Bern – Seeking Justice, Building Peace

The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and swisspeace are pleased to invite you to a public discussion on:

Seeking Justice, Building Peace
Options for policy-makers and mediators

Date and Time: Friday, 22 October 2010, 14h00-16h00
Venue: Käfigturm, Marktgasse 67, Bern

Speakers:

• Mô Bleeker, Senior Adviser Dealing with the Past, FDFA
• Richard Dicker, Human Rights Watch
• James LeMoyne, Mediator and Senior Adviser to the HD Centre, Geneva
• David Tolbert, President International Center for Transitional Justice, Geneva
  

Moderation: Anita Müller, swisspeace

For more information, please consult the flyer attached. We kindly ask you to confirm your participation to celine.morgan@swisspeace.ch.

Seeking justice and building peace should go hand in hand. While this is now the norm, mediators and policy-makers still face major challenges when trying to translate these principles into practice. As the example of the indictment of Sudanese President al Bashir by the International Criminal Court shows, the pursuit of justice in times of war is not without risk. For some the indictment on charges of war crimes and genocide in Darfur was long overdue, while others argued that it threatened the fragile peace process and would endanger humanitarian assistance.

Yet, the struggle against impunity does not begin and end with a peace agreement and accountability is not only about criminal sanctions. What options do mediators have to bring issues of accountability on the table during a peace process? What potential does a holistic approach to dealing with the past offer? Could such an approach open up new avenues for cooperation in the goal of peace and justice?

Representatives from the field of human rights and peace promotion will discuss these challenges and explore options for policy-makers and mediators to reconcile the demands for peace and justice.

Mô Bleeker serves as a senior adviser for Dealing with the Past and Genocide Prevention in the FDFA and has been working in societies in the process of transition from war to peace since 1982.

Richard Dicker is the director of the international justice program of Human Rights Watch and led the Human Rights Watch multi-year campaign to establish the International Criminal Court (ICC).

James LeMoyne currently is senior adviser to the HD Centre on its mediation activities and has been involved in peace processes and peacebuilding for more than 20 years.

David Tolbert is the president of the International Center for Transitional Justice. Previously he served as assistant secretary-general of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and as deputy chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).