INTERNATIONAL

Since its inception in the year 2001, Tibetan Centre for Conflict Resolution has been giving workshops among the Tibetan community as well as the Indian community. Having made a positive impact on a national level we felt the need to broaden our perspectives and make new grounds to further our aim of educating the people about Conflict Resolution. Our efforts of taking the office on an international level paid off in July 2005 when we got an opportunity to organise in Dharamsala an International Youth Workshop for Peace in Asia in partnership with Red Cross Nordic United World College (RCNUWC) and International School Manila(ISM). TCCR was approached by Mr. Mark Pulfer from RCNUWC who had co-organised another International Workshop on Human Rights at the Tibetan Children’s Village School in Dharamsala a year before.

Inspired by the success of this International Workshop for Peace in Asia, Mr. Tim Boulton from the International School Manila worked towards another International workshop, this time in The Philippines. Youth Gathering for Peace was held from 15-23 July, 2006, at Tugdaan, a small school within an indigenous community in the mountains of Mindoro, Philippines. Continuing from the success of the IYWPA in Dharamsala and Mindoro, Philippines TCCR was again requested to partner with Mr. Mark Pulfer and Mr. Tim Boulton to co-facilitate the International Youth Workshop in Nepal from 10 to 20 July 2007.

The principle aim of the Workshop was to present the participants with a sampling of the problems facing peace in Asia and the necessity to create change and foster peace in the continent. To facilitate communication, dialogue and networking amongst young people. In particular, to enable young people who have suffered through war or abuse of human rights to build solidarity with those who have been more fortunate than themselves. One of the messages of the Workshop was that effective peace activism requires community-building at local, regional, national and international levels. The Workshop intended to create a supportive community at the international level amongst the participants as well as to indicate skills necessary for creating community at the other levels in the participants’ home environments.

One of the underlying objectives of the workshop was to engender in participants a spirit of leadership in order to become positive activists in the world and taking on some kind of responsibility for changing the world in a positive way. To strengthen young people in their commitment to promoting peace whether through conflict management, human rights advocacy or education, advocacy of environmental issues or through direct service to the disadvantaged.

The International Youth Workshop for Peace in Asia has had participants from all over the world: Australia, Korea, Japan, Nepal, Tibet, India, The Philippines, Germany, Canada, and America with different levels of knowledge, experience and interest in human rights. This diversity both presented challenges and gave the workshop its distinctive flavor. Because of the different backgrounds of knowledge and experience, the facilitators had to constantly gauge at which level the information and activities of the workshop should be pitched. It did this through lectures, but also through experiential learning and the organization of more informal activities. It strengthened commitment to two important areas of human rights in particular, advocacy and education. The different backgrounds and experiences from which the participants came also was a clear strength of the workshop, as they contributed a wealth of perspectives from which everyone learned and benefited. A combination of knowledge, skills, practice, and community building formed the core of the development of commitment.

We had theatre games as part of theatre of the oppressed and had other theatre games and cultural shows. We also had mini-human rights workshops to provide an opportunity for the participants to gain experience in peace education. There were also presentations on the state of peace in countries around Asia and Veils of Maya and Spirituality” which discussed the notions agreed upon by many spiritual traditions that our vision and outlook on the world is obscured by the “veils” of our biology, culture and ego. The conflict resolution section was one of the most successful elements. These were definitely a pivotal point in developing the community of participants.

The very fact that the International Youth Workshop for Peace in Asia took place achieved its objective where people from different backgrounds could meet, share their experiences and perspectives, and discover ways in which they could mutually benefit from developing contacts, sharing knowledge and collaborating where appropriate to a large extent. The Workshop was an unqualified success and the powerful, positive atmosphere that was generated was second to none. It was able to create a community of like minded young people that shared each other’s experience and skills to foster a motivation in each and every participant to make a difference in their respective communities and the world as a whole.

International exchange and dialogue amongst young people in Asia is in its infancy, encouraging young people to think globally and to view peace and conflict situations in their own countries within an international context and to this development, the Workshop has made a modest contribution and managed to convince its Asian participants of more inter-Asian networking and collaboration, and as young Asian peace workers, they will return to their own countries, spread the message, and develop the habit of coordination within the world’s largest continent.

The Workshop was useful and effective. The proverb, “We make the path by walking it”, was true of the Workshop. It was able to instill among the participants a belief in their ability to achieve great things which is so crucial for peace activism and has demonstrated that barriers of culture, language, religion, socioeconomic status and so on, can be overcome in a short span of time.

The vast majority of participants enjoyed the Workshop and rated it as ‘excellent’. More importantly, every participant indicated that the workshop caused them to change some opinions and/or form new ideas. The majority indicated that the workshop has made them more likely to make a positive change in the world; and a belief to organize similar workshops of their own within 5-10 years. Almost all the participants expressed happiness about making new friends from entirely different backgrounds. Almost all of the participants mentioned the conflict resolution section of the workshop as being critical to the success of the program.

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In mid 2006 Dr. Paula Green an old friend of TCCR and Director of Karuna Center for Peacebuilding introduced us to Venerable Vivekananda a Buddhist monk of the Burmese tradition who is ethnically German running a Vipassana Centre in Lumbini. We kept in touch with Ven. Vivekananda through emails and sent him our publications which impressed him very much. Several times there were discussions of the possibilities of conducting a conflict resolution workshop at Lumbini. Finally in July 2007 it was confirmed that Dr. Paula Green would come and conduct a workshop to help the peace initiatives in Lumbini. Dr. Green and Ven. Vivekananda invited the Directors of TCCR to join in this effort and be in the training team.

Lumbini is a meeting point of different cultures, different religions, and different interests. At least twelve major stakeholders can be identified, such as various government departments, UN organizations, industrialists, Buddhist monasteries, pilgrims and visitors, hotel association, rickshaw puller association, labour unions, political parties, various national and international Buddhist organisations, locals, foreign embassies in Nepal, Tourism for Rural Poverty Alleviation Program(TRPAP), Hindus and Muslims. With such a diversity of stakeholders conflicts are bound to arise, and actually a number of conflicts have arisen already.

The purpose of the Seminar on “Building Peace in Lumbini” was to initiate a conflict transformation process and to work towards durable peace in and beyond Lumbini. To enhance better understanding, unity and harmony among the major stakeholders so that Lumbini would eventually become a role model and trendsetter for peace in Nepal and beyond.

When we were invited to conduct this workshop by Dr. Paula Green and Ven. Vivekananda we saw this as a very good opportunity for growth of the Centre as an internationally recognised NGO and also an opportunity to learn from the expertise of Dr. Paula Green. We reached there with a plan to introduce skills of conflict resolution and peacebuilding that may be useful in preventing further conflicts but on the first day of the workshop itself we realised that we were sitting on a live conflict and that the participants more than learning skills were eager for us to resolve their conflict. Therefore Dr. Paula Green, Mr.Karma Lekshey and Ms.Sonam Dechen together started to make another action plan. We introduced basic listening skills and then facilitated a dialogue among all the stake holders that were identified and present at the venue.

During the course of the dialogue, the interaction between the above mentioned stakeholders showed that despite pursuing different goals, which at times leads to conflict, there are common grounds as well. The development of Lumbini is at the core of their common interest from which all stakeholders can benefit. In this sense the stakeholders are interdependent and only good cooperation between them will pave the way to a win-win situation serving the interests of all involved. The proceedings ended with an action plan for each of the stakeholders, based on the commitment to develop Lumbini in an atmosphere of mutual trust and cooperation. This action plan can only be seen as a beginning. The process of development will have to be steered and readjusted by a core group of stakeholder representatives on a regular (monthly) basis. In this regard Lumbini Development Trust has taken up the formation of such a coordination committee on its agenda.

In their report the organisers have stated, “This seminar was a successful first step to clarify conflicting issues, to discover common grounds of interests and to prepare for working together towards the accomplishment of a noble mission aspired by all participants. It will be important to continue the peace process and to invite more actors to join hands. Following this workshop, plans will be made to continue the training program in conflict management skills as well as to form a planning committee to envision a permanent Center for Conflict Transformation for Lumbini.”

Therefore TCCR has taken another step forward towards being seen as an organisation capable of not only providing skills for the prevention of future possibilities of violent conflicts but also as an organisation capable of providing expertise on facilitating dialogue towards resolving conflicts at the community level.