Themes
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Violence, peace and extreme poverty
> Colloquium 2012: Extreme poverty is Violence. Breaking the Silence. Searching for Peace
Colloquium 2012: Extreme poverty is Violence. Breaking the Silence. Searching for Peace
This colloquium has concluded a three-year international participatory action research project considering the violence faced by people living in extreme poverty.
24-25 January – International colloquium with 60 participants,
including people living in extreme poverty from the countries
involved in the project, and academics, practitioners and policymakers.
Key themes that have emerged from the project include:
Violence and the trivialisation of extreme poverty What is violence within extreme poverty? What are the consequences?
- The non-recognition of people living in extreme poverty as human beings.
- Extreme poverty eradication projects ill-adapted to people’s needs
- Institutional and political violence
- The denial of fundamental rights.
Peace and mutual recognition Faced with the violence of extreme poverty what do we do to resist it? What makes it possible to head together towards peace?
- Understanding peace within the context of overcoming poverty.
- The necessary conditions to resist and to break the silence.
- Strategies to protect and defend ourselves from violence.
- Building peace together: resources and responsibilities.
26 January – Public event at UNESCO House with up to 250 participants to disseminate project findings and highlight ways forward. To include presentations, plenary discussions and interactive workshops with speakers drawn from project participants and experts from a range of disciplines.
Understanding the violence faced by people in chronic poverty and the pathways towards peace
International Colloquium at UNESCO House
« The violence of contempt and indifference causes chronic poverty, since it inevitably leads to exclusion, to the rejection of one human being by other human beings». This statement, by Fr. Joseph Wresinski, founder of ATD Fourth World, needs (…)Violence and the trivialisation of poverty
First day of the Colloquium
Enough! Those who speak of poverty are always the same« We can’t continue being silent, only letting those who know speak ». These words of Valentina Ccoyo, from Cuzco, Peru, opened the Colloquium on Tuesday 24th January 2012.
More than 300 (…)
Peace and mutual recognition
Second day of the Colloquium:
« When the violence that is experienced by people living in extreme poverty is recognised, that brings a sort of peace to the soul ». It is through this recognition, as spoken of by Ronald Schexnayder, that pathways for peace can be built. (…)Effective participatory action through collective knowledge
Thursday, 24 January 2012
Diana Skelton, Deputy Director General of the International Movement ATD Fourth World, made a speech in the Colloquium « Extreme Poverty is Violence – Breaking the Silence – Searching for Peace », explaining how ATD Fourth World’s innovative approach creates effective participatory action. She analysed the challenges of this method that pools the knowledge gained in resisting extreme poverty with other more traditionally recognised forms of knowledge. She further examined the importance of collective knowledge - the wisdom in crowds that can go further than what the individuals in the crowd would be able to figure out on their own - and underscored the importance of language, and of finding a common language between the different participants involved in this participatory-action research project.All the Videos of the Colloquium: Extreme poverty is Violence. Breaking the Silence. Searching for Peace
Preparatory seminar :
The Seminar of Lima (Perou) For one week, members of ATD Fourth World of the Hispanic and the Caribbean world gathered together to build knowledge based on experience of the poor to violence against them.
First day of the (…)
