Karuna Center’s approach to peacebuilding aims to assist communities and societies create a sustainable peace. Karuna Center works in every stage of a conflict – analyzing and addressing the root causes of tension, leading interventions to prevent further violent escalation, and encouraging reconciliation.

Local Activists Meet Nepal Prime Minister

Kathmandu, Nepal, November 1

Paula Green and Olivia Dreier, Directors of Karuna Center for Peacebuilding in Amherst, met yesterday with the Prime Minister of Nepal Madhav Kumar Nepal and the Under Secretary of Peace and Reconstruction Durga Nidhi Sharma. These meetings were arranged by a Nepalese graduate of the CONTACT (Conflict Transformation Across Culture) Program that Dr. Green leads at the School for International Training in Brattleboro. Green and Dreier are in Nepal leading an international delegation and conducting seminars in peace leadership. The Prime Minister spoke to the group about his hopes for sustained peace in Nepal, where a transitional government is writing a new constitution that will establish Nepal as federal democratic republic after hundreds of years of repressive monarchy and a ten-year Maoist insurgency that left over 13,000 dead. The Minister of Peace and Reconstruction also addressed the group, describing the government's efforts to meet the enormous challenges of post-war reconstruction, justice, and social healing.

Following the addresses, Green and Dreier, who have been leading peacebuilding and reconciliation seminars in Nepal steadily since 2006, were asked to reflect on Nepal's peace process in light of their international experiences in other countries transitioning from war to peace and facing the challenges of social and political reconstruction. They noted the great progress Nepal has made in the past four years, but cautioned that states in political transition are fragile, may slide back into armed conflict, and must devote considerable energies to creating trust and mutual understanding as well as compensation and rehabilitation for those affected by war. They spoke of the need for widespread citizen engagement at all stages of the peace and reconciliation process and cited experiences in South Africa, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Bosnia, and Israel/Palestine, where governments and the population at large are also grappling with the impact of communal violence, tenuous peace, and continued injustice.

Related Links:

Brattleboro Reformer: SIT professor helps Nepal to build peace
Bennington Banner: Vt. professor leads peace workshops in Nepal