Geneva Peace Week 2021- Plans for Peace Mediation Along the Korean DMZ

By Emily Ekshian

The Geneva Peace Week 2021, was a participative digital workshop to co-design a space for women, peace and environment in the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The conference was held for five days during the week of November 1, with the mission of sparking conversations around creating a DMZ incubator to seed a new future in the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Ultimately, the conference was geared toward creating a climate for collaboration and peace along that border.

Geneva Peace Week is a flagship initiative of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform. The conference was organized in collaboration with institutions like the Women’s Federation for World Peace International (WFWPI), the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID), the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), among others.

The vision of the project is to engage stakeholders in the visioning of a new future, and across the Korean DMZ. This could be achieved through the creation of a physical and virtual space to bring together women and youth working towards peace and shared prosperity for Korea and worldwide.

Another goal of the conference was to activate an incubator for a 5th UN office, that would be centered on universal values, new paradigms and structures of governance, which are more environmental and women-centered.

Dr. Anna Grichting Solder, an architect and urbanist, has been working on border landscapes for many years.

“The idea of this space is that it should be located in or near the Demilitarized Zone,” she says. “We are asking for your ideas! Whether it be a garden, infrastructure, a peace park. What kind of activities are important to bring women together, to bring you together?”

The proposed plan for peace and development along the DMZ would include a peace village, peace and development house, and a peace garden. “The vision is to co-create and build a new future together with nature and the environment,” Solder says.

“This project is a seed. We want to create a real space in the DMZ, and to extend it to a 5th UN office. It also has a paradigm, including those from different cultures, women and youth, “ she says.

The Korean DMZ is the dividing line between North and South Korea across the Korean Peninsula. The zone spans 150 miles of electric fences and over two million landmines, with thousands of opposing soldiers guarding the border. Ultimately, it serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea.

In 1950, after years of mutual hostilities, North Korea invaded South Korea to reunify the peninsula under its communist rule. The subsequent Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953, ended with a stalemate. It has left Korea divided by the DMZ up to the present day.

For about 60 years, the DMZ has rested along the 38th Parallel of the globe, running from the Han River on the Western side to the North Korean town of Kosong on the East.

The 38th parallel was the original boundary between the United States and Soviet Union's sphere of control within Korea by the end of World War II. The 38th parallel roughly divided the Korean Peninsula roughly in half.

Ultimately, the zone was established in 1953 following the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement to end the Korean War. In 1948, after Korea split into North and South Korea, the DMZ became a de facto international border. This means that the border exists in reality, though it is not officially recognized by law. North Korea was dependent on the Soviet Union, and South Korea was dependent on the United States, which were the sponsor countries, from 1945 to 1953. Though the legacy of the sponsored countries from the Cold War Era still prevails today.

Carolyn Handschin, the Director of WFWPI Offices for UN Relations, says “Korea is the place where the Women’s Federation has its roots. We have been working for many years, with different humanitarian activities across that border.”

She continues “At the UN Millennium Summit, by Founder of Women’s Federation Dr. Moon, there was an announcement of peace zones, the idea of creating and using the areas between the areas of conflict for peaceful purposes… plans include a peace zone, peace park, and even a fifth UN headquarters there”. She says, “these ideas are very easily trust-building.”

There has been great effort on the part of women and partnerships among women in Korea, to do things like going to the border, as a beginning to building peace together.

As of now, crossing the DMZ can be very dangerous and life-threatening, where those who are arrested would certainly be taken to a detention centre to be interrogated. Thus, the program seeks to go beyond political, physical and mental barriers and to reconcile and develop through the co-creation of a landscape for Koreans from the North and South to meet, as well as an international hub for women, peace and the environment to prevent those hostilities.

You may watch the recording of the event here