On May 21-25 the Åland Islands Peace Institute is happy to gather on Åland representatives from partner organizations in all countries where the ÅIPI has been co-operating on gender equality and empowerment since the foundation in 1992. Participants come from Lithuania, Latvia, Russia (Karelia and the Kaliningrad region), Belarus and Azerbaijan. All the partner organisations have in cooperation with the Peace Institute adopted the so called girl and boy group method that aims to strenghten individuals’ selfesteem and to promote their abilities to question prevailing gender norms, to solve conflicts peacefully and to take an active part in society.

Nyhetsbrev från Ålands fredsinstitut
Newsletter from the Åland Islands Peace Institute
2-2012

INNEHÅLL/CONTENTS:
Ålands fredsinstitut firar 20-års jubileum
/ The ÅIPI celebrates its 20th anniversary
Gårdsfest 9 juni
/ Garden party 9th of June
Internationellt möte för tjej- och killgruppsledare
/ Girl and Boy group leaders’ international meeting
Öppen, internationell diskussion om jämställdhet
/ International, open discussion on gender equality
Nordisk-kaukasiskt musikläger och konsert på Åland
/ Nordic-Caucasian musical camp on Åland
Lotta Angergård ny styrelsemedlem
/Lotta Angergård new member of the board of directors

Ladda ner nyhetsbrevet i pdf här.

The newsletter in pdf can be downloaded here.

Ålands fredsinstitut söker en praktikant för hösten 2012. Praktikanten kommer jobba inom projektet Fair Sex tilllsammans med projektledaren och metodutvecklaren. Projektet syftar till att förebygga sexuellt våld och kränkningar bland unga i skolan. Projektet kommer under hösten 2012 hålla fortbildning för skolpersonal inom högstadie- och gymnasieskolan samt workshops med elever i årskurs två på gymnasiet.

On 12-15 April the first Girl Group leader training within the  project Open Doors took place in Baku. In addition to staff and volunteers from Yuva, the Peace Institute's local partner,12 young women participated in the training, which focused on gender equality, partly with a regional focus, and on the method as such. Girl Group expert Mia Hanström, with the support of the project's gender expert Ulrika Navier, provided the participants with insights on the method and with a number of practical exercises to facilitate value-free, non-hierarchical discussions in Girl Groups. Within short Yuva will publish Mia Hanström's Girl Group manual in Azerbaijani language and the leaders will be ready to set up Girl Groups in one of Baku's economically and socially disadvantages neighbourhoods.

Between 25 and 31 March 2012 the Åland Islands Peace Institute’s EVS coordinator Sarah Stephan participated in a study visit to Armenia which was arranged in Yerevan and Gyumri by the Salto-Youth Eastern Europe and Caucasus Resource Centre in cooperation with the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs of the Republic of Armenia. Sarah and her 18 colleagues from altogether 8 Youth in Action programme countries were invited to learn about youth policies and youth work realities in Armenia and to get a general overview about the developments in the programme’s Eastern partnership region. 

An article about the study visit, in English, in pdf, can be found here.

About 120 persons, many of them diplomats, politicians or civil servants, attended the seminar ”The Prospects of the Åland Example as a tool of Nordic Peace Mediation - Tackling Identity Conflicts, Autonomy and Minority Rights” that was held at the Parliament Annex Auditorium in Helsinki the 10th of April 2012. The seminar was arranged by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs and the Åland Islands Peace Institute with the support of the Constitutional law Committee of the Parliament of Finland and the Contact group for Åland and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

Below, speeches in pdf can be downloaded. 

Today, March 30th, is celebrated as the day of the demilitarisation of Åland. in advance of the demilitarisation day, a debate article on the current challenges of the demilitarisation, written by the director of the ÅIPI Dr. Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark, was published in the two local newspapers and in the Swedish-Finnish morning paper Hufvudstadsbladet. Spiliopoulou Åkermark higlights that the demilitarisation is continuously higly relevant in our time, as a contrast to increased militarisation and use of violence, and lists current challenges to the demilitarisation regime, such as the trend towards increased merging of military and civilian activities.

The article in pdf (in Swedish) cen be downloaded here.

In the first report for 2012 in the report series Report from the Åland Islands Peace Institute, researcher Heidi Öst makes a summary in Swedish of the conclusions from the research project and publication ”The Åland Example and Its Components – Relevance for International Conflict Resolution”. The report and the conclusions will be presented to the members of the Åland Parliament today.

Read more about the research project and the publication in English, here.

The ÅIPI was founded in 1992 and is hence celebrating its twentieth birthday this year. The jubilee will be higlighted during the year, starting with the launch of an ÅIPI-stamp designed by artist Amanda Chanfreau. The stamp will be launched at the Åland demilitarisation day the 30th of March at the Post Office in Mariehamn. At the post office it will be possible to stamp envelopes with a special first day stamp.
Amanda Chanfreau describes herself as a Swedish-Finnish artist grown up on Åland. She devotes most of her time to painting but has also created costumes for dancing and performance, textile painting, sculptures in clay and concrete as well as photography, video and drawing. The picture for the ÅIPI jubilee and stamp she designed in a humouristic tune, thinking about tired peace doves returning home after a great jubilée celebration.