{"id":2523,"date":"2017-06-10T14:02:53","date_gmt":"2017-06-10T18:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/unstudies\/?p=2523"},"modified":"2017-06-21T06:53:29","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T10:53:29","slug":"2523","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/unstudies\/2017\/06\/10\/2523\/","title":{"rendered":"The UN Formalizes Its Partnership With Sant\u2019Egidio, the Rome-Based Mediator"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is re-posted from this original\u00a0source<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The United Nations has formalized its relationship with the\u00a0Community of Sant\u2019Egidio<\/span><\/a>, the highly regarded Catholic membership organization based in Rome that has been focusing on conflict prevention and resolution, primarily in Africa, for 30 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

A community of 60,000 laypeople founded in 1968, Sant\u2019Egidio has been working with the UN on mediation prospects in hot spots for decades, but this move, enacted through a memorandum of understanding, reflects a deeper alliance that ties into the UN\u2019s recognition that it cannot prevent conflicts and keep the peace in post-conflict settings on its own.<\/span><\/p>\n

Working more officially with Sant\u2019Egidio represents a rare step by the UN in forging partnerships with civil-society groups and regional organizations to end longstanding disputes and fighting in nations.<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Department of Political Affairs<\/span><\/a>, the main organ in the UN Secretariat providing mediation and other expertise in detecting and defusing conflicts, has been working with Sant\u2019Egidio since its first success, brokering peace in the Mozambique civil war in 1992.<\/span><\/p>\n

The agreement with Sant\u2019Egidio was announced at the Italian mission to the UN on June 9, with Jeffrey Feltman, who runs the Department of Political Affairs, and Marco Impagliazzo, a professor and the president of Sant\u2019Egidio, making remarks to the media.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor us it\u2019s a very turning point, this agreement today,\u201d Impagliazzo said. Sant\u2019Egidio\u2019s formalized relationship with the UN, which involves no exchange of money, will provide a \u201ccentralized and more regular channel of communication\u201d between the two organizations, he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Impagliazzo, who teaches at the University for Foreigners, Perugia, will be speaking to the UN Security Council on June 12 about the Central African Republic. The UN has a peacekeeping mission there and Sant\u2019Egidio has been negotiating with armed militias there for years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sant\u2019Egidio is run by volunteers from 73 countries, who immerse themselves discreetly in conflict zones or areas where tensions are brewing to try to coax warring parties toward peace. The volunteers work independently \u2014 as neutral, confidential go-betweens \u2014 concentrating mostly in poor countries in Africa and dealing with people \u201cwho know war,\u201d Impagliazzo said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Or as Feltman said, Sant\u2019Egidio\u2019s success is persuading armed militias \u2014 \u201csome of the most hard-to-reach parties\u201d \u2014 to sit at negotiating tables.<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides the Central African Republic, Sant\u2019Egidio currently operates in the Casamance region of southern Senegal, South Sudan and Libya. In the past, volunteers have worked in Bosnia, Guatemala, Algeria, the Darfur region of Sudan and elsewhere. The organization\u00a0is also involved with the Italian government to establish humanitarian corridors for refugees and migrants flowing from Syria and the Horn of Africa region to Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a sign of Sant\u2019Egidio\u2019s enhanced visibility, some members met with Ivanka Trump during her trip to Rome with her father, President Trump, in late May. The meeting, arranged with the US embassy in Rome and the Holy See, was held behind closed doors, where Ivanka Trump listened to women who had been trafficked and who are now assisted by Sant\u2019Egidio to help them regain their lives, said Mauro Garofalo, who attended the meeting in Rome.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ivanka Trump, he said, heard the small group of women, mostly from Benin City in Nigeria and Eastern Europe, tell their stories in a gathering that was meant to last a half hour but went on for 90 minutes. Garofalo said he has followed up with meetings in Washington, D.C., at the US State Department and USAID on the global human-trafficking problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the Italian mission, Feltman particularly praised the Italian ambassador, Sebastiano Cardi, who helped the UN agreement come to fruition. Italy is an elected member of the UN Security Council through December.<\/span><\/p>\n

Impagliazzo noted progress made by Sant\u2019Egidio in the Central African Republic, despite constant news of deadly flare-ups in some cities in the last few months, as Muslim and Christian militias rage.\u00a0All 14 militias in the country, he said, are about to convene at the negotiating table.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sant\u2019Egidio, it appears, has an \u201cadvantage of being in Rome,\u201d he said: everyone is happy to meet there.<\/span><\/p>\n

by\u00a0Dulcie Leimbach<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2022\u00a0June 9, 2017\u00a0\u2022\u00a0Africa<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0GOINGS-ON<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Human Trafficking<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0International Justice<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Libya<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Migration<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Peace and Security<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/b><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article is re-posted from this original\u00a0source. The United Nations has formalized its relationship with the\u00a0Community of Sant\u2019Egidio, the highly regarded Catholic membership organization based…<\/p>\n

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