Black Sea Peacebuilding Platform initiative brings together conflict resolution experts in Bucharest

1 November 2009

On 28 – 31 October 2009, civil society conflict resolution experts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine (including Nagorno-Karabakh and Transdniestria) met at UN House and at the Radisson Hotel in Bucharest.  The 25 regional conflict experts met to discuss the initiative to build a permanent standing Black Sea Peacebuilding Platform.

This Platform will provide an inclusive, transparent, democratically governed and regionally-owned civil society platform for improved collaboration, cooperation and sharing of expertise.  The Platform is an independent, regionally-owned and regionally-based initiative developed by expert organisations and institutions across the Black Sea Region. The aim of the Platform is to strengthen effective capacities for conflict transformation, violence prevention and peacebuilding locally, nationally and regionally in the Black Sea Region.

The participants of the workshops in Bucharest on 28 – 31 October 2009 agreed to continue the development of the Black Sea Peacebuilding Platform by creating a regional web-portal and expert working groups.  National Civil Society Round Tables on conflict and peacebuilding issues will be held in Chisinau, Yerevan and Tbilisi in 2009 and in other capitals of the region in 2010.

The initiative to build a Black Sea Peacebuilding Platform has previously held meetings in Cluj-Napoca, Brussels, Kyiv and Bucharest.

For more information please contact:

Denis Matveev +40 741 610 170 (English, Russian)

Corina Simon +40 742 989 398 (Romanian, English)

***

Editors Note: The initiative to build a Black Sea Peacebuilding Platform was created in November 2008.  Its development since then has been driven by professional civil society organisations specialising in peacebuilding, conflict resolution and violence prevention from the Black Sea region.  Organisations from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine (including Crimea, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transdniestria) have so far taken part in this initiative.  The initiative aims to broaden its base to include representatives from Bulgaria as well as from the conflict zones of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.