Social Forum to Promote the peace process – Mr Aaro Suonio

Political will - consensus to engage in a peace process

Established principles for participation Addressing the root causes of the conflict Strong and spirited individual leadership External mediators and facilitators Commitment, patience and perseverance

  A political contract between leaders, of

commitment to peace and DDR; A new social contract with all members

of society and fresh legitimacy to governing institutions through democratic elections, and;

An economic contract

the political contract and commitment to peace and DDR: local powersharing government provision, the Mitchell Principles, the GFA and the commitment to decommissioning it contained;

the new social contract: democratic oversight in the GFA, like the equality and human rights commissions, police reform (SSR) and a new regional development strategy; and

the arrangements for local government contained the economic contract as well, but there was also added peace dividend in the form of negotiated grants from the central government and funds for various programmes from the EU and the British and Irish governments

Suggested Principal Prerequisites for an EIDF

Independence Impartiality Credibility A legal framework to operate within

disarmament did not work as a precondition to inclusive peace negotiations

properly addressing the issue enabled the inclusive peace talks to commence

Confidence Building Measures helped to manage expectations

the political process needed to be delivering before decommissioning started

external facilitation of decommissioning enhanced with local witnesses helped overcome distrust

total decommissioning as a target gave credibility to the process

resolution of decommissioning acted as an enabler for implementation of the remaining aspects of the GFA