Practitioners’ Conference
Revisiting the transformative potential of transitional justice
18th- 19th April 2023, Berlin
Centre for Nonviolent Action is one of the partners of the Global Learning Hub for Transitional Justice and Reconciliation which hosted the conference in a joint effort coordinated by the Berghof Foundation.
Davorka Turk and Nenad Vukosavljević with Maria Wilke of EVZ Foundation and Natscha Zupan of Berghof Foundation, co-hosted one of the four conference workshops: Against all odds: Transforming the role of “unpopular” victims.
The workshop featured three cases of “unpopular victims“: Emran Almazi of The Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma; Aneta Vladimirov of Serb National Council Croatia; and Temrana Gurah of Taman 65, from Bali/Indonesia.
It may be counted as definite success, that conference did not contain a line of contributions aiming to self praise one’s own achievements, which appears to be a common temptation at various occasions. Conference outcomes may be differently framed from different angles, but what may be the shared wealth of it is the networking and shared space used to actually exchange in depth. There were actually also challenges of opinions, so the dialogue purposefully went beyond alleged agreements. Thankfully, or not so, various differences in approaches to peacebuilding became visible, ranging from somewhat odd (or possibly cynical) claim that military action/response is a necessary precondition for peacebuilding in Ukraine, to differences regarding understanding of transitional justice and whether it is a purpose for itself and if it’s concept reaches beyond criminal justice.
It was a kick off event of the Hub that begins to take shape. It didn’t go all smoothly, particularly in the preparational phase, but it appears that there’s will and determination among partners to explore what our synergies could be.