Seminar in Northern Ireland

The National Peace Campaign (NPC), in collaboration with INCORE, at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, hosted seminar and a Study Tour of Northern Ireland for the senior politicians from 18-23 January 2004.
The programme had been designed and organised jointly by NPC and the University of Ulster with assistance from Liz Philipson. The senior politicians from Nepal had intensive interaction with people of Northern Ireland who were directly involved in the peace process at different levels.

The Northern Ireland conflict is long and complex. At the moment the parties are struggling with the implementation of the Northern Ireland Agreement and there are many fascinating issues to study in connection with that. However, during this tour we did not focus at the details or implementation of the agreement but we focused primarily on the period after the breakdown of the first ceasefire. This period seems more pertinent to the current problems in Nepal. We tried to seek to identify how the obstacles that resulted in that breakdown of the first cease-fire were overcome in a manner that eventually led to the second ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement.

Northern Ireland enjoys totally different socio-economic and cultural conditions than Nepal. Nevertheless we believe that some of the dynamics of failed ceasefires and polarization experienced in Northern Ireland have some resonance and would have provided some insights into how Nepal might approach the current situation.