Seminar on Cross-Party Approach to Conflict Resolution (Party-building and Lessons Learned from South African Peace Process)

The possibility of peaceful resolution of the ongoing armed conflict became bleak after the royal takeover of February 1, 2005. The king and the council of minister were reluctant to resolve the conflict through peaceful dialogue and negotiation. Therefore, the government had rejected to reciprocate the unilateral ceasefire by the Maoists and was depending on the military force to crush the insurgency. The political parties, on the other hand were involved in dialogue and interaction with the Maoists. From their extended interaction, they had formulated a 12-point understanding with the Maoists. Although the newly made understanding had provided some hope for bringing peace and democracy in the country, the ordinary people did not seem to be much aware and interested in the political parties' latest activities.

In such circumstances, National Peace Campaign organized a seminar on Cross Party Approach to Conflict Resolution. The seminar was held at Godavari (Kathmandu) from 10-13 January 2006.

During the Seminar, Ms. Liz Philipson, resource person from NPC, shared her analysis of the country's political scenario with the participants. The participants discussed on the probable steps of the king in the coming days vis-à-vis their consequences for democracy and peace in the country. After this, Ebrahim Ebrahim, one of the most senior leaders of African National Congress, shared his experiences of the peaceful transformation of conflict in South Africa. As a resource person from NPC, Mr. Ebrahim described how an extended peace process became successful in South Africa through numerous informal pre-negotiations, dialogues and formal negotiations. He also highlighted the role of participatory and inclusive peace process in South Africa and suggested that the process which makes the constitution is as important as the constitution itself.