Conference: Civil Society and Civilian Crisis Management: Enhancing Cooperation and Coherence by Multi-Level Dialogues, Berlin

NGOs are striving to improve structures for co-operation and coherence within the EU and the Commission, in particular through the project The Role of Civil Society – European Civilian Crisis Management (the “RoCS” project). On the occasion of the German EU Presidency, the German Platform for Peaceful Conflict Management has organised its Annual Conference on this theme of the role of civil society.

The importance of civil society as a competent partner in the field of conflict prevention and conflict transformation, especially in post conflict peace building and processes of transition has become quite obvious during the last decade. However, it will be important to focus on the changing structures of dialogue and mechanisms of consultations and to analyse them thoroughly. New forms of conflict and conflict escalation, new spirals of violence need new forms of dialogue and co-operation.

This international Conference will examine both the significance of civilian crisis management and conflict management within the EU, and provision for the inclusion of local actors in development co-operation and peacemaking outside Europe. To this end, the emphasis is on concrete case-studies from the Platform’s partner organisations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. In the five thematic working groups – Transitional Justice, Human Rights, Democratisation, “People building Peace,” and the Gender Perspective – representatives from these civil society organisations will report on their own projects and the challenges and problems they face.

An important concern, moreover, is to examine critically the recommendations emerging from the RoCS Project for improving co-operation and coherence, and to define and develop realistic tasks and options for the medium term, which are important to the Platform’s role in the European context.