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The
Peace Action, Training and Research Institute of Romania
(PATRIR) to begin operations in a few months
By Kai
Frithjof Brand-Jacobsen
TFF Peace Antenna and TRANSCEND
member
1. Introduction -
PATRIR
A vital new initiative is being launched to promote
peacebuilding and peaceful conflict transformation in
Romania and Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.
The Peace Action, Training and Research Institute of
Romania (PATRIR), is due to begin work in January, 2001.
Already, however, a great deal is being done to lay the
foundations for this new Institute.
In order to make this effort successful, we are asking
for your support, and are inviting you, as individuals
and through your organisations, to cooperate together
with PATRIR in ways that will help to strengthen the work
of the Institute.
Below you will find a complete outline and description
of the Institute, including its structure, vision, and
methodology. If you would like to receive more
information, or to explore ways in which we could
cooperate together, please feel free to write to us at
icl@c2i.net
2. PATRIR
Outline
PATRIR: Peace Action, Training
and Research Institute of Romania
The Peace Action, Training and Research Institute of
Romania (PATRIR) is both an institute, organisation,
training centre and network, linking together scholars,
grassroots activists, and critical thinkers throughout
Romania. Its aim is to address the core challenges facing
Romania and the countries of south and eastern Europe, to
strengthen and empower grassroots organisations and
citizens action, to mobilise people for active peace work
and peaceful conflict transformation, and to address the
structural causes of poverty, human rights violations and
economic and social injustice. PATRIR is an institute and
an organisation for research and active peace work. The
four methods of PATRIR work are based upon Action,
Research, Training and Dissemination.
PATRIR is a force for radical and constructive
critique, for the empowerment of people and promotion of
active democracy, self-determination, sustainable
development, and peaceful conflict transformation.
PATRIR: AN INSTITUTE, TRAINING
CENTRE, AND NETWORK
PATRIR will be built upon three complementary pillars:
(i) the PATRIR Network made up of scholars and critical
thinkers throughout Romania dealing with issues related
to peace and conflict, development, globalisation,
poverty, structural violence, gender, human rights, and
ecology; (ii) cooperation with the universities of
Babes-Bolyai (Cluj), Black Sea University (Bucharest),
and Valahia University (Targoviste) [a fourth
university in northern Romania should be identified,
possibly the University of Iasi], with courses in
peace and development studies to be offered at each of
the universities, and; (iii) the PATRIR Centre in
Cluj-Napoca, the coordinating nucleus for PATRIR as an
organisation, and the main PATRIR Institute, Training and
Peace Action Centre in Romania.
PATRIR AS AN
ORGANISATION
The core method of all PATRIR work is praxis,
combining research and critique with active peace work
and peaceful conflict transformation. PATRIR as an
organisation will work together with citizens groups and
peoples movements in Romania, Eastern Europe, and
internationally to strengthen grassroots democracies and
the empowerment of local communities. PATRIR will
cooperate with researchers, students, individuals,
governments, and civil society groups to address the
structural transformations brought about in Eastern
Europe through the adhesion of Eastern European countries
to the global market and processes of capitalisation and
globalisation.
PATRIR as an organisation, institute and network is
dedicated to strengthening human rights and the rights of
the people of Romania and eastern Europe to
self-determination, to promoting global solidarity and
democracy, and to addressing the core challenges of
globalisation and free-marketisation. PATRIR is committed
to promoting democratic structures and citizens
participation both within Romania and globally. To this
end, PATRIR will work to strengthen cooperation between
groups and organisations within Romania, and to
strengthen cooperation with similar solidarity and
peoples based organisations throughout eastern Europe,
Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Western Europe and North
America.
PATRIR AS A RESEARCH INSTITUTE
AND NETWORK OF SCHOLARS
The PATRIR model combines a network of researchers and
scholars throughout Romania with the PATRIR Institute in
Cluj-Napoca. PATRIR researchers will be individuals,
scholars and professors working throughout Romania
addressing core issues of peace and conflict,
development, globalisation, poverty, structural violence,
gender, human rights, and ecology.
PATRIR research will be based upon the method of
Diagnosis-Prognosis-Therapy, combining clear and powerful
critique with creative therapy and suggestions for what
can be done. The PATRIR Institute in Cluj-Napoca will
work to coordinate all PATRIR research programmes and the
publication of PATRIR Research Papers and Books.
The six core programmes of
PATRIR research will be:
Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation
Nonviolence and Peace Strategies
Politics and Governance
Globalisation, Human Rights, and Social and Economic
Development
Alternative Defence and Security
Ecological Sustainability
Social, economic and political transformations
resulting from the events following the collapse of the
Berlin Wall and continuing transformations in Romania and
throughout Eastern Europe will be one of the core
research foci of the Institute and Network. This will be
placed within a context of globalisation, capitalisation,
and the spread of free-market democracy, together with a
search for viable and creative alternatives challenging
the negative and destructive effects of current economic
and political maldevelopments.
Peoples movements, nonviolent action, democratic
participation, and peaceful conflict transformation will
be at the heart of the search for alternatives,
influencing both PATRIRs research and action.
PATRIR AS A TRAINING
CENTRE
The PATRIR Training Centre will be one of the main
pillars of PATRIR work. Though the Centre itself will be
based in Cluj-Napoca, PATRIR training can be carried out
in any location throughout Romania, or, in cooperation
with PATRIRs partners and cooperating organisations,
internationally. PATRIR training will be made up of 1 and
2 day(s) modules, 1 and 2 week(s) courses, and a three
weeks summer school beginning in the summer of 2001. Like
the research programmes, PATRIR training will focus upon
peacebuilding and conflict transformation, development,
globalisation, poverty, structural violence, gender,
human rights, and ecology. Training programmes will also
be developed in: Peace Journalism; Peace Education; Peace
and Human Rights; Nonviolent Action and Peoples
Movements; Mobilisation, Democratisation,
Empowerment.
Participants in PATRIR training will be mainly:
individuals active in citizens groups, social movements
and civil society organisations in Romania and
internationally, students, teachers, human rights
activists, social workers, politicians, journalists,
lawyers, community leaders, business people, and
committed individuals. PATRIR training programmes will be
both creative and challenging, skills and knowledge
intensive, and highly participatory.
PATRIR trainers will be drawn from within Romania and
internationally. Internationally, PATRIR trainers will be
drawn primarily from the ICL/Praxis for Peace, TRANSCEND,
the Transnational Foundation for Future and Peace
Research (TFF), and the International South Group Network
(ISGN). PATRIR trainers will all be leading trainers,
researchers, and political activists with experience
globally and/or within Romania.
PATRIR AS A CENTRE FOR PEACE
ACTION
In addition to Research and Training, PATRIR will also
be actively involved in peaceful conflict transformation
at the local, national, regional, and international
levels. The majority of PATRIRs involvement in this area,
however, will be focussed upon conflicts within Romania
and South and Eastern Europe.
Within Romania, PATRIR will work closely with
Romanian, Hungarian, and Romani organisations to address
the Romanian, Hungarian and Romani conflicts within
Romania, and to promote human rights and peaceful
conflict transformation for all the people of Romania.
PATRIR will also work closely with organisations and
institutions in neighbouring countries working to address
these issues.
PATRIR will also focus upon strengthening and
cooperating together with citizens groups and civil
society organisations in Romania and throughout the
region working to address issues of social, economic and
political injustice and for the promotion of
democratisation and human rights.
Given the very dramatic state of environmental
destruction in several parts of Romania and throughout
South and Eastern Europe, PATRIR will also be involved in
promoting ecological awareness and environmental
sustainability, while working to promote a more holistic
and healthy relationship between individuals,
communities, and the environment. PATRIR Action will
involve work-shops, direct action, dialogues with
citizens groups, politicians, community and business
leaders, and cooperation with schools and civil society
organisations for awareness raising and mobilising people
for active involvement in finding solutions to the
challenges facing them.
PATRIR is a solidarity based organisation, committed
to strengthening cooperation and contacts between
citizens groups and civil society organisations/movements
within Romania and Southern and Eastern Europe. Building
these ties around issues on which joint action and
programmes can be built will be one of the central fields
of PATRIRs work.
PATRIR will begin work in January, 2001.
3. Request for
Books and Materials
As books and materials in fields relating to peace and
conflict transformation, development, gender,
environmental issues, globalisation, etc., are currently
in very short supply in Romania, PATRIR is launching a
request for donations from authors, individuals and
organisations who would like to send books, journals,
articles, and other relevant material to help build the
PATRIR Library and Resource Centre.
The PATRIR Library and Resource Centre will be open to
the public and free of charge. PATRIR is also working
together with translators and the Department of Languages
of the University of Babes-Bolyai in Cluj-Napoca to
arrange for the translation of materials into Romanian to
read a wider audience.
If you are an author, or editor of a newspaper,
magazine, or journal, or an individual or organisation
who would like to support the work of PATRIR, we would
like to invite you to send copies of your materials and
publications to:
PREP. CRISTINA DUMITRU
FACULTATEA DE LITERE (CAT. ENGLEZA)
STR. HOREA 31 3400 CLUJ-NAPOCA
ROMANIA
For more information on what kinds of materials,
books, and journals/newspapers are most relevant, please
feel free to contact Kai Frithjof Brand-Jacobsen at
icl@c2i.net or Cristina
Dumitru at cristina.dumitru@email.ro
©
Kai Frithjof Brand-Jacobsen 2000
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