Issue 13 2002 A ccor d Conciliation Resources 13 Owning the process: public participation in peacemaking The process for making a transition from war to peace provides the opportunity to agree new political,constitutional and economic arrangements to address the causes of conflict.Often these decisions are made exclusively by representatives of governments and combatant groups – who do not necessarily represent the interests of diverse constituencies in the wider public.This first thematic publication in the Accord series an international review of peace initiatives documents approaches developed by governments and civil society in order to open the process to a wider range of participants.It reveals strategies for democratizing peacemaking through three basic modes of participation:representation through political parties,direct participation and public consultation.The opportunities for participation succeeded in widening the range of issues addressed and resulted in broadly legitimate agreements.Furthermore,the processes themselves strengthened the capacity for inclusive political participation in future governance and facilitated a degree of political reconciliation. Three feature studies focus on mechanisms in South Africa, participationPublic in peacemaking Guatemala and Mali,with additional examples from Colombia,the Philippines and Northern Ireland.They highlight the possible advantages - and shortcomings - of public participation in peacemaking and assess the influence of these processes on the agreements reached and their subsequent implementation.The studies are complemented by articles exploring the challenges of developing public participation and the interface with mainstream international peacemaking practice. The publication also includes relevant key texts and graphic illustrations of mechanisms. Conciliation Resources and the Accord programme Conciliation Resources (CR) was established in 1994 to provide an international service in the field of peacebuilding and conflict transformation.CR's Accord programme works collaboratively to support those engaged directly in reducing the number of lives affected by armed conflict and transforming situations of violence into opportunities for sustainable human development.The programme seeks to promote for learning from past and comparable peace processes,by documenting specific conflicts and peace processes,as well as looking comparatively at cross- cutting issues in peacemaking experiences worldwide. "I find the series useful as an analyst and practitioner,mainly because the issues are written by people with deep knowledge of the topic under consideration." Laurie Nathan,Director,Centre for Conflict Resolution, Cape Town "The CR publications are of an extremely high quality,as well as Owning the process continuing to breathe life into all our commitments to peace Resources Conciliation processes and conflict resolution." Public participation in peacemaking Vanessa Griffen,Asia and Pacific Development Centre, Kuala Lumpur Featuring South Africa, Guatemala and Mali The full text of all issues in the Accord series can be found on the ISSN 1365-0742 Conciliation Resources website at http://www.c-r.org £17.00 or $26.00 Issue Editor Catherine Barnes Owning the process Public participation in peacemaking Issue Editor: Catherine Barnes Conciliation Resources London 2002 Acknowledgements Accord Series Editor Celia McKeon Issue Editor Catherine Barnes Accord Editor/Researcher Aaron Griffiths Accord Distribution Coordinator Nathalie Wlodarczyk Accord Programme Supervisor Andy Carl Spanish translation Jaime Casas The focus of this thematic project was developed through an extensive worldwide consultation process with civil society peacemaking practitioners during Autumn 2001. It was further refined during a joint analysis workshop in February 2002. Conciliation Resources would like to extend grateful thanks to our authors, peer readers, photographers and also those who contributed to these consultation and analysis processes, especially: Adan Abokor, Hans Peter Bulloven, Matt Bryden, Rufa Cagoco Guiam, Madeline Church, Tyrol Ferdinand, Simon Fisher, Diana Francis, Sabine Freizer, Peter Gastrow, Juan Gutierrez, Fernando Hernandez, Mark Hoffman,Vernon Jantzi, Steve Kibble, Avila Kilmurray, Susan Collin Marks, Clem McCartney, Chris Mitchell, Mohamed Abdi Mohamed, Batapola Nanda Thero, Laurie Nathan, Giselle Ober, Maria Lorenza Palm-Dalupan, Jenny Pearce, Jorge Rojas, Oumar Sako, Luis Emil Sanabria, Rachel Sieder, Zeidan Ag Sidalamine, K. Sithamparanathan, Richard Smith, Karen Tañada, Rosalina Tuyuc, Steve Williams and Sue Williams. The publication was made possible thanks to the financial support of the United States Institute of Peace and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Swiss Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). Published by Conciliation Resources 173 Upper Street London N1 1RG United Kingdom Telephone +44 (0)20-7359 7728 Fax +44 (0)20-7359 4081 E-mail [email protected] Website http://www.c-r.org © Conciliation Resources 2002 Permission is granted for reproduction and use of these materials for educational purposes. Please acknowledge your source when using the materials and notify Conciliation Resources. Design www.hoopassociates.co.uk Printed in the UK by Viking Associates UK charity registration number 1055436 ISSN 1365-0742 Contents Foreword Ed Garcia 4 Introduction Catherine Barnes 6 South Africa feature study South Africa’s negotiated transition: context, analysis and evaluation 14 Eldred De Klerk South Africa’s National Peace Accord: its structures and functions 20 Chris Spies South Africa’s multi-party constitutional negotiation process 26 Catherine Barnes and Eldred De Klerk South Africa key texts 34 Guatemala feature study Enrique Alvarez with Tania Palencia Prado Guatemala’s peace process: context, analysis and evaluation 38 The Grand National Dialogue and the Oslo consultations: creating a peace agenda 44 The Civil Society Assembly: shaping agreement 48 Guatemala key texts 54 Mali feature study Kåre Lode Mali’s peace process: context, analysis and evaluation 56 The regional concertations process: engaging the public 64 Inter-community meetings and national reconciliation: forging a pragmatic peace 66 Mali key texts 72 Mogotes Municipal Constituent Assembly: activating ‘popular sovereignty’ at a local level: 74 Monseñor Leonardo Gomez Serna Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition: institutionalizing a political voice and ensuring representation 78 Kate Fearon Philippines National Unification Commission: national consultation and the ‘Six Paths to Peace’ 82 Miriam Coronel Ferrer Personal perspectives: Public participation and international peacemaking 86 Marrack Goulding Developing public capacities for participation in peacemaking 90 Quintin Oliver Further reading 94 Accord series 96 About Conciliation Resources 98 Accord order form 99 Accord 13 3 A wall mural painted by children, Guatemala, days before the 4 Accord 13 signing of the peace agreement, December 1996. Source: Edgar Romero/AFP face constraints and limitations. It may be that if people own the process, they will work hard to ensure viable Foreword outcomes and overcome the inevitable obstacles that arise once the agreement is in place. The earlier we engage in the task of building the social infrastructure of peace, the sooner societies will come closer to another Ed Garcia reality where the dignity of difference is celebrated, political tolerance observed and a just peace becomes possible. eople have waged peace in the midst of war in diverse situations throughout the world. Crafting a Moreover, waging peace in the current climate viable peace is the work of many hands, involving characterized by the global ‘war on terrorism’ presents a P daunting challenge. In past decades we have witnessed different sectors of society and spanning generations. Peacemaking thus requires a marathon mentality. humanitarian disasters, monstrous massacres and Success is rare and, to the perceptive, seldom permanent, seemingly unending wars in many regions of the world. since advances on one front often bring about a new set However, in the aftermath of the tragic events of 11 of challenges or change-generated conflicts. This volume September 2001, the work of citizens on many fronts to shares the experiences and lessons learned by bring about a just peace has become more difficult and practitioners reflecting on their work of many years. They the field for their participation greatly reduced; yet stress the primacy of local peoples and their indigenous increased involvement is more imperative than ever. As capacities and acknowledge the need to complement governments form alliances to act against a perceived the work engaged in by both governments and inter- common scourge of ‘terrorism’, pre-eminence is given to governmental institutions – indispensable ingredients in military means of resolving disputes. Such approaches building peace that is both viable and durable. have tended to undermine efforts to address the specific grievances at the heart of intractable conflicts in diverse The cases in this publication constitute ground-breaking contexts. They have taken actions that can erode respect work. Confronted by enormous obstacles, church people for the rule of law and advances in the fields of human and business leaders linked up with politicians to rights, while making negotiating efforts even advance a difficult process that