Hiba Qasas at the GFDRR World Reconstruction Conference 4 Geneva, May 2019. (Credit: GFDRR)

🕊‘Peace is more than a political process’ The Principles for Peace initiative is looking to reshape the way the world approaches peacebuilding by developing new principles to make peace processes more inclusive and sustainable. The initiative's International Commission of experts have spent the past year consulting with local and national actors to better understand the needs of the people directly affected by conflict. They meet this week in Geneva to discuss their findings before continuing consultations until Spring 2022. Ahead of the meeting, Geneva Solutions spoke to the initiative’s secretariat Hiba Qasas to discuss its progress so far.

📈 Hope for carbon markets. Finalising the rulebook on carbon trading has emerged as that which could make or break this Cop26. Negotiators got further than ever before last week as they delved into some of the knitty gritty details of the infamous article 6, pulling out three final draft texts that will be bumped up to ministerial level talks this week.

‘I felt like a bird flying away, but her nest remains’. For the last 20 years, Afghan women activists have been the front-runners of justice for other women in the country. Women leaders have been forging a future where gender equality wouldn't be just a dream. But now these heroines have either been displaced to every corner of the world or are hiding in the homeland out of fear. Zarmina Kakar, a 26-year-old human rights activist and former spokeswoman of the Electoral Complaints Commission, recounts her escape from Afghanistan to London.

Girls return to high school in some regions of Afghanistan. Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan on 15 August, secondary schools for girls have remained closed in most provinces across the country, including the capital Kabul. But in some northern provinces like Balkh, Kunduz, and Sar-e-Pul local authorities have taken a different approach, and managed to keep girls in the classroom without attracting the ire of the Taliban.

📌 8 November - 3 December | 72nd session of the Committee Against Torture The Committee will examine reports of Sweden, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Lithuania, Serbia, and Bolivia at its 72nd session, taking place at the Palais Wilson.

📌 9 November | IPU: Disarmament, public health, and pandemics Co-organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, this webinar will examine parliamentary action on disarmament to support public health, peace, and economic sustainability in relation to pandemic prevention, management and mitigation.