Peace and Reconciliation

ÖZET
Bu çalışmada Ulus-Devletler ve etnik gruplar arasındaki gerilimli ilişkiler ve bunların muhtemel çözüm yolları analiz edilecektir. Türk ulus-devleti açısından bu gerilimli konu Kürt Sorunudur. Bu çalışma bahsedilen sorunu İspanya’dan Basklar Sorunu ile karşılaştırmalı olarak inceleme ve her bir alt başlıkta avantajlı ve dezavantajlı durumlarını tespit etme amacındadır. Bu amaca ulaşabilmek üzere, ülkelerin etnik konularda avantaj ve dezavantajlarını tespit edebilmek üzere bir ölçek geliştirilmiştir. Karşılıklı göreli durumlar bu ölçek yardımıyla tespit edilecektir. Bu tespitlere istinaden bütüncül bir çözüm sürecinin hangi dinamikler ön plana çıkarılarak yapılması gerektiği hususunda tavsiyeler içerecektir. Karşılaştırma on üç alt başlıkta yapılacaktır. Bahsedilen karşılaştırmalar kabaca her iki topluluğun kısa tarihi geçmişi ve anavatanı; etnik grubun demografik oranı; nüfusun ülke içi stratejik yayılımı; Etnik grubun varsa uluslararası yayılımı; Etnik gruplar arası evlilikler; Dini homojenite ve dini haklar; toplumsal statü ve sosyo-ekonomik gelişmişlik düzeyi; dil farklılığı ve dile ilişkin haklar; eğitim-kültür düzeyi ve ilgili haklar; siyasal örgütlenme ve politik haklar; varsa silaha başvurma durumu ve terör faaliyetleri açılarından olacaktır. Çalışma bütün bu açılardan Türkiye’nin Kürt Sorununu çözüme kavuşturma yolunda İspanya’nın Bask Sorununu çözme sürecinde yaşadıklarına istinaden avantajlı ve dezavantajlı noktalarını tespit edip, güçlü ve zayıf noktalarını bulup, bunlara istinaden muhtemel bir başka çözüm sürecinde hangi unsurların ön plana çıkarılması gerektiği hususunda tavsiyeler geliştirmeye çalışacaktır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Türkiye, Kürt Sorunu, İspanya, Bask Sorunu, Avantajlar ve Dezavantajlar, Olası çözüm önerileri.

COMPARATIVE ANALIZES OF KURDISH ISSUE IN TURKEY AND BASQUE PROBLEM IN SPAIN IN THE CONTEXT OF NATION STATE AND ETHNIC DIFFERENCES: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES IN TERMS OF TURKEY
ABSTRACT
In this study, relationships under tension between nation-states and ethnic groups and possible solutions of them will be analyzed.  For Turkish nation-state, this pressured topic is the Kurdish Issue. This study aims to examine the mentioned issue in Turkey comparatively with the Basque Problem from Spain and to identify the advantageous and disadvantageous situations in each subtitle. To be able to reach this target by determining positive and negative conditions of countries, a scale has been developed. Mutual relative conditions will be determined by means of this scale. Based on these findings, it will include recommendations on which dynamics should be put forward throughout a complete solution process. Comparisons will be made under thirteen subtitles. The aforementioned comparisons are roughly the short historical background and homeland of booth ethnic groups; the demographic size; demographic ratio; strategic dissemination of population; International dissemination, if there is, of population; social structure and life of stile; intermarriages; religious homogeneity and religious rights; social status and level of socio-economic development; difference of language and language rights; education, culture and related rights; political organization and political rights; if there is, the status of availability of resorting gun and terrorist activities. Working all these respects, study will try to reveal the most important advantages and disadvantages of Turkey compare to Spain and will try to develop some recommendations for Turkey through solving its Kurdish issue compare to solution process of Basque issue in Spain.
Keywords: Turkey, Kurdish Issue, Spain, Basque Problem, Advantages and Disadvantages, Recommendations for Possible solution.

Words—if we listen to them carefully—have much to tell us. Like people, words are living narratives; they have a history and have stories to tell. "Hospitality" has surprising and illuminating meanings for insight into human relationships, especially with respect to host-guest perichoresis.

This paper explores the potential that involving communities in media production has in post-conflict countries to foster healing and reconciliation. The trauma caused by intense violence on individuals and their communities is severe. In this context, communication is important to help people make sense of their realities and engage in a dialogue, both within their social network and with other communities. By either directly or indirectly involving people in the production process, individuals are given the opportunity to tell their stories and express their feelings. At the same time, those who are exposed to these types of productions can gain understanding of others' experiences. All these elements enable individuals to begin healing. This is discussed through a review of four case studies involving different types of media projects and communication designs carried out in Sierra Leone in the aftermath of the civil war.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg) has accomplished an amazing feat in her forthcoming book, "As We Have Always Done." She confronts colonialism from the perspective of Indigenous nationhood, but goes beyond arguing for changes in politics, writing in a way that enacts changes in our thinking about politics. Simpson articulates Indigenous nationhood as "a radical and complete overturning of the nation-state's political formations." This reiterates what others have found when they dig to the roots ['radical' comes from Latin 'radix': root]: Indigenous reality in and of itself challenges Western modes of thinking and acting. Simpson deploys the content of this insight in the process of her writing. She writes—rather than writes about—Indigenous nationhood.

This article examines whether there is a steady pattern of celebrity engagement with humanitarian issues through a study of the involvement of U2 and Angelina Jolie in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The activism of these two celebrities was limited in both time and content and developed at different phases of the country’s recent history. The article notes that their involvement was idiosyncratic and was not developed at certain ‘turning points’ or ‘critical junctures’ of the conflict. It also argues that their activism was primarily motivated by personal networks: the decision of U2 and Jolie to get involved was prompted by their acquaintance with people who knew and cared about Bosnia. Therefore, the article highlights the role of intermediaries and underlines the need to study the personal networks that initiate and/or facilitate celebrity involvement in social causes.

What remained from the multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic, multi-confessional, all boundaries transcending experience of Maidan? How do faith communities today embody reconciliation in Ukraine? In this paper the focus is on the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC). What is its role in a society and country that suffers from war, that faces a threatened political existence and a desastrous economic situation? How does its theology respond to the challenges and what is the peacebuilding potential of it? A theology of revolution has emerged in Ukraine. My paper presents the emerging political theology in Ukrainian context, and aims at contributing to it with some critical considerations.

This article begins with a literature review of Participatory Photography (PP) that highlights how this tool has been mostly implemented for action research, advocacy, and public health purposes. It shows how scholars have only quite recently begun to recognise its ability to generate change among PP participants. This is followed by a description of the project that was carried out in Kenya, including its background, objectives and daily activities related to peacebuilding. Offering insight into crucial aspects of this work, examples of the photographs taken by participants and related stories are presented. The conclusion is preceded by reflections on the effectiveness, limitations and potential risks involved in carrying out PP projects in post-conflict settings.

HOW TO ACCESS THIS ARTICLE
This article is available through the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development site at:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15423166.2015.1050798
You can also send the author a private message.

In societies that are emerging from conflict, it is important to focus on the identification and the creation of tools that allow for nonviolent resolutions of the tensions that were aroused as a consequence of the violence.  This article contributes to that project by offering reflections on the importance of a dialogic truth in the process of reconciliation within and between communities. This is addressed, in particular, through the exploration of a space where the views of both victims and perpetrators are considered and expressed through stories that are intended to affect both individuals and the community.  The discussion brings together notions of social healing, theories of conflict transformation, and experiences of reconciliation, with a particular focus on the African context.

In this paper I will discuss Michael Ignatieff’s claim that a truth commission is restricted to revealing factual truth, thus reducing the number of lies circulated in public, and cannot achieve more, such as overcoming divisions in society. I will examine the success of past truth commissions, particularly from South Africa, as despite of some flaws it is considered one of the most successful truth commissions, and then I will highlight achievements that go beyond Ignatieff’s convictions.

YAEL FARBER’S MOLORA AND COLLEEN
WAGNER’S THE MONUMENT AS
POST-CONFLICT REDRESS THEATER
BRENDA CARR VELLINO AND SARAH GABRIELLA WAISVISZ
If transitional justice is “a new discipline in human rights” (Andrieu 2010), theater
is increasingly recognized as a medium in which unresolved human rights claims and transitional justice questions might be compellingly represented (Becker 2013, 14, 12). However, as Paul Rae points out, there is no one-to-one correspondence between theater and human rights (2009, 71). Yet the metaphors of theater practice
are rich indicators of their potential collaboration. Theater ofers to the artistic and production teams, performers, and audience members alike the opportunity to try out, rehearse, and stage responses to mass violence, even if the implicated societies are not ready to enact them through legislation. Theorist of transitional justice Judy Barsalou emphasizes that this work requires repeated eforts from
multiple, interdisciplinary angles as part of a long-term process (2005, 1, 8, 11). We are interested in the ways redress theater can work as an adjunct to the legal and quasi-legal mandate of oicial transitional initiatives: it can rehearse the reckoningwith human rights violations and/or their aftermaths; create rituals of grief and mourning; contribute to the countermemory archive; imagine what coexistence
or reconciliation might look like between former antagonists; and function as a microcosm of complex negotiations between victim/survivors, perpetrators, bystanders, and/or beneficiaries. Playwrights responding to human rights violations
or to transitional justice efforts often point to unresolved issues in excess of institutional mechanisms of social redress. At one and the same time, they evoke what commissions and tribunals cannot do and the necessity of doing redress work into the future.
COLLEGE LITERATURE: A JOURNAL OF CRITICAL LITERARY STUDIES 40.3 Summer 2013
Print ISSN 0093-3139 E-ISSN 1542-4286
© West Chester University 2013

Au terme de la Grande Guerre (1914-1918), rares sont ceux et celles qui ne rêvent pas d’un monde nouveau. Après quatre années de souffrance et d’angoisse, la paix s’impose comme une pulsion de vie qui touche toutes les populations impliquées dans le conflit, en premier lieu celles qui ont connu les combats sur leur propre territoire. Un nombre record de mouvements pour la paix émerge des cendres de la guerre, dont plusieurs sont spécifiquement féminins. Pour ces femmes, privées du droit de vote et donc exclues de la vie politique au sens traditionnel, ces mouvements apparaissent comme autant de nouveaux espaces d’actions politiques. À travers leur lutte pacifiste, elles investissent le champ politique et social, avec des débats qui n’ignorent aucune des grandes questions de l’entre-deux-guerres. C’est donc dans cette perspective que les femmes prennent parole : même si elles n’ont pas connu comme les hommes les champs de bataille, elles ont aussi souffert pendant le conflit et revendiquent le droit de « refaire le monde ».
Ces quelques femmes sont toutefois longtemps restées dans l’ombre : doublement ignorées en raison de leur pacifisme et de leur sexe. L’historiographie de l’entre-deux-guerres en France a en effet longtemps négligé leur travail dans l’établissement de la paix et dans les relations internationales. Cette thèse cherche donc à combler un vide laissé par une historiographie trop longtemps axée seulement sur les hommes politiques et liant de façon trop stricte l’action politique et le droit de vote. À partir de l’analyse de cinq associations pacifistes féminines – la Section française de la Ligue internationale des femmes pour la paix et la liberté (SFLIFPL), la Ligue des femmes contre la Guerre (LFCG), l’Union féminine pour la Société des Nations (UFSDN), l’Union fraternelle des femmes contre la guerre (UFFCG) et la Ligue internationale des mères et des éducatrices pour la paix (LIMEP) – notre recherche propose une nouvelle analyse des affaires internationales en abordant les questions de la paix, de la réconciliation franco-allemande et du désarmement au féminin. Elle met également en lumière les discours sur le rôle et la place des femmes dans la société de l’entre-deux-guerres et cherche à comprendre comment les pacifistes contournent leur exclusion des affaires politiques et légitiment leurs démarches dans la construction de la société d’après-guerre.

By referring to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) as a case study, this paper explores the impact of outreach activities by international criminal tribunals on reconciliation. Building upon primary field research findings, including twenty-seven in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with 108 respondents, this paper applies a theory-driven investigation of the impact of outreach activities by the ICTR. It is shown that outreach activities by the ICTR neither increase awareness and understanding, nor shape positive perceptions towards the Tribunal and its expected contribution to reconciliation. Furthermore, a comparison of groups of outreach participants and control groups shows that outreach did increase the level of knowledge among beneficiaries of such activities. An increased understanding, however, cannot be correlated with more positive perceptions towards the Tribunal or its role in promoting reconciliation. This paper argues that inter alia, outreach activities were initiated too late, with too little resources and partially wrongly targeted in order to have the expected impact.

The 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement both ended the Bosnian War and created the consociational democracy that exists in Bosnia and Herzegovina to this day. The ethnic autonomy created by the Dayton Agreement has resulted in a frozen conflict between ethnic groups that has manifested itself in the country’s monoethnic education system. This study explores the short-term stability under consociationalism and the long-term stability under a multiethnic education system. Additionally, this study explains the importance of the country’s only multiethnic education system in Brčko District and how it came into existence.

This is an overview lecture through a PowerPoint presentation to the Somali Student Association of Oxford University in the UK.  It covers geography, history, and economics. It provides a brief overview of Somalia in general. 
It helps Somali undergraduate students in general.

Recent events in the country like ongoing lynching, murder, hate crime, communal polarisation, cow vigilantism, love jihad, caste clashes, media bias, governmental apathy, organised 'pseudo patriotism' and related development of breech of peace schools and colleges in certain states in central India, and increasing silence of the majority on terrible attacks and violence on people made me to think what should we do to propagate love and peace among people. As an educator, I believe it is time for all our schools to take Reconciliation and Peace as a major topic to concentrate and make modules and texts available to all our schools. Jesuits in South Asia is always concerned about the growing violence and tendency of violence in the minds of students. I am sure the CBCI too is very much concerned about this. Education has a big role to play in building peace in the minds of people, in the country. We must acknowledge the future of our country and the humanity depends upon the type of education we give to our students. That is why we urge the government's new Commission for education to take this aspect seriously. We wish our education policy must have a place for peace and reconciliation as a major thrust area. Human dignity and Human Rights and protection of environment are the core values that need to be practiced with urgency in all our schools. This goes very well with the Sustainable Development Goal set forth by the UN too. What we need today in India is a priority based programme of peace education in all aspects of school curricula. Children must be taught the cherished human values such as kindness, mercy, friendship, harmony, generosity, equanimity, and righteousness, as enshrined in all our religions and the basic values enshrined in the Preamble of our Constitutions. There seems to be a deliberate attempt from some quarters to undermine these values by hijacking religions and ignoring the Constitutions. There must be programmes and modules to create values and development of attitudes and behaviours to be practiced in schools and out of school environment to achieve a counter culture of violence and hatred. Perhaps we need to reorient our teaching-learning programmes in the schools. We must design programmes, co-scholastic activities, functions,

Se consideran las siguientes temáticas relacionadas, aunque no exclusivas:

Pedagogías para la paz: el nuevo rol de la cultura de paz en la educación del siglo XXI Teorías de cultura y educación para la paz
Conceptos centrales de la educación para la paz
Capacidades docentes para la construcción de paz en América Latina Metodologías para la construcción de paz en contextos escolares
Cultura y educación para la paz en Asia y África: teorías y metodologías Educación para la paz y análisis de los costos de la violencia en América Latina Derechos humanos y educación para la paz en el sistema educativo mexicano Filosofía de la no-violencia para jóvenes
Investigación en educación para la paz y estudio de conflictos

Reconciliation, as a post-conflict peacebuilding activity for social reconstruction, has gained academic and policy recognition for its potential in rebuilding relationships broken during war. It has been linked with activities for establishing institutional mechanisms dealing with human rights atrocities, focusing on victims’ rights to truth, and justice, as well as long-term development strategies for divided societies. Reconciliation is a key category that receives donors’ support, seen as a precondition of peace (Fischer, 2011).

For those engaged in post-conflict reconstruction, reconciliation is a growing field for transitional justice, accountability processes and rebuilding rule of law in divided societies. All strategies have received ongoing international assistance (Sriram, 2010), as practice in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia showed (through investment in International tribunals and Judicial sector reform). Academics centred on divided societies state that reconciliation can help meet the everyday needs of those living in peacebuilding societies (Eastmond, 2010) via inter-ethnic dialogue, social empowerment, deliberative democracy (Yordán, 2003) and also on ideational, cultural and non-state factors that can foster legitimacy to peace activities.

ns word oorval met slegte nuus. Die beelde uit Irak en Sirië – van mense wat onthoof word, en veral kinders wat gekruisig en wreed gemartel word – is só erg dat ’n mens fisies benoud voel. Die onnoembare dinge wat ISIS en Boko-Haram doen, is die heel naaste wat ek al aan naakte boosheid gesien het. Kan enige nuus meer ontstellend wees?


Die gebrek aan respek vir lewe en minagting van ander se menswaardigheid gooi ook somber skaduwees oor Suid-Afrika. By al die slegte nuus van korrupsie en kragonderbrekings, is daar weer die lang skaduwee van rassisme en vreemdelingehaat.

It is poignant to note that after the official South African Truth and Reconciliation hearings discontinued there has not been adequate progress made in terms of racial and ethnic reconciliation in South Africa. Therefore, the chapter aims to address the issue with a focus on the contribution that Steve Biko made from his perspectives on a Black Consciousness ideology and how it can be used to address the matter. The chapter commences with stating the problem of racial and ethnic reconciliation in South Africa, that is still a challenge, and has often been observed in media spats between coloured and African blacks. The chapter uses this ethnic and racial tension as a case study to explore how the work of Biko can complement the discontinued work of the SouthAfrican TRC’s process in ensuring racial and ethnic reconciliation.

Oggetto principale di questo elaborato è lo Sri Lanka, una piccola isola dell’Oceano Indiano tristemente nota per una sanguinosa guerra civile durata 26 anni e terminata ufficialmente nel maggio del 2009. Alla base del conflitto, che ha visto contrapporsi l’organizzazione paramilitare delle Tigri Tamil (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) e l’esercito regolare srilankese, vi è la rivalità etnica fra la comunità maggioritaria dei singalesi e quella minoritaria dei tamil. I due gruppi, con caratteristiche linguistiche, religiose, geografiche e genealogiche differenti, vengono spesso considerati in storico e perenne conflitto, presentando la guerra civile quale esito scontato ed inevitabile di una società fondata sull’ostilità etnica.
Obiettivo principale di questo lavoro è proprio quello di scardinare una simile convinzione: dimostrando la natura multiculturale e tollerante dello Sri Lanka, collocando l’emersione della rivalità etnica nel contesto storico del primo Novecento ed inquadrando la sua definitiva esplosione nel periodo relativo al processo d’indipendenza del 1948. Si cercherà, inoltre, di valutare la credibilità di un eventuale ritorno all’antica stabilità, attraverso l’analisi delle iniziative di riconciliazione nazionale verificatesi dal termine ufficiale della guerra civile ad oggi.
La prima parte si incentrerà sulla struttura sociale dello Sri Lanka, sia passata che presente. Si illustrerà dapprima la composizione di una popolazione estremamente variegata ed eterogenea, evidenziando le principali caratteristiche della sua composita suddivisione interna e dimostrando quanto sia ingannevole la sua riduzione ad una semplicistica ed omogenea bipolarità. Verrà documentato, inoltre, quanto la matrice etnica sia solo una parte della stratificazione sociale srilankese, nella quale si inseriscono molteplici fattori dalle peculiarità differenti. Infine, verranno analizzate le complesse dinamiche interne ed interazionali delle diverse comunità nel corso dei secoli, sottolineando principalmente l’esistenza di un passato contraddistinto dalla pacifica convivenza e dalla mutua tolleranza.
La seconda parte, invece, si occuperà dell’influenza esercitata dalla gestione amministrativa della colonia britannica sullo sviluppo della tensione interetnica. In particolare, si descriverà il passaggio dal riconoscimento delle diverse identità e dal coinvolgimento di tutti i gruppi presenti sull’isola nella conduzione della colonia ad un’impostazione eurocentrica basata
sulla costruzione di un sentimento di unità nazionale e sul desiderio di omogeneità sociale del multiforme Ceylon. Verrà dimostrata l’inesistenza di scontri di matrice etnica e l’emersione di un generale collaborazionismo interetnico durante la prima fase della gestione britannica dell’isola, per poi analizzare lo sviluppo graduale della tensione tra le diverse comunità nella sua seconda parte, coincidente con l’alba del XX secolo. Si cercherà di sottolineare la natura di un simile scontro, che cede definitivamente alla propaganda del nazionalismo etnico a causa delle problematiche legate ad un’equa distribuzione della rappresentanza politica ed alla crescente insoddisfazione degli strati medi ed inferiori della popolazione ceylonese circa le proprie condizioni sociali. Infine, si mostrerà la definitiva esplosione del dualismo singalese-tamil nell’ultimo periodo del processo d’indipendenza e la responsabilità britannica nell’aver lasciato l’isola in possesso dei requisiti necessari alla costruzione del moderno conflitto etnico, in grado di smembrare l’intero tessuto sociale dello Sri Lanka e dividere profondamente la propria popolazione.
Una divisione che le barbare violenze della guerra civile e le criminali violazioni dei diritti umani hanno alimentato ed accresciuto, tanto da apparire insanabili. La terza ed ultima parte, infatti, intende analizzare l’attendibilità di un ritorno alla tollerante convivenza interetnica attraverso elementi essenziali all’eventuale costruzione di una riconciliazione sociale, ossia: l’accertamento delle responsabilità per i crimini internazionalmente puniti; la garanzia di un adeguato e credibile processo giudiziario; l’effettiva tutela delle libertà individuali per la popolazione srilankese. Si farà riferimento, quindi, alle azioni dei governi in carica sull’isola dalla fine del conflitto e la pressione delle Nazioni Unite per la realizzazione di tali obiettivi. In particolare, si presenteranno le risoluzioni adottate sinora dal Consiglio per i Diritti Umani delle Nazioni Unite nei confronti dello Sri Lanka, sottolineando l’evoluzione della collaborazione fra questi due attori della comunità internazionale per giungere all’effettiva stabilità dell’isola.

Turkish-Greek relations are marked by a long trajectory of enmity and tension. This book sets out to explore the ‘other side’ of that history, focusing on initiatives that have promoted contact between the two societies and encouraged rapprochement. Presenting a new critical re-description of Turkish-Greek rapprochement processes over a lengthy time span (1974-2013), Turkish-Greek Relations offers innovative explanations for the emergence of the reconciliation movement.

Instead of lineal continuities, the book explores different routes that these efforts for rapprochement have followed, reflected in the divergent visions for a ‘Turkish-Greek friendship’ pursued by actors as distinct as radical leftists, civil society activists, local government representatives, artists and liberal intellectuals, as well as journalists, politicians and businessmen.

Drawing on political discourse theory and social anthropology, this book employs extensive archival research into Turkish and Greek sources, significant numbers of interviews with pioneers of the rapprochement movement, and an original ethnographic study, to examine the competing claims for ‘Greek-Turkish friendship’. In doing so, it is possible to assess their successes and failures, prospects and predicaments. A valuable addition to existing literature, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of International Relations, Peace and Reconciliation Studies, and Politics.

Conflict, Violence, Terrorism and their Prevention provides an inter-disciplinary and global perspective on aspects of aggression and violence. It explores the individual, group, and international processes and conditions by which violent conflict occurs. It shows the wide range and diffuse nature of contemporary violence and the need to approach it from many disciplines. The book also examines some multi-faceted solutions and responses to conflict. The optimistic conclusion from this work is that there are concrete and specific ways to address conflict and violence. Violence is neither inevitable nor innately determined.

These 13 well-researched chapters use a variety of empirical and theoretical approaches drawn from psychology, political science, and anthropology. Its topics include terrorism, education, peace studies, and conflict resolution. Experts from eight countries share their findings and offer a comprehensive overview of violence and responses to it. The book builds on current thinking regarding causal factors, such as inequality, exclusion, lack of opportunity, or grievance. It broadens the conceptualization of the phenomena and links it with tangible measures that reduce conflict and promote peace.

This book is an important source for researchers and students of conflict, violence, and peace. It is accessible to anyone with broad interests in studying aggressive behavior and methods of reducing it."

This essay focuses on the reconciliatory facet of the Eucharist, highlighting its transformative and restorative character. In so doing, it seeks to show how the Eucharist can shape our perception and practices with regard to penitence and retributive justice, two controversial aspects of reconciliation. The essay proceeds in three sections. The first section focuses on how acknowledgment of our need for reconciliation shapes our identity, showing us not only who we are as sinners, but also who we are called to be as a reconciled people. The second section examines practices of penitence in the Church’s history to show how these practices of penitence contribute to the practice of what I shall call Eucharistic reconciliation. The third and final section will examine both ecclesial and secular practices of punishment in the light of the practice of Eucharistic reconciliation, and in doing so seek to show how punishment—properly understood and applied—can be understood to be a part of the practice of Eucharistic reconciliation.

I wrote this paper in 2010 based on the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) annual reports, while still working in the UNDP run Peace and Recovery project. The UNDP Bougainville Programme implemented a reconciliation exercise in 2008, after 2008 was declared by the late President Joseph Kabui as the “Year for Weapons Disposal and Reconciliation”. A Peace and Reconciliation Ministry & Division was immediately established by ABG to oversee the peace and reconciliation process. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the methodology used by UNDP and ABG.

Somalia celebrated the 60th anniversary of its independence while still striving to recover from the state collapse and protracted civil war. The Somali post-colonial state experienced two governance systems: liberal democracy (1960-69) and military dictatorship (1969-1991). The ruling political elites during these two governance systems ‘remained aloof from society’ and evolved later during the military regime as ‘a government at war with its own people.’ In this paper, the author addresses the intricate question of why all ruling political elites of the past 60 years who applied different political systems ultimately failed. The author also argues that the compounded political culture of the ruling elite explains the collapse of the state and impediment to its recovery.

Adopting clan power-sharing of 4.5 and Islam as the ultimate reference for all legal matters marked a paradigm shift in recovering the Somali state during the Reconciliation Conference in Djibouti in 2000. 2 The new model has succeeded in kick-starting reconciliation and state-building; however, a functioning state has still not been achieved in the last 20 years. During this period, the Islamists were propelled to power in 2009-2017 after the rise of the Union of Islamic Courts in 2006. However, the two Islamist regimes of Presidents Sheikh Sharif (2009-2012) and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (2012-2017) failed to exhibit better achievements than non-Islamists in the index of good governance. In this paper, I theorize Islam and Islamists in Somalia focusing on the critical conceptions and cultural challenges. Through this paper, I have redefined some critical terminologies to accord to the Islamic perspective. I have also laid out a general framework of Islam and conceptualized Sharia and its critical classification of human actions and utterances. Moreover, I have theorized the location of the state in the general framework of Islam and presented an overview of the conceptions of Islamists regarding the modern state. The paper classifies Islamists regarding their perceptions of the modern state into three groups: rejecters, reformers, and collaborators. Rejecters are revolutionaries seeking to establish what they perceive as an "Islamic Caliphate," while collaborators are legitimizers of the existing post-colonial state establishments. On the other hand, reformist Islamists are located in between the two by accepting a modern state framework whilst advocating its reformation according to Islamic authenticity. Finally, I have provided an account of the rise of Somali Islamists to power and cultural challenges of the political elites that equates them with non-Islamists regarding governance parameters.

In the context of complex political emergencies (CPEs). `peace' is a descriptive term commonly used to refer merely to the ending of organised violent conflict, as in Galtung's negative peace . The concept of peace has a much wider range of meanings, including Galtung's positive peace at the other end of the spectrum, which describes a situation in which both these types of violence are minimal or non-existent, and the major potential causes of future conflict are also removed. Justice and reconciliation often figure in conflict settlements, and the establishment of negative peace, but are of fundamental importance in minimising the chances of a return to conflict and in peace-building. They are seen as issues of increasing importance in transitions to democracy  and there is an increasing international currency in shared experiences of promoting peace through justice and reconciliation. For instance, members of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) studied and visited several countries in Latin America which had used truth commissions. Judge Goldstone, who is from South Africa and set up the War Crimes Tribunal on former Yugoslavia, is also overseeing the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Nonetheless there is no consensus about how to assess the strength of either justice or reconciliation, and comparative research has as yet only yielded very limited lessons. Moreover, no common understanding has yet emerged of the political conditions under which efforts at reconciliation should be restrained and justice promoted, or vice versa, in order to achieve the `best' peace. Furthermore, contrasting, if not actually contradictory, understandings of justice and reconciliation, and their relationship to each other and to peace currently operate, even in the same settings.

original description by TV3 CCMA: Andreu Ginestet és un mediador per la pau català instal·lat a Alemanya que intervé en alguns dels principals conflictes del món. Hem aprofitat per parlar amb ell de com es veu el procés català a les altres instàncies mundials, del conflicte entre Rússia i Ucraïna, per Ginestet "el que més preocupa en aquest moment", i també s'ha referit a l'organització Estat Islàmic.

Description by Andreu Ginestet: In this film on Catalan State television we concentrate on the Catalonia versus Spain conflict, Ukraine, IS, Iraq and the mesh of conflicts and interests. Conflicts are explained as connected net-works of conflict that are overlaid by networks of interests.

These proceedings summarize the first international Forum organized by the Lebanon Dialogue Initiative (LDI). The proceedings cannot provide a verbatim account of the discussions nor transmit the sincerity of the speakers and the vibrancy and inter-activeness of the participants, nor do justice to the wealth of comments and insights that were shared during and after the sessions. Instead, these proceedings provide an overview of the main messages conveyed and the key topics discussed.

" A key component of peace processes and post-conflict reconstruction is the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) of ex-combatants. DDR programs imply multiple transitions: from the combatants who lay down their weapons, to the governments that seek an end to armed conflict, to the communities that receive – or reject – these demobilized fighters. At each level, these transitions imply a complex and dynamic equation between the demands of peace and the clamor for justice " (Theidon 2007: 66).1 The quote comes from Kimberly Theidon's (2007) article, " Transitional Subjects: The Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration of Former Combatants in Colombia, " which is based on her ethnographic research with demobilized and reinserted ex-combatants from the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), and the Auto-Defensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) at three sites in Colombia. Additionally, Theidon worked with representatives from state organizations and NGOs, the military and intelligence service, the Catholic and Evangelical churches, along with different sectors of the host communities who are receiving these combatants. One important aspect of Theidon's research are the semi-structured in-depth interviews that Theidon and her research assistant conducted with 112 former combatants (Theidon 2007:75). In this paper, I offer a brief exploration and critique of what I believe are some the greatest problems with Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programs in Colombia, as well as the larger conflict resolution and peacemaking processes in Colombia, between the FARC and the Colombian government. While it appears that the intentions of these DDR programs are noble, one of the greatest problems I see with these programs as a whole, is that they do not take into account how the rehabilitation and resocialization of ex-combatants into these communities looks different for each community receiving these ex-combatants. Given this, I argue that these programs would benefit from an infusion of insights from the social sciences, studies on transitional justice, and gender.