Irenees
a website of resources for peace

Irenees.net is a documentary website whose purpose is to promote an exchange of knowledge and know-how at the service of the construction of an Art of peace.
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, France, September 2016

International Alert (IA)

International Alert is one of the world’s leading peacebuilding organisations, with 30 years of experience laying the foundations for peace.

International Alert was founded in 1986 to help people find peaceful solutions to conflict.

At that time, the number of conflicts between countries was decreasing, but there was an alarming increase in the number of conflicts within countries. These conflicts were undermining development and leading to gross violations of human rights. Identifying and highlighting individual abuses of human rights was not enough; a different approach was desperately needed. It was out of this urgency that International Alert was born.

In 1985 the Standing International Forum on Ethnic Conflict, Development and Human Rights (SIFEC) was founded with the purpose of addressing the issue of internal conflicts and to alert governments and the world to developing crises. The following year, SIFEC merged with another organisation, International Alert on Genocide and Massacres, to become the charity we know today.

In 1986 IA named her first Board of Trustees and Secretary General, Martin Ennals. Martin was the former Secretary General of Amnesty International and founder of Article 19, and a pioneer of the human rights movement.

International Alert

  • helps people find peaceful solutions to conflict.

  • empowers local people to build peace by providing them with training, advice and support. She brings together communities divided by conflict to find ways of resolving their differences without violence. And she advises companies, governments and international organisations on how their policies and operations can better support peace.

  • to do this effectively, IA researches the root causes of conflict around the world and addresses key issues that affect lasting peace and stability in high-risk places.

City

London
Country / Region

United Kingdom
Working language

en;arabe
Website

www.international-alert.org
Theme(s)

  • Citizenship and the state

  • Crime, violence and instability

  • Economid development

  • Climate change

  • Gender

  • Natural Resource management

  • Community Relations
Region of interest

IA works with local people in over 25 countries around the world to help them build peace, and she advises governments, organisations and companies on how to support peace.
Means of action

To build peace IA uses the following methods:

  • Research: to research the causes of conflict around the world.

  • Dialogue: to bring people together to help them better understand their differences and resolve them peacefully.

  • Training: to provide people with the skills they need to support and bring about peace.

  • Advocacy: to advise on international policies and practices that affect peace, and ensure that the voices and needs of local communities are heard nationally and internationally.

  • Accompaniment: to offer guidance and advice to people, organisations and companies as they build peace or operate in high-risk places.
Place(s) of action

IA works in Africa, south and southeast Asia, central Asia, the South Caucasus, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and north Africa, and have 18 offices around the world.
Approach of peace

IA believes peace is possible when people can live in safety, have fair and effective laws, participate in shaping political decisions, make a decent living and secure their wellbeing.

Peace is when people are able to resolve their conflicts without violence and can work together to improve the quality of their lives. Peace is when:

  • everyone lives in safety, without fear or threat of violence, and no form of violence is tolerated in law or in practice

  • everyone is equal before the law, the systems for justice are trusted, and fair and effective laws protect people’s rights

  • everyone is able to participate in shaping political decisions and the government is accountable to the people

  • everyone has fair and equal access to the basic needs for their wellbeing – such as food, clean water, shelter, education, healthcare and a decent living environment

  • everyone has an equal opportunity to work and make a living, regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other aspect of identity

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