On 23 March 2020, Secretary-General António Guterres issued an appeal for an immediate global ceasefire to help create conditions for the delivery of lifesaving aid, reinforce diplomatic action and bring hope to places that are among the most vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 23 June 2020, the Secretary-General's call had received support from 179 Member States and one non-member observer State, as well as a range of regional organizations and international and local civil society actors.

This Handbook is intended to serve as a practical guide to support the implementation of the CRSV mandate by United Nations Field Missions, including Peacekeeping Operations and Special Political Missions. It serves both as a guidance for civilians, military, and police personnel deployed to United Nations Field Missions and as a pre-deployment orientation tool for future Mission personnel.

The Primer identifies the challenges and opportunities at the nexus of peace processes and constitutions and constitution making, including lessons learned, policy options and their implications for sustaining peace.

This publication dives into some of the challenges and opportunities presented by UN support to local level mediation and dialogue processes, and discusses its strategic relevance to the Organization’s overall peacemaking efforts.

This report is a contribution to ongoing efforts in the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) to address the impact of climate change on mediation and preventive diplomacy. It was commissioned by DPPA with support from the Government of the Republic of France and prepared by Alex Grzybowski and Chanda Hunnie of Pacific Resolutions. Views expressed in the report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of DPPA.

The main purpose of this manual is to familiarize new UN mediators with the range of skills used by their predecessors to carry out third-party mediation. The manual describes the current context in which UN mediation and “good offices” is carried out, offers advice and lessons from previous representatives and envoys, and suggests how the UN’s Mediation Support Unit can help to support the work of UN mediators.

The DPPA Mediation Start-up Guidelines seek to provide guidance to managers, desk officers and field staff of the UN Department of Political Affairs (DPPA) on the start-up and establishment of mediation initiatives led, co-led or supported by the United Nations. Their purpose is to consolidate DPPA's institutional knowledge on strategy development, planning, support and coordination aspects of mediation initiatives.

The United Nations requires its mediators to address conflict-related sexual violence. This guidance offers mediators and their teams principles and strategies for including this critical peacebuilding and security concern in ceasefire and peace agreements.

This UN DPA guidance seeks to inform mediators and their teams, as well as conflict parties, about the principles and strategies for the effective inclusion of women, as well as a gendered perspective, in mediation processes. The guidance addresses mediation preparation, process design, and substantive issues including security arrangements, participation, constitutions, language and the implementation of peace agreements through a gender lens.