Conference Countdown:

Beyond Reconciliation Conference 2009

Conference Updates

Important Information for lunch on December 6, last day of the conference: Please join us for lunch on December 6. Kindly sign up here >

Highlights

Wednesday 2 December 2009:
Welcoming address by
Dr. Max Price, Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town

Thursday 3 December 2009:
Roundtable dialogue with Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

Book Launch: Transforming Societies After Political Violence by Brandon Hamber.

Friday 4 December 2009:
The Fetzer Institute presents an International Award for Love and Forgiveness to Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu which is to be followed by the Special Public Dialogue Event: "Reconciliation in South Africa: Are Things Falling Apart?"

Respondent: Prof. Antjie Krog

This part of the program is open to the public. Our vision is to extend the conference events and to allow the international delegates to the conference to experience some of the dialogue that takes place in South Africa.

Conference Programme

Conference Overview

Apology, forgiveness, reconciliation, truth, amnesty, restorative justice, national healing – these words have become part of the lexicon of a range of strategies to respond to past violations of human rights and their traumatic effects in post-conflict societies.

Probably more than any other process of dealing with historical trauma, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) re-introduced these concepts into public debate and brought them more sharply into global scholarly examination. Since the TRC completed its work, the process has been replicated in more than a dozen post-conflict settings globally. Some consider truth commissions and other similar public forums to represent a vision of democratic action in political life...

Highlights from our Previous Conference

View a retrospective on the conference we organised in 2006, Memory, Narrative & Forgiveness: Reflecting on Ten Years of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was attended by scholars and practitioners from around the globe with representatives from 23 countries. To see some Highlights in Pictures and Comments from delegates who attended this conference Click Here>