Rome, 5th July, 2018 – “With Rondine Cittadella della Pace, Italy aims to bring to the United Nations a tangible example concerning the great topic of human rights, currently a priority for our planet.”

So spoke Elisabetta Belloni, General Secretary of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; although she could not attend the presentation of the Rondine Annual Report 2017 at the Italian Chamber of Deputies in Rome, she has not failed to send her best regards, announcing the participation of Rondine at the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, scheduled for December the 10th in New York, at the United Nations headquarter.

“Arrived at its twentieth year of activity – declared the President of Rondine, Franco Vaccari – Rondine has before it a new challenge and a significant moment of reflection and check, in order to understand whether its methods are likely to be an available tool for the United Nation in spreading peace.”

The method is currently esteemed and codified on an academic level, as proved by the research “Analysis and divulgation of the Rondine Method for the creative transformation of conflicts, made by the Catholic University Sacro Cuore of Milan and the University of Padova, with the contribution of the Vodafone Italia Foundation.

The rising interest of the international academic world for the Rondine Method has been proved by the participation of Susan Allen, Director of the Center for Peacemaking Practice at the George Mason University: “As an American citizen and a professional in conflicts resolution, I mean to ask Rondine to consider the idea of intervening in the United States, where there are deep politic splits, racism and an overall structural violence. The Rondine Method may be useful in these areas.”

During the Annual Report, the results of the project Initiative for democratic and peaceful elections in Sierra Leone have also been presented: it is the first innovative project with a high political and social impact promoted by the Rondine International Peace Lab (the association of almost two hundred Rondine alumni); its objective is encouraging a peaceful and conscious electoral process on occasion of the 2018 presidential elections in Sierra Leone. The project led to a wider awareness about the value of the community leaders political engagement, more dialogue among the groups in conflict and a rise in the responsibility and trust of citizens on the electoral process.