All people deserve basic human rights. URI works to ensure no one is left out.
By sharing creative expression, URI members cultivate appreciation of each other on a human level. Music, painting, performance, sculpture, storytelling, poetry, and other methods of artistic expression are ancient methods of creating community. Through the arts, URI Cooperation Circles transcend language and cultural barriers to build deep interpersonal connections.
By uniting to address threats to our shared ecosystem, we can find literal common ground, since every member of every faith tradition depends on necessities like clean water and access to natural resources to survive.
URI Cooperation Circles work at every level, from influencing policymakers to providing training at the grassroots, to build peace, heal existing tensions, and prevent new conflicts.
URI is committed to the equitable participation of women and men in all aspects of our organization.
- TRUST WIN CC, a URI group based in Jerusalem, brought 30 Christian, Druze, Jewish, and Muslim women together working to achieve peace at grassroots levels.
Impowering Women Economically
URI MENA Women’s Initiative conducts workshops on “Small Startup Business Project Management” and “Financial Management Skills” across MENA region. So far several workshops were held in Jordan, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia. Also, a special workshop was organized for Syrian refugee women who are living in Jordan.
URI respects wisdom from voices of all generations.
URI prizes a diversity of ages in leadership positions. All Cooperation Circles work towards equity and fair representation in intergenerational peacebuilding.
Examples of our work in this Action Area:
- The Hope Flowers School in Israel brings together young people from different cultures, faiths, and nationalities to overcome conflict trauma and to unite in one culture of peace, justice and equality.
- For example Salam Shabab CC in Morroco is made up of young people who mobilize for peace both nationally and internationally. With the support of Moroccan media, they administer peace education courses for children ages 8-16 years. Additionally, they collaborate with David Adams of the Culture and Peace Alliance of Civilization to create an international report on the culture of peace. Their peacebuilding work includes organizing a summer camp in Turkey for 120 young adults from over 50 countries on the theme of creating
- cultures of peace.