JUSTIFICATION

Most citizens in the world have a legitimate aspiration to coexist in peaceful societies in which conflict, in all of it’s manifestations, can be solved through dialogue, consensus and deliberation. However, violence, amidst the twentyfirst century has become a generalized issue whether it be in the family core, a vital space for the construction of peace culture, to even the regional stage which involve human beings in groups within a nation or between countries – this has managed to put us all at risk of a worldly conflagration.

Even when human beings are inherently kind, our behavior has delved in contrary actions – contrary to healthy living, and it starts off in the core of the socializing institutions such as family, school, our communities, work places and neighbourhoods have become agents of miseducation that stimulate personality profiles that have different levels of inclination towards the realization of violent conduct.

The reproduction of behavioral patterns which damage us that can be evidentiated in the interpersonal relationships and the toxic group interactions which end up creating confrontation amongst each other along with the unmeasured individualism can produce conditions that lead to betrayal of values and principles which are of the utmost relevante to our kind.

Therefore, it is an urgent task to be able to build a bridge that allows us to transit from a culture of violence to a culture of peace – despite knowing it is not easy task. That’s where our need comes from: a need to make room for alternatives which allow us to solve conflicts and contribute to the strengthening of relationships with ourselves and each other, as well as the predisposition to interact assertively, empathically and compassionately.

In this context, mediation and conciliation with a transformative approach as well as an associative one make way for the empowerment of the masses in ways that allow us to seek new forms of interaction and it requires tha we all learn how to have associative dialogues and to make use of effective strategies to produce changes in the culture which we are submerged in that translate into socities which have inhabitants that learn how to coexist in peace by approaching with positive thinking any challenge that they may face.

In times in which our host country is living a complex process of peace construction, in which the reconciliation of a national level is essential, it comes without doubt how pertinent it truly is to have the XII WORLD CONGRESS OF MEDIATION AND PEACE CULTURE, an event that pretends to propose effective strategies to generate solutions to the inmese spectrum of conflicts which arose due to the armed conflicts and the process of disarmament, but also, due to the everyday conflicts which permeate a society in it’s different times – most of them which have existed and escalated through out the years and do not contribute to the construction of a healthy coexistance of society.

Therefore this congress is faced with a challenge of great dimensions before the unrest of a host nation and of those social conflicts which are spread through out the different latitudes of our planet.

Lastly, and with the commitment of contributing to the development and the rising of safe and secure socities, it has been decided to incorporate to this great event an ample agenda of themes whose significance are distinctive and proper to the construction of a peace culture.