On October 25th 1992, the Åland Peace Association established the foundation the Åland Islands Peace institute. Exactly 20 years later, on the 25th of October 2012 the ÅIPI presented a report about the process that led to the establishment of the Institute. The report in Swedish was published as no 2/2012 in the report series Rapport från Ålands fredsinstitut – Report from the Åland Islands Peace Institute. The report has now been published in English as no 1/2013 and can be downloaded in pdf here.
The report, written by Martha Hannus, describes how the process was characterized by different visions of what civil society should do, on what peace actually is and could be, and on the specific relationship between Åland and mainland Finland. It is also an example of successful civil society advocacy, and an example of how a minority’s perception of itself can change over time.
Bibliographical information and the report for downloading in both languages can be found here.
A blog piece on the report can be found in Swedish and English here.
