Draft Framework Document: “Early Warning Systems in Minority Conflicts”
by Dr. Sirirat Kiatichaipaibul
In conflict as in health, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure – and discerning the early warning systems of a conflict is critical for preventing it from ripening into violence and devastation.
The 7th Asia-Europe Roundtable (AER) Workshop (19-21 May, Singapore) will discuss minority conflicts and elaborate potential preventive tools and early warning systems to address such conflicts. It will review the current existent systems and approaches to minority conflicts in Asia and Europe and drawing out of such regional frameworks, it will explore what are the best suited opportunities for early regional intervention to prevent minority conflicts.
It will thematically follow up from discussions in two previous AER: the 4th Roundtable ‘Conflict Prevention: Actors, Institutions and Mechanisms’ (18-20 April 2005, Berlin) discussed emerging conflict prevention capacity in Asia and Europe; early warning indicators of potential crisis and appropriate responses; and capacity and institution building for regional level and inter-regional responses. The 6th Asia-Europe Roundtable (10-12 June 2009 in Derry/Letterkenny, Ireland) examined minority conflicts with a particular focus on “frozen conflicts” in which the cessation of open hostility presents a chance to look into possible bilateral and regional political solutions and framework for sustainable peace. These two Roundtables also facilitated discussions and illustrated how particular conflicts can provide perspectives on possible approaches or frameworks for managing conflict in general.
The role and importance of early warning systems in preventing and ameliorating conflict in this paper will:
a) “Include definitions of the basic concepts that will be used: ethnicity, ethnic conflict, minority conflict, conflict prevention, early warning system”
b) “Map the international legal framework for minority conflict prevention and make an inventory of various existing mechanisms for conflict prevention”
c) “Provide relevant case studies to show how regional actors have acted to prevent minority conflict, and what preventive efforts have been organised at the regional level.”
d) “Identify the criteria for a regional intervention and using the workshop outcomes, prepare a guide as to how such a regional intervention framework can be implemented”
(The views expreseed in this paper are the writer's own)
