Starting in autumn 2018, Antti Pentikäinen will be a “Director’s Guest” scholar at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton. Mr. Pentikäinen will pursue a writing project on reconciliation, as a member of the Center’s resident seminar on religion and violence. Princeton University is considering hosting the coordination of the Consortium for Reconciliation and will ensure connections to the efforts and work of the United Nations.
The new development is a continuum for the work the Peacemakers Network has conducted together with the United Nations and partners, on how to better enable transformative reconciliation processes. Professor Simon Keyes from Winchester University is currently leading a mapping process investigating existing gaps and lessons learned from key actors in the field.
The first milestone in the history of the Consortium for Reconciliation, was the inception meeting held in Geneva in February 22-23. The meeting was co-hosted by the Peacemakers Network and Inclusive Peace & Transition Initiative. A dozen organizations representing centers of reconciliation, research institutes and organizations worldwide have committed to become founding members of the Consortium. These actors are committed to work together in identifying ways to support grassroots reconciliation actors, train, and adv5.3.201ocate for reconciliation practitioners and to improve and expand global reconciliation practices. The founding meeting requested Mr. Pentikäinen to become the director of the Consortium.
“I feel humbled having being asked to serve such deeply meaningful work as reconciliation trying to create more space for healing between communities and for human minds troubled with the past. We believe right things are done, but for some reason this does not reflect back in the way reconciliation processes are designed. Victims, survivors, observers, and the ones on the side of the offenders continue to carry pain due to the past. It is an urgent task to search for improved ways to help communities and individuals to become in terms with their history,” Mr. Pentikäinen said after the Geneva meeting.
For more information, please contact Peacemakers Network New York Office Coordinator Annalisa Jackson (annalisa.jackson@peacemakersnetwork.org).
5.3.2018