What voices do you want at the table?

In very different parts of the globe, a few efforts are disrupting verbal as well as violent disputes by diversifying those voices, and in the process disrupting conventional thinking about where leadership can come from.

Just yesterday, in the US state of Maine, citizens affirmed support for “ranked choice” voting, which lets voters list multiple candidates in order of preference. Maine thus became the country’s first state to adopt a system that proponents say disincentivizes stark partisanship and rewards speaking to a broader audience.

In South Sudan, a very different kind of election selected Rebecca Nyandier Chatim as head chief of the Nuer ethnic group in a UN-protected site in the capital. In a war-torn country rife with gender-based violence, her candidacy was backed by her male predecessor as well as by a group of young men, versed in human rights law, who said they don’t want women “treated as resources.”  

And then there’s Laghman province in Afghanistan. After four years of a violent dispute over land, both sides decided to talk. They established a "jirga," or mediation council, and took the unprecedented step of authorizing women, who were deeply affected by the violence, to attend as representatives. A peace deal resulted. And in a move whose symbolism could be understood in any country, the warring parties decided to restore a green space between their villages that had been destroyed by the conflict.

Now to our five stories, which delve into important questions around equity, activism, and human rights.