Specialist In Resolving Conflicts And Creating Peace - Permanently
CurrentIn 1997 I helped an advisory commission of 30 people, to reach an agreement that they’d failed to make for 15 years due to internal politics and opposing beliefs. Officials of the Swiss Red Cross, the ICRC, go into war zones, deal with prisoners of war and enforces the Geneva conventions. The others were IFRC, people who represented the national societies, two different organizations in the movement. In a war zone, where the ICRC was in charge, when there was an earthquake, flood or any… Show more In 1997 I helped an advisory commission of 30 people, to reach an agreement that they’d failed to make for 15 years due to internal politics and opposing beliefs. Officials of the Swiss Red Cross, the ICRC, go into war zones, deal with prisoners of war and enforces the Geneva conventions. The others were IFRC, people who represented the national societies, two different organizations in the movement. In a war zone, where the ICRC was in charge, when there was an earthquake, flood or any natural disaster they lacked rules about when one or the other was in charge. They spent a night and a day with me, following a procedure I call Future-basing, and when I left them they spent another day for the first time putting together the new protocol. It was confirmed later that year at their General Assembly in Seville, and so was called the Seville Agreement.I worked some years later with two of the health teams, who had been publicly at war for some time. The Disaster Relief team who were the first responders in floods, earthquakes, natural disasters, felt that the National Societies team just got in the way and didn’t know what they were doing. The National Societies Team thought the others arrogant and incompetent. For three days we were snowed in at this hotel. All the time they were itching to have the row, not realizing that with all the talking and listening they were doing, their differences weren't that great. Three days later they announced to the whole organization their new appearance. They talked it through and they solved it themselves. I don’t have to know details of the conflict, I don’t listen to that. I listen to the people express their feelings, and reflect back to them what I hear. The result is PEOPLE make peace. They listen and acknowledge one another, and they feel more powerful to speak their mind in a safe environment. The fight or conflict just tends to dissolve. And sometimes they even agree to differ…but it’s still an agreement. Show less