Reconciliation

Reconciliation is the ultimate goal of peacebuilding. It occurs when disputants develop a new relationship based on apology, forgiveness, and newly established trust. Mennonite peacebuilder John Paul Lederach describes reconciliation as "a meeting ground where trust and mercy have met, and where justice and peace have kissed." Thus, reconciliation involves all four processes. It brings people together, enabling them to grow beyond the past to re-establish a normalized, peaceful, and trusting relationship in the present.

Obviously, reconciliation is a very difficult and slow process. Lederach points out that it usually takes just as long to get out of a conflict as it takes to get into one. So for conflicts that have been going on for decades or centuries, reconciliation cannot take place in weeks or months--perhaps not even in a few years. It will take many years, perhaps decades or centuries, to fully recover. Yet progress can be made, and even incremental steps can have tremendously beneficial effects.

Reconciliation programs can take many forms. Analytical problem solving workshops or dialogue processes can help build trust and a sense of forgiveness and mercy. If they lead to wider structural or behavioral changes they can also contribute to the re-establishment of justice and peace. So can processes such as the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commissions which have formalized the process of apology and forgiveness. Most efforts at citizen diplomacy and grassroots peacebuilding--which brings "ordinary" citizens into a process of trust-building and cooperation with former enemies--contribute to reconciliation over the long term.

Links to Examples of Reconciliation Programs:

Note: Quite a few articles are listed below. However, many more of the articles available in this material also cover reconciliation processes as well, as the entire program is designed to facilitate reconciliation, and thus, most of the article deal with this in some way. Users are urged to browse the full article list for other items, in addition to these, that spark their interest.

Conflict Transformation by Heidi Burgess and Guy Burgess

The set of articles available at this location describe John Paul Lederach's concept of conflict transformation, discuss its components (peace, justice, truth, mercy, and reconciliation, and describe how these relate to peacebuilding).

Kraybill, Ron -- "The Cycle of Reconciliation"

Kraybill describes his theory of the reconciliation cycle, drawn from his work in South Africa.  Reconciliation is a long-lasting process that goes through several stages.   It does not erase the past, but paves the way for a new future relationship based on risk taking, trust-building and the reclamation of identity.

 

Lederach, John Paul. "The Meeting Place"

This article describes the relationships between peace, truth, justice, and mercy, and how they all interact to yield reconciliation.

 

Trudy Govier -- The Ethics of Forgiveness

Grover describes reconciliation and forgiveness between victims and agents of Stasi spying in the former East Germany.

 

Estrada-Hollenbeck -- Understanding Forgiveness

This article looks at forgiveness as one element of reconciliation. The author explains how narratives can be used to generate both.

 

David Brubaker -- Reconciliation in Rwanda: The Art of the Possible

This article looks at what is and isn't possible to do to achieve reconciliation in Rwanda.

 

Religion and Reconciliation in Bosnia

This article examines the steps which are needed to attain reconciliation in Bosnia.

 

Pamela Aall -- Nongovernmental Organizations and Peacemaking

        This article describes the role of NGOs in peacebuilding and reconciliation programs.

 

David Stuart -- United National Involvement in the Peace Process in El Salvador

This article describes peacebuilding and reconciliation programs in El Salvador. 

 

Stephen Ryan--Peace-Building and Conflict Transformation

In this chapter, Ryan discusses alternative peacebuilding strategies including forgiveness and reconciliation.  Ryan discusses the benefits--and the problems with the reconciliation approach.

Links to Outside Sources of Information

Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP) Information and Resource Center

This center has a number of useful full-text articles on the use of mediation to produce reconciliation between victims and offenders--both violent and nonviolent.

 

Papers on Restorative Justice

These papers from the Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies of Fresno Pacific University take a Christian view of forgiveness and redemption.

 

NGOs and the Peace Process in Angola--United States Institute of Peace - Special Report

This article reviews the obstacles to reconciliation in Angola and suggests methods that might be used for overcoming those obstacles.  Similar approaches can also be applied in other countries with divided populations.

 

Balkan Religious Leaders Support Minority Rights- US Institute of Peace

Cooperation Agreements in Bosnia

Links to Related Approaches:

In a sense, all of the solution strategies in this program are related to reconciliation in one way or another, but the integrative strategies are particularly closely related.

Links to Related Problems:

Almost all