Seminar on "Peace alone leads to Development and Prosperity"
- Guwahati, Jan 10-11, 2009 -

Regional Workshop- cum -Seminar on "Peace alone leads to Development and Prosperity"
Indian Confederation of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples North East Zone (ICITP-NEZ)
Venue: Pragati Manor, G S Road, Guwahati-5, Assam
Date: January 10-11, 2009

Concept note:

To-day, the North-Eastern region is facing increasingly violent activities like serial bomb blasts, fratricidal killings, ethnic conflicts, heavy arm conflicts between armed insurgents and the security forces, kidnaps, gang rapes, forced disappearances, population influx, cultural invasion and socio economic domination etc, which are very serious and graver than any where in the rest of the country. All of these regions are covered by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Presently no immediate solution for these problems is in sight.

The prevailing situation is NOT PEACEFUL rather alarmingly disturbed and hence fear psychosis dominates the life of the common people and thus normal life and attempts for developmental activities are adversely affected

Since its inception in 1994, ICITP-NEZ has been striving in collaborating with the various civil society organizations, institutions and government agencies to discuss the various issues and to coordinate awareness raising and promote solidarity among different groups, social activists, students, scholars, academicians, and political leaders locally, nationally, regionally and internationally in the matters that affect them directly or indirectly, with sole objectives of improving the life of the people, particularly the indigenous peoples. We have identified dispossession of life supporting resources (of land, forest, water and culture in the name of public interest and aggressive national development policies: in the form of mining, industry, power plant, big-dams, wild-life sanctuaries and military installations) threatening the very survival of the Indigenous Peoples as the main issues and external as well as internal colonialism as the main cause. We looks forward to intervene and seek informed and effective participation to contribute in the matters of alternative developmental aspects that suit us as culturally appropriate and sustainable developmental strategies.

In order to understand the complexities in the region and to initiate a dialogue for evolving a road map for lasting peace and alternative means of culturally appropriate developmental perspectives through expert analysis and with a special objective of facilitating to explore collective views on appropriate development role model and enhancing peace building capacities, ICITP-NEZ along with its 53 Member Organisations (MOs) has decided to organise an innovative and pioneering workshop - cum - seminar on "Peace alone leads to Development and on January 10 & 11, 2009 at Hotel Pragoti Manor, GS Road, Guwahati - 5 , Assam ,which will be the first of its kind in this trouble torn region of India. We strongly feel that this will help us in clearing the fog between the government and the local communities about the most challenging North East Vision 2020 a replicate of the spirit of UN Millennium Development Goal, which does not seem to materialise due to various obstacles including non participation of local communities in the region as a consequent of failure on the part of the government in confidence building among the people. .

This workshop – cum - seminar is a follow up work on recently held "Training on Conflict Resolution and Peace Building Capacities" from March 26-31, 2007 at Guwahati and Haflong (NC Hills), which was organised by us to empower the Indigenous Peoples and their leaders of the North Eastern India to identify the root causes of internal conflicts, fratricidal killings and violence recurring in the region causing a serious adverse impact in the ongoing effort to improve the peace building capacities, particularly among the Indigenous Peoples.

This workshop-cum-seminar will not only help us to follow up our effort to strengthen our understanding of the problems to facilitate in addressing the issues but will also enhance our peace building capacity encouraging to fulfil the aspirations of the people through peaceful democratic process and help us developing modalities of culturally appropriate development perspectives that suit the region. Further, it will also help us to sensitise our people, leaders and government to fully understand the true concept of sustainable development while in our opinion, government has failed to consult people to seek prior informed consent on cooperating over India's Look East policy. ICITP-NEZ wishes to bridge the gap between the people and the government in the matter of Peace and Development that affect them directly or indirectly.

Objectives:

1. The main long term goal of this workshop- cum -seminar is to explore collective views on developing and building pathways to peace in the region through effective participation in dialogue with the concern party/parties including government and to evolve culturally appropriate policy recommendations to the government to realise the sustainable development activities.

Other objectives are:

1. To create a common space for meeting of the leaders, civil societies activists, advocates, scholars, entrepreneurs, leaders of business communities, journalists, peace workers and practitioners, religious leaders, academicians and students of different states in the region to share their opinions to collectively contribute in awareness campaign on disadvantage of violence in the region;

2. To aware on the futility of violence;

3. To enhance in exploring to identity the root causes of the internal conflicts and evolving mechanisms for conflict resolution for peace building processes;

4. Enhancing capacities for evolving culturally appropriate development policies for effective & sustainable development in the region.

Participants: 100 participants from seven sister states of North Eastern India.

Key Speakers:

1. Dr. Ram Dayal Munda, Former Vice Chancellor of Ranchi University, Former Chairperson of Working Group on the Empowerment of Scheduled Tribes, Planning Commission, Government of India and the Chief President of ICITP (Confirmed);
2. Mr. N. Dutta, Advocate General, Arunachal Pradesh, Guwahati High Court, Guwahati (Confirmed);
3. Smt. Jarjume Ete, Former Chairperson, State Commission of Women, Member of Central Advisory Committee, Ministry of Pachayati Raj, Governing Member Board, Rashtriya Mahila Koch, Ministry of WCD, Government of India and President of IWRC, Arunachal Pradesh (Confirmed);
4. Shri Natwar Thakkar, Founder General Secretary, Nagaland Gandhi Asharam, Guwahati, Assam (Confirmed);
5. Dr. Anuradha Dutta, Professor of Peace Studies, Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and development, Guwahati, Assam (Confirmed);
6. Mrs. Rahila Brahma, Senior Advisor, ICITP-NEZ, Kokrajhar, BTC, Assam (Confirmed);
7. Dr. Nani Gopal Mahanta, Reader, Political Science, GU, Coordinator, Peace and Conflict Studies, GU, Guwahati, Assam (Confirmed);
8. Mr. John F. Kharshiing, Gen Secy, Grassroots Democracy Advisory Council, Shillong, Meghalaya
9. Mr. Wasbir Hussain, Journalist, Guwahati, Assam (Confirmed);
10. Dr. Kameswar Brahma, President, Bodo Sahitya Sabha(confirmed)
11. Shri Samudra Gupta Kashyab, Chief of Indian Express Bureau, Guwahati, Assam (Confirmed);
12. Ms. Patricia Mukhim, Journalist, Shillong, Meghalaya (Confirmed);
13. Shri Nitin A. Gokhle, Senior Editor NDTV, New Delhi (Confirmed).
14. Mr. Pradeep Phangjoubam, Chief Editor, Imphla Free Press, Imphal, Manipur (Confirmed)

Indian Confederation of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples North East Zone (ICITP-NEZ)
Zonal Office, ICITP-NEZ
Banphool Nagar, Namghar Path,
P.O:Assam Sachivalaya
Dispur, Guwahati- 781006, Assam, India
Telefax: 0091-361-2611293
Telephone: 0091-361-2233298
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Website: http://www.icitp-nez.org

Download the Scheduled Programme (Final draft) - PDF (16 KB) here.