Sviatohirsk Group is a dialogue initiative of people, who live on both sides of the contact line and have been affected by the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. The group members started their work in 2018. The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (Switzerland) assisted the group’s efforts and activities aimed at preparing the ground for transitional justice and reconciliation in Ukraine.

The mission of the Center is to raise awareness and abilities of the citizens at various social levels of the country to resolve conflicts and disputes peacefully through a dialogue based on respect for human dignity and mutual understanding.

Based on the fact that knowledge about the past is actively used in Ukraine for social conflicts, the project team sees the need for an asymmetric response to the use of history as a weapon.

The Platform’s primary activity is convening the dialogue marathons two times per year. Donbas Dialogue uses crowdsourcing technologies to identify problems and issues from as many positions as possible. The ability to connect anonymously to the online dialogue provides inclusiveness to persons who would be have been otherwise excluded from the process. Experts, dialogue facilitators, and civil society representatives from the controlled and non-controlled territories of Ukraine, and foreign experts take part in the marathons.

ORMG trainers were involved in the peacebuilding activities and development of mediation programs in Moldova, North Caucasus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Montenegro, and Belarus. ORMG is actively participating in the process of lawmaking, its members co-authored several draft laws on mediation.

It is a platform for discussion of issues related to the resolution of the conflict in eastern Ukraine and secure reintegration. The initiative conducts its activities with the support of the Crisis Management Group - Martti Ahtisaari Center (CMI) in cooperation with the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research (UCIPR) and is funded by the European Union instrument contributing to stability and peace within the framework of the “Building Resilience to Conflict through Dialogue” project since 2019.