|
|
Searching for Peace in Afghanistan:
Collaborative Possibilities for Youth in Peacebuilding
A
roundtable Searching for Peace in Afghanistan: Collaborative Possibilities
for Youth in Peacebuilding was organized on April 27, 2008. It was
conceptualized as an important first step for WISCOMP, to comprehend
the complex ground realities in contemporary Afghanistan and the multiple
actors engaged in what is now characterized broadly as “peacebuilding”
processes.
The purpose of the roundtable was to enable participants
to identify the current peacebuilding issues and the role of civil
society initiatives, particularly initiatives by the youth in building
peace. By bringing together diplomats, young Afghan and Indian students
and members of international organizations and foundations who have
worked in Afghanistan, the roundtable provided a platform to share
the lessons learnt from successful or thwarted peacebuilding processes
in the country. The roundtable attempted to highlight the hitherto
underemphasized possibilities of engaging the youth in peacebuilding
processes in Afghanistan and explored the possibilities of initiating
and sustaining multi-level dialogues through which the goals of sustainable
peace and security could be established.
The
roundtable was envisaged as an important first step in the process
to:
-
Understand
the current ground realities in Afghanistan through the lens of
human security.
-
Explore possibilities for collaboration between the youth of India
and Afghanistan.
-
Evaluate the challenges to involvement of the youth in the peacebuilding
process and explore ways of overcoming these challenges.
-
Identify
ways in which the youth can impact the processes of peacebuilding
both within Afghanistan and outside, through countries that are
providing aid and are engaged in the processes of reconstruction.
Among
many others, the participants included: Abdul Ghafoor Liwal, Director,
Regional Studies Centre of Afghanistan; Former Ambassador I.P. Khosla,
TCA Raghavan , Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Government
of India, Abas Basir, First Secretary, Embassy of Afghanistan in New
Delhi, Philipp Ackermann, Minister, German Embassy in New Delhi, Radha
Kumar, Director of the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict
Resolution at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi and AK Rashid , Visiting
Professor at the Centre of Persian and Central Asian Studies, Jawaharlal
Nehru University, New Delhi.
|
|
