Conference: Peace in the Basque Country

On the 11 June 2015 I spoke at a high level conference entitled "Humanitarian Conference for Peace in the Basque Country focusing on peace in the Basque Country". The event was held in the General Assembly in Paris. I focused on lessons from South Africa and Basque Country.

Basque Peace Process under threat...

It would appear, after making some progress, that the Basque Peace Process is once more under threat. Angry protests have followed the arrest by Spanish authorities of members of Herrira, which was founded in February 2012 to help ETA prisoners and their families. The group has publicly embraced the peace process.

The pacifist citizens network Lokarri, with whom I have worked in the past (see blog post 18 March 2013), is one of the groups speaking out against the arrests saying it jeopardises the progress that has been made towards peace.

Lokarri has released an online petition calling for the release of the detainees and the immediate end to the police operation. It can be accessed here.

Basque Social Forum to Promote the Peace Process

I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the Basque Social Forum to Promote the Peace Process, bakebidea.com. I was asked to speak about Dealing with the Past.

Below is my Tweet record of my talk. Obviously, a summary but core ideas contained.

Tweet record sent 16 March 2013:

• Yesterday had the pleasure of speaking at the Basque Social Forum to Promote the Peace Process www.bakebidea.com #bakeforo
• Bake Bidea seeks to promote reflection about the Basque peace process through dialogue with the public in public forums #bakeforo
• Speakers included myself, Colm Campbell, Kieran McEvoy (@kieranmcevoy2), Andy Carl, and Martin Snodden (pictured above in order) followed by public discussion
• We spoke in Bilbao to an audience of some 300, my topic was dealing with the past #bakeforo
• Dealing with the past is the process of addressing a legacy of violence #bakeforo
• Conflict is often about simplicity, we are divided, good and bad. Dealing with the past is about embracing complexity #bakeforo
• When I talk about dealing with the past I draw on Healing Through Remembering (@HTRinfo) who are concerned with structured, active and purposeful attempts #bakeforo
• Dealing with the past is a wide ranging subject, but largely focuses on what strategies and mechanisms #bakeforo
• Examples include, among others, storytelling, to memorialization, to truth commissions, apologies, community projects, reparations #bakeforo
• Drawing a line is a way of dealing with the past, but it generally does not work. Look at the case of Spanish Civil War now #bakeforo
• From my experience there are six key lessons we now know about dealing with the past in countries emerging from violence #bakeforo
• Lesson 1: Dealing with the past is wider than a truth commission, you need multiple strategies at different levels over long term #bakeforo
• You can do dealing with the past work in the absence of political agreements and it continues after formal processes like TRCs too #bakeforo
• Lesson 2: different political realities determine the types of approaches taken. No one approach. It always involves compromise #bakeforo
• Political realities mean for example complete amnesty is unlikely and incomplete retributive justice for victims is a reality #bakeforo
• Lesson 3: You need a wider aim and vision. Victims are central and those involved in violence, but the process is about society #bakeforo
• You need social and political buy in into processes with all players involved, it is top down and bottom up, and institutional #bakeforo
• Lesson 4: seek complexity and learn to live with different views of the past, while “narrowing permissible lies” (Ignatieff) #bakeforo
• Absolute truth is not possible. But we can narrow what societies see as acceptable and break myths about the past #bakeforo
• In South Africa it was helpful to know all sides committed violations, maybe for different reasons, but there was a dirty war #bakeforo
• We must highlight stories of complexity that challenge our simplistic notions of good and bad #bakeforo
• Getting information about causes, nature and extent of a conflict is important through truth recovery processes #bakeforo
• Lesson 5: we need to seek new ways of framing the conflict and create the spaces where we can do this #bakeforo
• We need to pay attention to language and symbols, not become fixated but work through processes to understand the latent meaning #bakeforo
• We must engage in public discussions about the past, and reframe issues like the changing of murals in Belfast #bakeforo
• ...or victims and combatants to be given space to speak of their experiences #bakeforo
• Lesson 6: trust must be built at all levels and honesty in engagement is vital to maintain trust (HTR) #bakeforo
• We should not lie to victims for example and promise them complete justice when the political reality is this won't happen #bakeforo
• But confidence building mechanisms are needed like apologies and acknowledgement, along with consultation and participation #bakeforo
• Thank you and all the best with the Forum, this type of public engagement is important in peace processes #bakeforo

Tweets sent by others referring to my input on 15 March 2013:

• @PaulRios Hamber: los conflictos son sencillos (buenos/malos) Los procesos de paz son complejos #bakeforo (at 6:35pm)
• @PaulRios Hamber: olvidar puede ser una estrategia pero no funciona #bakeforo (at 6:38pm)
• @PaulRios Hamber: las amnistías completas no tienen sitio en el contexto internacional #bakeforo (at 6:47pm)
• @PaulRios Hamber: las víctimas son centrales en estos proceso pero el proceso es acerca de la convivencia en la sociedad #bakeforo (at 6:48pm)
• @PaulRios Hamber: la honestidad es fundamental. Por ejemplo, hay quien crea falsas expectativas en las víctimas #bakeforo (at 6:57pm)
• @BarcenaPatricia Hamber: Aprender a vivir con visiones diferentes. Como la verdad absoluta no es posible hay limitar "las mentiras posibles" en #bakeforo (at 10:15pm)