Trascending Conflict Workshop

Forty-five young researchers, practitioners and students from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Tibet and India came together in New Delhi to participate in the Second WISCOMP Conflict Transformation Workshop titled Transcending Conflict organized from June 2nd to 9th 2003.

Designed to maximize knowledge sharing, reflection and skill building, the workshop sessions were informed by six broad themes. These were identified in the context of issues that play a critical role in the addressing of conflict and its transformation in a South Asian setting: Conflict Analysis; Nonviolence and Conflict Transformation; Religion, Violence and Peace; Multi-Track Peacebuilding; Human Rights, Humanitarian Assistance and Conflict Transformation; and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: Experiments with Restorative Justice.

The workshop facilitated substantive engagement on the models for conflict analysis and peacebuilding and also focused on the building of skills for dialogue, mediation, facilitation and negotiation. The proceedings were informed by a process that encouraged experiential learning and addressed the conceptual and analytical frameworks for analysis and intervention.

A highlight of the workshop was meeting with H. E. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, President of India. Participants enjoyed this opportunity to interact with the President and listen to his enlightening perspectives on Conflict Transformation.