The Parliamentary Mediation workshop held on 22nd of October 2025 brought together MPs and experts to reflect on the unique contribution parliamentarians can make to conflict resolution and human-centred peacebuilding.
Building on the engagement of WAAS and other partners in an earlier IPU workshop in April, this session deepened the conversation on how mediation principles can be anchored in parliamentary practice and in the broader human-security agenda.
Opening the discussion, UNHCR Senior Adviser and former Turkish MP Şafak Pavey stressed that parliamentarians already possess many of the skills fundamental to mediation. “Communication is at the very core of mediation, and your roles as voices and representatives of people already embrace that quality,” she noted. She reminded participants that mediation is not an abstract concept in politics but part of daily parliamentary life – reconciling interests, calming tensions, and building consensus. Pavey also challenged the traditional framing of the Humanitarian work–Development–Peace nexus: “It should have been peace, development and humanitarian work, not the other way around. We are the band-aid when peace fails.”
Donato Kiniger-Passigli, Vice-President of WAAS and President of the Global Peace Offensive initiative, reminded participants that “peace cannot be obtained with a stroke of a pen – it is a long and painstaking effort.” True peace, he argued, emerges from sustained relationships, not quick fixes. Parliamentarians, in this regard, serve as essential “linchpins” between national institutions and local communities, uniquely placed to translate lived realities into political solutions and to open space for de-escalation. Drawing on the philosophy of the Global Peace Offensive, he stressed that mediation must be context-sensitive, dialogue-driven and problem-solving in nature, rejecting “pre-cooked” formulas in favor of adaptive processes that rebuild trust over time. He outlined “golden rules” of mediation, rooted in the principles of the UN Charter: consent, impartiality, preparedness, cultural and contextual sensitivity, and ensuring that ownership of outcomes remains with the parties themselves. “If we are considered biased, we become irrelevant,” he noted.
Donato also highlighted the indispensable role of science, culture and education in restoring trust at a time when multilateralism is under severe strain. This integrated approach, combining political engagement, ethical mediation and knowledge-based dialogue, reflects the WAAS-IPU partnership and the GPO’s mission to create practical openings for sustainable, community-anchored peace.
The last speaker, Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini, Executive Director of ICAN, called for a reframing of who is seen (and valued) as a mediator. “The minute you look from that lens, you will always see the women – they have been mediating long before we had the UN or governments,” she said, warning that peace processes too often elevate those who wield weapons while overlooking the community actors who de-escalate tensions daily. Drawing on cases from Yemen, Somalia and Colombia, she stressed that sustainable peace rests on two conditions: “If you have political will but no inclusivity, the public won’t trust the process; if you have inclusivity but no will, the process won’t move.”
The workshop closed with a shared recognition that parliamentarians are uniquely placed to promote dialogue, rebuild trust and advance human-security-focused peace efforts grounded in empathy, inclusivity and public legitimacy.
Author: Emma Slazanska, WAAS / GPOC junior researcher
Source: 151st IPU Assembly and related meetings, Geneva, Switzerland, 19-23 October 2025 – Results of the proceedings, Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2025, pp. 34-35.
