WORKSHOP ON PEACEBUILDING AND RECONCILIATION

CARITAS: A VISION FOR JUSTICE AND PEACEIt helps now and then to step backand take the long view.The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,it is even beyond our vision.We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fractionof the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.Nothing we do is complete,which is another way of sayingthat the kingdom always lies beyond us.No statement says all that could be said.No prayer fully expresses our faith.No confession brings perfection,no pastoral visit brings wholeness.No programme accomplishes the Church’s mission.No set of goals and objectives includes everything.That is what we are about.We plant the seeds that one day will grow.We water seeds already planted,knowing that they hold future promise.We lay foundations that will need further development.We provide yeast that produces effectsfar beyond our capabilities.We cannot do everything,and there is a sense of liberation in realising that.This enables us to do something,and to do it very well.It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning,a step along the way,an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enterand do the rest.We may never see the end results,but that is the difference betweenthe master builder and the worker.We are workers, not master builders,ministers not messiahs.We are prophets of a future not our own. Amen.Archbishop Oscar Romero from El Salvador-Background on the motive for this workshop (from the International Congress and from the intention to put together a kit to help work with this issue).-Material used: from Pace e Bene Peace Building training (Franciscan Nonviolence

Stories, Reflections, Principles, Practices, and Resources by Ken Butigan, Mary Litell, O.S.F., and Louis Vitale, O.F.M.) and from the Caritas material Peace Building Training Manual.

-objective:1. Realise how essential peace building and reconciliation is for our work in evangelization. 2. Identify issues we can address and work – individually, with the friars and with other groups in society.3. Develop training skills to work with leaders and groups.

This material is made to be use with little effort. It’s very clear and full of examples. Imagine yourself organizing and giving a workshop like this to people in your parish or to leaders of the communities where you work. This material is meant to be adapted according to the possibilities and reality to where it will be used. I did it myself, choosing and selecting what I thought would be relevant to this workshop. That is our objective that you, JPIC animators, are able to use this material on your work for peace and reconciliation, and even on training others. So, some times you’ll hear notes that are intended to guide trainers on their preparation of the material.

About expectative, I hope I can accomplish the objective of motivate and show how easy it is to deal with peace building workshops and training, but at the same time, I know that very little can be accomplished in only one morning. These books present material that can be worked with for months and even years. Therefore, this workshop represents just a small portion of the potentiality that these materials have.

STRUCTURE OF THE PRESENTATION1. FUNDAMENTATION2. RECONCILIATION3. VIOLENCE4. DEALING WITH CONFLICT5. PEACEBUILDING

1. FUNDAMENTALS1. Genesis 4:1-16: Breaking the cycle of violence: God’s response to Abel’s murder3. Exodus 20: 1-17 God commands non-killing5. The Prophets denounce injustice/pronounce peace

• Isaiah 1: I cannot hear your prayers, your hands are full of blood

• Amos 5: …let justice roll down like waters…

• Micah 6 what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice , love mercy and walk humbly with your God…6. The Wisdom Literature

• Psalms 46: God breaks the bow, shatters the spear.. makes wars to cease7. The Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

• Matt 5: 1-13 the beatitudes: foundation stones for a nonviolent life

• Luke 6: 20-49 blessings and woes, love your enemies

• John 17: prayer for disciples to be in the world, not of the world

• Luke 23:34 …Father forgive them, they know not what they do

8. The Acts of the Apostles

• ch 5: Stephen’s witness, stoning, forgiveness of his prosecutors

• ch 9: conversion of Saul from a persecutor of the nonviolent people to a preacher of the nonviolence gospel9. The Epistles

• Romans 12: overcoming evil with good

• I Corinthians 13: without love, there is nothing10. Francis of Assisi 3 relevant peace building acts:

1.the greeting “peace be with you” in a context of war and constant tension and conflict between cities.

2.reconciliation between the bishop of Assisi and the mayor.5.reconciliation between people of Gubbio and the wolf.

11. Catholic Social Teaching and Gospel NonviolenceBy John Dear, (From "The God of Peace: Toward a Theology of Nonviolence”)www.johndear.org- Pacem in Terris: A Public Cry for Peace- The Peacemaking Vision of "Gaudium et Spes"- The Second Vatican Council's Stand on Peace- Catholic Social Teaching After Vatican II- Pope John Paul II: A Time to Renounce War and Embrace Nonviolence- Pope Benedict XVI and Nonviolence

12. The Seville Statement, (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) published in 1986, challenges many conventional assumptions about violence *IT IS SCIENTIFICALLY INCORRECT to say that we have inherited a tendency tomake war from our animal ancestors. *IT IS SCIENTIFICALLY INCORRECT to say that war or any other violent behavior is genetically programmed into our human nature. * IT IS SCIENTIFICALLY INCORRECT to say that in the course of human evolution there has been a selection for aggressive behavior more than for other kinds of behavior. *IT IS SCIENTIFICALLY INCORRECT to say that war is caused by 'instinct' or any single motivation. Source: UNESCO Culture of Peace Programme 7, Place de Fontenoy, 75352 PARIS 07 SP France.

Warming up (icebreaker)Purpose: The aim of this exercise is to encourage dialogue and participation and to energizethe participants while providing a creative way for delving deeply into some of thepeace process’s more interesting dilemmas. The exercise can be repeated several times during the training; we encourage you to provide a mix of questions each time you use this activity.

Procedure:Introduce the Peace Through Dialogue exercise by asking participants to sit in pairs with a

conversation partner, face to face; preferably move away from the tables to create somespace. The facilitator chooses a question, perhaps one which reflects the nature of the day’smodule and poses the question to the group; repeat the question if necessary, and allow 10minutes for the conversation. In responding to the question, participants may focus on aconflict from their own country with which they are familiar or they may choose to focuson a general point.

1) Who are the minorities in your country? Are they in the minority because of their ethnic,indigenous, or religious identity? Are they somehow discriminated against? If you’re not part of a minority, then walk in their shoes for a moment: what do you think is your part in it?

What is Reconciliation?As an activity, reconciliation aims to achieve right relationships between individuals.Examples of reconciliation activities include victim-offender reconciliation programmes(VORP), where a specific victim and the offender both voluntarily agree to participate in afacilitated dialogue process. (page 33 of the book about Reconciliation)

One way of imagining reconciliation is that it is about making space. This can be physical space, where zones or areas are created, where people feel safe and free from harm. At other times new social spaces can be created, where people can speak their minds, think aloud, and talk together with others about the future. And still in other instances, it involves creating internal space where a traumatised person can be free from the burdens of the past. Reconciliation and peacebuilding then are about opening up spaces. Reconciliation poses a great challenge. Finding the spaces to make new choices involves very deep, personal emotions and decisions. Often reconciliation is not achieved between people who were enemies in violent conflict. For reconciliation to occur, people have to be in a place where they are able to think and act differently, where they have space and opportunity to think about more than just their physical survival and can begin to imagine lifewithout fear and hate. The process of reconciliation occurs as part of our journey to peace. Peace is an interesting term with many meanings. Peace is often understood in the negative, as the absence of war or conflict. However, we can also understand peace positively as a state of personal andsocial health and wholeness.

Dilemmas of ReconciliationFast or slow?

In public, political processes, reconciliation is often portrayed as a process that a person or a country must go through immediately, in order to move into a new future. However, this approachcontradicts much of the research and practice on individual healing and reconciliation.Personal reconciliation is a very slow process. The stories and memories need to be giventime to be told. As Robert Schreiter states: “Reconciliation involves a fundamental repairto human lives, especially to the lives of those who have suffered. That repair takes time –time that can make the participants feel insecure, but necessary time nonetheless for beginninga new life” (1995, p.21).

A social or personal process?Reconciliation for some is a public process, such as that in South Africa, but a very personalprocess to others. This manual builds on the idea that it is a very personal process; it isnot something that can be managed by a larger social body although changes in physicalspace can help create personal space. It comes from the heart of the victim and the victimiser,and has to be “discovered” there first. Reconciliation is a way of believing or seeingthe relationship rather than a way of doing things.

Exercise: What Does Reconciliation Look Like?Purpose: Engage participants in a discussion of reconciliation.Materials: NoneTime: Procedure:1) Divide participants into groups of about 8 – 10 (have at least two groups).2) Ask participants to come up with a “sculpture”, or “frozen picture” that captures reconciliation for them.3) Once groups have developed a sculpture of reconciliation, bring them back together asa large group.4) Ask each group to show their sculpture to the others.5) Ask participants viewing the sculpture what they see.6) Ask the group showing their sculpture to explain any additional elements that the viewersmay have missed.Discussion: After the groups have sat back down, engage in a discussion of the various elementsof reconciliation. Some possible questions to ask are:❖ What did the sculptures have in common?❖ What differences were there?❖ What steps do you think are necessary for reconciliation?

3. VIOLENCE

Let’s do a little Exercise: Position yourself: YES NO

1. An act is violent only when someone is physically harmed.2. A violent act is always intentional and must be punished.3. Some kinds of violence are necessary.

(In twos) 1. Do you think that ONLY intention plays a role in a violent act?

2. What if an intention is good, but clearly the act is hurting someone. Does that make a difference? Does it make it a different kind of violence?

What is Violence? –

As we look further into the nature of violence, it would be helpful to have aworking definition. The one adopted for use here is this:

Violence is any physical, emotional, verbal, institutional, structural, or spiritual behavior, attitude, policy, or condition that diminishes, dominates, or destroys ourselves or others.

As we can see, this is very far-reaching. It includes many of the definitions weall carry with us, but it includes a great deal more. With this in mind, let’s look atsome assumptions that are commonly made when a person is deciding what is violent and what is not violent:

Some Ways of Responding to Violence

Now that we have shared some thoughts about violence we are going to look at some ways of responding to violence. To better assess how we as individuals might react to violence, let’s look at some of the common responses people have to it.There are three common ways to respond to personal and interpersonal violence.

These strategies or “scripts” (habitual ways of responding) include:

• Avoiding violence

• Accommodating violence

• Responding to violence with violence

I. Avoiding ViolenceWhen we use the strategy or script of avoidance or passivity to deal with violence, we:

• Steer clear of getting involved.

• Decide that it is “not my problem.”

• Get someone else to deal with it (say, the police or the military).

• Look the other way.

• Feel powerless to do anything.

• Don’t know what to do.

• Think to ourselves, “We’re not the problem makers. Why do we have to dosomething?”

• Deny that the violence exists.

Can you think of a time when you have responded to violence (done to you, toanother, or to the planet) by avoiding the violence?

Sometimes we have no real choice but to avoid violence. But when we use thestrategy of avoidance we do not deal with the root causes of the conflict. Nor do we deal with the consequences, including the consequences that others face.

II. Accommodating Violence (living with violence)When we use the strategy or script of accommodation, we:

• Get used to violence. We conclude, “That’s just the way it is. Just accept it.” Orthink, “I can’t change the system. There is nothing I can do.”

• Adapt to the violence – Think, “If I do anything it will just get worse. Just keepquiet and maybe it will go away.”

• Think, “It’s not so bad.” This approach assumes that nothing can be done about the violence – it is the way things always have been and the way things always will be – and the best option is “Don’t rock the boat.”

Can you think of a time when you have responded to violence (done to you, toanother, or to the planet) by accommodating?

One of the problems with using this strategy is that we become accustomed to the violence to the point where we no longer notice the violence or see a problem with it.

III. Counter-Violence: Responding to Violence with ViolenceWhen we use violence to deal with violence, we:

• Take the offensive by initiating attempts at achieving power and control over the other in order to stop the violence. These can be through violent words or deeds, and can also include the wielding of political or financial power and control. This can be true even in the smallest of political systems, like the family.

• Think: “An eye for an eye.”

• Think: “The end justifies the means.”

• Think justice can prevail through violence.

This strategy is often based on the assumption that the only way violence will end is if a “better force” (usually ourselves) uses more violence to overpower the other and end it.

Dealing with CONFLICT analysis

Defining ConflictConflict is sometimes caused by miscommunication, but more often it is about other issues, likevalues or beliefs. A common definition of conflict comes from Lewis Coser, a sociologist, who defines social conflict as “a struggle over values and claims to scarce status, power and resources”(Coser, 1956, p.8). This definition highlights possible causes of conflict (values, beliefs, power,scarce status or resources). Another definition of conflict (Mitchell, 1981, p.17) refers to “any situation in which two or more social entities or ‘parties’ … perceive that they possess mutually incompatible goals.” This definition emphasises the existence of incompatible or contradictorygoals and the element of perception that leads to conflict. Would you define conflict differently?

Most people associate negative words or ideas with conflict – war, violence, anger, or hurt feelings.Peacebuilding assumes that conflict is a natural part of human existence, and that the goal is totransform the destructive ways we deal with conflict to lead to more constructive outcomes. Associating conflict with constructive outcomes generally changes our perspective to a more positive one when thinking about conflict.

Conflicts involve many actors in processes that are usually not very straightforward. However, there are still some patterns within the messy conflict dynamics and understanding them can help us identify when and how to focus our peacebuilding efforts.

1) Intra-personal conflict refers to conflicts occurring within a person. Usually people needto work on their own inner struggles and issues in order to be constructive in social conflicts.For example, in South Africa, Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk experienced personaltransformations before they successfully negotiated political change (Mandela, 1994,Sparks, 1995). Interestingly, Nelson Mandela went through his personal transformation30 years before de Klerk. What other stories of personal transformation do we know?

2) Interpersonal conflict refers to conflicts occurring between individuals or small groups

of people. Returning to our example from South Africa, Mandela and de Klerk had toengage with each other and overcome any conflicts between themselves before negotiatingbroader social change.

3) Intra-group conflict refers to those conflicts that happen within a particular group,whether it is a religious, ethnic, political or other type of identity group. It is importantto be able to manage the conflicts within your own group, and be able to communicatewith others within your group in order to build support for long-term peace processes.Mandela had to work with multiple groups including the African National Congress,the Xhosa tribe, and the Liberation Movement in order to build up support amongstblack South Africans for the new political system and the Truth and ReconciliationCommission. Similarly, de Klerk needed to work with members of the National Party,Dutch Reformed Church, and Afrikaners more generally to build support amongstwhite South Africans for political change.

4) Inter-group conflict refers to conflicts occurring between large organised social or identitygroups. For example, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a public forumdesigned to expose injustice and record events in order to achieve social reconciliation.To be successful peacebuilders we need to have the skills to work both within our owngroups as well as between groups.

There are many challenges in working at conflict transformation across these different levels of conflict. One of the biggest challenges is communicating with “the enemy” without being viewed as a spy or traitor. In societies divided by long-standing hatreds it is very difficult to move out of your own group or act as an intermediary between groups.

Conflict AnalysisWhy do we do conflict analysis? We do analysis for several reasons:❖ To determine how we should respond to the conflict with our programmes and who is involved in the conflict;❖ To figure out what motivates people to use violence or continue conflict (e.g. economicmotivations, desire for power, redressing ethnic grievances);

❖ To identify the conflict “fault lines” (the issues in the conflict); and how the conflict is unfolding.

In addition, we analyse the conflict we are peacebuilding within because until we understandthe causes of the conflict, who is involved, and the issues and dynamics of the conflict, our peacebuilding programming will not be effective. Conflict analysis supplies a detailed picture of what is happening and helps us to determine what we might do to create more peaceful and just societies.

The Who, What and How of ConflictThis is a conflict analysis model adapted from Ayindo et al. (2001). The questions this modelasks are about the who, the what, and the how of conflict.

Who? Key questions included here are: Who is involved in the conflict? How do they interactwith each other? Where is the conflict centred? What people or groups have strong positiverelationships with each other?

What? Using the metaphor of a tree, have participants discuss the root causes (the roots of thetree), core problem (the trunk of the tree), and effects (the branches and leaves of the tree) ofconflict (see Figure 3.3). This requires individuals to look at the underlying causes of conflict.

How? The how of conflict identifies the factors that escalate or continue the conflict, and thefactors that transform or resolve the conflict. Factors supporting continuation or escalation mayinclude groups exploiting natural resources for their own profit under cover of war and violence,political differences, poverty, or history of previous violence between groups. Factors supportingtransformation or resolution may include peace processes, community development efforts inwar-affected regions, trading relationships (e.g. local markets) that continue across dividedcommunities during times of war, or groups working actively to encourage tolerance and peace.

PEACEBUILDINGPRINCIPLES AND FRAMEWORKSOverviewThis module combines basic concepts in peacebuilding with practical opportunities to apply

the concepts. The basic concepts include identifying the link between peacebuilding anddevelopment, when and where peacebuilding occurs, various roles of peacebuilders, the relationship-centred nature of peacebuilding, some basic operating principles, an integratedframework for identifying peacebuilding activities, and a visioning component.

FIVE OPERATING PRINCIPLESFOR PEACEBUILDINGComprehensiveTo be comprehensive means that we need to be able to see the overall picture in order to effect change within it. Lasting peace comes from addressing the multiple sources of conflict at multiple levels of society. This suggests we need to develop lenses to identify the needs of those we are working with, a vision of what we are working towards, actions that can get us there, and a design or plan that we can use as a guide. To do this, we must be able to step back from the swirl of day-to-day crises around us and situate our actions and daily events within a broader vision and purpose.

InterdependentPeacebuilding involves a system of interconnected people, roles, and activities. No one person, activity, or level of society is capable of designing and delivering peace on its own. All things are linked and mutually affect one another. With people at the core, peacebuilding is intimately connected to the nature and quality of relationships. Peacebuilding builds and supports the interdependent relationships necessary for pursuing and sustaining desired changes. More specifically, this means we must develop processes that forge relationships between people who are not like-minded.

SustainableBuilding peace is a long-term prospect. Violent conflicts occur over generations, and we can expect that peacebuilding will take no less time. For peacebuilding to be sustainable, we need to pay attention to where our activities and energies are leading us. Rather than thinking only about the immediate and coming up with effective responses to issues and crises, sustainability requires that we think about what creates an on-going capacity within the setting for responding to and transforming recurring cycles of conflict and crises. Like sustainable development, sustainable peacebuilding seeks to discover and strengthen the resources rooted in the context of the protracted conflict.

StrategicWhile peacebuilding needs to have a comprehensive overview, specific programmatic actions also need to be strategic. That means learning to respond proactively to emerging, dynamic social situations and meeting immediate concerns and needs, while at the same time reinforcing a larger, longer-term change process. Designing and assessing peacebuilding actions needs to link to immediate needs and the desired vision of change. To be crisis-responsive but not crisis-driven requires that we strategically assess the

activities we are working on, including the what, where, and how of our activities.

InfrastructureAn infrastructure is needed to provide the social spaces, logistical mechanisms, and institutions necessary for supporting the process of change and longterm vision of peace. A peacebuilding infrastructure is like the foundation and pillars that hold up a house. Here, the foundations are people, their relationships, and the social spaces they need to support the process of transforming division and violence to increased respect and interdependence, and increased involvement in and responsibility for building peace. The infrastructure provides the basic support that enables people and peacebuilding processes to weather the immediate crises while patiently pursuing the slow, long-term desired change within a context of relationships.(Adapted from Lederach, 1997)

Question for Reflection: Do these principles capture all of the important elements ofpeacebuilding for you?

Work group – please take notes:Develop a case study from your own reality (the group chooses one case, and it could be as simple as a difficult relationship within the community) and you are peacebuilding the conflict following the program:

1. Conflict Analysis – who, what, how2. Situate your action in a way it can be: Interdependent, Sustainable,

Strategic and Infrastructure3. Where to begin and what to accomplish. 4. Evaluation of the workshop.