Miguel Álvarez Gandara was elected as an IPB Council member in October 2025.
Miguel Álvarez Gandara is based in Mexico. In 1996 he co-founded SERAPAZ – the abbreviation SERAPAZ has got a double meaning: Services and Advices for Peace and also There will be peace. It is a Mexican civil society and non-for-profit organization, independent from the state, political parties, corporations and any other actors. In 2017 Miguel received the prestigious Premio Nacional de Derechos Humanos (National Human Rights Award).
Activities
- President, co-founder and former Director of Advising Services for Peace (SERAPAZ, a non-profit organization, from June 1996 to present, specialized in Mediation and Conflict Transformation in all México).
- Executive Secretary of the National Mediation Commission (CONAI) from 1994 to June 1998, the formal Mediation for the Chiapas Peace Process among the Federal Government, and the Zapatista Indigenous Movement
- Secretary to Msgr. Samuel Ruiz García (from 1992 to 2011) and Member of the Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas
- Member of the political and mediating team of Msgr. Sergio Méndez Arceo, active in the conflicts and process in Cuba, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua (1980-1992).
- Executive secretary for Grupo de Obispos Amigos (Bishops Friends Group, a formal body in México for 25, and informal space for more than 200 Latin-American bishops), March 1990 to February 1994).
- Member of National and Latin-American Animator Team of Ecclesiastical Base Communities (CEB’s), 1982 to 1992.
- Member of various movements, organizations and networks (civil, political, academic and ecclesiastical)related to Peace, Mediating and Transforming conflicts, and to Human and Indigenous Rights in Mexico and Latin America
- Analyst, mediator, social promoter and advisor to various social movements and grassroots organizations,dioceses, and non-governmental organizations (with nearly 45 years’ experience in Human Rights, popular education, social promotion, and pastoral work in different parts of the country).
- Member of the coordination of the Latin-American Network of Peace builders (since 1997), active member of the Mediation Support Network (MSN, since 2005), member of the Board of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflicts (GPPAC, 2016-2022), Member of the coordination of the Plataforma por la Paz, los Derechos Humanos y Democracia (Peace, HRs and Democracy Platform, an articulation of 22 main ecclesiastic and social networks at Latin-American level), and recently founder and member of the coordination of the Coalition for Global Solidarity for Peace in Palestine (GSPP).
Services to Peace processes (from 1982 to nowadays):
a) Intensive participation in the Peace and Mediating Processes of Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Basque Country, Cataluña, Philippines, and the Western Sahara.
b) Collaboration in the processes of internal conflicts of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Haití, Panamá and Perú, besides those of Egypt, Georgia, India, Koreas, and Turkey.
c) Participation in the recovery of lessons of the conflicts and processes of Peace in El Salvador, Guatemala, Former Yugoslav, North Ireland and South Africa.
d) Participation in the processes of international initiatives and civil encounters, in the framework of the Group of Peace of the Foro Social Mundial (World Social Forum), for different conflicts in Africa and Middle East.
e) Trustee of the International Interreligious Peace Council and member of missions to South Africa, North Ireland and Korea.
f) Permanent participation in encounters, forums, publications, and seminaries about the civil and religiouschallenges for Mediation, Peacebuilding and Prevention, the impulse for Human Rights and conflict transformation.
