40 years ago, when Sir Anthony Berry MP was killed in the IRA Brighton Bombing during the 1984 Tory Party Conference, his daughter Jo stepped into a world of conflict she barely knew. In November 2000 she met Patrick Magee, the former IRA activist responsible for her father’s death. This encounter has deepened her awareness that violence only begets violence. Only through building bridges, can people from all sides enter in spaces where dialogue about peace is possible.
On 30th May, in Brighton, the GHfP Institute co-hosted the screening of a film entitled “The Hardest Bridge” as part of Brighton Festival Fringe. Through recounting Jo and Patrick’s respective stories and shared journeys over last 25 years, this moving documentary explores the historical roots of violent conflict, the legacies of structural injustice, the choices each person is facing and our individual and collective responsibility for peace. More importantly, it captures the process of developing the least likely friendship between Jo Berry and Patrick Magee whose collaboration demonstrates the power of listening, dialogue and reconciliation.
Prof Scherto Gill facilitated the Q&A between the film’s director, Dr Imad Karam, an award-winning British Palestinian film director, and peace activist, and an enthusiastically engaged audience.
The GHfP Institute was delighted to join UNESCO in celebrating 30 years of the Routes of Enslaved Peoples (REP) Programme in Paris in October 2024.
At this extraordinary event, the GHfP co-organised the presentation of the UNESCO partnership initiative on Collective Healing, Just Society and Global Well-Being. The Collective Healing Initiative is committed to addressing the legacies of dehumanisation, e.g. slavery, colonialism, and indigenous genocide, and other historically rooted injustice, through facilitating and encouraging community-based Collective Healing Circles (CHCs) currently active in 14 countries globally. The initiative is co-sponsored by the UNESCO Social and Human Sciences Sector and the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation and is coordinated by the GHfP Institute.
Our presentation consisted of testimonies and narratives provided by community representatives from four continents (Brazil, Nigeria, the UK, the USA and France/Martinique) who shared their experiences of intergenerational approach to healing, dignity and well-being. They invited the high-level global leaders to consider ways to transform societies and to ensure structural justice. This event further saw UNESCO Assistant Director General (ADG), Mrs Gabriela Ramos launching the Collective Healing Circle Programme Handbook for Facilitators. The development of this Handbook was supported by grants from the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation for Peace, the Fetzer Institute, and the Pureland Foundation. The Handbook is intended to support the efforts of facilitators and other professionals who are interested in hosting Collective Healing Circles (CHCs) in their local community.
Following the presentation, community CHC practitioners and presenters engaged in a deep dialogue with high-level national leaders on the opportunities to engage other stakeholders in this joint efforts towards creating a fair, inclusive and just world for our present and future generations.
The UNESCO Collective Healing Circles (CHCs) Capacity-Building for Facilitators is designed to support and nurture experienced facilitators who have interest in hosting UNESCO CHCs in your local community.
Below is a short introduction to the UNESCO CHC Facilitators Capacity Building, including:
background
theoretical underpinnings
community contexts
innovative features
CHC processes and modules
CHC capacity building facilitators mentors
outcomes
It is highly recommended that all facilitators who wish to take part in the UNESCO CHC Capacity Building watch this less-than 15 minutes Introduction presented by the UNESCO CHC Facilitator Mentors.
The Introduction is available in the following languages: English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.
Educational thinkers, practitioners and policymakers discussed the challenges of the current assessment paradigm, and explored the potentials of an innovative orientation to education, one that places the process of relating at the centre of learning and well-being!
Many believe that the building blocks for realising the potentials of a relation-centred education are largely in place. However, the major obstacle to its advancement remains the defective, testing-based approach to assessment. Hence, amplifying the voice of students and teachers, in this webinar, we presented an energising array of evaluative practices that nourish the potentials of relating while providing a wealth of resources for continued learning, and for enriching students’ (and teachers’) well-being.
See the Webinar Concept Note below and its Programme.
The Journal of Dialogue Studies, in partnership with the Global Humanity for Peace Institute, invited papers that explore the ways governance processes might be improved by drawing on insights from innovative dialogue theories and congenial dialogue practices.
These papers were presented in an International Academic Workshop entitled “Governance for the Human Future: The Centrality of Dialogue“ on the 10th of September 2022, 9 am BST.
In this workshop, there were 14 abstracts critically addressing the following themes to explore the ways international governance processes might be improved by drawing on insights from innovative dialogue theory and good dialogue practices.
How might dialogue theory and good dialogue practices contribute positively to the governance processes? In what ways might these insights be applied effectively to governance?
How significant are various theories of dialogue for governance processes? How might these dialogue theories be further developed and enriched?
What dialogue practices might make positive contributions to good governance? How do they do so?
What are the major impediments to meaningful dialogues? How might they be overcome?
What might we learn from non-western approaches to good governance? How is dialogue practised in these approaches?
How might good dialogue practices transform governance processes?
Editorial Board
Prof Scherto R. Gill, University of Wales Trinity Saint David
Prof Edward Abbott-Halpin, The University of the Highlands and Islands
Dr Ali Moussa Iye, Afrospectives and Former UNESCO Routes of Dialogue Chief
Dr Sara Silvestri, City, University of London
Prof Garrett Thomson, Guerrand-Hermes Foundation, and The College of Wooster
Prof Paul Weller, Universities of Coventry and Derby, and Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford
Programme
Session 1: Dialogue Theories and Governance (9:30–11:00)
Keynote
Prof Kenneth Gergen, President of the Taos Institute and Chair of the Board and the Mustin Professor of Psychology at Swarthmore College
Theoretical Approaches on the Role of Dialogue in International Governance: A Review of the Literature
Dr Patrice Brodeur, Associate Professor at the Institute of Religious Studies, University of Montreal
Dialogues as Consensus-Building for Governance: A Conceptual Analysis
Prof Garrett Thomson, CEO Guerrand-Hermes Foundation and Professor of Philosophy at the College of Wooster
Water Diplomacy and Governance: Philosophical Perspectives and Political Implications
Dr Medha Bisht, Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations, South Asian University, New Delhi
Session 2: Dialogue Practices in Governance (11:15–13:00)
Special Tribute to Dr Steve Wright — ‘The Wright Way for Dialogue’
Prof Simon Lee, The Open University and Professor of Jurisprudence, Queen’s University Belfast
Prof Edward Abbott-Halpin, Principal of Orkney College, University of the Highlands and Islands
Harnessing Performative Knowledge to Achieve Fruitful Dialogue: The Participatory Arts-Based Approach
Dr Barbara Groot, Senior Researcher at the Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing, Leiden University Medical Centre
Prof Tineke A. Abma, Professor for Participation at the Leiden University Medical Centre, and Executive-Director of the Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing
The 30th Anniversary of a Grassroots Dialogue in Northern Ireland
Prof Simon Lee, The Open University and Professor of Jurisprudence, Queen’s University Belfast
Conversation as a Methodology for Human Flourishing, Belonging, and Understanding
Dr Saiyyidah Zaidi, Convenor at the Centre for Belonging and Understanding and a Faculty Member and Tutor with Meyler Campbell
The Case of the Popular University of Social Movements: Lessons on Dialogue from and for Humanisation and the Transformation of Traditional Institutions
Alexandre da Trindade E Oliveira, Doctoral Student at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
Session 3: Challenges of Meaningful Dialogue in Governance (14:00–15:30)
Keynote: Dialogue and the Route to Relational Governance
Prof Kenneth Gergen, President of the Taos Institute and Chair of the Board and the Mustin Professor of Psychology at Swarthmore College
Ready for a Perfect Storm: Leadership, Dialogue and Trust in a Time of Disconnection
Prof Mike Hardy, Chair of Intercultural Relations and Founding Director of the Centre for Trust, Peace, and Social Relations at Coventry University
Dr Uroosa Mushtaq, Doctoral Fellow (Cotutelle), Centre for Trust Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University
Digital Media and Problems of Fragmentation, Rise of Populism and the Post-Truth Era
Dr Serik Orazgaliyev, Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy, Nazarbayev University and Research Affiliate at the Cambridge Central Asia Forum, Jesus College, University of Cambridge
Dialogue and the Document on Human Fraternity: ‘Academic’ Scriptural Reasoning as a Tool for Promoting International Governance
Ahmed Ragab Abdelhay, Assistant Lecturer at Al-Azhar University and Professional Doctorate Student at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David
Cultural Democracy at the Frontiers of Patronage: Public Interest Art versus Promotional Culture
Dr Owen Logan, Honorary Research Fellow in the University of Aberdeen’s School of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Art History
Dr Martyn Hudson, Assistant Professor in Art and Design History at Northumbria University, Newcastle
Prof Alex Law, Professor of Sociology at the School of Business, Law and Social Sciences, Abertay University
Dr Kirsten Lloyd, Lecturer in Curatorial Theory and Practice at The University of Edinburgh
Session 4: Innovative Approaches to Good Governance in non-Western Contexts (15:45–17:30)
From the inside out: The “culture of dialogue” among pro-democratic actors in Equatorial Guinea
Carolina Nvé Díaz San Francisco, Doctoral Student in Anthropology, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia and A Researcher at the Disparities Research Unit (Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School)
Democracy and Dialogue in India: The Minority Discourse
Dr Sneha Roy, Programme Officer at the KAICIID International Dialogue Centre
Dialogue and the Document on Human Fraternity: ‘Academic’ Scriptural Reasoning as a Tool for Promoting International Governance
Ahmed Ragab Abdelhay, Assistant Lecturer at Al-Azhar University and Professional Doctorate Student at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David
Public Policy, Collaborative Governance, and Female Entrepreneurship in the Caribbean: A Critical Assessment
Dr Talia R. Esnard, Senior Lecturer and Head of Department of Behavioural Sciences at The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago
A Book of Abstracts was produced for this workshop.
