#SeeTheHuman

What is it really like to be amidst conflict and to work for peace?
Most of us have seen the headlines, but not many of us know what war is like in reality. In the chaos of violence and conflict, it’s easy to lose sight of the individuals involved.
Through Conciliation Resources’ new #SeeTheHuman event series, you will hear the real life experiences of those who have been on the front lines and who have managed to bring people together across divides to create peace.
At our second event, we were delighted to be in conversation with…
Betty Bigombe
Betty is an internationally recognised, award-winning expert in conflict resolution, armed conflict mediation, and post-conflict peacemaking and rehabilitation. Betty has initiated programmes that promote peace and reconciliation in war zones, refugee camps, and violent conflicts. Betty has been on the team mediating in the South Sudan conflict between the government and the non-signatory groups, and has initiated peace talks in the northern Uganda conflict that had lasted more than twenty years. Through United Nations Women, Betty was invited to Colombia to prepare Colombian women to participate in the peace talks in Havana, Cuba. She is a member of Women Mediators Across the Commonwealth network, has served as a Commissioner for the Women’s Refugee Commission and led election observer missions in Zimbabwe and Rwanda.
Janine di Giovanni
Janine is an author, journalist, war correspondent, and a Senior Fellow and Professor at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. Janine was a war reporter for nearly three decades, from the first Palestinian intifada in the early 1990s to the siege of Sarajevo; the Rwandan genocide; the brutal wars in Sierra Leone, Somalia, Ivory Coast and Liberia to Chechnya, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. She reported extensively in Iraq pre- and post-invasion, the Arab Spring and finally Syria. Janine writes long format reportage, mainly about war and the politics of conflict. She was awarded a 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship, and is also a public speaker and a foreign policy analyst. In 2020, the American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded her their highest non fiction prize, the Blake Dodd. She directed a UN Democracy Fund project on Transitional Justice in Iraq, Syria and Yemen and is the author of more than nine books, all about conflict and post-conflict.
The event was hosted by Jonathan Cohen, Executive Director of Conciliation Resources. Jonathan joined Conciliation Resources in 1997 and developed work in the South Caucasus. Becoming Director of Programmes in September 2008, he supported peacebuilding and dialogue initiatives in the South Caucasus, Colombia, West Africa, East and Central Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Philippines, Fiji and Kashmir. In 2018 Jonathan became Chair of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office, and is also an associate of the Imperial War Museum’s Institute for the Public Understanding of War and Conflict.