First International Forum on Social Conflict Prevention and Resolution: Comparing Experiences of China, Italy, Singapore Austria and Australia
Sant’Anna School for Advanced Studies and the Institute of Beijing for the petitions to the Government ("Beijing Institute of Letters to Government") are organizing the first International Forum on the Prevention and Resolution of Social Conflicts, in which international experts from China, Italy, Singapore, Austria and Australia will discuss on the topic of social conflicts in comparative perspective. In today's society more and more social conflicts arise from environmental impact of large-scale development projects works, marginalization in decision-making unparticipatory process and from corruption phenomena.
Many countries have developed non-judicial mechanisms of dispute resolution creating intermediary bodies between citizens and government (for example, China's petitioning system, or the Ombudsman’s Office), these mechanisms vary significantly from country to country, both in terms of political legitimacy, efficiency, and attention to human rights policy. The Forum aims to stimulate critical reflection about the approach adopted by countries with different cultural and legal tradition in the prevention and resolution of social conflicts, with the aim to draw useful lessons for the future from different countries’ experiences. The comparative analysis suggests that the Forum is of great importance for the Beijing Institute on petitions to the government, which has among its main research objectives to identify the possible ways in which to improve the efficiency of China's petitioning system , an institution inherited from the imperial history of the country.
In the Forum, born from an idea of Prof. Zhang Zonglin of Beijing Institute and carried out with the contribution of Dirpolis Institute (Prof. Andrea de Guttry) and Confucius Institute of Pisa, will participate as partners the University of Vienna, the Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and the Deakin University (Australia).
According to Prof. Andrea de Guttry, Professor of International Law at Sant'Anna School, who organized the event, "this workshop is a first important occasion for reflection on the mechanisms that mediate between institutions and citizens which several countries have developed and tried to improve over the years. The goal - Andrea de Guttry added - is not only to analyze the effectiveness of these mechanisms in the resolution of potentially destabilizing social conflicts, "but also to stimulate a critical reflection on the consistency of these instruments with the need to protect individual rights”.
Sant'Anna School hosts the Forum first edition, and subsequent meetings will be held on a rotating basis at other partner institutions.
The Forum is open to students, research and teaching staff of the School.
