Restart Initiative has welcomed Confidence Building Measures Recommendations by the Joint Armenian-Azerbaijani Liaison Group.
Restart Initiative is a non-profit organisations with the mission of building connections for economic and social development in Azerbaijan and the South Caucasus. A statement published on their website earlier today addressed the recent report issued by The Joint Armenian-Azerbaijani Liaison Group on confidence-building measures in support of lasting peace in the South Caucasus.
On the eve of the 6 April meeting between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the president of the European Union, the Liaison Group published “The South Caucasus from war to peace: 30 measures between now and 2030", a list of 30 short, medium and long term Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) aimed at supporting the ongoing peace process in the region. The group says that the proposed measures are a building block in the quest for peace but if the ideas being proposed are implemented the objective of building a peaceful, secure and prosperous South Caucasus will be much closer to being achieved. According to the group, “all the ingredients for peace exist in the South Caucasus. All the ingredients for war exist too. What is in front of us is a choice". The report was financed by the European Union’s EU4Peace project.
Restart Initiative said that it “welcomes the report and stands ready to support future initiatives emerging from it”, adding that it commends the group for their efforts. It summaries the key findings, conclusions and recommendations, including the breakdown of the CBMs into five categories: (a) in the field of diplomacy, politics, policy, security and geo-politics; (b) in the border areas and within the communities directly affected by the conflict and through broader people to people contacts; (c) in the field of connectivity and economic activity; (d) in education and work with young people; and (e) in public spaces such as media, social media and public platforms, and on heritage, humanitarian and human rights issues.
In particular, it highlights the importance placed by the Liaison Group on the inclusivity of women, youth and displaced communities, saying they should be placed “front and center”. Restart Initiative supports “the importance of increasing women’s inclusion in the leadership of initiatives and steering groups such as the Liaison Group”.
It concludes by echoing the authors’ call for a comprehensive and multilayered approach to peacebuilding, and recommends that people read the full paper.
You can read the full report from Liaison Group here, and Restart Initiative’s reaction to it here.