Conflict Resolution
No matter how different we are, we all share the aspiration for peace.
The news is fraught with stories of violence perpetrated in the name of religious beliefs; images of death are associated with religion far too frequently. Ignorance and fear bred by religious discrimination generate hostility and conflict that ranges from workplace tension to holy war. This section will show how religion, rather than being a divisive force, can and does serve as an avenue for harmony. While much of the violence in our world focuses on the differences between religions, diverse faiths are working together to overcome violence. These programs will analyze conflict transformation, mediation, and resolution as well as peace building and social development.
Programs
Conflict Transformation and Peace Building
Dr. Wiliam Vendley, Stein Villumstad, Jacqueline Ogega
This workshop, held by the group Religions for Peace, will focus on the power of multireligious cooperation in conflict transformation. Open to all religious leaders, women of faith, youth and other stakeholders, the program seeks greater awareness of and commitment to multireligious action to end violent conflict and build peace. Group discussion will address various forms of violence and its victims, helping to contribute to an exchange of ideas regarding prevention, peace building and knowledge of best practices.
Religion, Conflict, and Peace Building: The Case of Israel-West Bank-Gaza
Eliyahu McLean, Ibtisam Mahamid, Deacon Jiries Mansour, Sheikh Hussein Abu Rukkun, Sheikh Adbul Aziz Bukhari
The Israeli, West Bank, and Gaza areas are some of the most volatile in the world. Inter-religious and inter-ethnic conflict has plagued these areas for decades. Land disputes and human rights violations have been a significant source of conflict. As the Holy Land for numerous faiths, there have been regular clashes over access to sacred sites. Because of this, tensions between ethnic and religious communities are high, characterized by a lack of trust and discrimination. The Jerusalem Peacemakers and the Abrahamic Reunion, a network and family of religious leaders, women and grassroots peacemakers seek to rebuild trust between Israelis and Palestinians, especially after the recent war in Gaza. The peacemakers in the Holy Land work together to help loosen up rigid beliefs, bridge the gulf between peoples, and to help people recognise they're all in this together and that polarisation and violence do not work. Representatives of Jewish, Christian, Druze, and Muslim faiths will share stories of peacemaking and hope from the ground in Israel and Palestine.
The Role of Religion in Mediating Conflict
Ghulam Nabi Fai, Stein Villumstad, Fiyaz Mughal, Joanne Blaney
Interfaith dialogue has far wider implications than simply bringing religious believers together to talk shop: when religious and spiritual leaders have garnered the respect of diverse communities and constituencies in their area, they can become guides and touchstones to mediating conflicts of all sorts. This panel, led by speakers with great experience, will discuss strategies for mediation, reconciliation, and conflict resolution.
Religion, Conflict, and Peace Building: The Case of Colombia
Father Leonel Narvaez, Joanne Blaney, Jane Wells
Colombia is experiencing an increase in criminality, domestic and school violence, generalised anarchy, organised crime, dramatic poverty, and the harmful influence of drug trafficking. The Schools of Forgiveness and Reconciliation (SRF) have seven centres of reconciliation in Bogota and operate in twelve additional Latin American cities. Overall, SRF has placed programs in 47 schools. SRF has created the school curriculum Pedagogy of Caring and Reconciliation to provide training in the promotion of peace and education on the local level and work with former combatants towards reconciliation. It seeks to help victims of any violence to transform their negative memories, to generate new narratives and to get free of the past in order to project their lives into the future. The methodology is gradually expanding, already in 40 cities in Colombia and 12 countries in the Americas. SRF has also developed centers of reconciliation and an adult literacy project. This UNESCO recognised SRF for their work in peace education in 2006 and 2007.
