A set of training sessions about Peacebuilding and the Prevention of Violent Extremism were celebrated from the 22nd to the 24th of August in the Iraqi city Basra. Under the umbrella of the Youth Engagement for Peace project and thanks to the efforts of Un Ponte Per and its partnership with OPEV, Iraqi Social Forum, Novact, the Iraqi Civil Society Initiative, LaOnf, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Iraqi Observatory for the Prevention of Violent Extremism alongside the funding of United Nations Population Fund, the intensive trainings were carried out successfully. The workshop aimed to teach on mechanisms of using nonviolence as a tool for building peace and preventing the emergence of violent extremism.
This training dealt with the concepts and forms of violent extremism as well as the mechanisms and tools to confront it. It also made a distinction between the definitions of non-violence, peace-building and prevention of violence. Peacebuilding was defined as the process of constructing healthy social and political relations between different the ethnic or cultural groups in society and identifying the problems causing conflicts in order to arrange solutions and also the pursue of reducing violence to turn the tide and aid people to recover from violence and its effects.
