Between 28 September and 1 October the Director of the Åland Islands Peace Institute, Professor Kjell-Åke Nordquist, will participate in an international conference on mediation and culture of peace to be held in Bogotá, Colombia. The conference considers the issues of mediation and reconciliation at both the international and individual level. Kjell-Åke will hold a keynote speech on the theme of restorative justice and national reconciliation following internal conflict (Justicia restaurativa y reconciliación nacional a raíz de un conflicto interno). Other speakers include Professor John Paul Lederach and Associate Professor Manuel Ernesto Salamanca.

The conference is held at an important stage of the Colombian history. After decades of strife, and four years of negotiation, the peace agreement between the Marxist guerrilla movement Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and the Colombian Government was signed on September 26.

The peace agreement will address, among others, questions about the rebels' future political participation, land reform with a focus on economic and social development of rural areas, the regulation of the cultivation and trafficking of narcotics, disarmament of the rebels and compensation for victims of the conflict as well as the legal treatment of offenders. A referendum on the peace agreement remains to be held, and evidently there are still many issues to be resolved. In order to build a peaceful society after conflict many processes remain - processes where mediation and reconciliation can be important tools.

Link to Nyhetsbrev / Newsletter 3/2016

Download Newsletter in pdf / Ladda ner nyhetsbrevet i pdf

INNEHÅLL

• Böcker i fredsinstitutets bibliotek kan nu lånas hem
• Fredsinstitutet söker en ekonom och en medlingsansvarig
• Praktikansökningar för våren 2017 tas nu emot
• Lunchseminarium om medling och restorativ rättvisa
• Andrea Södergård är ny praktikant på institutet

CONTENT

• The Peace Institute's library is now open for the public
• We are looking for a Financial Officer and a Mediation Officer
• Call for applications for internships for spring term of 2017
• Lunch seminar on Mediation and Restorative Justice on Tuesday
• Andrea Södergård is a new intern at the Institute

The Åland Islands Peace Institute offers an opportunity for one or two trainees to experience a dynamic and flexible internship during the spring semester of 2017. Send your application by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. no later than the 16th of October 2016.

We are looking for applicants interested in issues concerning peace, security, minorities and autonomy. The work assignments include arrangements of seminars, information dissemination and website development. Thus suitable fields of study background are i.a. social, legal or political sciences but also IT, communication and information management

The working languages at the Institute are Swedish and English. Knowledge of Finnish and other languages are seen as meritorious. To be eligible for an internship at the ÅIPI you should have completed at least one year of university studies. Priority will be given to applicants who not yet holds a Master’s degree. The internship period can last from two to five months. The first internship period begins in mid-January or according to agreement.

The Åland Islands Peace Institute's library, that has previously operated as a reference library only, has now opened for the public to borrow books and other literature. In the library and archive we hold material on peace and conflict issues, minorities, autonomy, security, gender, human rights, and the Åland Islands and their unique status.

The library of the Peace institute is connected to the Åland library catalogue, bibliotek.ax, which allows you to search in that database, borrow at the Peace Institute with an Åland library card and return your loans to any library on Åland.

The part time librarian John Knight is at the Institute every Tuesday from 3.15 to 5 pm. At other times, John is available on the phone number,  +358 (0)457 342 0778, or by e-mail, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. You may also call other staff at the Institute, at +358(0)1815570, to arrange a time when books can be borrowed or read on site.

The Åland Islands Peace Institute is currently looking for two new people to our team. We are recruiting a Financial Officer and a Mediation Officer. Read more in Swedish here.

On 20 September the Åland Islands Peace Institute will hold a lunch seminar on the theme of mediation and restorative justice. Lecturers Malin Söderberg and Justina Donielaite will talk about experiences of mediation within the local Åland Mediation Office, which started ten years ago. They will be joined by volontary mediators, active in providing mediation services on Åland. The lecture will cover theory an practise of restorative justice and lessons learned from 10 years of mediation activities on Åland. The seminar will be held in Swedish at the Hotell Arkipelag Restaurant at 11.30.

Andrea will be an intern at the ÅIPI until the middle of December. During the internship Andrea focuses mainly on the information dissemination of the institute and the organisation of seminars. She will also participate in developing the webpage. Andrea studies International Public Law and Communication & Journalism at Åbo Akademi University in Turku. Next spring, she is planning to finish her studies and write her master thesis about sexual minorities as refugees. With a background as a journalist Andrea is looking forward to learn more about the tasks of the Information Officer and get an insight into the research of the Institute.​

Yannick Poullie, former junior researcher in the project ”Demilitarisation in an increasingly militarised world”, has published the results of his research in an article entitled “Åland’s demilitarisation and neutralisation at the end of the Cold War: Parliamentary discussions in Åland and Finland 1988-1995”. The article is published in the International Journal on Minority and Group Rights Vol. 23, Issue 2 (2016) 179-2010.

Poullie’s abstract explains the thrust of the argument: As a region that is simultaneously demilitarised, neutralised and autonomous, the Åland Islands represent a unique and long-established case in international law. However, this status was never independent of surrounding events. The early 1990s saw both the end of the Cold War and Finland’s accession to the European Union. This paper offers an analysis of the discussion regarding Åland’s demilitarised and neutral­ised status among both Finnish and Ålandic legislators during this period. It finds that Finnish policy-makers saw little need to discuss the matter. Åland’s officials continu­ously criticised the Finnish Defence Forces’ presence in the region as excessive and proved unwilling to let the issue rest. Against formal obstacles, they established them­selves as a relevant actor, facilitated by differing approaches of political, diplomatic and military officials in Finland. Other sovereign states showed only limited interest in the discussion, making it a domestic one for the most part.

While the project is not entitled to publish electronically the article in full text, anyone interested in the text can contact the research project leader, Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark, at sia[at]peace.ax with a request.

The article is the first internationally published result of the research project “Demilitarisation in an Increasingly Militarised World. International perspectives in a multilevel framework – the case of the Åland Islands”. The project is a cooperation between researchers at the Åland Islands Peace Institute and the Arctic Center (University of Lapland, Rovaniemi). Research is supported by the Kone foundation and the Åland Culture Foundation (Ålands kulturstiftelse).

Yannick Poullie has previously on the same theme published the blog piece Åland’s demilitarisation and neutralisation at the end of the Cold War, 1988–1995.

Yannick Poullie is now continuing his career as a doctoral candidate in Germany.

On 16 June, the ÅIPI will arrange a lunch seminar on the national peace process in Burma Myanmar with Professor Kjell-Åke Nordquist. The seminar will be held in Swedish at Hotell Arkipelag in Mariehamn at 11.30. Lunch can be purchased in the restaurant and taken to the workshop to be held at the secluded southern end of the restaurant. The seminar starts at 11.30 and lasts one hour.

Kjell-Åke Nordquist is the Director of the Åland Islands Peace Institute, and has been working in the fields of autonomy and conflict resolution both as a researcher and a practitioner, and has been a member of the Board as well as the Research Council of the Åland Islands Peace Institute since its start. As a practitioner he has been working with peace processes mainly in Colombia, the Middle East, and South East Asia (Timor-Leste, Burma).

In Burma/Myanmar, various parts of the phased negotiation process that will lead to a national peace accord, is currently under planning. Since autumn 2015 there is a ceasefire, signed by several armed ethnic armies and the government. The forms of political and broad completion of the different civil wars, that have occurred in the country since the 1960s, is still subject to negotiations. One of the major issues is how to implement self-government structures within the federal system of Burma/Myanmar.

On May 25-26 Åland was visited by the working group of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova and Gagauzia people’s assembly. The Gagauz-Yeri autonomous region, was established in southern Moldova in the 1990’s to safeguard the rights of the Gagauz minority. The study visit to Åland was arranged by CMI, with financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden. CMI works to facilitate informal and official dialogue processes between the Parliament of Moldova and Gagauzia’s People’s Assembly to improve mechanisms of center-autonomy relations.

While on Åland, the group had several meetings with officials and politicians. The Åland Islands Peace Institute arranged a round table discussion for the visitors, moderated by the Director, Professor Kjell-Åke Nordquist and including the Chair of the Board, Ms Barbro Sundback, the Head of Research, Associate Professor Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark, researcher Saila Heinikoski and Information Officer Susann Simolin.

In the report ”Conflict Regulation through Self-Rule: Success factors for Territorial Autonomy Systems” published in the Åland Islands Peace Institute's report series in 2015, Felix Schulte has used the Gagauz autonomy as one of the case studies. The report can be found here.