This year’s edition of the Geneve Peace Week, which will take place online from 2-6 November, will feature a digital contribution from the UCLG Peace Prize. The video presents how the Duhok Governorate and the Municipality of Bogotá, two finalists from the 2019 UCLG Peace Prize, contribute to a culture of peace and how these initiatives are embedded in the local culture and traditions.
Both the Duhok Governorate as well as the Municipality of Bogotá contribute in their own innovative ways to local peace.
Duhok
Duhok, a governorate within the Kurdistan region of Iraq, welcomed a huge influx of refugees and provided a safe haven to them with equal treatment and equal access to municipal and health facilities. In order to implement their initiative, Duhok set up the Board of Relief and Humanitarian Affairs (BRHA) at the beginning of the crisis, which coordinated the humanitarian aid provided. Including the refugees and internally displaced persons, Duhok has now reached around 2 million inhabitants with many different religious backgrounds, and these groups are living together in peace .
Bogotá
The city of Bogotá has suffered under the long lasting conflicts in Colombia, and the city is home to victims and perpetrators on both sides. Now, Bogotá tries to become a symbol of the quest for peace in collaboration with civil society. They started the Shared Commemorations initiative as a remembrance platform and to promote processes of meeting, dialogue, collective recognition and deconstruction of stories between victims from both sides of the Colombian civil war. Shared Commemorations does this by means of cultural and artistic activities.
To watch the video for the Geneva Peace Week 2020 click below:
