Event Description:
Brazil's political and economic turmoil have given rise to a wide range of conflicts. The general conflict in the country has helped some Brazilian mediators to refine, evolve, change and add to the methods they use for both public and private dispute and conflict resolution. The RePacificar Initiative uses the “RePacificar Social Concept,” which is a counterpoint of the term “Pacification”, which has been culturally used to designate actions to reestablish the “status quo” of the societies, usually by superior hierarchical imposition. The RePacifar has come to be known, in Brazil, as an action that acts in the base of the social pyramid, directly in society, realizing transformation through dialogue, mediation, and driving legislative change and the creation of public policies.
Drawing from his work with RePacificar, Akira Ninomiya will discuss the Initiative’s efforts to address conflicts using mediation in one region of Brazil, the State of Goiás (the “Green Heart of Brazil"). Akira will discuss his concept of “resignification”, wich has as its main element the transformation of the view of conflict and crisis situations, working on the diagnosis of the elements that generate conflicts and solving the root causes, promoting a cultural resignification on the way to view and deal with conflicts and crises. This concept was disseminated in all 1,149 public schools in the state of Goiás, in the initiative called “Peace in the Heart of Brazil”, which have the endorsement of Mr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, South Africa. Attention will be given to lessons learned to improve the culture of resolving a variety of conflicts in the schools, cases involving violence and public security, and dialogues to address social and political conflicts. Many of the insights, concepts, approaches and techniques developed recently in Brazil will offer opportunities to improve mediation and other ADR skills in New York and all around the world.
Akira Ninomiya is a Negotiator and Mediator, international speaker, writer, Director of Japan and the United States Affairs in the Foreign Trade Chamber of the Goiás State Industrial and Service Trade Association – ACIEG in Brazil. Vice president of the Commission of International Law of the Brazilian BAR of the State of Goiás. Coordinator of the Commission of Mediation of the Brazilian BAR of the State of Goiás (2013-2015). CEO of the Ninomiya Corporation. Founder of the RePacificar Multidimensional Initiative. President of the RePacificar Institute. President of the RePacificar International Congress since 2014.
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