Programme Updates
SPECIAL FEATURE: ORG's RCAC programme supported by US Institute of Peace
The RCAC project, whose goal is to ensure that every casualty of conflict is recorded, whatever their nationality, has been given a series of significant boosts this year – just at the time when the issue of civilian casualties is high on the international agenda. ORG is playing an active role, engaging with governments, and bringing together specialists from around the world to work with us.
The United States Institute for Peace (USIP) has just confirmed that it will make a major contribution to the costs of our research project into casualty recording practices and methods around the world. Our project aims to provide the foundation upon which regulatory and legal mechanisms on recording civilian casualties will be built.
With extra funding now being promised by a major European government, we hope that the project can actively proceed from 2010-2012. We aim to have more news in our May newsletter.
The granting of the USIP bid has been influenced in no small measure by the previous work RCAC has done in identifying and bringing together a global network of casualty recording practitioners, who are already providing real-world evidence that, not only should such recording be done, but it can be done. One of our aims is to set up momentum to garner the wide-ranging support that casualty recording needs and deserves. If you would also like to support this work, please contact the RCAC team at rcac@oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk.
The Government of Norway, UNDP and also the Civil Society Working Group - on which ORG is actively involved - fully intend to ensure that the issue of armed violence is recognised and addressed by states as a major threat to the UN Millennium Development Goals. The next opportunity for high-level advocacy to states has already been scheduled by the Government of Norway and UNDP for an international meeting on 12 May 2010 in Geneva.
This comes after the original and long-planned Oslo Conference on Armed Violence: Achieving the Millennium Development Goals had to be cancelled at the last moment in April due to volcano ash disrupting flights in much of Scandinavia and Europe.
The outlines of the RCAC Programme’s separate but related legal research project, which received funding four months ago, are also becoming much clearer, thanks to high-level support and advice from world-renowned international lawyers, aggregated by project leader, Dr Susan Breau.
Given the rapid expansion in our work and the opportunity to have real international impact, we welcome your support.
Palestinian Strategy Group - First Meeting Breaks New Ground
The new Palestinian Strategy Group (PSG) has just held its first workshop bringing together a group of individuals from across the spectrum of Palestinian society with the aim of exploring and promoting integrated strategic thinking. By including all the main Palestinian constituencies, the workshop broke new ground and opened further possibilities for strategic thinking.
The workshop was held in Jericho in the West Bank from April 16-18th. It is partnered with the Badael Centre from Ramallah. The workshop is the first in a series of three, co-funded by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and CORDAID (Netherlands).
Khaled Hroub, a consultant in our Middle East Programme, who is leading the project, said that participants have it made it clear that the event was a significant step-forward:
"ORG managed to do something that was never done inside Palestine since the Fatah/Hamas split; that is bringing leading Palestinian leaders to talk over two days, debate, socialise and know each other's views closely."
Many participants have said that this is the first opportunity for them to meet for such a long time and to have the opportunity to discuss key issues openly. They said they explored areas of commonalities that they themselves were surprised to discover. ORG is keen to keep the momentum - working with Badael and the participants. If you would like to support this work please contact Refqa Abu-Remaileh at refqa.abu-remaileh@@oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk.
The workshop is a continuation of ORG’s previous work with the original Palestine Strategic Study Group, which put together the influential document 'Regaining the Initiative: Palestinian Strategic Options to End the Israeli Occupation', in August 2008.
The workshop also builds on the impact that Badael has had in its work on 'Basic Tenets of Palestinian Supreme National Interests' in November 2008 and the 'Appeal for Unity', in January 2009.
Britain's Defence Debate
ORG has been awarded funding from the Dulverton Trust to explore the possibilities for promoting a sustainable security approach to the Strategic Defence Review in the UK. There is powerful evidence that the UK’s long-term security interests are best served by institutionalising a framework that explicitly accepts the complex, interdependent and holistic nature of security and insecurity in a globalised and uncertain world.
Some evidence of such thinking is already apparent in the recently released Defence Green Papers from the Ministry of Defence and the Conservative Party. The issues around the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system and Britain's role in the world have been raised throughout the televised leaders' debates in the lead up to the election. But the full and potentially radical implications have yet to be thought through and operationalised.
We plan to facilitate a high-level roundtable workshop to discuss these issues soon after the national election. Our objective is to influence the parameters of the debate on national security at a politically opportune moment by taking a radical look at alternative defence priorities for the UK, engaging both advocates of progressive change and senior policy-makers.
For more information, or if you would like to make a donation to support this work, please contact Ben Zala at ben.zala@oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk.
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