Visit MS-Denmark

Conflict Resolution

The Danish Center for Conflict Resolution provided the group with a week-long course. The course provided a thorough knowledge of the different aspects of conflicts. Basic conflict resolution approach divides a conflict into relation and issue, stressing the importance of dealing with the disagreement on a interpersonal level as well. Often the parties in conflict cannot see their own feelings and needs clearly. At their most basic level, the parties may have compatible interests, but they are blind to this because of the situation in which they are. Of course, conflicts are also closely related to power relations. Oppressed people must first find unity and strategies to force the powerful to recognize the conflict. Ultimately, conflict resolution philosophy sees conflicts as an opportunity for self-reflection and learning. Conflicts are unavoidable, but they can be doors to positive change if we approach them constructively.

To understand conflicts we must understand how they build up on both sides. The course offered a tool called a conflict ladder, showing the stages through which a disagreement builds. In the beginning the issue of disagreement blurs together with the party one disagrees with, until one is no longer listening to one other and finally actively demonizing the other party. Interestingly, the steps in this conflict ladder can also be used to analyze war propaganda. Parties who are attempting to stir up hatred of other people actually follow the same 7 steps! In the course, the participants created a play about a conflict in a family, freezing in each of the 7 steps to show how the conflict escalated. To resolve conflicts the participants learned about non-violent conversations. This is a way of stating one’s own case in a non-violent way (violence is understood in broad terms, to include any deliberate attempts to hurt the other person). The point of non-violent conversations is to express clearly what ones feelings and needs are, without accusing the other person. The participants tried this tool out in role-plays based on some of the conflicts in the participants’ own lives.

The course provided new perspectives on conflicts in which participants are involved themselves. Through the courses and the forum theater performances many of the participants worked on family and social conflicts. Often the conflicts were very personal. They gained new insight into these. They also gained the ability to step back and look at their own conflicts critically.

Theater Training and Performances

Through several theater workshops and numerous performances the participants further developed their theater skills. The week offered some theory about the narrative structure of stories and how these could be used to improvise in plays. The participants also learned some basic exercises to increase their expressiveness on stage. The course focused especially on the importance of focus, timing and rhythm in acting, based on the teachings of Italian theater worker Dario Fo. Through joint theater exercises the Danish students and the Nepali participants explored the great Italian dramatist’s ideas together.

The groups’ first full theater performance at the Institute of Anthropology was a great success. Unfortunately at their next performance in Aarhus there was hardly any audience at all, which some of the participants took as quite an insult. The group leaders were also quite perplexed, as the performances there, once taken out, had been reintroduced in the program at the insistence of the branch office. As it happened, the Aarhus visit remained the only part of the Denmark program that the participants consistently remarked upon as unsatisfactory.

Human Rights

The course combined visits to Danish civil society organizations working on human rights issues with formal classes at the Danish Center for Human Rights. The course at the Center offered a basic knowledge of human rights conventions and processes. The Center has project experience from Nepal. So they were familiar to some extent with some of issues on which the participants worked. Three days of classes dealt both with Nepali law and case process and with international law. The group learned how a country’s constitution forms a basis for claiming rights. The Nepali constitution is quite progressive in the rights it grants citizens. The participants also learned about the newly formed about Nepali Human Rights Commission. Many were surprised to hear about its function and how easy it was (on paper at least!) to file complaints to it. Some in the group were doubtful of the use of law and legal institutions in Nepal. There was an interesting discussion on the role of civil society in building and supporting these institutions to make them work for the people. Other lecturers gave examples of the human rights situation in third countries, such as Estonia.

In terms of international conventions, the course focused on the Convention against Racial Discrimination. This is especially relevant to many of the participants’ work. Nepal and Denmark are both signatories to the convention. The group visited the Documentation and Counseling Center on Racial Discrimination. The day offered an interesting view on the situation of minorities in Denmark. The Center gave a number of case studies of racial discrimination in Denmark. The facilitator explained how civil society organizations can document and report cases of racial discrimination under the Convention. The participants were very impressed with documentation at the Center. In the evening session, they discussed the pressing need to improve documentation and knowledge of legal rights in their organizations.

The group visited Indsam and the Minority Department to learn about how they worked to improve the situation of minorities in Denmark. Some participants felt that minorities should feel thankful for what the state had provided them, instead of demanding equal treatment upon arrival. This provided an interesting discussion. In the end, they concluded that this work for equality was part of the ongoing struggle for democracy in Denmark.

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