Peace builders’ meetup in Bucharest: Conflict mediation tackled at the 7th Annual Peace Congress

Over 200 professionals in conflict resolution from 40 countries attended the 7th Annual Peace Congress organized by the Mediators Beyond Borders International (MBB) and held in Bucharest over April 23 to 25.

Speakers at the event sought an answer for the question “How can we build and maintain peace in the century of globalization?” while sharing and discussing mediation techniques and procedures geared to building and maintaining peace in the 21st century.

Among the guests at the Congress held in Bucharest there was Shadia Marhaban, a former member of the armed separatist movements in Indonesia, subsequently the only woman-negotiator present at the Peace Talks in Helsinki (2005) and one of the most active female peace mediators in South-Eastern Asia. Also, Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1984, had a video intervention within the event, which was followed by the presentation of Florentin Tuca, Managing Partner of Tuca Zbarcea & Associates. The event was also attended by: Prabha Sankaranarayan, representative of MBB Board of Directors for Kenya and MBB president and Mary Montague, a pioneer in international peace-building work in Northern Ireland, even since 1975.

“Today, the biggest problems we are facing go beyond borders and cannot be solved independently by one single nation, by one single state, but require global collaboration and an elaborated process, based on consensus, where the mediation has an essential role for sustainability,” stated Prabha Sankaranarayan.

With a relevance applicable both nationally and globally, the key themes of the Congress were structured in accordance to the needs of society and of the 21st century world: the role of women, youth and NGOs in mediating peace in the society, with an emphasis on finding common solutions and instruments in full globalization; the importance of traditions in mediation (geography, history, spirituality); studying trauma in conflict experiences, as well as the psychological role in preventing or settling the conflict.

Thus, regarding the role of women in conflict mediation, Imam Muhammed Ashafa, co-director of the Interfaith Mediation Centre of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue in Kaduna State, Northern Nigeria, talked about his experience in Iraq in 2006 when he insisted that “women in the world must raise their voice and talk”. He also mentioned his experience in Nigeria when he was asked to mediate the conflict between Muslims and Christians. “We need a greater looking in courage to continue without expecting anything in return,” Imam Muhammed Ashafa said in the second day of the congress. “As long as you want to work in this field with duty, as long as you want to be a professional mediator, you must conquer the fear of the unknown. To expect zero, this how you get the ability to conquer the fear of the unknown,” added Imam Muhammed Ashafa.

“We can solve the conflict that we’re called to solve if we stand together,” also said Millicent Otieno, peace builder.

In her speech on Friday, the second day of the seventh MBB’s Annual Peace Congress held in Bucharest, Millicent Otieno highlighted the question “Where are we heading as a mission, as Kenya?” and pointed out that “we need to take time to understand the people, their faith and what is aching them, their need.”

The speakers also approached the difficulties encountered in conflict mediation. “What made it easier for me in the last two decades was the ability to know that there are five categories of truth. And all of them are not the same. So there are my truth and your truth, our truth and their truth, and there is also is the truth. The mistake you will do as a mediator is to ask everybody to align to your truth. One thing we promote, besides letting everybody sticking to their own truth, is to move beyond tolerance,” underscored Ashafa.

Regarding youth involvement in conflict mediation, Paul Lokho, the founding director of the Peace Coalition of Northeast India (PCNI), a conflict transformation organization that trains others in the use of mediation techniques, raised the question of how mediators mobilize communities for peace, referring to communities as the active participants to this process, namely the youth. “We have a deem of about 13-14 young people aged less than 35 years old. They are the active mediators, the process creators, the mobilizing people and the connectors of the processes of building peace among 15 communities,” said Lokho. He highlighted that peace building can start with youth and that peace building can also be sustained by youth. “The only point I want to make is that we need to globalize the peace building made by youth. (…) In my area, there is a commitment from our team, the mediators, to train youth for being able to be deployed as agents of peace and conflict transformation,” concluded Lokho.

MBB promotes international peace mediation and forms peacebuilding skills and competencies at regional and local level. The soul of this non-profit organization is its team of over 200 volunteers from North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. To the requests received directly from territories facing conflicts, multidisciplinary teams of volunteers create and implement, together with local partners, projects aiming to form and to develop local skills in the rehabilitation and reconciliation of the communities after severe conflicts; to prevent, tackle and solve conflicts in a viable and sustainable manner. Currently, MBB is engaged in such active projects in six countries: Israel, Colombia, Ecuador, Kenya, Nepal and Sierra Leone.

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