11-12 December 2014 London
Out of or desire to promote the publication of the English version of our handbook “Reconciliation?!” in London and the need of our colleagues from the British peace organisation Conciliation Resources (CR) to continue internal discussions on reconciliation in a wider circle of people, came the workshop held at the CR on 10 December 2014. One part of the workshop was moderated by Ivana Franović and Nenad Vukosavljević, and the other by our long-time friend Diana Francis. The participants included peace activists, practitioners and scholars from England and their associates from Georgia and Abkhazia.
At the same time, this meeting was a continuation of previous cooperation and the meeting of groups from Georgia and Abkhazia in Belgrade that Ivana Franović attended as a guest.
The workshop was designed to encourage exchange about applied concepts of peacebuilding, understandings of dealing with the past and memory work.
In an exceptionally stimulating environment of people with wide-ranging experience working in conflict zones throughout the world, it was a pleasure to discuss and examine existing concepts for overcoming the consequences of violent conflict. From Northern Ireland, Fiji, Columbia and Spain to the Balkans and South Caucasus. For us, the exchange of opinions was inspiring and strengthening and the feedback tells us that the other participants felt the same.
We spent the second day talking with Rachel Clogg from CR, Diana Francis and their associates from Abkhazia and Georgia, discussing the possibilities of cooperation and application, that is, transfer of CNA experience to the South Caucasus context. We agreed on a study visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina by a group of peace motivated Georgians and Abkhazians that will be organised under the leadership of CNA in March 2016 with accompanying workshops. Cooperation was also agreed to translate the “Reconciliation!?” handbook into Russian, Georgian and Ukrainian, because the handbook was deemed potentially useful in the former Soviet Union context. We still have to secure funds for this endeavour.
Diana Francis