Project work flow

AgenZ advised the German Foreign Office on the conference concept, formulation of objectives and organisation. Together with the German Foreign Office, AgenZ also worked with the steering committee, which was composed of representatives of not only the governments invited, but also the International Center for Transitional Justice, the Crisis Management Initiative, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, the Working Group on Development and Peace (FriEnt), swisspeace: KOFF, Göttingen's Georg August University and the Robert Bosch and Dräger Foundations. Each of the members contributed their own thematic and regional expertise in considering the various possibilities for bringing lasting peace to crisis-torn regions. In addition to providing the concept, AgenZ also held the conference on site.

And with great success: Some 400 participants from more than 80 countries discussed their experiences with work conducted during and following conflict – among them German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Martti Ahtisaari, a negotiator in the dispute over Kosovo's independence, Lakhdar Brahimi, former UN special envoy to Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti, and Luis Moreno-Ocampo, first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

Backround

In historical terms, the Higher Superior Court of Nuremberg made a particularly significant setting for the opening event. Right there in the criminal chamber of the regional court was where the Nazi crimes were tried 60 years ago. In his opening speech, the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier stressed the absolute necessity of the connection between peace and justice. The question, he said, was never whether justice and accountability were desirable but rather The aim of the conference, he stressed, was to come up with ways to "help societies that have been damaged by conflict to find their own way to link peace and justice to one another, and to already lay the cornerstone for this during the peace negotiations" – because for this, Steinmeier pointed out, there was "no master plan whatever".

The results achieved in Nuremberg, which Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein, the Jordanian Ambassador to Washington, presented on the last day of the conference, will be recorded in the "Nuremberg Declaration on Peace and Justice", which takes a stand for a sustainable definition of peace – one which includes not only peace but also justice, security, development and institutional reform. The Declaration will be drafted by mid-2008 by a working group of experts under the leadership of the President of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Aria. Following careful and thorough consultations, the Declaration, including concrete recommendations for action, is to flow into the work of governments, the United Nations and the International Court of Justice.

Services

 

Advisory services and preparations

• Collaboration with the German Foreign Office on the overall concept of the conference
• Advisory services on the formulation of objectives, subject matter and the conference programme
• Advice on and assistance with the one-year preparatory process (including interface management of the steering committee, that is, between the German Foreign Office, the supporting foundations and the partners in cooperation)
• Financial planning and management
• Concepts for and assistance with press work (including creation of the press programme)
• Concept for and assistance with the quatrolingual presentation of the conference Internet pages

 

Conference organisation and implementation

• Conference implementation (including organisation and preparation of the necessary logistics, equipment and catering services; management of the conference secretariat and services providers)
• Speaker and participant management (including invitations, registration, minutes, hotel arrangements, transfers)
• Security planning in cooperation with Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (the BKA) and participating security agencies
• Organisation of the leisure programme, particularly the evening receptions, including the première of a work by Mikis Theodorakis
• The holding of multilingual communication activities (including Internet sites, publications, and the production of background studies, communications and conference materials)
• Press work and liaison with media representatives (accreditation, editing, management of the press office)

 

Follow-up

• Conference documentation
• Reporting to the German Foreign Office and supporting foundations
• Bookkeeping
• Updating of the conference Internet site as a platform for the presentation of follow-up processes (drafting, clearing and revision of the Declaration)
  

More on this topic

Press statement
Delivered by the organizers of the international Conference "Building a future on Peace and Justice"
> Download (PDF 0,04 MB)

Further information
> http://www.peace-justice-conference.info/