International Alert

International Alert is an independent international peacebuilding organization, operating programs around the world to address conflict. Its mission is to build a more peaceful world by: working with people directly affected by conflict to find peaceful solutions; shaping policies and practices to support peace; and collaborating with those striving for peace. Alert accomplishes these goals through dialogue, training, research and policy analysis, advocacy and outreach activities.[1]

International Alert
AbbreviationAlert, IA
Formation1986 (1986)
TypeInternational Non-governmental Organization
PurposePeacebuilding, conflict prevention
HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
Location
Region
Global
Executive Director
Nic Hailey
Chairman
Carey Cavanaugh
AffiliationsIndependent
Staff
Approx. 250
Websitehttp://www.international-alert.org/

International Alert is headquartered in London, but also maintains a European office in The Hague.[2] This NGO maintains about 250 staff in nineteen countries. These experts work with over 800 partner organizations on projects to advance conflict resolution, support human rights, and build a more peaceful future. Alert’s main geographic areas of operation are Africa, Asia and the Middle East, but it is also supporting peace activities in Colombia, the Caucasus and Ukraine.[3]

Nic Hailey became executive director in 2021.[4] The chairman of Alert’s Board of Trustees is retired US ambassador Carey Cavanaugh, a former peace mediator.[5]

History

One of the first non-governmental organizations created with a specific focus on conflicts and their resolution, International Alert can be seen as a daughter of Amnesty International, indeed it involved the same combination of elites as founding members drawn from the political, legal and academic fields – and a similar formatting of expertise (fact-finding missions and reporting). It did not however, adopt Amnesty International's practice of denunciation, seeking instead to combine operational engagement with policy research. Alert's distinctive identity reflected its desire to provide a link between research and practice in dealing with armed conflicts on the one hand and human rights, humanitarianism, and development on the other.[6]

In 1985 the Standing International Forum on Ethnic Conflict, Development and Human Rights (SIFEC) was founded with the purpose of addressing the issue of conflict and to alert governments and the world to developing crises. The following year, SIFEC merged with the US organization International Alert on Genocide and Massacres to become International Alert (IA). Alert was founded in 1986 by Leo Kuper, Michael Young, Martin Ennals and Luis Kutner in response to growing frustration in the international development and human rights community that internal conflicts were impeding the ability to protect and provide for civilian populations and that there was no effective international mechanism to address this situation.[7][8][9] International Alert undertook to advance research on the causes of such conflict and to promote all means of conciliation and resolution, becoming an early advocate of multitrack diplomacy. From its first days, the conflict in Sri Lanka was a particular focus. Dutch jurist Theo van Boven was its first chairman; Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the former Archbishop of Cape Town served as Vice Chairman of its Board of Trustees, along with Mexican sociologist Rodolfo Stavenhagen.[10]

Leadership

Martin Ennals, the former Secretary General of Amnesty International and founder of Article 19, served as Secretary General of the new organization.[11] From 1986-1989, Ennals was International Alert’s only full-time staff member. He was joined by Andy Carl (later the founder of Conciliation Resources, who managed IA from 1992-1993 following Ennals’ death. Alert expanded rapidly in 1994-1998 under the leadership of Sri Lankan Kumar Rupesinghe, growing to over 50 staff with major programs in Sri Lanka, Burundi, and Sierra Leone.[12] Australian Kevin P. Clements served as General Secretary from 1998-2002. By 1998 Alert had a budget of approximately GB£5 million and 80 staff, managing programs in over 15 countries in conflict.

Dan Smith, now Secretary General of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute served as Secretary General from 2002-2015. From 2015-1019, Harriet Lamb, CEO of the United Kingdom Fairtrade Foundation for over a decade.[13] became International Alert’s CEO. Michael Young, formerly with the International Rescue Committee and Mercy Corps led the organization for the year following Lamb's departure.[14]

In September 2021, former British diplomat Nic Hailey became executive director of International Alert. In addition to serving in London as Africa Director and in the Foreign Secretary's Office, Hailey had diplomatic postings to Washington, DC, Paris, Berlin and Kabul, and served as British High Commissioner to Kenya. His final government position was Director General - Transformation, leading the merger of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development.

Board members

International Alert’s board of trustees is composed of the following members: Carey Cavanaugh, Richard Langstaff (Honorary Treasurer), Hans Bolscher, Emine Bozkurt, Nina Fallentin Caspersen, Chris Deri, Abir Haj Ibrahim, Lisa L. Rose, and Erin Segilia-Chase.[15] Cavanaugh became board chair in 2018.

Notable initiatives

Data mining for conflict prevention

International Alert was an early advocate for the development of conflict early warning systems.[16] Its work on gender and peacebuilding was important in establishing the necessity of incorporating gender relations and female stakeholders in conflict early warning systems.[16]

By the early 1990s, International Alert was using the HURIDOCS database in conjunction with early Internet conferencing systems, to enable it to keep abreast of and interact with "local and international nongovernmental organizations and international experts."[17] Through the mid-1990s, by applying a combination of manual and automated analysis in conjunction with such systems, researchers collaborating with International Alert performed early data mining research, demonstrating the viability of this approach for predicting conflict outcomes and encouraging the development of a website for the African Union's Continental Early Warning System (CEWS).[17]

Millennium Peace Prize for Women

In 2001, as part of International Alert's Women Building Peace campaign, the organisation collaborated with the United Nations Development Fund for Women awarded a Millennium Peace Prize for Women.[18]

Peacehack

In 2015 and 2016, International Alert organised a series of hackathons called Peacehack, exploring ways information technology might be used to reduce conflict by discouraging hate speech.[19][20]

Conflict Café

Conflict Café is designed to champion “peace through food.” First established in 2014 as Conflict Kitchen London, this annual program fosters increased public awareness and understanding of key conflict and peace issues. Each year a pop-up restaurant is set up in London which offers cuisine prepared by chefs from a specific conflict region – Syria, Armenia, Turkey, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Myanmar. For several nights, over these meals, the general public has an opportunity to meet with active peacebuilding practitioners and policymakers and learn firsthand about peoples affected by violent conflict.[21]

References
  1. "Annual Report 2017". International Alert. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
  2. 346 Clapham Road, SW9 9AP London, United Kingdom
  3. "Where we work". International Alert. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
  4. "Alert appoints Nic Hailey as new Executive Director".
  5. https://www.charitytoday.co.uk/international-alert-appoints-new-chair-and-board-members/
  6. See Sarah Dezalay "Lawyering War or talking peace? On militant usages of the law in the resolution of internal armed conflicts" in Yves Dezalay and Bryant Garth eds., Lawyers and the Construction of Transnational Justice, Taylor & Francis Group, 2011.
  7. Galchinsky, Michael (2008). Jews and Human Rights: Dancing at Three Weddings. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 99. ISBN 9780742552678.
  8. Charny, Israel (2013). "Chapter 11: Leo Kuper: A Giant Pioneer". In Totten, Samuel; Jacobs, Steven Leonard (eds.). Pioneers of Genocide Studies. Transaction Publishers. pp. 273, 280. ISBN 9781412849746.
  9. Kuper, Adam. "Obituary: Leo Kuper". The Independent. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  10. Van Boven was later appointed director of the United Nations' division for human rights (what became the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
  11. "Martin Ennals: A Giant Human Rights Defender". Martin Ennals Award. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013.
  12. NGOs in Conflict: An Evaluation of International Alert (1997) https://issuu.com/cmi-norway/docs/1180-ngos-in-conflict-an-evaluation-of-internation
  13. "Harriet Lamb becomes first woman to be made Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall". Fairtrade Foundation. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
  14. "International Alert appoints Michael Young as new Chief Executive Officer". International Alert. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
  15. "Governance".
  16. Nyheim, David (2009). Deutscher, Eckhard (ed.). Conflict and Fragility: Preventing Violence, War and State Collapse (PDF). OECD. pp. 28, 30. ISBN 978-92-64-05980-1.
  17. Alker, Hayward R.; Schmalberger, Thomas (2001). "Chapter 2: The Double Design of the CEWS Project". In Alker, Hayward R.; Gurr, Ted Robert; Rupesinghe, Kumar (eds.). Journeys Through Conflict: Narratives and Lessons. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780742510289.
  18. "UNIFEM - Millennium Peace Prize for Women - 2001 Peace Prize Recipients". United Nations Development Fund for Women. 2001. Archived from the original on 8 February 2002. Retrieved 5 November 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  19. Akl, Aida (21 October 2016). "Hate Speech Plugin Gives Internet Trolls a Chance to Pause". Techtonics. Voice of America. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
  20. McDonald, Clare (2015). "Worldwide #peacehack hackathons use technology to promote peace". Computer Weekly. TechTarget. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
  21. "Conflict Cafe: How food can be used to break down barriers". 2 September 2015.

Geographic data related to International Alert at OpenStreetMap

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