Belfast, Ottawa and Belgrade

I have been failing in my duties to keep my blog up to date with a a very hectic schedule over the last while. I attended a meeting in Ottawa and then was off to Belgrade. The Ottawa meeting, hosted by the IDRC, focused on the International Handbook on Reconciliation produced by International IDEA. The book, in which I wrote a chapter on Healing (downloadable from online version of the Handbook), has really gone well and is used in a number of countries now. A French version is now available, and summaries of the book are available in English, French, Sinhala, Spanish and Tamil. The meeting focused on updating the current book. If any of you using it have suggestions feel free to email me. After this very fruitful meeting that will lead to further developments of the handbook I am sure, I headed for Belgrade. There I attended an event focusing on truth and reconciliation options for former-Yugoslavia. As many of you know there have been various attempts at dealing with these issues in the region (including a failed truth commission). This event, organised by the Victimology Society of Serbia, attempted to bring together a range of practitioners working on truth and reconciliation related work in the region. It was fascinating, although there is a long way to go. As soon as the report is out I'll post it.