Mie Roesdahl and Michelle Parlevliet have edited a special issue of the Journal of Human Rights Practice on ‘Breaking the Silos: Linking Human Rights and Peacebuilding’.

Contributing authors are highly experienced and recognized scholar-practitioners including Christine Bell, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Edinburgh and Graeme Simpson, Director of Interpeace USA and Adjunct Lecturer in Law at Columbia University of Law.

The question of linking human rights and peacebuilding has been on the academic, policy and practitioner agenda for a considerable time. The UN Secretary General has put it at the center of efforts to promote sustainable peace and prevent violent conflict. In the recently published report Pathways to Peace by the UN and the World Bank, human rights violations is held as one of the key causes of conflict to be addressed in efforts to prevent violent conflict. Yet experiences to date indicate that linking human rights and peacebuilding effectively is often easier said than done. Endeavors in the two fields can both complement and contradict one another.

With this special issue, Roesdahl and Parlevliet contribute with a timely stocktaking of the relations between the fields of human rights, peace and development, relevant to researchers and practitioners alike.

The special issue is part of the Carlsberg Foundation funded project 'Human Rights and Peacebuilding', jointly undertaken by the Centre for Resolution of International Conflicts, University of Copenhagen, and the Danish Institute of Human Rights. Most of the articles in the issue were presented at the 2015 seminar and the 2016 authors' workshop hosted by the Centre for Resolution of International Conflicts.

The special issue can be freely accessed here: https://academic.oup.com/jhrp/issue/9/3#559975-4772866