The Council for Dignity, Forgiveness, Justice and Reconciliation
“A Council which symbolically unites the human family and is at the service of peoples in conflict, that they should not be left alone in the folly of hatred and injustice, so that dignity and forgiveness can be striven for even in the heart of darkness, so that voices of sanity and of light may be heard when calls for punishment and revenge suffocate even the remotest desire for peace. So that historical wrongs, contemporary greed, spiritual derailment and the power to humiliate can be revealed and addressed in order to create space for reconciliation.”
Cornerstone of the Ara Pacis Initiative was its Council for Dignity, Forgiveness, Justice and Reconciliation, a universal body composed of Men and Women who had suffered personal and collective tragedies but had made forgiveness the starting point of a new existence to engage individuals and communities in paths of healing, justice and reconciliation.
The Council which, in 2010, initiated Ara Pacis
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im
Professor of Law and Human Rights in Islam all`Emory University
Alberto Melloni
UNESCO Chair for Religious Pluralism and Peace; Director of the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies
Alexandra Asseily
Governor and founder of the Centre for Lebanese Studies at Oxford; Board Member of the Guerrand-Hermès Peace Foundation
Ali Abu Awwad
Al-Tariq-the Palestinian Institution for Development and Democracy and Parents Circle-Families Forum
Amy Hill
Founder of Silence Speaks
Anne Gallagher
Founder of Seeds of Hope
Asha Hagi Elmi
Member of Transitional Parliament of Somalia; Founder of Save Somali Women and Children; Chairperson of The Sixth Clan
Assaad Chaftari
Peacemaker, Lebanon
Bahram Rahman
Researcher on transitional justice, Afghanistan
Barakat Fawzi Hasan
General Director of Jerusalem Center for Studies and Islamic Media
Barry Hart
Professor of Trauma and Conflict Studies at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding of the East Mennonite University
Betty Oyella Bigombe
Former Minister of the Ugandan Government; Head Negotiator between the LRA and the Government of Uganda
Carlo Strenger
Professor of Psychology at the University of Tel Aviv
Christian Iosso
Coordinator for Social Witness Policy of the Presbyterian Church, USA
Debra Hocking
Deputy Chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation of Australia
Dishani Jayaweera
Co-Founder of the Centre for Peacebuilding and Reconciliation, Sri Lanka
Donald W. Shriver, Jr.
President Emeritus of Union Theological Seminary NYC
Donna Hicks
Associate, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University
Edith Bruck
Author and poet
Eduardo Pizarro
President of the National Reconciliation and Reparations Commission of Colombia
Eileen Borris
Political Psychologist
Elias Khoury
Attorney and dialogue advocate, Jerusalem
Elizabeth Lira
Director of the Center for Ethics at the University Alberto Hurtado and member of the Superior Council of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO).
Enzo Bianchi
Author; Founder and Prior of the monastic community of Bose
Eva Mozes Kor
Founder of Children of Auschwitz Nazi’s Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors
Fabiola Perdomo
Spokesperson of the Foundation for Life and Liberty of Colombia
Fausto Biloslavo
War correspondent
Francisco Galán Bermúdez
Former spokesperson of the National Liberation Army of Colombia; Director of the House of Peace-Medellin
Garrett Thomson
Board Member of Guerrand Hermès Foundation for Peace
George Emile Irani
Associate Professor of International Studies at the American University of Kuwait
Geraldine Smyth
President of the International Advisory Group of the International Conflict Research; Member of the Board of Healing Through Remembering in Northern Ireland
Ginn Fourie
Co-Founder and Director of the Lyndi Fourie Foundation
Harsh Mander
Director of the Center for Equity Studies-India
Hassan Hanafi Hassanien
Chair of the Philosophy Department of Cairo University
Hatidza Mehmedovic
Founder of the Mothers of Srebrenica association
Imam Muhammad Ashafa
Co-Director of the Interfaith Mediation Center of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue in Kaduna, Nigeria
Izzeldin Abuelaish
MD, MPH Gazan-Palestinian medical doctor and and Professor in Global Health at the University of Toronto-Canada
Jaime Malamud Goti
Former Solicitor General of the nation of Argentina; Professor of Law at the University of Palermo
Jamal Majam
Director General of International Cooperation, Ministry of Culture, Yemen
Jan Oberg
President of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research
Jean-Paul Samputu
Musician; Founder of the Samputu Forgiveness Campaign, Rwanda
Jesus Tecú Osorio
Social activist, human rights campaigner, and advocate for the Achi Maya, Guatemala
John Bangura
Founder of Hope Sierra Leone
John Baptist Onama
ex child soldier and Professor of European Project Management in the Department of History and Politics of the University of Padua
Joseph Montville
Board Chair of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution of the Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University
Joyce Dubensky
Vice President of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding
Juan Guzmán
Former Santiago Appeals Court Judge in charge of investigation of the General Augusto Pinochet case
Karen Armstrong
Author and academic; Founder of the Charter for Compassion
Katarina Kruhonja
Co-Founder and Director of the Centre for Peace, Non Violence and Human Rights of Croatia
Kerim Yildiz
Chief Executive of the Kurdish Human Rights Project
Khaled Abou El Fadl
Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Professor in Islamic Law, University of California-Los Angeles School of Law
Latifah Anum Siregar
Chairperson of the Alliance for Democracy; General Secretary of the Papua Muslim Assembly, Indonesia
Le Ly Hayslip
President and Founder of the Global Village Foundation of Vietnam
Leonel Narváez
Imc Director of the Foundation for Reconciliation
Letlapa Mphahlele
Co-Founder of the Lyndi Fourie Foundation; President of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), South Africa
Leymah Roberta Gbowee
Executive Director of the Women Peace and Security Network of Africa
Loreta N. Castro
Executive Director of the Center for Peace Education of the Philippines
Lukasz Szajna
Founder of the Oświęcim, Poland Mound of Remembrance and Reconciliation Foundation
Imam Aziz
Founder of Syarikat human rights organization of Indonesia
Makau Mutua
Dean of the School of Law at the University of Buffalo and President of the Task Force for the Establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Kenya
Manuela Dviri Vitali Norsa
Author, Journalist and Peace Activist
Marek Halter
Author; co-Founder of SOS Racisme; Founder of the International Committee for a Negotiated Agreement in the Near East
Marina Cantacuzino
Founder and Director of The Forgiveness Project
Marta Benavides
Activist, theologian and educator, El Salvador
Michael Henderson
Journalist and author
Michael Lapsley
Anglican Priest; Director of the Institute for Healing of Memories-South Africa
Mohieddine Chehab
Peacemaker, Lebanon
Mónica Eliana Jiménez de la Jara
Former Minister of Education of the Republic of Chilet
Nassera Dutour
Spokesperson of the Collective of Families of the Disappeared in Algeria
Nilton Bonder
Spiritual leader of the Jewish Congregation of Brazil
Öztürk Türkdogan
President of the Human Rights Association of Turkey
Palwasha Kakar
Vice Minister for Administration and Finance, Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Afghanistan
Pastor James Wuye
Co-Director of the Interfaith Mediation Center of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue in Kaduna, Nigeria
Pietro Kuciukian
President of the International Committee for the Righteous of Armenians and Co-Founder of The Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide Committee
Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
Professor of Psychology at the University of Cape Town; Senior Consultant at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation of Cape Town, South Africa
Qurrat-ul-Ain
Member of Women in Security Conflict Management and Peace, Kashmir
Rasha El-Fangry
Coordinator of the Collaborative for Peace of Sudan
Rev. Andrew Wesley
Survivor of Canada’s Residential School System; Coordinator at the Circle of Fire Native Cultural Center, Assistant Curate at the Church of the Redeemer, Toronto
Reverend Canon Brian Cox
Vice President of the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy
Rita Levi-Montalcini
Founder of Rita Levi-Montalcini foundation
Robi Damelin
Spokesperson of Parents Circle/Family Forum
Ron Fremder
Founder of the We Do Care Association
Ron Kovic
Author of Born on the 4th of July; Veteran of the Vietnam War
Salomón Lerner Febres
Former President of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Perù; Executive President of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights of the Pontifical Catholic University of Perù
Sami Rasouli
Director of Muslim Peacemaker Teams, Iraq
Scherto Gill
Executive Secretary of Guerrand Hermès Foundation for Peace
Shukrije Gashi
Director of the Partners-Kosova Center for Conflict Management
Sohail Hashmi
Associate Professor of International Relations at Mount Holyoke College
Sushobha Barve
Executive Secretary of the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation of India
Svetlana Kijevcanin
Coordinator of the Princeton University Exchange Program in Serb ia for World Learning Study Abroad
Takamitsu Muraoka
Professor of Hebrew at Leiden University
Thavory Huot
Coordinator of the Peace Education Working Group for the Reduction of Arms, Cambodia
The Most Reverend Desmond Tutu
Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa
The Reverend Apollinaire MaluMalu Muholongu
President of the Independent Electoral Commission of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Valentina Cherevatenko
Chair-coordinator of the “Women of the Don Region” Union, Russia
Yaha Sergio Yahe Pallavicini
Vice President of the Italian Islamic Religious Community
Yoon-jae Chang
Peacemaker, South Korea
Zarina Salamat
Peace activist, Pakistan; former Chairperson of the Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy
