight different thematic tracks, including Harnessing the Economy for Peace, A Horizon Scan for Cyberpeace, Building a Culture of Peace, What Works in Peacebuilding, A New Vision for Peacebuilding, Peacebuilding in a COVID-19 Era and Beyond, How to Build Peace, and Environment, Climate, Conflict, and Peace. 

The 2020 edition not only transferred online for the first time in the Forum's history, but also featured for the first time a "Digital Series," or an online collection of more than 70 episodes across the eight thematic tracks. Organizations developed videos, podcasts, and infographics to share key insights and tell stories to build peace. The Digital Series is still online to explore here.

Facts and Figures

70 Live Events, 70 Digital Series contributions, 280 Event Partners, 2,380 Live Session attendees

Reporting

Geneva Peace Week 2020 Evaluation Report

The Pulse of Peacebuilding 2021 - Key messages from Geneva Peace Week 2020

 

Geneva Peace Week 2019

Geneva Peace Week 2019 took place from 4-8 November 2019. In its sixth edition, Geneva Peace Week events focused on three overarching themes: 

• Global perspectives on peacebuilding: Much theory and practice of peacebuilding is rooted in the intellectual traditions and historical experiences of Euro-Atlantic societies. This cluster focused on approaches to preventing and resolving violent conflict and building peace that are rooted in diverse traditions and know-how across the world.
• Building peace in Europe: This cluster examined the peacebuilding frontiers in Europe. It focused on the peacebuilding implications of ongoing and escalating political and social conflicts on the European continent and how peacebuilding knowledge and practice could address and mitigate the rising tension and polarization taking place in Europe.
• Multilateralism in transition: The state-centric system is experiencing change towards more interaction with other sectors. Trends suggest a greater focus on transnational connections and more interactive modes of working. This cluster focused on the peacebuilding implications of UN reforms and on the growth of city and corporate diplomacy around peace and conflict issues, chronic urban violence and exclusion, or conflict dynamics in cyber space.

Facts and Figures

80 Events, 137 Event Partners, 310 Speakers

Reporting

Geneva Peace Week 2019 Detailed Programme

Geneva Peace Week 2019 Speakers

Geneva Peace Week 2019 Evaluation Report

The Pulse of Peacebuilding 2020 - Key messages from Geneva Peace Week 2019
 

Geneva Peace Week 2018 - Building Peace in a Turbulent World

Geneva Peace Week 2018 took place from 5-10 November 2018. In its fifth edition, Geneva Peace Week concentrated on the urgency of finding peaceful solutions for the growing risks of violent conflict, building on the lessons from history and the needs for future peacebuilding practice.

Collective security and peace practice represent a rich tapestry of challenges and achievements, as well as devastating failures. Geneva Peace Week reflects on the lessons of a century of liberal internationalism in the service of peace and focuses on the roles that every person, actor and institution can play in building peace and resolving conflict. Awareness of the potentials and pitfalls of these roles is ever more important to build and sustain peace in a turbulent world and to broker the partnerships necessary to address them.

65 Events, 120 Event Partners, 253 Speakers

Reporting

Geneva Peace Week 2017 - Prevention Across Sectors & Institutions

Geneva Peace Week 2017 took place from 6-10 November 2017. In its fourth edition, Geneva Peace Week for the first time focused on the theme of Prevention and effective pathways for implementation.

The theme built on the prioritization of prevention by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who in his address to Members of the UN Security Council on 10 January 2017, said “Prevention is not merely a priority, but the priority. If we live up to our responsibilities, we will save lives, reduce suffering and give hope to millions.”

Message from the President of the General Assembly of the UN, H.E. Miroslav Lajčák, on the opening of Geneva Peace Week 2017