First international eastern Ukraine forum was conducted by DRA and CivilM+ on November 14-15, 2018 in Berlin. The topic of the conference was “Justice and Law in Post-Conflict Societies? – European Experiences and Perspectives”. More than 200 participants from Germany, Ukraine, Russia and many other countries attended the event. The invited speakers represented a selected expertise on territorial conflicts in the European context after the World War II – Germany, ex-Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, Catalonia, Nothern and Southern Caucasus, Ukraine.

Different aspects of work with the past and current conflicts in Europe were discussed – among them were questions of documentation of crimes and historical events, legal persecution and reparation for victims, re-integration of population, memory work, cross-cutting relationship between social and political challenges in the process of the peaceful conflict transformation. We asked them to formulate short statments to these important and tricky questions:

Vesna Teršelič, Founder of the Centre for Dealing with the Past (Zagreb), reflects on the transitional justice process in the countries of former Yugoslavia and outlines the main questions Ukraine should answer setting up the transitional justice process.

Dr. Ralf Possekel, Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ), Advisor to the Peace and Development Network – FriEnt (Bonn), discusses historical examples of transitional justice processes and outlines their key components

Video with russian subtitles is available under the link.

Alexandre Prezanti, International lawyer, Partner of Global Diligence LLP (London), speaks about the limitations of judicial process and analyses the experience of holding truth commissions.

Oleksandr Pavlichenko, Director of Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (Kyiv), describes current legislative developments in Ukraine and reflects on the advocacy for the legislation setting the framework for the transitional justice.

Alexander Cherkasov, chairman of the board of Human Rights Center “Memorial” (Moscow), discusses the amnesty and freedom for hostages as the key components of transitional justice process.

Valentina Cherevatenko, chairwoman of the Foundation “Women of Don” (Novocherkassk), discusses the opportunities for the dialog between people from conflicting parties while the conflict is not over yet.