Office for National Unity and Reconciliation to hold first conference today

The Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR) under the Justice Ministry will hold its first annual conference today and tomorrow in a hybrid format. The theme of the conference is ‘Resolving Differences through Understanding: Sustainable Peace, Security and Reconciliation in Modern Society.’

The annual conference is a program proposal submitted under the title of ‘Higher Education Programs’, one of the eight major areas of programs that the Board of Control of ONUR agreed to implement in period of 2021-2024. This conference aims to bring together leading academics, researchers and research scholars, professionals, and university students to exchange and share their experiences, ideas, information and research results related to issues of peacebuilding, sustainable peace, rights and responsibilities of citizens, reconciliation and security in modern multicultural society. It envisages providing a premier interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners, and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as practical challenges encountered and solutions adopted.

This conference will provide an ideal environment to develop new collaborations and meet experts on the fundamentals, applications, and products of the aforementioned fields. Authors have submitted their latest research findings, under the following sub-themes.

They are ‘Reconciliation: Theoretical Approaches and Critique; Reconciliation in Religion and Philosophy’; ‘Reconciliation and International Relations; Reconciliation in Divided Societies: Global Experiences’; ‘Reconciliation and Justice; Reconciliation and Conflict Resolution; Reconciliation and Sustainable Peace’; ‘Reconciliation and Security of People’; ‘Reconciliation and Education; Indigenous and Multicultural Approaches to Reconciliation’; ‘Reconciliation, History and Memorialization’; ‘Reconciliation and the role of Media’; ‘Reconciliation and the role of Civil Society Organizations’; ‘Conflict prevention and promoting reconciliation’; ‘Conflict prevention, peacekeeping and post–conflict peacebuilding’; and ‘Women in Reconciliation and Peacebuilding’. Keynote speakers are University of Oxford, England – United Kingdom Harris Manchester College Senior Research Fellow The Lord Alderdice FRCPsych, and University of Oxford, England – United Kingdom Professor of International Relations Prof. Richard Caplan. Guest Speakers are Australian National University, Canberra – Australia Distinguish Professor Prof. John Braithwaite; Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab – India Vice Chancellor Professor (Dr.) G.S. Bajpal; University of Buffalo, NY – United States College of Art and Science Dept. of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies Professor Barbara Wejnert. The findings of all these papers presented will be documented under each topic and published. These documentations will be shared among the relevant line ministries as directions to integrate reconciliation into their plan of action.