Annual report Institute for Peace and Common Ground
2016
Content Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1 About IPCG .............................................................................................................................................. 1 Organisational structure ......................................................................................................................... 2 Achievements.......................................................................................................................................... 3 Financial overview .................................................................................................................................. 4 Future goals ............................................................................................................................................ 4
Introduction Year 2016 has been marked as an increased operation of IPCG in all areas of its strategic working directions. We were proud to successfully launch 22 new School Centres for Common Ground in Donetsk region with the support of UNICEF with funding coming from the German partnership for International cooperation GIZ. Unfortunately, the other component of the project related to the development of juveniles diversion mechanism from the criminal justice system of Ukraine was not implemented due to the changes in the stuff of the Prosecutor General office. However we are hopeful that in the future we will re-establish good working relations with them. We were also blessed with a new partnership that we were able to establish with Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society and Folke Bernadotte Academy, which allowed us to explore an unknown for Ukraine (but so needed) field of DDR.
About IPCG The Institute for Peace and Common Ground (IPCG) is a leading Ukrainian non-governmental, nonprofit organization that specialises in facilitation and dialogue with a view to helping groups and communities achieve positive and sustainable change. Originally formed as the Ukrainian Centre of Common Ground, IPCG has 20 years of experience of introducing and promoting participatory and restorative practice, including community-based juvenile crime prevention, mediation, family group conferences and decision-making circles. IPCG works in communities and schools in 17 regions of Ukraine. Restorative practices in communities We strive for positive changes in the environment of every person, their development and creation of a socially conscious society of the country. The development of people through the learning of the art of dialogue is the key area of the "Institute for Peace and Common Ground." The process comprises a combination of a variety of techniques and procedures ranging from training to mediation - that helps people understand and, therefore, develop a safe community and create a climate of peace and support. In the framework of this direction, IPCG is engaged in activities aimed at strengthening the peacekeeping capacity of communities. Implementation of restorative justice Restorative justice – is a process, managed by a mediator, due to which a delinquent and a victim discuss the situation that has occurred together and decide about further resolution of a conflict and reimbursement of damages.
This approach allows participants to make their own decisions to resolve conflict and to take responsibility for consequences of this situation. A court usually takes this decision into account during sentencing. Practices that are used during the restorative justice are the following: • mediation between a victim and delinquent, • circle of social justice, • family conference, • forum of civic justice. Restorative practices in schools This direction of the IPCG activity – implementation of restorative practices at schools – is a holistic and comprehensive approach that combines the efforts of school administration, staff, parents and pupils for building an atmosphere of respect, concern and responsibility. The key element – is formation of school services for common ground – centers, where prepared pupils-mediators help their peers resolve conflicts through co-operation. This allows children to take responsibility for solving conflicts, to find a common ground with peers and build relationships in the co-operative manner. Practices that are used in the school services for common ground are: • peers mediation, • circles of values, • circles of decision-making
Organisational structure
Team Roman Koval – Head of the Board, leading expert on restorative practices, mediator, trainer
Alyona Horova – Board Member, leading expert on restorative practices and leading methodologist for IPCG training programs, mediator, trainer Iryna Gorova – Executive Director of IPCG Lisa Koval –Expert on restorative practices in schools, mediator, projects coordinator Juliya Demchuk – PR Manager Inna Vyshnyak - Accountant
Achievements Restorative practices in communities Due to our new partnerships we were happy to continue dialogue work in Ukrainian communities (This time in Kremenchuk, Pyriatyn, Dnepropetrovsk, Yavoriv, Sumy, Kramatorsk, Ivano-Frankivsk and Zaporizhzhia). The topics for dialogue activities in these communities were related to the veterans reintegration in their communities. The local analyses in the regions raised the knowledge, awareness and involvement of civil society in DDR-related matters and gave them deeper understanding of the specific issues with ex-combatants reintegration and corresponding challenges encountered in their regions. Throughout the 3-day DDR workshop in Kiev our colleagues dialogue facilitators and representatives of the local government together with veterans organizations got acquainted with the key terms of DDR and received information about different experiences of managing DDR in other conflict regions. The knowledge and contribution of our Swedish experts has immensely contributed to the quality and design of the dialogue-generated initiatives of excombatants reintegration in their respective communities. Implementation of restorative justice IPCG is very inspired by the fact that we could continue our work in the field of Restorative Justice implementation in Ukraine. For the first time after the Revolution of dignity we brought together representatives of all branches of the Criminal Justice System of Ukraine to update our knowledge and review the opportunities for Restorative Justice application in juvenile justice system. Georgian experience in this regard was a new added knowledge, which we didn’t have at the time when UCCG has started it’s RJ-related work in Ukraine back in 2003. Within this Strategic component we have been able to build capacity of civil society representatives from Mariupol and Kyiv in basic skills and process of restorative mediation conduct. 24 new mediators are ready to apply them in juvenile criminal justice cases (hopefully next year…) Restorative practices in schools in numbers Number School Centers for Common Ground opened (SCCG) Number of conducted mediations in SCCG Number of conducted peacemaking circles in SCCG Number of peer to peer mediators trained Number of trained coordinators for SCCG Number of people learned about SCCG
29 62 1149 260 26 8000
Financial overview
INCOME 2015
2016
6000000 5000000 4000000 3000000 2000000 1000000 0 UAH
For 2016 Expenditure - 5 330 884 UAH RP in communities
20% in 2016
80% in 2016 Restorative practices in schools
Future goals Next Year We are looking forward to continue our cooperation with SPAS and Folke Bernadotte Academy in reintegration of Ukrainian veterans. We hope to introduce the International Standards for Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration (IDDRS) in Ukraine. These Guidelines have accumulated vast international experience of peacebuilding in many countries around the world and it is time for Ukraine to learn it and start putting it into practice to prevent the ATO-related challenges growing further. We also hope that we would be able to continue our work in the field of restorative justice and complete the institutionalization process that we have started more then 10 years ago by now‌ Our Goal is also to expand our team and to hire more staff that will share our mission and goals and will help us to implement our Strategy in Ukraine! We are looking forward!