ACR's Public
and Intense Conflicts Committee
ACR Statement on
Hurricane Katrina
The following statement was adopted
by the Board of Directors of the Association for
Conflict Resolution (ACR) on September 12, 2005.
The Board and staff of ACR wish to
express their sincere sympathy to ACR members and their
friends and family who have been affected by Hurricane
Katrina.
The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and
the conflicts surrounding it offer significant challenges
and innumerable opportunities to contribute for conflict
intervenors. The tremendous loss of life and property and
the conflicts over the emergency response time, the
media’s and public’s framing of the disaster and its
survivors, and the dimensions of race and class that
permeate all of these conflicts ask much of our field.
Natural disasters of these proportions require
coordination, inter-organizational collaboration and
effective communication, and the best use of governance
structures and personnel to rise to the two fold task of
accountability and ensuring the best response for public
good. In all instances these require the foundational
skills and approaches exemplified in conflict resolution,
negotiation, and collaborative community building.
At times of great calamity an important guideline of
public good is the assurance of safety, security, and
protection of every member of our communities. Conflict
transformation espouses a core set of values and guiding
ethics that can serve to provide a platform to design
expedient processes that keep this foremost in mind.
ACR members and other conflict
resolvers can serve in multiple capacities and we
encourage people to post on this forum their suggestions
for organizations to donate time and money to, strategies
for applying conflict resolution skills during this
crisis, and other relevant material.
In addition, there will opportunities
for discussion, strategizing, and networking on this
important issue at the upcoming annual ACR conference in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A. September 28-October 1,
2005. There will be:
·
A networking and information table in the
exhibition hall
Please bring information to share!
·
A discussion forum
·
Two workshops addressing, in part, concerns
and options for action for conflict intervenors regarding
Katrina
Public and Intense Conflicts
Committee of the ACR Board of Directors
Visit the Public and Intense Committee Page:
http://www.acrnet.org/about/committees/publicandintense.htm
|
