Conflict Resolution

Creator of the House of Citizenship project that takes services of the Public Defense System directly to a shantytown in the outskirts of Belo Horizonte, capital of Brazil's Minais Gerais state, Public Defender Hélio da Gama tells Comunidad Segura about social inclusion and citizenship.

"Sometimes we were the first and I think only ones to listen non-judgmentally" writes David Zarembka, African Great Lakes Initiative founder and head of its Friends of Peace teams. In this exclusive article he describes efforts to promote reconciliation thorough listening sessions with both victims and perpetrators, during Kenya's recent internal crisis.

In the capital of Argentina, a league of 20 teams created out of grassroots organizations. Run by volunteer activists, it offers children and teens a chance to play, and by making up their own rules, a chance to learn about settling differences constructively through the ideas of Paulo Freire.

“We do not believe in repressive security measures that manage conflict and lead to an erosion of rights, more arrests, more weapons. We believe in a new paradigm: Conflict Transformation.” J. Laffitte, director of AFSC Latin America, conducting experiments in Mexico, Colombia, and Peru.

Designed to provide training in non-violent strategies, the game "A Force More Powerful" has sparked interest for showing that non violence can be a "realistic, pragmatic and efficient medium" against oppression.

Rachael Hinton, Oxfam New Zealand researcher who lives and works in the PNG Highlands, describes peace initiatives in the area that ally security to development, in an exclusive interview given to Comunidad Segura.

Researchers went out to meet and interview families in Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela and Brazil  to find out whether children are heard in family matters. The results are not encouraging, first, parents need to be active citizens themselves. In those families that do, the result is higher self-esteem and more respect for others.

Adèle Kirsten, long time peace activist and head of South Africa’s Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, speaks about the ongoing violent security crisis of anti-immigrant violence and the tools for overcoming violence.

Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration programs were designed to defuse conflict, restore confidence and free human potential for development. Active in over a dozen countries and financed by the World Bank, EU, Japan and the United States, the question is: Does it work?

In Porto Alegre, one local public school adopted Restorative Justice methods with promising results.