Linked with our NGO-presentations of Journalists for Human Rights JHR, and with the International Center on Conflict and Negotiation ICCN – Georgia, and also with the The Caucasus Network for Social Research and Conflict Resolution.
And also linked with our presentation of Situation in Abkhazia.
She is one of the 1000 women proposed fort the Nobel Peace Price 2005.
She says: « It is easier to destroy the world than to create it. But in creating the world, one is sowing life and creating the future. »
Irina Yanovskaya – Georgia
She works for ‘Journalists for Human Rights‘, and also for the Caucasus Network on Conflict Resolution. She is also member of the International Center on Conflict and Negotiation ICCN.
Before she also had worked as a trainer for the Unifem project, Ossetia Women for Peace.
A well-known journalist in South Ossetia, Irina Yanovskaya (43) founded and directs the organization Journalists for Human Rights with the aim of preserving peace. The organization has become an important part of a broader network of conflict resolution groups. Irina focuses her efforts on the area of interethnic conflict resolution. She has made her way into people’s hearts, finding ways to unite rather than separate groups, thus, helping to establish peace in South Ossetia.
Irina Yanovskaya was born in 1962 in Ossetia, where she graduated from the faculty of computer technologies. She also acquired a passion for music and is a gifted singer. She began working in journalism after the beginning of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict in 1990. Since 1995 she has been working as a correspondent for various publications, clarifying and updating the public on Georgian-Ossetian relations, problems of inter-ethnic relations, and the peace-making process. In 1997 she participated in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) conference on Civil Society’s Role in the Prevention and Settlement of Conflicts.
Aware that she could not resolve this inter-ethnic conflict alone, Irina established the organization, Journalists for Human Rights, which unites concerned journalists of different national origins in South Ossetia for a common goal: preservation of peace in the region. In their focus on protecting the rights of a peaceful population, Irina and her organization are part of a peace-making network in the Caucasus.
Irina has also made many broadcasts and films about peace. She has organized art competitions for children, calling for pictures for peace, and has conducted seminars with soldiers, military officers, local authorities, and farmers, offering training in peace-making strategies. Irina also participated in the Internews Project and developed the programs devoted to peace, mutual understanding, and the Georgian-Ossetian conflict.
Irina is mother of four children, which is one reason she considers the work with children to be so important. Peace making must be taught during childhood. Children must learn how to find a common language with their contemporaries of different national origin. She teaches children to be tolerant and patient.
Irina is a part of the Caucasus Network on Conflict Resolution. She is a correspondent for the South Ossetian newspaper Red Star, an author, and a public activist. She also directs the following projects: Future Without Weapons (printing information bulletins), Zhinvaly Human Rights Center (creation of a human rights library, dissemination of leaflets), Assistance to Children (creation of a children’s department in the library), Documenting Women’s Rights in South Ossetia (training on the documentation of women’s rights), Human Rights Training, Children’s house in Zhinvaly(special meetings for children traumatized by war), Journalists for Peace Conference, and Ways of Resolution of the Georgian-Ossetia Ethnic Conflict, a joint project with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (Great Britain).
After the beginning of the interethnic war between Georgia and South Ossetia, Irina organized efforts to exchange prisoners of war between the two regions. She also coordinated a process of rapprochement between Georgian and Ossetian children.
During the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, part of the territory was mined, and until the present the mines have presented a serious problem for the region. Irina served as an organizer of the Peaceful Caucasus without Mines Conference.
“Another consequence of war is the problem of refugees,” Irina says. People fled from their homes in search of safety. Now people wish to go back home, but they fear that conflict will break out again. Irina organized a meeting of refugees – both Georgians and Ossetians. They realized that they have common problems and fears. Refugees of the two nations then united their efforts in their fight for peace in the region, calling on their compatriots to solve problems by peaceful methods. “The war did not bring any benefit to either. There are no winners in this war. Both parties lost.” This is the slogan that Irina uses in her training lessons. Gradually people have started to understand the absurd futility of the war and clashes.
Now Irina is well-known throughout the region. An independent journalist since 1995, she has published a number of articles and reports about peace building. After many conversations with the military command of Georgia and the leaders of its administration, she has been invited to lead seminars on the peace-making process. Irina also draws the community together for solving the conflict. She knows it is impossible to solve the problem unless the people are willing to help. But, she also believes that it is possible not just to solve, but to prevent conflict in civil society, by expanding peace-making activities and helping everybody to raise their voices for peace.
Irina believes that journalists bear a great part of the responsibility for inflaming conflicts, when they condemn the opposite side and sow discord on the pages of publications. For this reason, Irina has organized seminars and training courses for journalists – Ossetian and Georgian. These seminars are devoted to peace, mutual understanding, and the responsibility of journalists for the fate of their peoples and for the information they submit.
Within the framework of the program, the Georgian and Ossetian Dialogue, Irina participates in and leads different training courses, meetings, seminars, and celebrations directed towards reconciliation between the Georgians and Ossetians. Irina understands that ultimate reconciliation is still far off and that more hard work is needed to achieve this noble goal.
Irina is a valiant person and a good organizer. Her work is valued not just by her colleagues but by the people of South Ossetia with whom she looks for a peaceful solution to the interethnic conflicts. (Read about on this 1000peacewomen page).
links:
ICCN;