Tyngdpunktsförskjutning rapport (PDF) - Sveriges kristna råd

the myriad ways that they actively build peace. Yet they play roles at every point in the development of
conflict and its resolution: from surfacing situations of injustice to preventing violence, from creating
conditions conducive to peace talks to media-­‐ting a settlement and working to ensure it is consolidated,
from setting a global policy agenda to healing war-­‐scarred psyches. These roles can be mapped out into
eight main functions of civil society peace-­‐building.
Waging conflict constructively
Sometimes the prevailing power structures in a society are deeply oppressive. While there may not be full
scale warfare, life for many is impaired by profound structural violence, often combined with actual or
threatened direct violence. Civil society activists can play crucial roles in changing these situations by
surfacing the conflict and escalating it nonviolently to bring about necessary changes. Often mobilized by
some triggering situation that provokes an ‘enough is enough!’ response, they gather the sparks of
resistance throughout the population into a movement capable of challenging the relevant power
structures.
Sometimes they use existing institutional and legal systems to hold regimes to account or to address
injustices. They often combine formal legal strategies with approaches that aim to foster public awareness
and the transformation of conflict attitudes and relationships. CSOs can bear witness to violations and
undermine the moral authority and legitimacy of abusers. The very act of public disclosure and / or
denouncing the situation can make the truth evident in ways that are very difficult to ignore and may
empower people to take action to change the situation. This exposure sometimes stimulates conditions
that lead to the collapse of regimes over the long term. They can also dissuade the wider public from
accepting or participating in acts that enable abuse and oppression.
Conflict is therefore embraced as a way of working proactively toward social change goals and is a feature
of the struggle for justice. Civil society activists can manifest both the ‘power to resist’ oppressive forces -­‐
typically through mobilizing effective mass movements for change -­‐ and the ‘power to expose’ oppression
and thereby de-­‐legitimize the authority of the oppressors. Furthermore, they have the ‘power to persuade’
both popular opinion and decisionmakers of more constructive ways to respond to specific conflict
situations and to address the structural problems that give rise to conflict. This points to the importance of
channeling conflict through peaceful processes capable of delivering constructive change.
Shifting conflict attitudes: the power to re-­‐frame and change perceptions
Many grassroots peace-­‐builders in societies locked in protracted conflict promote people-­‐topeople dialogue
across the conflict divides to begin to shift entrenched conflict dynamics. This is often facilitated by
establishing direct communication between people with some common attribute: such as a similar
occupational role (e.g., teachers, journalists), identity characteristics (e.g., women, youth), or common
experiences of the conflict (e.g., ex-­‐combatants, policy advisors).
The experience of encountering those who have been regarded as enemies and perceiving them as human
beings can shake perceptions of ‘the other’ and challenge the discourses of hate. This can shake-­‐up their
perceptions of the conflict and ultimately result in personal transformation. They -­‐ and those in the circles
around them -­‐ may begin to seek alternatives to continued war because they now know that there are people
in the other community who are similar to themselves in seeking a reasonable solution to the conflict.
Envisioning a better future: power to identify, to analyze and to propose
Civil society actors can help shape peace policy by identifying overlooked problems and policy gaps, analyzing
issues and recommending solutions. In short, they can identify the central agenda of issues that need to be
addressed in responding to a conflict situation and dealing with peace and security issues more widely. Civil
society groups can analyze the situation, formulate recommendations, develop policy options and engage in
policy dialogue to address conflicts. They can also mobilize advocacy campaigns to generate political will
amongst decision-­‐makers and implement strategies to achieve the desired results. Thus civil society efforts at
raising public awareness about a particular set of problems is intertwined with efforts to motivate political
decision-­‐makers to take action to address them.
Sustainable peace processes need to be about more than finding ways to end the fighting;
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