Synergizing Non-Violent Action

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TOPIC:  SYNERGIZING NONVIOLENT ACTION & PEACEBUILDING - As the world faces major existential problems and challenges, it is clear that top-down strategies for change and sustainable solutions have not worked. Based on her deep and broad experience working in 100+ countries for over 35+ years in the peacebuilding, social justice, human rights, and international development fields, Ms. Hughes-Fraitekh has come to understand that locally-led, connected, and strategic community campaigns and movements are the most effective way to create sustainable change.  S2020B serves as an international hub and network to provide resources, provide learning and sharing opportunities, evidence-based research, and leverage through numbers to allow these grassroots movements to have international impact and produce sustainable results. Katherine will discuss how S2020B uses a Conflict Transformation framework with nonviolent action and civil resistance coupled with peacebuilding tools and legal mechanisms, to address power asymmetry and physical, structural and cultural violence, the blocks standing in the way of positive peace and peace with justice. She will describe specific projects and real-life examples of how this work is ongoing and successful as well as challenging.

BIO:  Katherine Hughes-Fraitekh is an expert on peace building and social justice movements. She co-founded and serves as Executive Director for Solidarity 2020 and Beyond (S2020B), https://solidarity2020andbeyond.org/, an international network of grassroots peacebuilders, activists, journalists and scholars in 85+ countries working on over 100+ movements for justice, freedom, women’s rights, indigenous and land rights, self-determination, anti-corruption and environmental justice.  She also serves as Vice President of the board for DAY-Africa, an innovative employment and small enterprise/farming training and placement program for vulnerable women in Kenya.

Katherine is active in the Rotary Peace Fellow Alumni Group, completing the 2020 mid-career program at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, providing training for the RAGFP on synergizing nonviolent action and peacebuilding, participating in the Rotary International Peace Conference in Birmingham, Alabama, presenting at the SE Zone 30 and 31 conference in 2024 and presenting and organizing panels for the RPFAA international peace conferences in 2022 and 2023.

Her past positions have included Director of Global Field Initiatives at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, Faculty member of the Fletcher Summer Institute at Tufts University and Inclusive Global Leadership Institute at the University of Denver, Sie Center, ED of Peace Brigades International-USA, Manager at the National Council on US Arab Relations, Palestine Affairs Center, DC, and the Commission on the Status of Women and US Congressional staff. She consults for the EU Peace Initiative in Palestine/Israel, Palestinian Youth Advisory Panel, and the Global Fund for Women.

Ms. Hughes-Fraitekh earned her MA in International Development with a specialization of Peace and Conflict Resolution at the American University in Washington, DC, in addition completing the Arab Studies coursework at Georgetown University. She earned her BA with honors at the University of Texas at Austin. She is also a local, national and international activist working on rights and justice in Israel/Palestine and the Middle East, immigrant rights, women’s rights, racial justice, and indigenous rights.