10 juni 2008

(Persbericht NIAS-KNAW) The Rector of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) is pleased to invite you to the Public Lectures, titled: 'New Approaches to Coming to Terms with Political Violence in the Era of Globalization'

Tuesday 24 June 2008, 14:30 hours, NIAS, Meijboomlaan 1, Wassenaar

The speakers will be Daniel Owen, Coordinator of Community-Driven Development at the World Bank in Washington D.C., and Luc Huyse, Professor emeritus of Law and Sociology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

Daniel Owen will discuss community-driven development as an approach to mediate the experiences of political violence in Africa. He will point to the fact that such an approach requires a close and systematical analysis of the cause and effects of violence and the awareness that any intervention to help a devastated nation to move forward requires multiple features of social capital.

Luc Huyse will deal with the place of tradition-based justice and reconciliation practices in a broader policy of justice after violent conflict. After that he will make an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of this policy, based on five African experiences. He will use two yardsticks in weighing the actual and potential performance of the mechanisms in focus, namely legitimacy - the degree of credibility and effectiveness - the impact in terms of the desired effects.

The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) is an institute for advanced study in the humanities and social sciences. Each year, the Institute invites around 50 carefully selected scholars, both from within and outside the Netherlands, to its centre in Wassenaar, where they are given an opportunity to do research over a ten-month period. Fellows carry out their work either as individuals or as part of a research theme group, which NIAS initiates every year. In addition, through its conference facilities, the Institute also functions as a meeting place for scientific programmes of a shorter duration and more specific character, such as workshops, seminars, summer schools, and study centres.

NIAS is an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).