EXPERTS TO GATHER IN GENEVA TO DISCUSS POST-CONFLICT JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION

25 September 2003


The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) are bringing together a group of experts in Geneva on Friday to explore ways of achieving justice and reconciliation in war-torn countries.
The day-long session, entitled, "From Divided Past to Shared Future: Reconciliation in Post-Conflict Societies", will seek to identify current trends, recent experiences and challenges for national and international initiatives aiming at truth, justice and reconciliation, particularly in post-conflict societies. Discussions will focus particular attention on practical lessons from promoting reconciliation in post-conflict countries such as Sierra Leone, Peru and Timor Leste, as well as on broader policy issues such as the role of the international community in supporting local reconciliation processes.
Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan and Japan’s Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament and IDEA Board Member Ambassador Kuniko Inoguchi will open the meeting. Guest speakers include Karen Fogg, IDEA Secretary-General, Luc Huyse, lead author of the new International IDEA Handbook, Reconciliation After Violent Conflict, and Olayinka Creighton-Randall, Coordinator of the Campaign for Good Governance (CGG), Sierra Leone.
Mr. Ramcharan has underlined the importance of justice and respect for human rights in fostering reconciliation, peace, stability and development in post-conflict societies. "We owe the victims of past abuses to find the truth in order to achieve justice and ensure accountability", he says. "We owe it to present and future generations in these societies to work for reconciliation and to prevent human rights violations". At the Geneva seminar Mr. Ramcharan will highlight OHCHR's role in assisting truth and reconciliation processes in a number of countries, including Timor Leste, Sierra Leone and Peru, and in reinforcing national protection systems around the world.
Karen Fogg, Secretary-General of IDEA, says that reconciliation is recognized as critical to the consolidation of young democracies in countries emerging from conflict.
"From Iraq and Afghanistan to Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Timor Leste, the legacy of past violence is a key threat", she says. "Even the best-designed democratic system will be undermined if past abuses are not addressed. It is vital that international efforts to assist countries along the road to democracy focus on practical instruments for addressing that violence -- in particular justice, healing, truth-telling and reparations."
"As highlighted in the new IDEA Handbook ( http://www.idea.int/conflict/reconciliation/index.cfm), experience shows that lasting reconciliation requires time, effort and persistence", she adds "And without real local ownership and participation, even the most well-intentioned international efforts to promote reconciliation will prove unsustainable"
The seminar will take place on Friday, 26 September, from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the first floor conference room of the Palais Wilson.
For more information contact: Mark Salter, tel. +46 8 698 3714, mobile: +46 70 429 3750, email: m.salter@idea.int or Katarina Jörgensen tel +46 8 698 3733 email: k.jorgensen@idea.int.
José Luis Díaz, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, tel. +4122 917 9242 email jdiaz@ohchr.org.