01/2012 – Miscellaneous
As of 2012 the former Berghof Conflict Research, Berghof Peace Support and Insitute for Peace Education Tübingen (ift) have merged together as part of the Berghof Foundation. The Berghof Foundation has been given a new structure and organisational setting – merging our manifold operational competences in conflict research, peace support and peace education, being complemented with targeted grant-making that draws upon the traditional philanthropic funding provided by the Zundel family to further nurture peacebuilding and conflict transformation.
Currently we are working hard to develop our new joint homepage. Within the coming weeks and months the content from our old homepages (Berghof Foundation.de, Conflict Research, Peace Support, Friedenspaedagogik.de and Berghof Handbook) will be transferred to our new homepage Berghof Foundation.org. The existing homepages will remain available during this transition period, until all the information has been made accessible on the new site. Please be informed that some information and content on the old websites may already have become outmoded, since those will not be updated anymore. We apologize for any inconvenience.
10/2011 – Events
As part of its peace support activities in the Basque Country, the Berghof Foundation has co-sponsored the convening of an international conference to promote the resolution of the Basque conflict in San Sebastian on 17 October 2011, organised by the local peacebuilding NGO Lokarri. The conference, attended by other peacebuilding organisations and prominent world leaders including former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, represents a major milestone in the search for lasting peace in the Basque Country, by demonstrating the readiness of all citizens to end violence and move forward through peaceful and democratic means.
Berghof Peace Support senior programme manager Luxshi Vimalarajah attended the event on behalf of the Berghof Foundation. Berghof’s past involvement in the resolution of the conflict in the Basque Country also included the publication of a study written by prominent analysts of the Basque Abertzale Left on the history of the conflict and the arduous path to its resolution.
08/2011 – Publications
We are pleased to announce the publication of our book “The Non-Linearity of Peace Processes – Theory and Practice of Systemic Conflict Transformation“ edited by Daniela Körppen, Norbert Ropers and Hans J. Giessmann.
This is the first comprehensive volume analysing the value added by integrating systemic thinking into peacebuilding theory and practice. The aim of this book is to link the most recent debates in the peacebuilding field, e.g. on liberal peace, on the non-linearity of conflict dynamics and on bridging the attribution gap, with various systemic discourses, discussing the extent to which systemic thinking and methods are helpful to further develop existing approaches to conflict transformation.
Against the background of different case studies, practitioners and scholars frame their various understandings of systemic thinking and present a great variety of systemic concepts, such as systems theory, systemic action research and constellation work.
Details:
Daniela Körppen, Norbert Ropers and Hans J. Giessmann (Eds): The Non-Linearity of Peace Processes -Theory and Practice of Systemic Conflict Transformation, Barbara Budrich Publishers, Opladen / Farmington Hill 2011, 273 pp. ISBN 978-3-86649-406-0
For ordering the book please visit the publisher’s website.
07/2011 – Miscellaneous
With great sadness we announce that our dear friend and member of the Advisory Board of Berghof Peace Support, Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, has died following severe injuries sustained in a car accident in Kenya, in which her husband and their driver were immediately killed. Our heartfelt condolences go to the couple’s four children, and the many colleagues who are left behind.
We mourn the loss of an outstanding woman who enriched and inspired the peacebuilding field for over two decades with her ideas, initiative, wisdom, creativity and persistence. Born into a Muslim Somali family in the Northeast of Kenya, she encountered early on the challenges of ethnic and religious conflicts. She became a key leader of the Wajir peace initiative and ensured its future viability by helping to establish the Wajir Peace Committee. This model of a sustained, inclusive and comprehensive effort to transform the dangers of unleashed tribalism became the starting point for many similar initiatives, in Africa and beyond. Dekha herself became an inspiring model of an “Insider Mediator”, combining the wisdom of African conflict resolution with her knowledge and insights from many peacebuilding engagements around the world.
What inspired many of us particularly in peace research as well as in the peacebuilding community was her soft, humble, imaginative and nonetheless determined approach to take our field of work forward. We will miss her dearly.
07/2011 – Publications
The GIZ PADEP programme we have been part of since 2007 is closing after ten years of activities in Bolivia. Berghof Peace Support, in partnership with COMO and GOPA, has been implementing the component of constructive conflict transformation. We would now like to share our approaches and lessons from one specific part of our work, namely supporting PADEP (and eventually others in the German Cooperation) in implementing conflict sensitiviy. Please access the spanish language documents here.
05/2011 – Publications
Commissioned on behalf of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Oliver Wils and Antje Herrberg have conducted an evaluation of the Standby Team of Mediation Experts of the Mediation Support Unit (MSU).
The Standby Team of Mediation Experts of the Mediation Support Unit (MSU) of the UN Department of Political Affairs, established in 2008, is a specialized resource that can be rapidly deployed on a temporary basis into the field to provide technical advice to UN officials and others leading mediation and conflict prevention efforts
02/2011 – Publications
We are pleased to announce the release of the workshop report Mediating Peace with Proscribed Armed Groups, which summarises discussions and recommendations from a policy workshop held in Brussels in October 2010. Co-organised by Berghof Peace Support and Conciliation Resources with funding from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the aim of this workshop was to initiate a debate about the direct and indirect implications of EU counter-terrorism legislation on peace processes with non-state armed groups, and to identify possible steps forward in order to mitigate the counter-productive impact of blacklisting on conflict resolution and to enhance the EU’s mediation capacity. The workshop was attended by high-level EU officials, mediators and civil society experts. BCR was represented by Véronique Dudouet who compiled this report together with a team from Conciliation Resources.
12/2010 – Publications
International law continues to have serious implications for resistance and liberation groups. With regard to their perceived internal and external legitimacy, international law plays a crucial role in justifying activities of those movements as well as by giving reason to counter reactions by state authorities. This document provides a compilation of legal sources addressing aspects of resistance and liberation movements in public international law.
12/2010 – Publications
This document Resistance and Liberation Movements – A Mapping of Legal Aspects gives an overview about aspects in public international law regarding resistance and liberation movements. The primarily objective of this research paper is to capture the current status of debate by mapping general topics and indicate relevant sub-questions. Initially, this mapping served as a resource for a seminar on legal matters of resistance and liberation movements held by the Berghof Peace Support in October 2010.
12/2010 – Publications
This new briefing paper EU Terrorist Listing gives an overview about EU listing and de-listing procedures. The objective of this compilation is to explain the current modus operandi, without arguing against or for its legal pitfalls. Methodically, the paper describes normative rules of EU regulations and decisions. Cases of European jurisdiction are also partly addressed.
10/2010 – Events
Multitrack Peace Mediation requires specific skills from practitioners. Therefore, BPS, together with Inmedio and CSSP, hold the course “Multitrack Peace Mediation. Mediation im Kontext von Friedensförderung und Entwicklungszusammenarbeit” for practitioners in 2011. Please see the brochure on this German-language course for more details.
10/2010 – Publications
Luxshi Vimalarajah and R. Cheran offer in their recent paper an in-depth analysis of the current trends in Tamil Diaspora politics and provide policy recommendations to the Tamil Diaspora activists and to the policy circles in the host countries Empowering Diasporas: The Dynamics of Post-war Transnational Tamil Politics.
This paper can be ordered as hard copy: 5,00 € + postage
09/2010 – Publications
Engagement trough Dialogue – Translation of the Workshop report of an Abkhazian-Georgian encounter in Chisinau and Tiraspol, 24 – 29 May 2010 ДОКЛАД ЦВЕТНЫМИ КАРАНДАШАМИ №3
08/2010 – Miscellaneous
The Russian translation of our project activities in the Southern Caucasus has been released.
08/2010 – Publications
The paper will re-visit Comprehensive Peace Agreement provisions and current developments, in that the South has benefited from implementation in practical de facto autonomy whereas measures for the transitional areas (Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile and Abyei) and national-level reform are well behind. A Bitter Harvest and Grounds for Reform: The Nuba Mountains, Conflicted Land and Transitional Sudan
07/2010 – Publications
Background paper on Peace Mediation and Listed Terrorist Organizations: Challenges for Peacebuilding. Some thoughts based on the experience of the Berghof Institutions.
07/2010 – Publications
An Introduction to the Work Programme “Strengthening Support Structures for Peace Negotiation, Mediation and Dialogue” which aims at understanding and assisting peace support structures through a process of reflection and capacity building.
07/2010 – Publications
Engagement trough Dialogue – Workshop report of an Abkhazian-Georgian encounter in Chisinau and Tiraspol, 24 – 29 May 2010 “Coloured Pencil Workshop Report No. 3”
07/2010 – Miscellaneous
The Spanish translations of our project activities in Bolivia and Guatemala have been launched.
06/2010 – Publications
United States Institute of Peace Report “Mediating Peace with Proscribed Armed Groups” by Véronique Dudouet on a workshop regarding modes of engagement with proscribed armed groups, which took place on 27 October 2009 in Washington D.C..
05/2010 – Miscellaneous
As of June, BPS presents itself, its programmes and activities, as well as its services and publications in a new structure and design.
