Faith Communities as Potential Agents for Peace Building in the Balkans
Publisher: Bill Sterland & John Beauclerk
Volume: 61 pages, pdf
Description:
This report provides a detailed exploration of the practice of faith-based peace building in the postconflict successor states of former Yugoslavia. It arose from NCA's requirement for practical data and analysis which could be used to develop a coherent strategy to facilitate reconciliation processes in the Balkans in cooperation with its local partners. The study offers an overview of the region's religious communities and then proceeds to identify the prinicipal faith-based peace builders, both individuals and organisations, and analyses the approaches they apply in advancing inter-faith dialogue and diapraxis, as well as faith-based advocacy and education. By way of conclusion, the report outlines principles of good practice emerging from the study which may be built upon in any future peace building interventions in the region. Primary souces of information for the study were field interviews with religious leaders and local clerics, members of faith-based NGOs and peace activists, conducted over two ten-day trips to the region. These were supplemented by a thorough review of contextual documentation that included a range of historical and develoment literature, religious publications, relevant journalism and unpublished NGO programme documents.