Bulletin

Issue: June 2004

News

World Network for Reconciliation

La Trobe has played a major role in establishing and running a network in several countries to foster reconciliation and cultural development.

Called 'Pathways to Reconciliation', it is part of a growing world movement to reconcile cultural differences in a world torn by ethnic, cultural, religious and political conflicts in the wake of September 11.

Two of the three organisers of the first conference of the group that has evolved into Pathways to Reconciliation are La Trobe University academic staff members.

Dr Philipa Rothfield, a lecturer in the Philosophy Program and Dr John Wiltshire, a Reader in the English Program, were co-convenors of the original event with Professor Paul Komesaroff of Monash University.

Drs Rothfield and Wiltshire continue to play leading roles in the organisation, with Dr Rothfield also serving as treasurer and a member of the agenda committee for the next two conferences.

Since the first conference in Melbourne in September 2002 to mark the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attack, a second conference has been held in London on the second anniversary.

A third conference is planned at Gujarat in India in October 2004 and a major world conference in Sarajevo in 2005. The Gujarat event will conduct forums on Pakistan and India and that in Sarajevo will discuss reconciliation and human rights in the countries that once constituted Yugoslavia. The Sarajevo Conference will be held in partnership with the Globalisation Institute of RMIT.

Although in existence for less than two years, Pathways to Reconciliation has collected an impressive list of patrons.

They include Professor Bernard Lown of Harvard Medical School and Nobel Prize winner; Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Refugees; Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize winner; Jose Ramos Horta, East Timorese Foreign Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner; Lowtija O'Donoghue, Chair, Reconciliation Australia; and Sir William Deane, former High Court judge and former Governor-General.

Mary Robinson gave the opening address to the organisation's London conference. Others who participated included former Justice Marcus Einfeld; Pat Anderson of the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health; Jakob Finci, Chair of the National Coordinating Committee for the Establishment of Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Bosnia Herzegovina; and Charles Viulla-Vicencio, formerly National Research Director of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

'This is a fledgling organisation crossing international frontiers which seeks to expand the cause of reconciliation and cultural development by linking into and assisting existing projects,' Dr Rothfield said.

'Initially we aim to help these networks to flourish and to help them to develop appropriate programs. As part of this we are already working with organisations in Africa on HIV-AIDS programs and with the Youth Reconciliation network in Australia.

'Often reconciliation means different things in different cultures so we will not attempt to impose a single recipe for reconciliation but apply an appropriate solution to each area of conflict,' she added.

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