Zunaira Malik, United States of America Take thirty six individuals: lawyers, students, and practitioners, train them in transitional justice and pragmatic peacebuilding, and then put them to the test. This has been our life for [...]
Kevin Coffey, Ireland In anticipation of the intensive three-day simulation geared towards achieving peace in the fictionalized war-torn Beladusham, IPSI participants had the pleasure of being trained in negotiation by Mr. Wilbur Perlot; the deputy-director [...]
Makhotso Lengane, South Africa As week three of The Hague Symposium drew to a close, so grew the feeling of sadness that comes with a goodbye that is imminent. It is hard to believe that [...]
Emily Fountain, United States of America Steven Biko once wrote, “In time, we shall be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest possible gift - a more human face.” I remember reading [...]
Matthew Dato, United States of America Here at the International Peace and Security Institute’s summer symposium in The Hague, I have had the extraordinary opportunity to listen to thought-provoking speakers, to be instructed and guided [...]
Vivien Wong, Australia There are two sides to every story. At the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, these two sides are marked by the courtroom. There’s nothing like a visit to the ICTY [...]
Jennifer Kerner, United States of America How does the world make sense of unimaginable atrocities and establish some semblance of justice for those affected by these events? On Wednesday, Former Special Advisor to the Prosecutor [...]
William Bejan, United States of America As an International Peace and Security Institute participant who had the pleasure of attending last year’s Bologna Symposium on Conflict Resolution, I am grateful for the new insights I [...]
Adriana Roque Romero, Colombia It has been almost a week since we arrived to The Hague, and we have been learning about various issues concerning the elements involved in post-conflict transitions, mainly through the scope [...]
Felix Papineau, Canada It is sometimes stated that the 20th century, which brought us the First and Second World Wars as well as the Cold War, was the century of conflicts, while the 21st century will [...]
Sophia Carrillo, United States of America One of the highlights of The Hague Symposium is the immense breadth of experience the speakers divulge during topic lectures, translating to an incredible opportunity to glean best practices [...]
Adriana Abu Abara, Australia July 24 began with a site visit to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. It began like any other introduction to a tribunal: the logistics, the courtroom, and the cases before the [...]
Catarina Inverso, Brazil How, and from where, do systems of governance emerge in a post-war context?Is a top-down or a bottom-up approach better equipped to establish a new government? What about hybrid approaches of [...]
Victoria Barker, United States of America As I biked to the Clingendael Institute of International Relations this morning, the city seemed eerie — I hardly passed anyone else on the usually bustling bike path. The whole [...]
Nancy Waterstraat, Germany Is reconciliation always feasible and necessary? The first part- feasibility- might be a quite obvious maybe or even no. One of the most striking realizations personally, however, was that maybe the [...]
Concepcion Torres, United States of America As a Christian, an International Affairs graduate, and aspiring international criminal lawyer, stepping into the International Criminal Court (ICC) was a dream come true. Having had the opportunity to [...]
Santiago Alberto Vargas Nino, Colombia July 17 marked the celebration of the Day of International Criminal Justice. On this very special occasion, participants at The Hague Symposium on Post-Conflict Transitions and International Justice organized [...]
Melissa O'Donnell, Australia Any commitment to working in this field, becoming a peacemaker, surely demands a certain level of idealism, a belief that a better reality is possible and, call it naïve or arrogant, but a [...]
Felix Papineau, Canada As if having the opportunity to study and mingle in the beautiful and historical Clingendael Institute, where a think tank and diplomatic academy is established, was not by itself a stimulating enough [...]
Juliana Gonzalez, Colombia The Hague Symposium has officially begun and we all eagerly sit at Clingendael, waiting for Dr. Daniel Serwer to come in and begin the first session. We discovered that we share no [...]
Jennifer M. Kerner, United States of America How far would you go to learn how to cultivate peace in the midst of conflict? For many of the participants in the 2014 IPSI Symposium on Post-Conflict [...]
