The current Summit Programme for the Peacebuilders' Summit 6-7 May 2008 has now been released, detailing the order of events, activities, training and speakers you can expect. You can download the full current Summit Programme here, or to view the Programme online straight away, click here.

Summit Outline

On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the re-establishment of Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive and legislative assembly, peacebuilders from across the world will share their perspectives, practice and experience of the challenges of peacebuilding.

The focus for the summit is dynamic learning, looking at new ways for peacebuilders from across the globe to update their programming, share expertise and gain fresh ideas.

Venue

Europa Hotel

Great Victoria Street

Belfast

BT2 7AP

Northern Ireland

This exciting summit is aimed at...

...any individual, researcher, civic peacebuilder or organisation involved in peacebuilding, and offers an opportunity to explore real-world perspectives on building peace in areas of conflict, and to exchange practice on how to build stable and sustainable post-conflict societies.

Delegates at the summit will...

• learn new approaches to peacebuilding to utilise in their own communities

• gain free training on emerging and innovative practice models for peacebuilding

• make new contacts and forge new partnerships

• share their expertise and gain fresh insights

• be motivated and encouraged to continue in their peacebuilding work

Register now and reserve your place!

Attendance at the Summit is free of charge, but you should register first by completing the relevant Peacebuilders' Summit Registration Form. All Registration Forms should be returned by email to: sarah[at]globalpeacebuilders[dot]org

• To download/view the Registration Form for delegates within NI/Ireland, click here
• To download/view the Registration Form for delegates from within the EU, click here
• To download/view the Registration Form for delegates from outside of the EU, click here

Bursaries available

We have a limited number of bursaries available to assist delegates traveling from outside of NI/Ireland. These bursaries are available on a competitive basis and you can apply by completing and returning the relevant Registration Form.

Please note that all Peacebuilders' Summit details are subject to change, and will be frequently updated, so we encourage you to check back here regularly.

Important information for international delegates attending the Peacebuilders' Summit

Click on the links below to view or download:

• Belfast information pack for International Delegates
• How to get to the Farset International hostel accommodation (for bursaried delegates only)
• Belfast Profile of the City guide
• Belfast Welcome Guide
• Belfast Visitor Guide
• Belfast Restaurant Guide
• Belfast On a Budget Guide

Peacebuilders' Summit 6-7 2008, for practitioners from across the globe

Current Summit Programme

DAY 1 - Tuesday 6 May 2008 - For international delegates only

12.30pm Welcome Lunch for International Delegates

2.00pm Good Practice Visits

Presenting groups working to build peace at various sites across Belfast

Tour of Belfast

Including Falls and Shankill Roads

DAY 2 - Wednesday 7 May 2008

8.45am Registration and Refreshments

9.30am Official Opening of Peacebuilders' Summit and Welcoming Address

9.40am Keynote Speech: The Journey from Conflict to Peace

Billy Hutchinson (Coordinator of the Mount Vernon Community Development Forum)

Sean Murray

10.00am Question Time Panel: How can civic peacebuilders make a difference in communities emerging from conflict?

Chair: Professor Monica McWilliams (Chief Commissioner Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission)

Panellists:

Alan McBride (Centre Coordinator, WAVE Trauma Centre)

Eamonn McCann (Local community activist)

Marina Cantacuzino (Director of The Forgiveness Project)

Maajid Nawaz (Founder and Director of Quilliam Foundation think tank)

11.00am Mid-morning Break, Refreshments

11.30am Choice of Training in Peacebuilding Approaches

Each workshop is designed to equip civic peacebuilders with a new framework to take back and utilise in their community

Training:

Dialogue for Peaceful Change - Colin Craig

Principles and Practice of the Peace Guerrilla - Dr Ben Hoffman

Technology for Peace: Ideas From the Trenches - Sanjana Hattotuwa

12.30pm Lunch provided to all

1.50pm Afternoon address by Professor Beverley Milton-Edwards - Dialogue in the Dark: The Challenges of Engaging With Terrorism

2.00pm Choice of 3 Global Perspectives on Peacebuilding Discussion Groups

Each discussion will be led by a civic peacebuilder working (outside of the UK and Ireland) to build peace in their community, and will address their approach to peacebuilding, focusing on aspects delegates can utilse in their own communities

Discussion Groups:

War Child Holland - War Child Holland in Sierra Leone: Working Towards Peaceful Communities

BUSTAN ( Israel/Palestine) - BUSTAN: Holistic and Concrete Pathways to Peace

International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience (USA, Africa, Asia, Europe and South America) - Sites of Conscience:  Using Places of the Past to Address Today's Conflicts

3.00pm Mid-afternoon Break, Refreshments

3.30pm Conclusions, Summing Up and Closing Remarks

Presentation and launch of Global Peacebuilders Catalogue of Approaches to Peacebuilding. The Catalogue features transferable approaches to peacebuilding drawn from across the globe. Full-colour copies will be distributed to all delegates

4.00pm Closing Celebration and Interactive Music Experience by the Motion Project

This closing event is a unique and innovative musical extravaganza led by the Motion Project, a project of Beyond Skin, working to address racism, sectarianism and prejudice in Northern Ireland through multi-cultural arts

5.00pm Drinks Reception

Conference Contributors, Training and Discussion Groups

*All Speakers*

Billy Hutchinson was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force and served 16 years in prison for paramilitary activity. While in prison he was in charge and was involved in negotiations with the prison authorities and the British Government to bring about an end to violence and the release of all political prisoners.

When Billy was released he continued to work with the Ulster Volunteer Force to bring about a ceasefire and was successful with others in bringing it about in October 1994. Billy entered community work in 1990 as the director of the Springfield Intercommunity Development Project, a cross-community forum which brought together republican and loyalist communities to explore ways to address social issues using community relations, community development and conflict resolution.

Billy was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1998 representing North Belfast. He is also a former member of the Belfast City Council, representing the Oldpark electoral area for two Council terms. He has now returned to the community as the coordinator of the Mount Vernon Community Development Forum and has received accolades for his work in a range of community capacity building programmes and working with excluded communities.

He has also worked in a number of countries examining the role of armed groups both nationally and internationally, the most recent being Iraq. He is a Social Science graduate and holds a post graduate diploma in Town Planning. He is also a lay member of the Department of Education and Training Inspectorate and has responsibility with his colleagues for inspections of all education sectors in Northern Ireland.

Sean Murray is Chairperson of the Springfield Residents Action Group, Chairperson of the Clonard Residents Association, and a member of the Strategic Review of Parading.  A community activist, he is also currently a Board member of Interaction Belfast and is a founder member of Belfast Reconciliation Group. He is also a member of Greater Falls Neighbourhood Renewal Partnership and a founder member of Greater Falls Safer Neighbourhood Project. A committed republican activist from 1969, Sean was interned from 1972 to 1974 and later served a 12 year sentence for possession of explosives, from 1981 to 1987.  Upon his release Sean became involved in various community development projects in West Belfast, and Capacity Building in interface areas throughout Belfast.

Beverley Milton-Edwards is Professor of Politics at Queen's University Belfast. Her teaching areas include: Political Islam, Middle Eastern Politics, National and Ethnic Conflict management including - Comparative Ethnic Conflict, Religion and Peace-building, Deeply divided societies - including Middle East, Africa and Northern Ireland. Beverley's research interests are concentrated on two interrelated themes: dimensions of politics in the Middle East and Islamic politics. She has researched and written in the past on Islamists in the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its applicability in relation to issues relating to divided societies/ethno-national conflict. Her recent research has diverged in three main areas: contestation of assumptions about the relationship between Islam and political violence, policing in the Middle East and societies in transition; and dimensions of ethno-national conflict at a comparative level. She is also interested in the motivations behind current scholarship on radical Islam and the perspectives that inform the debate about 'Writing Islam', as well in e-learning, conflict resolution and critical pedagogy.

*Question-time Panel*

Chair: Professor Monica McWilliams (Chief Commissioner Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission)

Professor Monica McWilliams was appointed full-time Chief Commissioner for Human Rights in Northern Ireland from September 2005.  Previously, she was Professor of Women’s Studies and Social Policy at the University of Ulster and served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2003.  She was the co-founder of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, a political party involved in the Northern Ireland Forum from 1996 to 1998.  She was an elected member of the Multi-Party Peace Negotiations and a signatory to the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

Alan McBride

Alan is Centre Coordinator at the WAVE Trauma Centre in Belfast, ( a cross-community victims/survivors organisation).  In addition to this he also sits on the Board of Healing Through Remembering and is chair of the HTR initiative on developing a Living Memorial Museum to the ‘Troubles’.  For the last two years he has been writing a fortnightly column for the Sunday Life.  Alan has become an advocate for peace since loosing his wife and father-in-law in a bomb in Belfast in the early nineties.

Eamonn McCann

Eamonn's career as a writer and activist spans four decades. He is best known for his role in the Derry civil-rights movement, when, with Eamonn Melaugh, he was the primary organiser of Derry's first civil-rights march, which took place on 5 October 1968. The organisers of the march formed themselves into the Derry Housing Action Committee, and sought to draw attention to the lack of safe, decent housing in Derry and to direct attention to the root causes of poor housing, unemployment, and lack of civil rights. Eamonn is also a campaigner for the rights of children and disabled people, and against sexism, racism and homophobia. He is a member of the Socialist Workers' Party, chairman of the local branch of the NUJ, vice-chairman of Derry Trades Council and a member of Amnesty International.

Marina Cantacuzino

Marina is the founding director of The Forgiveness Project - a charitable organisation which explores forgiveness, reconciliation and conflict resolution through real-life human experience. The organisation uses stories, and in particular its powerful exhibition The F Word, to open up a dialogue and promote understanding in prisons, schools, faith communities, and with any group who want to explore the nature of forgiveness. http://www.theforgivenessproject.com

Maajid Nawaz

Maajid is founder and Director of London-based global think tank the Quilliam Foundation, the world’s first de-radicalisation institute set up by ex-Islamists to challenge Islamist ideology and develop an Islam in harmony with its host society. In May 2007, Maajid resigned his membership from the Party and in September 2007 recanted Islamism on BBC current affairs programme Newsnight. With rare political insight into the complexities of Middle-East politics, religion, and the contemporary Muslim political mindset, Maajid features widely on British and global media, presents seminars and lectures on Islamism and Muslim political thought both in the UK and abroad, and has written for the Times and Independent and has been cited by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, when asked about government policy towards dealing with extreme Islamist groups.

*Choice of Training in Peacebuilding Approaches*

1. Dialogue for Peaceful Change

Colin Craig will be delivering a workshop offering an introduction to the Dialogue for Peaceful Change (DPC) methodology.  DPC focuses on creating a setting a pathway for overcoming division. DPC is not the goal but the instrument in a process that seeks to build the creative and the practical skills of peaceful change. It’s about analysing the conflict situation and facilitating the road to solutions, found and agreed by the people who are in conflict or experience opposite interests. It is unique in its approach as the meditative method includes conflict content, cultural elements and spirituality.

Colin has been involved in working for reconciliation for over 30 years. He has worked professionally as a Youth Worker, a Director of a Juvenile Justice Project and a Principal Officer and Regional Consultant for a national charity. From 1990 – 2001 he was the Centre and Programme Director for the Corrymeela Community, helping develop, design and deliver Community Relations programmes on community capacity building, interface issues and victims'/survivors' needs. Colin has lectured and trained internationally on many occasions on the themes reconciliation and forgiveness, conflict management and community building.

Since its foundation in 2000, TIDES has developed an extensive programme and project portfolio across the voluntary and public sectors in Northern Ireland, including a Training of Trainers Programme in Working with Contentious Issues, Diversity Training, Community Mediation, Civic Leadership Training and Equality and Good Relations training. Internationally, TIDES has ongoing Conflict Management programmes through its Dialogue for Peaceful Change programme in Europe, Africa, Canada, USA and South East Asia.

2. Principles & Practice of the  Peace Guerrilla

Dr Benjamin Hoffman is a specialist in negotiation, consensus-building, and dispute resolution. From 2000 to 2003, he was Director of the Conflict Resolution Program at The Carter Center, acting as President Carter’s representative, focusing on implementing the Nairobi Agreement and efforts to end the war in Sudan. Ben obtained his B.A. and M.A. (Community Psychology) from Wilfred Laurier University, an M.A. in International Relations from Tufts University, and also a Ph.D. in Architecture from York University. He specialised in International Peacemaking at the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation. Ben has worked in healing and restorative justice issues over the last twenty years. As President and CEO of the Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation he is currently active in violence prevention and reconciliation in Guinea-Bissau and Sri Lanka.

Ben is author of the Peace Guerrilla Handbook, and will be delivering a workshop based around the principles of the handbook and its new vision for violence prevention and peacebuilding. In the handbook, believing that power must be transformed across a number of key dimensions, including values, Ben raises the bar on peacebuilding practice by challenging and providing practical guidance on how to take a 'whole of problem' approach that combines advocacy, peace action and critical reflection.

3. Technology for Peace: Ideas From the Trenches

Sanjana Hattotuwa is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives and is Head of ICT and Peacebuilding at InfoShare, both based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. A Fellow of the Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Special Advisor to the ICT4Peace Foundation in Geneva, Sanjana also serves on a number of other technical assistance and project steering groups in Sri Lanka and internationally that work on issues related to peacebuilding, media and conflict transformation.

He will be delivering a workshop on the use of computers, internet and information technology (IT) for peacebuilding purposes, and will offer practical advice, ideas and insights into how IT can be used on a community level to help build the structures, resources and environment necessary for sustainable peace.

*Choice of 3 Global Perspectives on Peacebuilding Discussion Groups*

1. War Child Holland – War Child Holland in Sierra Leone: Working Towards Peaceful Communities, a discussion led by Wout Visser

"During a festive community celebration, a person stood up from the crowd unexpectedly. In front of a large public he felt urged to share how he had not been on speaking terms with his neighbour for many years. The two neighbours then used the opportunity to settle their differences on the very spot"

War Child Holland (WCH) works towards 'positive' peace, aiming to transform social relationships and structures. WCH works directly with communities, generating grassroots ownership and leadership for social change. Its approach is one of community-based participation, and combining creative methods with cultural activities and traditional practices is the backbone of the programme in Sierra Leone. This creates an environment conducive to reducing root causes of social conflicts and enhancing capacities for conflict transformation.

The presentation will unfold the methodology and community-based approach, describing the types of activities, such as creative and cultural activities, that have contributed to the emergence of a stronger social cohesion and peaceful atmosphere within and among the involved communities. An attempt will be made to make the session as learning oriented as possible, using various interactive presentation methods.

A political scientist by education, Wout Visser holds a Masters in European Studies and International Relations from the University of Amsterdam and Waseda University Tokyo. He has worked as a policy advisor with various organisations, focusing on social justice issues relating to International Development and Globalisation. His other professional interests include peacebuilding and conflict resolution. Wout has been working with War Child since 2003, spending a year in northern Uganda as part of his work. Currently based in the War Child HQ in the Programme Development & Methodology department, he provides technical support (ranging from policy development to on-site trainings (e.g. Israel/oPt-Afghanistan) to field programmes in the thematic areas of Child Rights, Advocacy and Peacebuilding.

2. BUSTAN (Israel/Palestine) – BUSTAN: Holistic and Concrete Pathways to Peace, discussion led by Raed Al-Mickawi

BUSTAN is an Israeli NGO that works in the Bedouin and Jewish communities of the Negev at the intersection of environmental, human rights and social justice issues, and builds pathways to peace by building concrete collaborations between peoples.  In Israel there is a sense of 'us vs. them' between Jewish and Bedouin residents, and BUSTAN consciously resists this kind of division, approaching issues 'holistically', valuing human rights, environmental sustainability and preservation of culture equally, and not placing one before the other.

BUSTAN uses small-scale, concrete projects that offer solutions to acute problems facing the affected communities to point ways to a just, sustainable future. Through its projects, BUSTAN models the society it wants to see exist in Israel - where everyone has equal rights, lives in a healthy, sustainable environment, and all cultures are honored and respected.

The presentation will explain BUSTAN's overall approach, explain its projects and how they play out its philosophy in practice, and will invite audience members to apply its methods to their own situations.

3. International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience (USA, Africa, Asia, Europe and South America) – Sites of Conscience:  Using Places of the Past to Address Today's Conflicts, discussion led by Liz Ševcenko

The International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience is a worldwide network of 'Sites of Conscience' – historic sites specifically dedicated to remembering past struggles for justice and addressing their contemporary legacies. Sites of Conscience may tell stories of mass atrocity or daily, individual struggles. They may preserve cultural or environmental resources.

By initiating new conversations about contemporary issues through a historical lens, places of memory can become new centres for democracy in action. The Coalition provides member sites with direct funding for civic engagement programs; organises learning exchanges ranging from one-on-one collaborations to international conferences; and conducts strategic advocacy for sites and the Sites of Conscience movement.

The presentation will explore how places of memory can provide vital new public forums for transforming conflict.  It will offer examples of sites remembering wildly different histories, in radically different political contexts, that used sensitive stories of conflict to inspire new dialogue across difference and movements for justice today. Within the context of Northern Ireland, and how to deal with sites in its past such as the Maze, it can be constructive to look at other societies dealing with difficult histories.

Liz Ševcenko is founding Director of the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience.  Before launching the Coalition, she was Vice President at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York and developed public history projects around the US that catalyse civic dialogue.  She has a B.A. from Yale University and an MA in History from New York University.