ICTJ Events

June 25, 2007

CONFERENCE: Building a Future on Peace and Justice | Nuremberg, Germany

Building a Future on Peace and Justice

June 25-27, 2007

• The Governments of Finland, Germany and Jordan

• The International Center for Transitional Justice, New York

• The Crisis Management Initiative, Helsinki
  

And in cooperation with:

• The Robert Bosch Foundation, Stuttgart

• The Draeger Foundation, Lübeck

• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ AgenZ)

• The Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation

Conference Goals

The primary goal of the Conference is to promote better understanding and better management of tensions that may arise between the goals of "peace" and "justice" in the course of peace-brokering or in post-conflict peace-building. To achieve this, the Conference will build on practical experiences from political practitioners and civil society as well as on academic input.

Peace and justice are pre-eminent goals, and are the focus of a great deal of UN activity. In the latter stages of a conflict, however, and in the post-conflict phase, certain tensions may arise between these goals. Leaders on either side of a conflict may, as their price for making peace, insist on being granted an amnesty for serious crimes committed during the conflict (notably war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide).Victims may feel ignored and may distrust both the peace agreement and its authors, not to mention the whole post-conflict order, if abuses committed during the conflict are "swept under the carpet" and those responsible are not held to account. Further complications may arise in the post-conflict reconstruction phase if the security sector, rule-of-law and other development and reconstruction tasks compete for scarce resources or if there is a perceived mismatch in the resources allocated to each of these sectors.

Eventually, the Conference will seek to mandate the drafting of political recommendations (Nuremberg Manifesto) that will address the question of how to manage the above-mentioned tensions, starting from a holistic understanding of "sustainable peace", involving the dimensions peace, justice, development and institutional reforms. These political recommendations will be directed to political decision-makers within Governments and international organizations, in particular the United Nations and the International Criminal
Court (ICC).

The Conference will be divided into three phases:

Pre-conference Phase: empirical studies with regional or thematic focuses will be elaborated on key issues. These will inform the discussions at the conference. The quality of these studies will be guaranteed by the civil society organizations involved in the conference. They will constitute a major cost factor, but are also a key to the success of our deliberations.

Conference Phase: Practical experience and research results will inform discussions between political practitioners, civil society and academia. The Conference will also decide on its follow-up process, in particular a mechanism to elaborate political recommendations.

Follow-up Process: Elaboration of a manifesto, followed by its presentation
to international bodies for their endorsement (UN General Assembly, ICC Assembly).

Logistics
The Conference will take place from Mon, 25 June to Wed, 27 June 2007
in the CongressCentrum Nürnberg.

Participants
Around 300 participants are expected to attend the conference. They will represent a broad regional and sectoral spectrum of policymakers, academics, practitioners and civil society:

(a) States: The conference is open to all interested states. A number of states will be invited directly, in view of their experience.
(b) International organizations: These will include the true "beneficiaries" of the conference results: the UN Secretariat (DPA, DPKO, OHCHR, Peacebuilding Support Office/Rule of Law Assistance Unit), the Security Council, the Peacebuilding Commission, UNDP, the World Bank, the ICC and relevant regional organizations.
(c) Practitioners: Relevant actors from (former) conflict regions with practical experience in dealing with the potentially conflicting objectives of peace and justice: UN or regional special representatives etc. with relevant experience; representatives of other international legal organizations; representatives of truth and reconciliation mechanisms; NGOs with relevant experience.
(d) Academics: from the fields of legal studies, crisis prevention and development.
(e) Civil society: NGOs, churches, media, political foundations, policymakers/parliament, interested members of the public.

To benefit from empirical insight, we hope to attract actors from relevant conflict situations. The conference organizers intend to grant a minimum of 50 scholarships, covering travel and accommodation costs, to participants from developing countries.

Tentative Conference Schedule

Day one: Ceremonial opening featuring keynote Speeches by German FM Steinmeier and Her Majesty the Queen of Jordan (not yet confirmed), followed by a concert by the Nuremberg Symphonic Orchestra. The afternoon segment will feature high-ranking speakers who will set the framework for the conference from the three main
perspectives: conflict-resolution, justice/human rights, and development.

Day two: Substantive work and discussions will unfold in five parallel
regional workshops (morning) and five parallel thematic workshops (evening).

Day Three: The results of the workshops will be synthesized and political conclusions will be drawn. The elaboration of political recommendations will be mandated. Farewell speech to be delivered by the Mayor of Nuremberg.

For further information, please see the official website for the conference:
www.peace-justice-conference.info