by Elissa Al Roumi, Lebanon “What is forgiveness? Can you reconcile without forgiving?” this was the opening question of our last session after a four weeks Symposium. Robi Damelin stood there listening to our “scientific” [...]
Alpana Modi (Australia) Tuesday’s session on “Negotiating in an International Context” was an eye opening experience for me. I learned the intricacies of international negotiating, and that “silence is worth more than a thousand [...]
Kendal Jones (US) Although scholars and practitioners in the field of post-conflict transitions tend to view reconciliation as an “obvious objective” and perhaps even the main challenge to rebuilding communities after conflict, the victims [...]
by Rachel Naguib, Egypt How can we forget violent conflicts that left us psychologically devastated and our feelings full of apprehension, relief, anger and lethargy? Memory is not only a product of the past, but [...]
by Rose Julia Wanjiru, Kenya The speaker of the day was Hon. Gareth Evans, an expert in state diplomacy from his experience as an Australian Foreign Minister and President and CEO of the International [...]
by Pierre Ahoure, Côte d’Ivoire/Australia On Wednesday 15, and Thursday 16, July 2015, trainers Michael Shipler and Rajendra Mulmi coached the Peacemakers at the 2015 Bologna Symposium, to search for common ground during conflict prevention, [...]
Kate Kranz Jordan (USA - Allied Joint Force Command, Naples/US Naval Forces Europe/Africa, ISAF, United States Naval Academy) At the end of the second week of the symposium, we set out to resolve a number of the [...]
by Alice Dean, Canada Dr. Joyce Neu, the Founder and Senior Associate of Facilitating Peace and a former Team Leader of United Nations’ Standby Team of Mediation experts, continued her lecture with us on Tuesday, [...]
Jennifer MacNeill (US) It is one thing to sit in a classroom for weeks, months - years even, and learn about concepts such as “restorative and retributive justice”, “frameworks”, and “alternatives to state building”…It [...]
Ojo Osaigbovo (Nigeria/Australia) The debate regarding the efficacy of punitive versus restorative justice has been an increasingly central one in global political discourse. As a proponent of a punitive form of post-war transitional justice [...]