#actionsofoureveryday
This blog is written by scholars and activists committed to positive social change, and to the transformation of violence towards ends that are more just, dignified and humane. Contributions are welcome, as in the joining of intellectual and vocational forces, we have greater power to realise the changes the world most needs.
In the looking glass
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human...
One View of the US Election from North Carolina: Better Things to Come by Eric G. Berman
Image credit: Rachel Berman Eric G. Berman has worked for the United Nations and the Small Arms Survey on arms control as well as peace and security issues, with a focus on Africa. He is currently working on a study on Boko Haram and peacekeeping efforts in the Lake...
Why and how we can think about the situation of young Yemeni by Michèle Ndedi Batchandji
Photo Credit: Jakob Rubner Michèle Ndedi Batchandji is a 2019 graduate from IHEID in Geneva with a Master in Development Studies; her thesis was on ‘Access to Education for orphans in Yemen’. Michèle has worked at NORRAG in the SDC backstopping Team and is now a...
Vegetarian by Sonali Wanigabaduge
Sonali Wanigabaduge is a lawyer and media professional from Sri Lanka. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Transitional Justice, Human Rights and the Rule of Law, at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, and writes in her...
The Transformative Potential of Art by Anna Blanck
Photo credit: @mana5280 Anna Blanck is a young professional with an MSc in Development from SOAS, and a BFA in Painting from KCAI. She is interested in exploring the relationship of art and development. twitter: https://twitter.com/anna__blanck...
Looking deeply and listening softly
Illustration credit: Kathryn Gichini Being changed forever can happen unexpectedly. Rwanda, 27 June 2009: My task at the Mutobo demobilization centre that day was complex, but (I had expected) achievable. I was to interview former members of a rebel force that had...
What do we do with our next breath?
Photo credit : Adam Wilson Before reading any further, please watch this 9 minute video documenting the killing of George Floyd on 25 May 2020. George Floyd’s supplication is simple and soul-ravaging in its clarity: “I can’t breathe… please.” His life is taken before...
What does it mean to build trust in our communities during the covid19 crisis?
Photo credit: Nina Strehl Annika Erickson-Pearson is the Community and Communications Coordinator at the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform. She is finishing her Master's in Development Studies at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, and focuses her work on urban conflict and...
Belonging to each other
Photo courtesy Miriam Nabarro, London ‘We belong to each other’: these old words of wisdom remind us to care for and to hold sacred all that unites us, all that binds us together. Acknowledgement of our intimate and inescapable human connection—long forgotten,...
Feeling where it hurts
Ruby Sales, civil rights-era luminary and leading theologian, once asked a young sex worker who was battling out her daily survival on the margins of segregation-era America: ‘Where does it hurt?’. Into gently listening ears, the young woman’s story flooded forth: a...
The Myth of International Protection
War and Survival in Congo