DIALOGUE: THE BASIC APPROACH

Dialogue manifests itself in
Empathy - Nonviolence - Creativity

Three words of honour when it comes to sustainable conflict work.

There are countless ways of engaging in conflicts: persuation, violence, warfare, going to court, denial, using power/ age/ status, suppression, plead from the victime, mediation - are but some of the many ways people use as tools to handle conflicts. Some are better than others, and the tools used certainly have an impact on the quality of the solutions - or results the involved parties end up with.

After ongoing research on conflicts, conflict approaches and results, TRANSCEND has chosen three guidelines for the conflict work:
-  Empathy - to understand underlying attitudes
-  Nonviolence - as norm for physical and verbal bahaviour
-  Creativity - to overcome underlying contradictions

When conflict work has these tools as the main approach, it is more likely that the process will end up with sustainable solutions, and dignified parties.

4 Pillars

The four TRANSCEND Pillars that have stood the test of time:

I    Action
II   Training/ education
III  Dissemination
IV  Research

Peace work done by TRANSCEND members evolve around these areas. Action always beeing a main focus - to be able to alleviate violence and suffering wherever possible. To be able to do this in a meaningful and sustainable way, training and education are vital. Dissemination is important to make people aware of different perspectives, to influence the public opinion, to prevent violence by making people aware of the consequence, and the many constructive possibilities. Research give us the foundation to act and speak with strength, creactivity and confidence - and makes it possible for the knowhow to be a part of our common knowledge.

Basic Needs

People differ in most aspects of life: culture, religion, politics, economy - to mention some. But there is also something that we all have in common: basic needs.

This baseline of human needs gives us a window to understand every human being on earth. There are many ways of listing/ thinking about basic needs - forinstance are the "Human Rights" based on a assumption of what people need to have a life in dignity.

TRANSCEND uses this baseline as a guide to legitimate goals in conflict work. After a research process on what people around the world thought of as their basic needs, they where summarised in four universal categories:

-  Survival
-  Wellness
-  Freedom
-  Identity

How these needs are satisfied varies in space and time. If we allow every person these basic needs, then we treat our fellow human beings with dignity. This is why

-  Dignity

has become one of the most honoured words in TRANSCEND as it sums up human basic needs. As such dignity could be a guideline for all our work.