Abd Alaziz Younis Aljarba


Years ago, two opposing religious parties in Iraq were unwilling to work together. They both believed the other was in violation of the existing truce, and refused any talks. Abd Alaziz Aljarba was their mediator, and he feared the discussion and the truce between the groups would collapse. It was Mr. Aljarba’s persistence that convinced both groups to focus on the needs of their communities, and return to the mediation, that brought about a successful result. Aljarba was elated, and saw how his efforts contributed to peaceful co-existence in diverse communities. Mr. Aljarba hopes to continue to promote cultures of non-violence and the importance of dialogue as a means of resolving conflict.

Mr. Abd Alaziz Aljarba is a senior facilitator with the United States Institute of Peace’s Network of Iraqi Facilitators, and a peacebuilding expert at the Iraqi Dar Al-Salam Center. His work covers a wide range of topics including: election monitoring, public mobilization, project management, and the design and development of evaluation approaches.

Mr. Aljarba has led many mediation and negotiation efforts in Nineveh, Iraq, with the aim of reconciling and mitigating tensions amongst several religiously diverse communities, mainly Al Shebak and Christian. Throughout his career, he has had numerous successes in conflict prevention, resolution and mitigation – most notably the local reconciliation among Sunni and Shia tribes following the Speicher massacre in Mosul. Mr. Aljarba also launched several initiatives to resolve conflicts between political parties in the Nineveh governorate in northern Iraq by monitoring the voter registry, constitutional referendum, and parliamentary elections.   He continues to advise local leaders in Tunisia and Libya.