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21 October 2003

The Community Relations Council is hosting a major conference tomorrow (Wednesday 22 October) on peacebuilding for community relations activists in Northern Ireland. The guest speaker is the renowned international expert on conciliation and mediation, John Paul Lederach.

John Paul Lederach is Professor of International Peacebuilding at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana (USA)  and is a Distinguished Scholar at the Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia, USA. He has provided consultation and direct mediation for a range of situations from Nicaragua, Somalia, the Philippines and Spain's Basque Country to Northern Ireland which he has visited on a number of previous occasions.  He has wide experience in dealing with issues of conflict on the international scene and is the author of several books, including The Handbook of International Peacebuilding (2002) and Building Peace- Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies (1998).

Professor Lederach arrives in Northern Ireland today from the USA. He will be the guest speaker tomorrow morning (22 October) at the Community Relations Council Conference, 'Live Issues', which takes place at the Fitzwilliam Hotel at Aldergrove.

There will be 120 participants at the conference drawn from local organisations active in community relations work largely in the voluntary and community sector. Workshops will be dealing with topics such as Living in a mixed community, Policing the Interfaces and Cultural Diversity and the Arts.

Professor Lederach will be available for interview.

For further information please contact

Ray Mullan, Director of Communications, Community Relations Council, tel 028 90 227500.

Conference workshops:

Identity (through use of media resources)

Cultural Diversity and the Arts

Emerging Voices (Anti-racism in NI)

Women and Conflict

Policing the Interfaces

Human Rights and Community Relations

Living in a Mixed Community

The Difference between Mediation and Negotiation

Building a Future

Issues in funding for community relations

'That's Mine!'- handling Sharing.

An audience with playwright Martin Lynch- interviewed by James Hawthorne