What can help us in helping others
Many development and peacebuilding organisations see the need to take the self-care and mental health of their staff seriously. However, many struggle to institutionalise effective mechanisms of self-care. The feminist development and women’s rights organization medica mondiale shares some best practices and lessons learned from its work around the world. Working tirelessly towards peace and […]
How do you tell your child that she was born after rape?
Dealing with the past for mothers of children born after rape is essentially about telling the truth. How can this be done in ways that do not reinforce the socially imposed silence but instead contribute to healing? The text reflects an experience from Rwanda. Dealing with the past for mothers of children born after rape […]
Too much too soon
GIZ trauma experts working in countries neighbouring Syria reflect on how to respond to collective trauma among Syrian refugees. Taking into account the specific cultural context, GIZ staff question the well-known but rather individualistic concept of self-care and stress the need for collective care. Syria – a fragmented society The horrors of a war which […]
Dealing with trauma of a war through education for peace
This blog post sheds some light on how peace education could transform social trauma in the context of Bosnia and Herzegovina with lessons for other post-war societies. Societies affected by social trauma undergo significant transformations, typically involving collective identity restructurings. These may entail conscious efforts to ‘close the chapter’ on the shared grievances of the […]
Is it all down to trauma?
Taking up some of the resistance against the term of collective trauma, Cordula Reimann & Ursula König discuss why collective and transgenerational trauma are relevant and should be a key concept for development and peacebuilding/conflict transformation practitioners and practices. Since we published the article “Closing a gap in conflict transformation: Understanding collective and transgenerational trauma”, […]
The Impact of Amnesties on Violence and Peace
Do legal amnesties for combatants help end civil wars? International policy experts often take it for granted that amnesties promote negotiated settlements with rebels. However, a large number of amnesties are followed by continued fighting or a return to the battlefield. What, then, are the factors that make amnesties effective or ineffective? My name is […]
Public history
Public history can be described as a wide range of activities that relate to the past, create and shape historical knowledge in the public sphere for and with a non-academic audience. The post offers basic information on the linkage between Public history and civic engagement, collaborative practice and ‘shared authority’ as key elements of public […]
Dialogue with the devil
We need more enemy inclusive projects and programs. We should avoid any collectivization of guilt. Truth will never be complete, endured losses cannot be reversed or repaired, moral or material compensation is just too little and too late – not a just outcome one would desire. But without all of that, can a guarantee of […]
New African Union Transitional Justice Policy
Balancing of looking back and looking forward encourages creating conditions that facilitate acknowledgement of responsibility and the suffering of victims while facilitating reconciliation and restoration. The AU policy is a homage to the wealth of resources that African legal instruments avail for designing and implementing tailor made TJ processes. Balancing of looking back and looking […]
How to transform zipper-shaped conflict narratives
In order to transform conflict-supporting narratives, one needs to understand their construction principles. Then it becomes possible to facilitate processes with key narrators to encourage them to incorporate new elements in their proven narratives. A narrative is a story, that is told in a certain way by a significant group of people, with beginning and […]