Reconciliation: A Case Study

It is many citizens’ beliefs that the situation can be improved through reconciliation because it ensures equal rights, a better way of life and harmony. It will provide compensation – aiding many poverty stricken communities and why shouldn’t these citizens get adequate health care, education, housing and employment support that every Australian citizen deserves? Why should Australia be one of the few countries in the world that does not recognize their indigenous race of people? This leads onto the other hand of the argument of saying “sorry”.

Elke’s monthly close responsibilities include but are not limited to the PC to GL reconciliation, account 15695 reconciliation, and the Ops to CapEx reclasses. The PC to GL account reconciliation is one of our Sox Certifications this is comprised of three separate reconciliations that are completed with each additional Account Tracker for consolidated and non-consolidated communities. The reconciliations are also used as the support for our quarterly Account Tracker. With the 15695 reconciliation she is responsible for monitoring the activity in the account and clearing the balances across all portfolios and currencies. She continues to develop a good working relationship with other departments and co-workers to obtain the necessary information

Apologies are for the person or group that is making amends, not for the person or group that was negatively affected. The apology lifts the weight of burden off of the redressing parties’ shoulders, allowing them to suddenly state, “Not my problem.” The attempt to make amends can are just words- nothing more. Actions speak louder than words and healing is not an easy process, as First Nations journalist James Sinclair describes in his article, To Own Ourselves, “Money, resources, and time may help, but none of these will ultimately do the job.” Referring to the healing process, he continues by voicing that “No apology, no words, and certainly no time in parliament will give healing.” Likewise, apologies cannot re-write the past, let alone “cleanse” the past. It is crucial to not part with history, and to positively re-build trust and relationships, therefor making both ends meet. Reconciliation must take place by educating other generations. In other words, the government must not just say sorry, they must be sorry. When discriminatory and prejudiced behaviours take place, it is obvious that apologies are more of a formality than a genuine expression of regret. Full closure may never be reached, nor will an apology alleviate pain experienced by those who are negatively

Canada today is known for the pride it carries for being multi-cultural, inclusive and combination of many cultural, races and religious backgrounds, but for decades in the past Aboriginal children were abducted from their homes unwillingly to go to these Residential School enforced by Canadian government and laws. The goal of the government at the time was to destroy Aboriginal people and their existence overall. Fast forward in 2008 the former Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a public apology to Aboriginals regarding their role in residential schools as he quotes “We are sorry. The treatment of children in Indian residential school is a sad chapter of our history” ("Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Statement Of Apology"). Although many Aboriginals considered this a historical day and had a sense of relief “the apology was necessary but insufficient... Apologies once given, are only meaningful for the action that follows” ("Harper Apologizes For Residential School Abuse"). The official apology to Aboriginal Canadians who suffered in the residential school system for policies and actions of the government in the past have been explored in “A Sorry State” article by author Mitch Miyagawa. Sitting government apologizes for past government is appropriate to the mistreatment that occurred to interned, excluded and systematically neglected people, the accountability for past mass atrocity and human rights abuse and democracy for the victims, as well as acknowledging what

In the late 20th century, the South American countries of Argentina and Chile went through two considerably turbulent periods of violent clashes between governmental and military forces against native citizens. These clashes not only caused severe damage within both communities but also led to specific reconciliation recommendations by truth commission committees set out in Núnca Mas and the Rettig Report. These specific recommendations not only aided in the reconciliation process but also helped in the social, and political, development of both Argentinian and Chilean society. These reports were translated into multiple languages; recorded scores of people, who were hurt both physically and psychologically by these terrors, and mostly allowed for those with no voice to be heard not only by the countries involved, but by the world as a whole. In the end, the Argentinian and Chilean people effected by these atrocities not only were given the option of knowing the history of their countries, but ultimately the ability to feel protected and valued in the places they were hurt most. With the aide of truth commission report recommendations the societies effected were given a new chance at healing and rehabilitating their country, which mostly was destroyed both physically and mentally. These reports not only give a direct and unabridged version of the story of the conflict, but also gave the victims of these countries, as well as the world, one history they can all be agreed

Alondra Nelson, award-winning author and professor at Columbia University and president of the Social Science Research Council, attracted a full audience to her discussion titled “Reconciliation Projects: The Vexed Racial Politics of Genetic Ancestry Testing”.

We define to “pay reparations” as compensation for wrongdoing or injury. According to the International Center for Transitional Justice, reparations initiatives can be paid in financial compensation to individuals or groups or social services such as healthcare or education.

Aboriginal children cannot forget what happened to them in the past. In 1870s, above 150 000 aboriginal children took from their parents to attend Canada’s Indian Residential Schools until 1970s (CBC News, 2010, p 49). The most goals for those schools learned aboriginal children the culture of European people (CBC News, 2010, p 49). Unfortunately, aboriginal parents have not choice even if they want to send their children to schools or not (CBC News, 2010, p 49). According to CBC News if aboriginal children tried to breakout from schools and coming again to their families, they will send back to their schools by Indian agents (2010, p 49). Moreover, there are negative aspects of Canada’s Residential Schools on aboriginal children, such as they beaten and physically abused if they speak their native language, do not pay attention in class, or there is no reason (CBC News, 2010, p 50). As a result, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) began in 2009, to gather information about what happened to aboriginal children on Canada’s Indian Residential Schools and share their stories with all Canadians (CBC News,2010, p 46). The TRC done enough for the survivors of the aboriginal children in Canada’s Residential Schools: collect a historical record, financial compensation, apology, the missing children, and recommendation.

Transitional justice intervention deals with historical human rights violations such as the violations that took place at the Omarska camp. The groups involved in ethnic cleansing were the Muslims and Croats. By using transitional justice interventions this can heal wounds of those who have been affected by human rights violations, these human rights violations have affected the victims or a country. These Muslims and Croats was being starved to death, tortured, killed and some women were raped by the Serbs.

In not seeking justice for these people, a high human cost is created because the rights of those who are negatively impacted are being ignored and they are suffering with no hope of reconciliation. Using the Canadian Charter as an example, every citizen has the right to seek justice and restitution. However, if the current generation is not accountable for past events, the justice that indigenous peoples deserve will not be given, and they will be forced to live with the negative legacies of historical globalization. Recently, the Canadian government has stepped up and acknowledged the immoral actions of the past, such as the removal of children from their homes to be placed in residential schools and the trauma and suffering it may have caused these individuals. Because of this, First Nations now receive financial benefits such as money for post-secondary education, land set aside for reserves, health benefits, and other things in an attempt to give then the compensation and justice they

Reconciliation has been a somewhat popular issue in Canadian academia and in Canadian society in general. Reconciliation in the Canadian context is defined as a restoration of the relationship between the Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous people due to the historical injustices, that continue to affect Indigenous peoples even to this day, committed by the Government of Canada against the Indigenous peoples. This is a massive undertaking that will require the participation of both Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous peoples alike. A project of this magnitude will not be an easy task to accomplish, as undoing over 100 years of trauma to the Indigenous peoples is not something that can be undone over night, but rather it will take decades to accomplish. There will be many obstacles in the path of reconciliation that will have to be overcome. However, reconciliation is the best opportunity to repair the relationships between the Indigenous peoples and the non-Indigenous peoples because it makes sense for all Canadians to be involved, the Government of Canada is backing the reconciliation process and some work to repair the relationship has already been done and has beneficial results for everyone.

Restorative justice has some key restorative values that are vital in the restorative justice conference to make the experience ‘restorative’. Concerning addressing victim needs and concerns means for listening, respecting, being non-judgmental, not blaming the victim and apologizing. The RJ system was bought as an alternative to the criminal justice system to give greater emphasis on victim rights and needs, offender accountability and community involvement. Throughout the essay, there will be an insight into how Restorative Justice addresses needs of victims in terms of the different proponents such as Information provided to victim, restitution/compensation, emotional and practical needs met, participation and involvement of victim and protection of victim, which (Wemmers and Marisa, 2002) as essentials to victims participating in the practice. The two countries that will be addressed will have had restorative justice built out of injustices and over-representation of the current criminal justice system to the indigenous peoples of those countries.

Negotiated forgiveness consists of the perpetrator and the victim to confront one another and discuss the motives and understand the perpetrator’s intentions. With the dialogue between the two opposing parties, reconciliation can finally emerge. Kraft states the need for negotiated forgiveness, “In the context of truth commissions, unilateral forgiveness is forgiveness, and negotiated forgiveness is reconciliation. During truth commissions, forgiveness appears as an internal disengagement from the perpetrator, independent of the actions of the perpetrator. In contrast, reconciliation is a dialectical process of acceptance, involving direct interactions between perpetrators and victims,” (Kraft 115). This is why reconciliation is extremely important, to resolve reconciliation is essential in promoting peace. With a strong understanding of the contrast between forgiveness and reconciliation, one can intensely evaluate the process of reconciliation during the events of the TRC.

Throughout this course thus far we have generically discussed the various models of mediation(in particular facilitative),skills and tasks needed by a mediator to conduct a successful mediation. The facilitative approach we have been studying, via theory and in-class exercises has afford us some great insight into mediating into a variety of domestic conflicts from family to business disputes.However,there is a whole other subfield in mediation ,which we have not discussed and that is international mediation. International mediation also has a variety of forms. Cases for mediation can range from a conflict between two states, an ethnic conflict that, has bought violence within a particular state, or perhaps a business dispute between

Michael R. Marrus argues that there are four contexts that need to be addressed when trying to develop a strategy for reconciliation. These are political, legal, material, and cultural. These different areas of concern