More than a hundred of the world’s most prominent conflict mediators, high-level decision-makers and other peace process actors will gather in Oslo on 18 and 19 June 2019 for the 17th edition of The Oslo Forum.
Co-hosted by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), The Oslo Forum brings together mediation practitioners and experts for two days of informal discussions to reflect on current peacemaking trends and challenges.
In addition to the Forum’s hosts, Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Søreide and HD’s Executive Director David Harland, distinguished participants at this year’s event will include, among others, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Somalia, the African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, and the Executive Director of the World Food Programme.
Participants will also include high-level representatives from Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mali, Sweden and Uzbekistan, as well as the Special Representatives and Special Envoys of the United Nations Secretary-General for Libya, Myanmar, Syria and the African Union.
The overarching theme of the 2019 Forum will be ‘Rebooting mediation: connecting tracks, processes and people’.
Taking into account the growing fragmentation of conflict parties, the event will provide an opportunity to reflect on how mediators can better connect different peacemaking tracks to ensure coherence among them.
Participants will explore how bottom-up initiatives can contribute to elite negotiations, and how peace processes can efficiently accommodate multiple armed groups. They will also discuss how to include the voice of civil society, and of women and young people in particular, in high-level processes.
The Forum will feature a mixture of plenary sessions, roundtables, situation reports, lectures and informal lunchtime conversations.
Thematic sessions will delve into a variety of peacemaking issues including the role of mediation in the midst of political crises, the relationship between constitution-drafting and peace processes, whether mediation can help address tensions in cyberspace, and what can be learned from the breakdown of talks.
Participants will also reflect on recent developments in Myanmar, Libya, the Sahel, Syria, Yemen and other hotspots.
Attendance at the Oslo Forum is by invitation only and the Chatham House Rule applies throughout the event. However, interviews may be arranged with attending participants on request.