JS Fellow organises peace-building conference in Georgia
Archil Bakuradze was awarded the John Smith Fellowship Programme in 2000. He is currently Deputy Secretary General of the International Association of Business and Parliament (IABP). In partnership with ‘Peaceful and Business Caucasus’, Archil and the IABP brought representatives from the Government of Georgia together with Georgian civil society representatives currently involved in peace-building activities with Abkhazian and South Ossetian communities. This initiative was funded by International Alert, the British Embassy (Tbilisi) through the UK Conflict Prevention Pool, and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
This event was launched by Archil as part of the John Smith Memorial Trust’s ‘Year of Action’. During the 2009 Year of Action the Trust is doing all it can to encourage its alumni to act in two key areas – peace building and good governance. To launch the Year of Action a conference was held in Istanbul in January 2009 with the theme of 'Future Visions for the South Caucasus and its Neighbours' – a two day event of round tables, workshops and meetings aimed at charting a new future for the South Caucasus region. During the Istanbul Conference, Archil presented his peace-building initiative to other Fellows and guests.
The aim of Archil’s initiative is:
- To provide a space for the exchange of relevant information between the representatives of the Government and non-state actors
- To analyse the current conflict situation in the aftermath of the August war
- To exchange views and ideas on new peaceful civic initiatives
- and to identify actions for better coordination between the Government and non-state actors
Archil’s conference supported an exchange of views between policy makers and leading experts as well as practitioners from civil society and business. They adopted a Communiqué calling on the continuation of this dialogue and improved coordination between the Government and civil society – an important step towards the peaceful resolution of conflict between war-torn communities.
April 2009