Established in 2000, Creative International Forum (CIF) is committed to protecting human rights and promoting peace and social justice in Nepal. CIF strives to achieve this organizational goal by actively involving vibrant networks of civil society organizations created across Nepal; building their capacity for peace advocacy campaigns through training, research work, exposure and sharing.
CIF has been working constantly in peacebuilding field in partnership with other like-minded organizations. It implemented an EU-funded project on human rights and peace, partnering with National Peace Campaign. Run for over a three-year period, the project made an important contribution to improving the ability of civil society members and strengthening their networks to promote human rights and peace in Nepal.
CIF is also involved in direct mediation of local conflicts. So far, a total of thirteen cases of conflict have been resolved with the help of local mediators used by informal partners. The resolved cases include those relating to caste discrimination, violence against women, disputes between teachers and students, and disputes among different communities covered by the project.
A series of social dialogues have been conducted across Nepal in order to address issues such as rights of religious minorities, mitigate heightened tensions among political party cadres over the modality of constitution and state reconstruction. For this, the organization has involved change makers of society, such as teachers, social workers and state stakeholders. CIF sees these ongoing dialogues and mediation initiatives as crucial strategies for promoting peace and human rights in Nepal.
The organisation also broadcasts a radio programme on human rights, peace and nonviolence. The programme has chosen people living in the rural areas, those from marginalized communities, women, children at risk as its target communities in the Terai and Eastern hills of Nepal. The programme is relayed from both national and local FM stations. In order to ensure the effective outreach of the programme, listening clubs have been formed in the target area.
A series of five trainings on peace, nonviolence and reconciliation have been conducted with the objective of providing knowledge and skills on nonviolence, conflict transformation, peace, and reconciliation, targeting young politicians and civil society members working actively in the project districts. Nearly 50% of participants were involved from youth wings of political parties and remaining 50% of them were the members of civil society organisations.
