mediation

Society as Mediator for Conflict Resolution

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:15 -0500

Society as Mediator for Conflict Resolution

by Tamara Muruetagoiena

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In this notebook you will learn how Elkarri, a group based in the Basque Region, has used a form of dialogue they call social mediation to encourage the broadest possible participation from all arenas of society to discuss solutions to the conflict. Community members were given a broad choice of ways to get involved: from signing a petition to becoming a member to participating in and organizing discussion groups. But however people chose to participate, they learned that they had a role to play in mediating the conflict that affected their lives and created pressure on the groups in conflict to make steps toward seeking peaceful resolution.

There are more than forty significant ongoing political conflicts in the world today. One of these is the continuing conflict in the Basque Country. More and more, civilian populations find themselves caught in the crossfire, powerless to influence the conflicts that profoundly affect their daily lives. Elkarri is attempting to empower all elements of Basque society, constructing a "space" wherein the people of the Basque Country can mediate for their own well-being. Across the political spectrum, all public opinion surveys conducted over the last 10 years reflect consensus amongst Basques on several principal points. Foremost, the population firmly rejects the use of violence to achieve political aims. Even as the Basque population recognizes that there are serious political problems requiring resolution, the population strongly supports dialogue as the path to resolve these differences and wishes a voice in determining the future of the Basque Country.

In the last twelve years Elkarri has taken up this mandate and sought to promote a culture of dialogue and peace. In an effort to overcome the dynamic of confrontation, the organization has worked to create an atmosphere of cooperation, leveraging public sentiment toward the establishment and maintenance of a continuing viable dialogue. In this sense, Elkarri’s endeavors have been directed toward society as a whole: the citizens, mass media, political parties, institutions and all the actors in the conflict. Given the context of extreme political polarization in the Basque Country, the founders of Elkarri felt it was essential, from the start, to clearly establish the independent character of this social group along with its complete independence from all of the involved parties.

A fresh outlook and a new vocabulary have proven fundamental in creating spaces for meeting and discourse instead of the common attitudes and expressions of hostility, coercion and intractability. Elkarri does not adhere blindly to rigid criteria such as "neutrality" or "equidistance." Rather, the movement is guided by an active commitment to the establishment of conditions favorable to a balanced and democratic process of dialogue. This social movement is continually evolving its own language and modes of action, unmistakably distinct from the concepts, words and methods employed by the parties embroiled in the conflict. Elkarri provides an "a la carte" menu of participation to maximize grassroots support. Rather than dictating one or two prescribed means of involvement, Elkarri aims to maximize accessibility by providing a wide range of options. Because the pace of contemporary society limits the amount of time, energy and resources that people are willing and able to commit, we allow people to tailor their involvement to match their capacities.

The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated by the broad support for Elkarri’s Peace Conference of 2001-2002. While it culminated in a single event, the Peace Conference encompassed a year-long, four-part process operating on three levels–among the general population, among political parties and internationally. It began with a signature drive that netted 50,000 signatures and small donations that added up to US$500,000. Eventually more than 4,000 people joined the organization as members while 1,200 volunteered their time and 180 ongoing local workshops and one-time events were held throughout the Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre, as well as in Madrid, Barcelona, Brussels and New York. This notebook is an attempt to share some of the valuable insights and experience we gained through this process of social participation. We hope that this information will be useful to others seeking to broaden the base of participation in conflict resolution.

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from www.adobe.com.

Powerful Persuasion

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:10 -0500

Powerful Persuasion

By Emile Short

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See Phillipe Duhamel's creative take on this resource at interTactica!

In this notebook, we learn about some of the most difficult human rights violations to eradicate–customary or traditional practices based on deep-seated beliefs, particularly those with a spiritual dimension. One such practice is the Trokosi, in Ghana, a system of servitude that meets the community need for justice and the material and sexual needs of fetish priests. Women and young girls are brought and kept in fetish shrines to atone for sins or crimes allegedly committed by one of their relatives. The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) recognized that legislation outlawing such practices may not be effective and may, in some cases, result in driving a customary practice further underground. Respected leaders–at local and national levels–engaged in direct dialogue with perpetrators, victims, other community leaders, and the community at large to facilitate understanding of the practice, while providing alternatives and avenues for abandoning the practice without losing status. There are many ways in which respected leaders can be enlisted to help community members understand the dynamics of customary or traditional practices, and to address the underlying complexities of such practices in order to transform or change those that violate basic human rights.

Some of the most difficult human rights violations to address are customary or traditional practices based on deep-seated beliefs of a community or people, particularly practices that have a spiritual dimension. In the Trokosi system in Ghana, women and virgin girls are taken without their consent to fetish shrines to atone for sins or alleged crimes committed by family members. They are forced to serve the shrine priests through manual labor, including farming and cooking, and are sexually exploited as well. The practice occurs mainly in remote areas of the Volta Region of Ghana, which is dominated by an ethnic group called the Ewes. Through a coalition effort involving the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ, a constitutional and statutory body), International Needs Ghana (ING, an NGO), the National Commission on Civic Education (another constitutional body), and the traditional leaders from the Ewe communities, we have succeeded in liberating thousands of young women and girls held in this bondage.

Our tactic is to mobilize the support of respected community leaders, such as chiefs, queen mothers, and local governmental officials, using them as resources in seminars and durbars2 on the human rights implications of the practice and recommending voluntary liberation of the victims. After these meetings, we enter direct negotiations with the shrine priests and elders, persuading them to voluntarily end the Trokosi practice. Because they speak the same language and hail from the same communities as the practitioners, the community leaders have played a crucial role in changing the mind-set, beliefs, and behavior of those involved in the human rights abuse. This approach is useful when dealing with cultural or traditional practices based on deeply entrenched beliefs, especially when the practice has a spiritual dimension and practitioners are reluctant to abolish it for fear of incurring the wrath of the gods. Experience combating female genital mutilation taught us that legislation prohibiting traditional and customary practices is ineffective if not preceded by intense public education programs.

In addition, human rights groups must engage in dialogue with practitioners, working to change their mindset and persuade them to voluntarily give up the abusive practice. It can be difficult, however, for human rights groups to achieve such engagement if they are perceived as "outsiders" by the traditional communities. Well-intentioned human rights efforts can easily be construed as an attack on people’s fundamental cultural and religious beliefs. Experience suggests that you cannot change deep-seated beliefs and practices by attacking them, nor can the law be enforced if there is no public cooperation. A different path must be found. We set out to convince practitioners and other stakeholders of the necessity of changing the Trokosi practice. We wanted the communities to see the practice for what it was: an abuse of human rights and an attack on the dignity and humanity of women in their own communities. We also wanted them to recognize that traditions are flexible and can be transformed over time, and that this practice could be changed without offending the gods. Unless we could achieve such an attitudinal change, legislation and enforcement could result in the practice being driven underground, and women and girls continuing to be trapped in this system of bondage.

ING provided support and oversight of the effort, setting up initial meetings with the Trokosi priests, shrine elders, and community chiefs, and arranging the seminars and durbars. I represented the CHRAJ, while the third key participant was Mama Adokua Asigble IV, Queen Mother from the Tefle traditional area and member of the National Commission on Civic Education. This process has taken more than a decade, and has involved a complex series of integrated steps: human rights advocacy and education in the various communities; negotiations with shrine priests and elders; and, for the freed Trokosi women, vocational skills training programs, emancipation ceremonies, and counseling and rehabilitation support. In this notebook we focus on the crucial method of engaging with respected community leaders to gain access, conduct educational programs, negotiate with the shrines, and carry out the emancipation process. According to the estimates of our NGO partner, 3,000 Trokosi women and children have so far been liberated through these efforts. In 1998 we also secured the passage of the "Prohibition of customary servitude" law; this has helped give momentum to the process, despite the fact that no prosecutions have yet taken place under this law.

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from www.adobe.com.

Access to Justice: Creating local level, citizen action mediation bodies to ensure human rights

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:07:58 -0500

by Dinesh Narayan Suddhakar

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The Centre for Victims of Torture (CVICT) in Nepal instituted a tactic to circumvent the problem of police abuse through a process of rights-based community mediation. This community mediation process was piloted in three districts of the country and has now expanded to twelve. The tactic trains local people as mediators and resources to their communities on basic laws and human rights. In addition, it has served as a vehicle to empower women to become community leaders, addressing their individual and collective needs. In the three districts there are currently 90 Human Rights Mediation Committees (HRMCs) and 90 Women Peace Committees (WPCs) at the Village Development Committee level and 810 HRMCs at the ward level.

The WPCs have served approximately 8,000 women who have been included in awareness building programmes and 4,865 women who received basic training on human rights, basic laws and mediation skills. From those who received that training, 1,993 women currently work as volunteers. A total of 964 disputes–out of 1,273–were successfully settled. In addition, legal aid was provided to 24 women to pursue 28 cases in the formal court system. Up to now, both committee types have successfully settled 3,107 out of 3,939 community level disputes.

Evidence of the success of the HMRCs and WPCs is the allocation of annual funds by the government’s Village Development Committees. This is vital to sustain the programme. Perhaps more significant is a public recognition of the HRMCs and WPCs by the formal justice forums, (i.e. court, district administration, police, etc.). Names of mediators are listed by the district court in its notice board. In addition, positive response has come from police and requests have come from other Village Development Committees to institute the programme.

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from www.adobe.com.