Reconciliation: Perspectives from Ireland, Korea, and Beyond
Reconciliation: Perspectives from Ireland, Korea, and Beyond
Friday 4 November 2022
Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College, Dublin
Organised by Trinity Centre for Post Conflict Justice, Trinity College Dublin, and
Institute for Trans-division and Border Studies, Shinhan University, South Korea.
Sponsored by the Korea Foundation.
Reconciliation is widely regarded as the ultimate goal of peacebuilding, involving group identity change and new relationships. However, it is contested in both the academic literature and within different contexts. It is closely related to other concepts and practices such as conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and transitional justice, while it is sometimes opposed by people in conflict who believe it is an abrogation of justice, or that it demands forgiveness. Nevertheless, the term has a popular currency, and captures what are deeply desired goods in conflict-affected societies: the removal of the causes of conflict, new relationships and identities, and ultimately, sustainable and stable peace.
This one-day conference examines the prospects for progress towards reconciliation in Ireland, Korea, and other conflict-affected societies. Bringing together scholars from East Asia, Europe, and the United States, the conference will consider issues such as: how ‘reconciliation’ is understood in different contexts; how it relates to human rights, transitional justice, and democratisation; how it can occur at all levels of society; and what mutual learning about reconciliation is possible between different peace/conflict contexts. The conference is organised by Trinity Centre for Post Conflict Justice, Trinity College Dublin, and Institute for Trans-division and Border Studies, Shinhan University, South Korea, with funding from the Korea Foundation.
Conference Update
Participants in the conference were hosted by the School from 2nd-6th November. As well as the conference, the group, comprising academics and practitioners from East Asia, Europe and the US, undertook two days of study visits which included the meetings with Peace Studies academics at the School of Religion, Theology and Peace Studies, officials from the Conflict Resolution Unit at the Department of Foreign Affairs, as well as a day field trip to Belfast to understand the legacy of conflict and transformations of the peace process. The conference in the Trinity Long Room Hub, which was filled to capacity, was opened by the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Ireland, Ki-hwan Kweon.
As part of the conference a new book was launched entitled ‘Reconciliating Divided States: Peace Processes in Ireland and Korea’ (Routledge, 2022), edited by David Mitchell and Dong Jin Kim. The speaker at the launch was Meri Joyce (pictured with the editors in the photo gallery below). Meri is Northeast Regional Liaison Officer for the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPAAC). She is based in Tokyo and coordinates various peacebuilding and disarmament related programmes, including the Ulaanbaatar Process, a civil society dialogue process for peace on the Korean Peninsula. You can read more about the book here.
