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African states and regional organizations have increasingly turned to new forms of African-led security arrangements that differ in mandate, composition, and structure from African Union (AU)–led peace support operations. These ad hoc security initiatives (ASIs) and enterprise security arrangements (ESAs) have provided flexible and rapid responses to complex security threats. However, they are heavily militarized and poorly aligned with evolving frameworks for the protection of civilians (POC).  

This issue brief examines how ASIs and ESAs, while offering speed and adaptability, often lack civilian components, rely on external support, and do not consistently draw on a coherent normative framework for POC. As a result, protection frequently becomes secondary to counterinsurgency objectives, creating logistical weaknesses, alienating local populations, and reinforcing perceptions that protection is transactional or secondary to other interests. The brief highlights emerging practices—such as Rwanda’s deployment in Mozambique and the Multinational Joint Task Force’s Civil-Military Cooperation Cell—that suggest the potential for more protection-conscious approaches, though these remain uneven and underdeveloped.  

The brief concludes that ASIs and ESAs are likely to remain features of Africa’s security landscape, but their effectiveness will remain limited unless they systematically integrate AU and UN POC frameworks. Stronger pre-deployment planning, the inclusion of AU civilian cells in the field, and alignment with broader political strategies are essential to ensure that these mechanisms contribute not only to counterinsurgency but also to the protection of civilians. 

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The post The Role of Ad Hoc Security Initiatives and Enterprise Security Arrangements in the Protection of Civilians in Africa appeared first on International Peace Institute.

With UN peacekeepers increasingly deployed in areas experiencing local-level conflicts that do not involve state forces, responding to communal violence has become an acute challenge for missions. Such contexts require peace operations to adopt a dialogue-based approach to the protection of civilians (POC), focused specifically on local political solutions. 

This issue brief examines the engagement of the UN mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) in the town of Batangafo, where communal violence between Christian and Muslim communities has been pervasive. It highlights how MINUSCA’s dialogue-based engagement helped reduce violence and strengthen local peace agreements. It identifies four lessons: 

• Protecting civilians in the context of communal conflict requires political solutions—not just military ones.
• Continuous and proactive dialogue helps to prevent escalation and reinforce peace agreements. 
• Economic incentives can be leveraged to encourage armed groups to commit to peace. 
• Sustainable protection depends on aligning local and national peace processes. 

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The post Political Solutions to Political Problems: UN Peacekeeping Operations and Dialogue-Based Protection of Civilians in Communal Conflicts appeared first on International Peace Institute.

UN peacekeeping missions are often criticized for failing to act when civilians are under threat. Yet recent empirical evidence suggests that peacekeepers can and do respond to violence by adjusting where and how they deploy forces in the field. This issue brief examines patterns of subnational deployment across African missions from 2012 to 2022, focusing on whether and how missions with protection of civilians (POC) mandates adjust their military presence in response to attacks on civilians. The findings indicate that peacekeeping missions are more likely to strengthen their presence in areas experiencing recent violence—especially violence perpetrated by non-state armed groups—but also respond to state-led violence, albeit less consistently. This responsiveness highlights the operational flexibility some missions can exercise and challenges the assumption that host-state consent fully constrains the implementation of POC mandates. The brief also underscores the need to assess peacekeepers’ behavior not only in terms of mandate design but also in terms of how missions adapt on the ground. 

The brief concludes with important considerations for peacekeeping stakeholders committed to POC: 

• Missions are often actively protecting civilians, with operational flexibility as a key ingredient.
• Host-state consent can constrain action, but missions can still act decisively; sustaining political consensus on POC is crucial. 
• Mandates and planning frameworks must allow dynamic deployments so missions can adapt to evolving threats. 

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The post Being Present Where It Counts: Peacekeeping Responsiveness to Violence against Civilians appeared first on International Peace Institute.

Csaknem százra nőtt a palesztin halálos áldozatok száma a Gázaváros elleni izraeli hadműveletnek annak második napján - közölte szerdán a Hamász felügyelete alatt álló gázai egészségügyi minisztérium.

2016 trifft Thomas Rüfenacht mit dem SC Bern im Final auf den HC Lugano. Im zweiten Spiel gelingt der SCB-Legende das entscheidende Tor. Danach ist die Hölle los.

Folge 25 im Podcast «SCHLIIFTS?» – zu Gast bei Dino Kessler und Raphael Walser ist SCB-Legende Thomas Rüfenacht. Er spricht über sein kaputtes Knie. «Vielleicht gebe ich noch mein Comeback», scherzt er.

Im Eishockey-Podcast «SCHLIIFTS?» gibts was zu gewinnen: Sechs Tickets für die SCB-Fanbank für die Partie Bern gegen Fribourg am 30. September – inklusive Konsumationsgutschein! Jetzt reinhören, mitspielen und gewinnen.

2019 verliert Thomas Rüfenacht seinen Vater. Die SCB-Legende blickt im Podcast «SCHLIIFTS?» an die traurige Zeit zurück.

Nach einer Nacht-und-Nebel-Aktion kommt es für Thomas Rüfenacht zum Probetraining bei Ambri. Und dort kommt es für ihn zu einem schmerzhaften Zusammenprall.

‎ Le Programme des Nations unies pour le développement (PNUD), en partenariat avec les gouvernements du Bénin, du Burkina Faso, de la Côte d'Ivoire, du Ghana et du Togo, organise à Cotonou un Dialogue régional sur les architectures de paix, les 18 et 19 septembre 2025.
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‎La rencontre de Cotonou représente une étape clé pour « renforcer la paix, la stabilité et la résilience » , « face à la montée des menaces transnationales dans le Golfe de Guinée », selon un communiqué du PNUD.
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‎Les chiffres donnent la mesure des défis. Selon l'Indice mondial du terrorisme 2025, le Sahel a concentré 51 % des décès dus au terrorisme en 2024, soit deux fois plus qu'en 2019. À cela s'ajoutent plus de 4,3 millions de personnes déplacées de force, des tensions socio-économiques croissantes, la pauvreté, le chômage des jeunes et les inégalités.
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‎Pour le Golfe de Guinée, les menaces s'accumulent : expansion des groupes extrémistes depuis le Sahel, prolifération des marchés illicites, déplacements forcés et effets du changement climatique. Ces dynamiques fragilisent les communautés locales et mettent à l'épreuve les mécanismes nationaux de paix, « souvent isolés et sous-financés », note encore le communiqué.
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‎Responsables gouvernementaux, experts régionaux, universitaires, représentants de la société civile, leaders communautaires et religieux, ainsi que des groupes de femmes et de jeunes prendront part aux échanges. Le dialogue vise à « promouvoir l'engagement (…) à collaborer dans le sens d'une réponse collective et intégrée pour prévenir les conflits et renforcer la stabilité régionale ».
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‎Ce dialogue s'inscrit dans le cadre de la Facilité de prévention pour le Golfe de Guinée, soutenue par le PNUD et des partenaires tels que le Japon, le Danemark, le Luxembourg et la Corée du Sud. L'initiative vise à renforcer les réponses régionales aux défis de l'extrémisme violent, de la criminalité transnationale organisée, de la piraterie maritime et des trafics illicites.
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‎Vers une feuille de route commune
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‎Au terme des deux jours de travaux, les participants devront aboutir à une compréhension partagée des défis, à des recommandations concrètes pour améliorer les mécanismes d'alerte précoce et à « un projet de feuille de route régionale pour la paix durable et le développement en Afrique de l'Ouest ».
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Die russisch-nordkoreanische Zusammenarbeit entpuppt sich zunehmend als ungleiche Partnerschaft. Trotz umfangreicher Waffenlieferungen erhält Pjöngjang wenig Gegenleistungen von Moskau. Experten sehen Kim Jong Un als Verlierer des Bündnisses.

In today's edition: Anti-vax MEP, EU-India ties, clinical trials

Oktatásügyi törvényjavaslatokat vitat meg csütörtökön a parlament. Drucker összesen hét törvénytervezetet terjeszt elő.

MADRID — L’ancien chef de la diplomatie de l’UE, Josep Borrell, a qualifié les sanctions proposées par la Commission européenne contre Israël de « plaisanterie ». Interrogé à ce sujet mercredi 17 septembre sur la chaîne publique espagnole RTVE, il a estimé que ces mesures arrivaient « avec 40 000 morts de retard ».

The post Josep Borrell qualifie les sanctions proposées par l’UE contre Israël de « plaisanterie » appeared first on Euractiv FR.

Szerdán este második olvasatba utalta a parlament a konszolidációs csomagot. Az ellenzéki képviselők az intézkedések ellen tiltakozva a szavazás előtt kivonultak az ülésteremből.

The opening session of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, 4 September 1995. UN Photo/Milton Grant. The UN marks 30 years since its members adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

By S. Mona Sinha
NEW YORK, Sep 18 2025 (IPS)

On Monday, three decades on from the historic Fourth World Conference on Women, the General Assembly meets to discuss recommitting to, resourcing, and accelerating the implementation of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action – an historic agreement which mapped the path to achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.

This is a critical moment because, despite the considerable progress that’s been made, it is a sobering fact that not a single country has yet fully delivered against those aims. And with reactionary attitudes increasingly to the fore, many of these hard-won gains are, alarmingly, under threat of reversal.

Even where the heart is willing, the slow pace or absence of change is more often than not put down to budgetary or political barriers. Gender equality is important, just not important enough. We have other problems to fix. We’ll get back to it.

But this is incredibly short-sighted.

While achieving gender equality is first and foremost a matter of human rights, it is also one of the surest ways to help address those other problems, leading to more prosperous economies, more resilient communities, and more sustainable, peaceful societies.

This is not just a matter of opinion. The evidence is clear.

Closing gender gaps in education, employment and pay would unleash an unprecedented wave of productivity. In 2015, McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) estimated that equal participation of women in the workforce could add up to $12 trillion to global GDP within 10 years.

That’s more than the economies of Japan, Germany and the UK combined and would have already been achieved if we had acted on it in 2015.

The logic is simple: excluding half of the population from opportunities to explore and achieve their full potential is an extraordinary waste. When women are able to contribute equally, innovation flourishes, productivity rises and household incomes grow. Far from being a drag on resources, equality is a growth multiplier.

Moreover, women’s earnings are more likely to be invested in children’s health, nutrition, and education, breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty. And in agriculture, where women make up nearly half the global workforce, the FAO estimates equal access to resources could boost crop yields by up to 30% and reduce the number of hungry people by more than 100 million.

Perhaps for these reasons, research has shown that the treatment of women is one of the strongest predictors of whether a country is peaceful. Where women’s rights are respected, societies are more stable, less prone to conflict, and more open to cooperation.

Women’s participation in peace processes matters too. Agreements brokered with women at the table are more durable, more inclusive, and more likely to succeed. We have the proof of that as well.

And then there’s the environment. Women and girls, especially in developing countries, are disproportionately affected by climate change. But it’s also true that when included in decision-making, they bring difference-making knowledge and perspectives to the table.

Indeed, a 2019 study in Global Environmental Change showed that countries with more women in parliament adopt more ambitious climate policies and have lower carbon emissions.

Meanwhile, women-led community programmes in forestry and water management have consistently delivered stronger conservation outcomes. In other words, tackling the climate crisis is not only about technology and finance – it’s also about representation.

Taken together, it’s clear that equality drives prosperity, resilience, peace and sustainability. To deny women equal rights and opportunities is not simply unjust, it’s an act of societal self-sabotage.

At Equality Now, we lead the way in driving the legal and systemic change needed to realise this vision of a just and better world. Since our inception in 1992 we have worked with governments, legal bodies, civil society and other partners to help reform 130 discriminatory laws, improving the lives of millions of women and girls, their communities and nations, both now and for generations to come.

We were in Beijing in 1995, and we’ll be in New York this week – where to all in attendance our message is clear:

The world cannot afford to wait. Everyone needs equality now.

S. Mona Sinha is Global Executive Director, Equality Now

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The nominees for this year’s Prize will be presented by the political groups in a joint meeting of the Committees on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and on Development (DEVE) and the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) in Brussels on 23 September, 14:30-15:30. Each year, the Parliament awards the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to honour exceptional individuals and organisations defending human rights and fundamental freedoms.
In 2024, the Prize was awarded to María Corina Machado, leader of the democratic forces in Venezuela, and President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia.The AFET and DEVE Committees will vote on a shortlist of three finalists on 16 October and the Conference of Presidents will take a decision on the final laureate on 22 October.
Sakharov Prize - Presentation of the nominees - Webstreaming link
Sakharov Prize website
Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

On Monday, 22 September 2025 in room Spaak 3C50 (16:00-17:30), the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) will hold a public hearing on promoting an EU feminist foreign policy. This hearing brings together Margot Wallström, who launched the world's first feminist foreign policy in 2014 when she was Foreign Minister of Sweden, and Aude Maio-Coliche, the EU Ambassador for Equality, to discuss how an EU feminist foreign policy could take shape and what the EU is currently doing in this field.
A Feminist Foreign Policy is an approach that puts gender equality at the centre of foreign policy and highlights resources, representation and rights. The hearing aims to assess the current level of ambition and implementation of the EU's foreign policy as regards gender equality, and provide inspiration and concrete examples for continued work in this area.
Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

Des pilotes, des professionnels de santé, des enseignants et même un employé des services secrets font partie des personnes qui ont été suspendues ou licenciées pour avoir publié des messages sur les réseaux sociaux à propos du décès de Kirk.

The veteran Socialist politician has been one of the most outspoken European figures on the humanitarian cost of the Gaza war