THE AMAZING EXPERIENCE OF THE HUMAN LIBRARY

Day 3

Wednesday 29 July was an exciting day at Caux as the Main Hall turned into a Human Library where people were books telling their personal stories of change, which created inspirational energy among the 300 participants. Moreover, a journalist from the French TV channel TF1 filmed the various activities of CATS 2015.

The concept of the Human Library is that some people become “books” and tell their stories, while other people are “readers” and listen to the people-books. Through sharing their personal stories with one another, the participants connected on a deeper level, which allowed for a common energy and sentiment of solidarity to emerge out of the power of stories.

In a safe environment where people could fully express themselves, the “books” told stories on many themes related to children’s rights and their participation: We are strong, We have rights, We have dreams, We are growing, We do social media, and we want change.

For instance, a boy from Uganda shared his experience learning about issues that affect girls, such as menstruation; a boy from Kosovo talked about his learning of peacebuilding and his experience in a war-torn country as a child; and Susie Morgan spoke about her work at the Council of Europe.

The 300 participants concluded the session by saying what had moved them most, among the inspirational personal stories they had heard, and how they planned to apply some of the learning once back home.

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INSPIRATIONAL KEYNOTE SPEAKERS AT CATS 2015

Day 2

On Tuesday morning the 300 participants of CATS 2015 minus the young children had the chance to listen to our three keynote speakers, each of them explaining from a different perspective the need for better implementation of child participation in the world.

Firstly the former Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Kirsten Sandberg pointed out that children are human beings and citizens living in society, so it would be more relevant to ask “why should children not participate.”

Kesz Valdez, the 2012 Winner of the International Children’s Peace Prize, followed her motivating speech with his personal and incredibly inspiring story. He told the audience about his life in the dumpsite in Cavite City, Philippines, and how his life changed when he met a social worker who took him in and gave him love, in addition to a roof, food, and the opportunity to create an organisation to help other children in street situations.

Lastly Nkem Oselloka-Orakwue shared her experience of working for children’s right to participate in decisions that affect them at a time when children were not valued on the Nigerian television.

Click here to learn more about CATS.
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Day 1

On Monday 27 July the Caux-Palace welcomed over 300 participants to the third edition of CATS – Children as Actors for Transforming Society. For one week children, young people and adults will explore how to create partnerships that lead to effective child participation in all matters that affect them.

Throughout a very participative programme, of which plenary sessions were banned in favour of the new concept of “Together Times,” all the participants will share experiences, debate concepts and ideas, and exchange knowledge on children’s participation in an environment that is at the same time fun, interactive, trustful and respectful.

During the opening session, the organising partners gave a warm welcome to the participants and promised an exciting week.

Jonathan Levy, CATS Director from Initiatives of Change France, highlighted the conceptual process of CATS in the last three years: from understanding children’s participation, to looking into children and young people as advocates for change, to now developing partnership between children and adults.

Tricia Young, Director of London-based Child to Child, described CATS as a “showcase of what children can do.” She stressed the need for worldwide recognition that “children are powerful actors bringing about fundamental changes within their communities,” and pointed out the role played by CATS in this global shift.

Daniel Kropf, Director of Universal Education Foundation located in Brussels, mentioned the importance for adults to partner with children in order to connect with the often forgotten qualities of curiosity, spontaneity, playfulness, humour, creativity and acceptance.

Director of Eurochild Jana Hainsworth explained the organisation’s decision to become a CATS partner this year, saying that Eurochild recognises “the agency of every child to change his or her environment, and if we nurture that agency, we will eventually change the world.”
Lastly, Nick Foster, Conference Manager at the Caux-Palace, playfully demonstrated some of the rules of the place and welcomed the children, young people and adults to this fairy tale-like Castle.

A programme with some impressive potential

Tomorrow CATS 2015 will open the week with influential keynote speakers: Kesz Valdez, 2012 Winner of the International Children’s Peace Prize; Kirsten Sandberg, Former Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; Nkem Orakwue, Founder/Co-ordinator of the Nigerian Children’s Parliament & Executive Director of TV programmes for children; and a video recording of Dimitri Avramopoulos, European Commissioner responsible to EAC for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship.

During the week the participants will also have the chance to feed into the General Comment on Adolescents, commissioned by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; whilst child rapporteurs of the workshops will help to feed back into a project with the European Parliament for making children’s voices heard on policy issues.

Click here to learn more about CATS.
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EXTENDED GLOBAL ASSEMBLY 2015

19 - 23 July 2015 in Caux

The international IofC network gathers this week in the Caux Conference Centre for the Extended Global Assembly. The over hundred people attending, representing all five continents, hope to reconnect, exchange best practices and define the common way forward as a network.

President of IofC International, Omnia Marzouk, opened this year’s Assembly stressing the opportunities of IofC in bringing people together to learn from each other.

For more pictures of the Extended Global Assembly, click here.

The final day of Addressing Europe’s Unfinished Business was a time for reflection on the next steps to be taken. Participants also made commitments about what they would do in the coming year. Part of the morning was dedicated to discussing a peace voyage across Europe in 2018. This would involve visiting places that have suffered or continue to suffer conflict.

Those involved would meet locals wherever they travelled, sharing practical stories of conflict resolution and trustbuilding. There were many suggestions for places that could be visited, as well as ideas about the message to be transmitted and what could be done at each point on the journey. Many participants committed to contributing to this project. In the course of the rest of the day, there were several heartfelt testimonies from people who felt moved by their experience at Caux and wanted to start initiatives, including writing papers and having a more proactive role in bringing minority groups in Europe together.

Oleh Ovcharenko from Ukraine said he had found hope in Caux that the European community is ready to offer help. He hopes that one day people from different sides in the Ukrainian conflict will come together and shake hands in Caux. Camilla Nelson, a member of the International Council, closed the seminar by sharing the values of Initiatives of Change and calling on each of us to think about the role we might play as individuals. There will be ongoing discussions as participants go down the mountain and small projects start to take shape in different parts of Europe.

Today marks the conclusion of the 2015 International Peace-Builders’ Forum (IPF).  The forum, co-organized by CAUX-Initiatives of Change Foundation and the Institute for Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding, brought together professionals in the peace-building sector to discuss their practices and experiences of non-violent conflict transformation. 

Over the course of the past four days, forum participants have engaged in small discussion groups, listened to lectures by key leaders in the peacebuilding field, collaborated in structured workshops, and participated in team-building as well as introspective and meditative activities.

This morning’s closing session asked participants: What will I take away? How do I feel different? What will I do differently?  Reflecting on these questions helped individuals draw out what they have gained from this forum and how they will apply these insights in their day-to-day work upon their return.

Forum highlights included Friday’s panel discussion led by Koenraad Van Brabant of Interpeace, Ajsa Hadzibegovic of Civic Alliance, Catriona Gourlay of PeaceNexus, and Daphrose Ntarataze Barampama of Creators of Peace who spoke on their own experiences in their work of implementing the values of dignity, participation, and inclusion. Afterwards, Abbas Aroua of the Cordoba Foundation of Geneva presented Islam/Arab perspectives on non-violent conflict transformation, leading into a discussion among participants of how they bring their own cultural backgrounds into their peacebuilding work. Workshops on Saturday gave peacebuilding professionals an opportunity to collaborate on various aspects of applying the principles of dignity, participation, and inclusion in the practice of non-violent conflict transformation.

Participants cited that some of the most powerful insights that they will take with them from this forum include a feeling of solidarity and shared responsibility among peace-builders, the realisation that one must first know oneself before one can help others to heal their wounds, and the importance of non-violent communication in their work, moving them from the role of  “peace dreamers” to becoming “peace practitioners”.

Day three of the International Peace-Builders’ Forum (IPF) opened this morning with three workshops. Ajsa Hadzibegovig’s workshop focused on understanding the disempowering factors that prevent the participation of young people in peace-building activism. Simon Fisher led a workshop in which he asked participants to reflect on the question: do we see ourselves more as technicians, doing a professional job, or as transformers, aiming to bring about deep change, or neither? Jean Brown and Shoshana Faire’s workshop encouraged participants to examine their own hearts to understand the stories that they are transforming and passing on to future generations.

In the afternoon, Tanja Mirabile led participants in an exercise to better understand effective dialogue as a tool for non-violent conflict transformation and the role of the moderator. One participant took initiative to lead a workshop about dignity as a form of Gandhian “power of goodness.”

Jonathan Dudding concluded the afternoon with a group exercise making sense of the work over the course of the forum thus far.  He asked participants to discuss two questions in small groups: What are the key insights you have had so far? How can we best apply these insights in our practice?

Day 3

The third day of the seminar allowed participants to deepen their understanding of common values and work towards concrete steps to implement them.

The morning session gave one member of each working group the opportunity to share with the wider audience the progress that was made the day before in smaller groups. Our Young Ambassador from France reported that discrimination against minorities often stems from ignorance and proposals to address the issue thus necessarily need to include ways of empowering cultural minorities. The Young Ambassador from Bosnia and Herzegovina added that the manipulation of the masses and the lack of empathy create a hostile environment that often leads to conflict. Hence, the importance to promote dialogue and abolish the rhetoric of hatred as proposed by the speaker of another working group.

In the afternoon, the public lecture by Margaret Smith was an additional highlight of the AEUB seminar. The very personal and moving speech stroke a subtle balance between more theoretical questions of building a common European narrative and practical ways of transforming tensions through social change. Finally, the open space event in the evening allowed everyone to share personal interests as varied as the exhibition ‘Within Our walls and Beyond’ by Undine Groeger, tango dancing and spiral dynamics (a method of understanding value systems and creating formulas for change).

Day 2

Friday 17 July was an opportunity to report back on the first working group discussions and continue our conversations throughout the day.

Our young ambassador from Italy read comments from Leoluca Orlando, Mayor of Palermo. Mr Orlando called for recognition of the right to international human mobility. In his Charter of International Human Mobility, Mr Orlando demands that ‘mobility must be recognized as an inalienable human right’. He argues that nobody makes the choice where they are born, but they have the choice to decide where they want to live and die. He underlines that EU has made great strives for this right. It must, however, expand beyond the Schengen Area. The full Charter can be downloaded as a PDF here. 

Each working group reported on key hopes, concerns and proposals that had emerged from their discussions the previous day. A key idea was that “ordinary citizens” should be involved in shaping Europe.  Several people also mentioned the role the media play in sustaining negative feelings between and within nations. This could be counteracted with positive media campaigns.

In the afternoon, some participants enjoyed a treasure hunt, exploring the history of Caux Palace and Caux’s connection with European history. Others attended a lecture on the 60^th anniversary of the Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations, which ended a long conflict between Denmark and Germany. Some of those who worked on the declarations were inspired by Caux. The end of the day was marked with a “Sharing our Cultures” event. Here, participants were invited to share something from their culture, be it food, music, poetry or national dress. It was a great evening of sharing and laughing, and exploring cultures.

Day 2

The morning’s session featured a panel of peace-builders who discussed their experiences implementing dignity, participation, and inclusion in their work.

Koenraad von Brabant of Interpeace explained that it is important to include all stakeholders of a conflict, not just the government and big corporations. If a population is affected by a conflict, they need to be involved in the peace-building process, even if they come from a remote village.

Ajsa Hadzibegovic from Civic Alliance explained the difficulties of an after-war situation and how they must be careful with the way they package peace-building activities. Because the government has not changed since the war, they cannot undertake peacebuilding activities openly, but need to present them as cultural or educational activities, for example.

Catriona Gourlay of PeaceNexus asked this question: do peace-building organisations respect the values they defend inside the organization? She admitted that it can be very difficult to have an inclusive leadership and explored some of the challenges that she faces in her organisation.

Lastly, Daphrose Ntarataze Barampama, President of Creators of Peace International, explained the values and methods of the peace circles, including the practice of silence and introspection as a first step in creating peaceful environments.

In the afternoon Abbas Aroua, Director of the Cordoba Foundation of Geneva, presented Islam/Arab perspectives on non-violent conflict transformation. He drew on Qruanic verses, Hadith, and Arabic linguistics to highlight the roots of peace (slim), love (rahma), and human dignity (karāma) within the Islamic tradition.

The evening programme gave the opportunity to participants to relax and to bond thanks to ice-breakers that allowed them to be more aware of themselves, mind and body, and of others.