Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation

“We practice healing and reconciliation to resolve conflict without resorting to violence.” - URI Principle 9
Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation

URI Cooperation Circles work at every level, from influencing policymakers to providing training at the grassroots, to build peace, heal existing tensions, and prevent new conflicts.

Examples of our work in this Action Area:

  • EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East CC gathered Israelis, Jordanians, and Palestinians to join their voices in calling for cooperative restoration efforts in the Jordan River.
  • In Africa, Shalom Ghana CC ended a 10-year feud between Christians and Muslims by getting youth from both sides together to plant trees the village badly needed.
  • After an increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in California, USA, the Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County CC co-sponsored a "Ring of Solidarity" where over 200 people joined hands around a mosque to show community support for their Muslim neighbors.
Search for Cooperation Circles (CCs) with a focus on Peacebuilding & Conflict Transformation

Stories

Open for Worship

Day 2: Two sects of the Syrian Christian Church in Kerala India reopened their churches and resumed peaceful worship this year after leaders of several Cooperation Circles in southern India helped negotiate a truce in a century-old conflict that was threatening to break out in a new round of violence. 

Reflecting and Serving on Hiroshima Day

My oldest son came to me one night 16 years ago and said, “Dad, I’m going to Japan.” He was 16 years old at the time. And I said, “Oh, are you? And who’s paying for it?” He said, “The American Friends Service Committee. I’m going with a group of American teenagers and we’re going to interview survivors.” So he went, and spent the summer in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.