Pathways Towards Reconciliation

Draft Concept and Purpose  |  Topics  |  Methodology  |  Key workshop leaders  |  Proposed Funding

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Draft Concept and Purpose

This proposed conference aims to address the important themes of reconciliation in five days of integrated workshops. The conference will draw together people from selected countries to consider several themes in reconciliation that are the subject of current research and practice efforts around the world. Participants will include persons invited from countries that have experienced violent or protracted conflict.

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Key workshop leaders

Hizkias Assefa, LL.M, Ph.D has agreed to be the key resource person for the workshops. Dr. Assefa is highly regarded internationally for his expertise in the practice and teaching of reconciliation. He has worked in situations of civil war and humanitarian crisis in Africa, Latin America and Asia. . . more

Other resource people, to be announced.

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Proposed Methodology

This five-day conference will be a series of integrated workshops including pre-workshop readings, lectures, case studies, supplementary workshop materials, and peer discussions. While many workshops on reconciliation feature one or more of the topics below, this institute will seek to emphasise and integrate all of these important aspects of reconciliation. The workshop will also be unique in that it will provide opportunities for peer discussion and idea generation among the selected key persons invited from countries affected by severe or protracted conflict. This will be a practical workshop. It will start out with consideration of basic theory and concepts and then consider some of the specific conflicts of groups represented among the participants. The aim would be to chart some pathways including concrete steps and processes towards reconciliation. These workshops, including timing and location, are subject to funding.

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Proposed Topics

1. Introduction

• Overview of reconciliation theory, including acknowledgement, apology, reparations, mourning, forgiveness
• The importance of coming to terms with historical conflicts and grievances including traumatic histories
• The importance of a relational approach to reconciliation of historical conflicts

2. Acknowledgement and taking responsibility

• Apologies and non-apologies
• Creating safe environments for apologies to occur, including issues of reprisal and liability
• Forgiveness

3. Reparations

• Compensation
• Public education
• Institutional or systemic change

4. Commemoration

• Commemorative and symbolic approaches to community revitalization
• The importance of appropriate ceremonies for recognition and mourning of loss

5. Challenges for implementation

• Constraints of structural, institutional and political realities, including international and domestic laws, policies and institutions
• Creative possibilities
• Building trust

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Proposed Funding

It is important to make this workshop accessible to those working in a variety of situations. Therefore, funding is being sought to make this workshop possible, and to ensure that workshop costs are affordable to persons working on issues of reconciliation in targetted countries.

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Featuring:       Hizkias Assefa   |   others to be announced  
   Organizing Coordinator, Catherine Morris

Hizkias Assefa, LL.B, LL.M, M.A., M.P.A., Ph.D, coordinates the African Peacebuilding and Reconciliation Network from Nairobi. Formerly a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, he is currently Senior Special Fellow at the United Nations Institute for Research and Training. He is also a professor of conflict studies at Eastern Mennonite University's Conflict Transformation Program. He works as a mediator and facilitator of reconciliation processes in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. He has also worked as a consultant to the United Nations, European Union and many international and national NGOs. Mr. Assefa is currently engaged in civil society-based national reconciliation processes in Afghanistan, Sri-Lanka, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Guatemala. Dr. Assefa has published widely and holds a Ph.D. in public and international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh.

Organizing coordinator
Catherine Morris, B.A., LL.B., LL.M, director of Peacemakers Trust, is a lawyer with experience in the field of conflict resolution since 1983. A former Executive Director of the Institute for Dispute Resolution at the University of Victoria, she has conducted workshops and made presentations in Canada, the United States, Thailand, Cambodia and Bangladesh. Ms. Morris is the organizing coordinator for the workshop.

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