Armed operations have recently increased around the contested city of Mosul, as well as in Sinjar and Makhmur, putting civilian populations in the area at risk. In this context, Geneva Call and the Middle East Research Institute co-organized an awareness raising session for 22 high-ranking Peshmerga commanders from different parts of the front. This training event followed on from a first meeting with Peshmerga forces that took place in March.[...]

Visit to the Sinjar region

Geneva Call’s team recently managed to get access to the Sinjar area and started discussions with a leader of the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS). This armed non-State actor was created in 2007 to protect the Yezidi community. Discussions also started with Yezidi Peshmerga Forces. [...]

As part of its continuing strategy to spread knowledge of humanitarian norms among Lebanon’s civil society, Geneva Call recently held 2 two-day workshops on humanitarian norms in Tripoli: one for 23 male preachers and religious scholars from Tripoli and the north of Lebanon (16 and 17 April), and one for 23 female religious education teachers from public schools (23 and 24 April). These workshops were organized in cooperation with Dar al-Fatwa – Lebanon’s State Sunni authority – and Mufti Malek Shaar, of Tripoli.¨

“I hope this workshop will help achieve the protection of the human being and the respect of their dignity,” said one participant after the session. Although there is no active fighting in Lebanon at the moment, tensions between communities are high, exacerbated by the armed conflict in neighbouring Syria and regularly reported acts of sectarian violence. [...]