What's Happening in Conflict Resolution" is a weekly roundup of the all the ADR news, jobs, events and more. Check it out each week and view past versions [HERE].
Weekly Conversation
ADRHub is now hosting a topic for discussion and debate!
In anticipation of Cyberweek, the ADRHub question of the week asks
How do you use your conflict specialist skills in the digital age?
Click HERE to join the conversation!
Conflict Engagement and ADR in the News
Tyson Gay Will Mentor Youth So Daughter's Death Is Not 'Senseless'
Author not listed (10/22/16. NBC Chicago 5. Photo from Pixaboy).
In the wake of the fatal shooting of his 15-year-old daughter Trinity, Olympic sprinter Tyson Gay pledged Friday to help mentor youth in Lexington, Kentucky. Trinity Gay was caught in crossfire last Sunday between two vehicles in a restaurant parking lot in Lexington. The high school student and sprinter was shot in the neck and killed.
“The death of my daughter as an innocent bystander is devastating,” Tyson Gay said in a statement, “but I am determined that it not be senseless.”
Find out how more about Mr. Gay's commitment to giving youth the tools to resolve conflicts without violence
HERE.________________________________
First Person: What the shift to restorative justice looked like in my KIPP school
By Ric Zappa (10/21/16. Chalkbeat)
It was the kind of call no educator ever wants to get, especially in the middle of a winter holiday: A maintenance staffer reporting messages of hate scrawled everywhere, threatening the principal, me, by name. On the sides of the building. On portable classroom walls. On windows. Everywhere.
The student who had defaced the campus — I will call him Luis — freely admitted what he had done, and openly tied his actions to his involvement with a gang. There was no mystery about who was responsible. The question was what to do about it...
Want to know more? Click HERE to learn how the school used restorative justice as an alternative to other methods of punishment.
________________________________
No jail for convicts in minor offences in UAE
By Jasmine Al Kuttab (10/25/16. Khaleej Times; Image from Pixabay)
Legal experts in the UAE have praised amendments made in the UAE Penal Code, suggesting that it is a positive step towards a healthier society.
Under the new law, offenders convicted with minor offences that were punishable by not more than six months or a fine, will instead do community service of up to three months.
The law, which was issued by the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and will take effect from November 2016, stipulates that the Ministry of Justice, along with the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Emiratisation and Human Resources, will determine the community service given.
Click HERE to learn more about this newly introduced approach to crime reduction and justice in the UAE.
________________________________
Peace process over Nagorno-Karabakh conflict revives
By Rashid Shirinov (10/21/16. Azer News).
The visit of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to Baku on October 22 leads to the conclusion that the negotiation process over the Nagorno-Karabakh problem has anew revived.
After the two meetings in May and June 2016, which followed the April clashes between the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops, the solution of the conflict was somehow frozen. In this context the recent visit of James Warlick, Igor Popov, Pierre Andrieu and the Special Representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office Andrzej Kasprzyk to Azerbaijan seems to restore the peace process over the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.
Learn more about the conflict and the international response HERE.
Good Reads: Blogs, Books, and More!
Getting the Story Right with Data to Make the Right Decisions
By Jennifer Shack (10/20/16. Just Court ADR)
I’m a data geek. I love poring over data and running analyses to see what story unfolds. On the national level, data can tell us the story of our rise as an industrial power and how that changed how people lived and worked. On a local level, it can tell the story of how the closing of a factory affects the fabric of a community and the institutions that bind it. For foreclosure mediation programs, the data can tell the story of how homeowners are affected by changes to the program. Thus, I was eager to find out how changes to the court rules in the 19th Judicial Circuit of Illinois at the beginning of this year would play out. What story would the data tell? Find out HERE.
________________________________
Transitional Justice Battlegrounds: Another Bad Week in Burundi
By Mark Kersten (10/22/16; Justice in Conflict; Image from Pixabay)
Transitional justice has been taken a number of worrying steps in Burundi. While the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is preparing for public hearings addressing crimes committed between 1962 and 2008, Burundi has been engulfed in political conflict since the controversial candidacy of Pierre Nkurunziza and his re-election for a third presidential mandate in 2015. From the beginning of the crisis, gross human rights violations have been widely reported, making the problem of impunity even more serious. Two decisions from the Burundian authorities over the past week illustrate their attitude towards the problem of impunity in relation to ongoing crimes: the Burundian government’s declaration that the UN human rights investigators are persona non grata in Burundi after the publication of their report on Burundi; and a law has been adopted to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC). Learn more about the challenges of achieving a just peace through transitional justice in Burundi HERE.
________________________________
Lost for Words
By Ian Macduff (10/24/16. Kluwer mediation Blog. Image from Pixabay)
A few recent observations prompt this blog about language and the world of words that we work with in mediation. First, in reading around the burgeoning literature on online dispute resolution and – especially – at the algorithm-based, automated end of the scale, I note the suggestion that dispute resolution and mediation are based just on information and communication. This struck me as one of those reductionist observations that is both true and, at the same time, utterly lacking the richness of the experience that most mediators will know about. Second, I’ve had the recent delight of reading two books which required me to have a dictionary nearby.Find out what Ian means by language loss and how intermediaries can address this loss HERE.
_______________________________
You need to be a member of ADRhub - Creighton NCR to add comments!
Join ADRhub - Creighton NCR