Handbook Dialogue No 9 now available in hard copy
Handbook Dialogue No 9 – Human Rights and Conflict Transformation. The Challenges of Just Peace – can now be ordered in hard copy for 7,50 € (+postage) via email at the Berghof Center.
06/2010 – Dialogue Series
06/2010 – Dialogue Series
Berghof Handbook Dialogue No 9 Published
We are very pleased to announce the release of Berghof Handbook Dialogue No 9: “Human Rights and Conflict Transformation: The Challenges of Just Peace”. While the relationship between human rights protection and conflict transformation may seem straightforward, it is not an easy one. Over and over again, the question has been asked whether the two share a common agenda or actually pursue competing goals. Contributors to this Dialogue aim to go beyond the divide and polarising language of “peace versus justice” in order to gain a clearer understanding of the potential – and limits – of bringing together human rights and conflict transformation in specific contexts. Drawing evidence from contexts such as Nepal, South Africa, Israel/Palestine, Uganda and Colombia, they argue that a more thorough emphasis on human rights – as causes and manifestation of conflicts, but also as normative and practical intervention tools – contributes to bringing conflict transformation closer to its aim of tackling conflicts at their deepest roots. The lead author and her respondents engage in a rich dialogue on areas of tensions as well as complementarity between the two sets of practices: they encourage mutual learning and joint work, and stress the importance of locally-designed, timely and context-specific initiatives, as well as of hard-nosed analysis of the political context and use of human rights and conflict transformation discourses.
01/2010 – Miscellaneous
A Website in New Clothes
We’re pleased to present you a new look for the Handbook website, which has been re-launched together with its “parent” organisation, Berghof Conflict Research (formerly known as the Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management). Don’t hestitate to let us hear your feedback, but we hope you will enjoy the sleek new design, improved cross-referencing along with continued easy access to all the resources you’ve grown used to in the past. And don’t forget to also check out http://www.berghof-conflictresearch.org. Happy new year!
09/2009 – Articles
New Handbook Article: Rethinking Conflict Transformation from a Human Rights Perspective
We proudly present a new article in Section V: Rethinking Conflict Transformation from a Human Rights Perspective by Michelle Parlevliet. This article moves beyond the stereotype of “justice vs. peace” and proposes that applying a perspective of human rights brings conflict transformation closer to its aims – by forcing greater emphasis on structural conditions, especially the role of the state, systems of governance and issues of power. It discusses practical demands and dilemmas of an integrated approach, focusing on asymmetric conflicts, resistance to change and role clarity. It offers a wealth of examples from the author’s own work in South Africa, Nepal and Northern Ireland. It also includes an annex with an extensive review of past literature on human rights and conflict resolution.
04/2009 – Dialogue Series
Handbook Dialogue No 8 now available in hard copy
Handbook Dialogue No 8 – Building Peace in the Absence of States: Challenging the Discourse on State Failure – can now be ordered in hard copy for 7,50 € (+postage) via email at the Berghof Center.
04/2009 – Dialogue Series
Berghof Handbook Dialogue No 8
We proudly present Berghof Handbook Dialogue No 8, titled Building Peace in the Absence of States: Challenging the Discourse on State Failure. The exchange between the lead authors and the discussants in this dialogue vividly illustrates the need to shift from a state-centric view, yet without entirely rejecting the notion of state. At the same time it shows the difficulties of integrating concepts of political order that do not correspond with the western-style Weberian/Westphalian state. Instead of advocating ideal-type, off-the-shelf models and blue-prints, the contributors to this dialogue argue that historically well-informed analysis, which leads to a deeper contextualized understanding of the local and regional situation on the ground, has to be the bedrock of any attempts for external assistance aimed at peace and development. They discuss evidence and counter-examples from Somaliland, Afghanistan, Liberia through to the Balkans and East Timor.
03/2009 – Miscellaneous
Relaunched: Berghof Foundation Homepage
We are pleased to announce that the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies, whose financial support helps us to keep developing this Handbook, has a new website. For more information, please visit http://www.berghof-foundation.de. The Foundation is also currently planning to prepare a funder’s response to our latest Berghof Handbook Dialogue, Peacebuilding at a Crossroads…
02/2009 – Dialogue Series
Handbook Dialogue No 7 now available in hard copy
Handbook Dialogue No 7 Peacebuilding at a Crossroads? Dilemmas and Paths for Another Generation can now be ordered in hard copy for 7,50 € (+postage) via email at the Berghof Center.
02/2009 – Translations
Arabic translations
We are very pleased to present a new addition in Arabic! The translation of Martina Fischer’s Article on Civil Society and Conflict Transformation is hopefully the first of more to come.
01/2009 – Dialogue Series
The Berghof Handbook presents Dialogue No. 7
The Berghof Handbook presents Dialogue No. 7: Peacebuilding at a Crossroads? Dilemmas and Paths for Another Generation. In it, practitioners and researchers reflect on the conditions of success or failure in peacebuilding and conflict transformation. The lead article expresses a lingering worry that complex economic and environmental crises, international factors of violence and war, and an underlying ‘murkiness’ of values may overwhelm the best efforts for social change and create a feeling that we are “just wasting our time”. The comments emphasize that values and approaches – as well as the international context, power politics and injustice – should be the objects of critical analysis. Investment in learning, honest self-reflection and critical peace research appear to be a must for effective practice. Others stress a need for more effective public mobilization for the effective prevention of violence. Many additional questions are raised and present food for thought for an ongoing debate.
10/2008 – Translations
Spanish translations
The article by Volker Boege and colleagues – On Hybrid Political Orders and Emerging States: State Formation in the Context of ‘Fragility’ – is now also available in Spanish!
09/2008 – Articles
New Handbook Article: Nonviolent Resistance and Conflict Transformation in Power Asymmetries
Berghof’s own Veronique Dudouet offers an exciting new contribution to the Handbook’s Section III: Her article Nonviolent Resistance and Conflict Transformation in Power Asymmetries explores the contexts and conditions in which nonviolent resistance can contribute to successful and sustainable conflict transformation processes. She introduces the concept, aims and methods of nonviolent action and explores conceptual and empirical developments across the 20th and 21st centuries. Furthermore, she illustrates the potential and limits of nonviolent resistance in transforming asymmetric power structures and in encouraging democratic practices, using the example of the Palestinian first intifada in the Israeli/Palestinian struggle.