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DPI | Overview of DPI: Kashmir conference | DPI: Kashmir schedule of events DPI Dialogue for Peace Initiatives (DPI) is a politically neutral and independent effort to create awareness amongst people, especially the student communities in different colleges, about conflicts across the world. DPI seeks to provide an open forum for discussion on ways to alleviate conflicts and equip people with the necessary tools to affect positive change. DPI began as an effort of few first-year students at Swarthmore College in September 2002 and currently includes many members of the faculty and administration at Swarthmore. Over the course of the last 10 months, DPI has received support from many prominent people and organizations, such as Noam Chomsky, Conflict Management Group, Youth Initiative for Peace, and Initiative for Peace. Dialogue for Peace Initiatives intends to institute a permanent conflict-management program at Swarthmore College and encourage similar programs at other educational institutions. Through its peace-building programs, DPI strives to (a) provide a better understanding of conflicts and other relevant issues, (b) equip people with skills that would be useful for peace, social justice, and humanitarian work, and (c) connect different organizations and people having an interest in humanitarian issues. From the 19th to the 21st of September 2003, DPI will organize its first conference, focused on the Jammu and Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan. Swarthmore College will host the Dialogue for Peace Initiatives: Kashmir conference during the weekend of the 19th to the 21st of September, 2003. During the conference, DPI seeks to connect involved communities that include: the South Asian community residing in the US, who have the potential to contribute immensely to a peace process in South Asia; the concerned American public, and speakers, who bring with them personal experiences and knowledge about the Kashmir conflict.Through panel discussions, community-building workshops, interactive forum theatre, film screenings, and poetry readings, the three-day long conference is designed to facilitate a better understanding of the Kashmir conflict and contemplate possible measures for political stability in South Asia. The symposium will engage many academics and speakers - including leading nuclear-politics experts, historians, political leaders, prominent journalists, authors and human rights activists - in a dialogue on the Jammu and Kashmir conflict. Usmaan Ahmad, Ravina Aggarwal, Abir Bazaz, Urvashi Butalia, Cabeiri deB. Robinson, Sumit Ganguly, Husain Haqqani, Sudha Koul, Lawrence Lifschultz, Adil Najam, Deepa Ollapally, and Siddiq Wahid have confirmed their attendance at the conference. During the conference, 17-year-old peace activist and 2002 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee from Colombia, Gerson Andrés Floréz Pérez will address the participants about the power of youth as agents of change. The conference will have three panel discussions and two trust-building workshops with smaller groups of participants. Participants will examine the history of the region, the consequences of the conflict, and flaws in previous peace processes, to address key issues surrounding the Kashmir conflict. The 1st panel will focus on historical perspectives on the Kashmir conflict: historical issues at the core of the conflict, use of propaganda by different parties, issues that impede any sustainable peace process in the region, and ways to overcome the historical blockades to an amicable settlement. The 2nd panel will deal with the consequences of the Kashmir conflict: the human rights violations, the threat of nuclear war, the growth of the military industrial complex, the societal division on communal lines across South Asia, and the possibilities for healing and reconciliation between the various entities involved in the conflict. The 3rd panel will go through ways to alleviate/resolve the conflict: the socioeconomic benefits of a no-conflict situation, the possible immediate confidence building measures that the various involved parties could take, the alternatives for a "road map to peace" in South Asia, and the role of the South Asian diaspora at the local and public policy/governmental level in affecting constructive change towards the resolution of the conflict. The trust-building workshops will help participants work more closely with the speakers, encouraging discussion on unaddressed or unclear issues, to further their understanding and simultaneously help participants acquire tools for affecting change in the India-Pakistan conflict over Jammu and Kashmir. The workshops includes a series of activities, such as icebreakers, games, discussions, etc., to give the participants an opportunity to air their views and collaborate towards the formation of the Statement of Common Ground, summarizing the collected efforts of the participants and speakers during the conference.
19th September, Friday 7:00PM - Welcome and Inaugural Address; Location:
LPAC Cinema Hall 20th September, Saturday 9:30PM - Icebreakers and Trust-building;
Location: LPAC Cinema Hall 12:15PM - Lunch 1:30PM - TBA Cultural Performance; Location:
Lang Concert Hall 21st September, Sunday 9:30AM - Address by Gerson
Andrés Floréz Pérez; Location: LPAC
Cinema Hall 12:15PM - Lunch 7:00PM - Media Debriefing |
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