The challenge of trust-building - Sunday 5th July 2015

 ‘The challenge of trust-building’ was the theme of today’s Just Governance conference. Prof. Katherine Marshall, University of Georgetown, USA, defined it as working towards ‘a safe and ordered society so people can flourish’. She highlighted that legacies of resentment, and their spillover into violence, can be major obstacles between civil society and governments.

Dr Sylvester Turner, theologian and anti-racism activist from Richmond, USA spoke of ‘the persistent ugly issues of race’ and said that understanding history is crucial to ‘building a bridge to carry weight to get to the other side’. Building trust means being willing to take risks, ‘seeking to do what is right over who is right.’

UN mediation expert Brendan McAllister highlighted the complexity of trust-building, pointing out that ‘there are many dynamics in conflict - trust is one of them.’ He said that trust-building is often tied up with identity: ‘some identity can be reliant on the continuation of the conflict.’

‘Crisis has brought about fear of one towards the other’, said Mme. Fauré Samaké Bintou, lawyer from Mali, speaking of how Mali’s conflict has resulted in deep divisions and lack of trust in leadership. Her grassroots work with women aims to reconstruct trust on an individual level in order to rebuild it on a larger scale.

Somalian MP Mohammud Gure stated that peace is the most precious commodity to man and shared his experience negotiating between opposing communities in Somalia: ‘Building trust starts well before negotiations start.’

Many questions were raised including: how can we promote peace in an atmosphere of trust rather than one based on a nation’s self-interest?  This is made all the more timely by tomorrow’s arrival of Michael Møller, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.