Beyond Intractability: A Free Knowledge Base on More Constructive Approaches to Destructive Conflict
Introduction:
What is the role of civil society in conflict prevention and
resolution? Paul Van Tongeren, executive director of the European Centre for
Conflict Resolution, talks about organizing international
conferences dedicated to discussing and disseminating lessons learned about the
role of civil society in peacebuilding.
This rough transcript provides a text alternative to audio. We apologize for occasional errors and unintelligible sections (which are marked with ???).
Civil Society in Violence Prevention and Post-War Reconstruction
Paul van Tongeren
Executive Director of the European Centre for Conflict Prevention
Two years ago, Kofi Annan made a report
for the general assembly of the United Nations on conflict prevention. One
paragraph in that report is about civil society and the growing recognition that
civil society is very important. It continued to say if there is sustainable
peace, civil society should be more involved. In all of the civil wars, the civil
actors are the victims, or play a part in the conflict, but it doesn't help only
that two parties come to the table and have discussions; a broader civil society
has to be involved. Inspired by that paragraph of that report Kofi Annan, I
recommend an international NGO to organize an international conference on the
role of civil society in conflict prevention. We responded with saying that we
are documenting a lot of the work of those NGOs in our Searching for Peace
program. Secondly, we have organized many larger international conferences. We
believe that the role of civil society is very important, so we are eager
to organize those conferences. Since then we are in contact with the UN and the
idea now is to propose that conference with the UN in 2004, and in 2005
roughly eight to ten regional conferences will be organized. In West Africa a
civil society conference may be held on what civil society can contribute to
peacebuilding. Women's organizations, religious groups, the elderly, the youth,
and the media will discuss these issues. Those conferences will come with recommendations, and then all those draft recommendations and draft action plans will be brought together to the UN.
This process is very well
received in regions in many countries because they think it will strengthen the
profile of civil society. It will strengthen the profile of this field by
gaining some more weight and prestige when there is a conference at the United
Nations. I think there are several gains and advantages to start this whole
process and to work to that conference. Another important point is that the
interaction with international organizations, governments, and the interaction
with the United Nations also are seen as more important issues. It is not easy.
We need to know how to cooperate with governments, how to cooperate with United
Nations or the African Union. There is a growing concern that we have to look
for mechanisms to improve our relationships, to cooperate, and to work as one.
How can we better attune our activities and perhaps cooperate, so that is also a
main scene of this conference, and in the preparatory process to develop those
mechanisms.
Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please. -- Mark Twain
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The Beyond Intractability Knowledge Base Project Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess, Co-Directors and Editors c/o Conflict Information Consortium(Formerly Conflict Research Consortium), University of Colorado Campus Box 580, Boulder, CO 80309 Phone: (303) 492-1635; Fax: (303) 492-2154; Contact
