Fostering Resilience and Tolerance in Rakhine State

In 2010, Myanmar started a remarkable political transition; however, tensions along religious and identity lines continue to prevail nationwide. Nationalist hate speech often triggers discrimination and open violence against religious minorities, notably Muslims and Christians. In Rakhine State, located in the western part of the country, the ethno-religious conflict involving the Buddhist majority and the Muslim minority community has escalated since 2012 resulting in human rights violations as well as millions of people displaced.

Both KAICIID and Search for Common Ground are implementing grassroot initiatives among different religious communities in Rakhine State in order to build resilience and revive tolerance within communities.

Learning from the collaboration between these two organizations, our speakers will take a closer look at some of the most successful initiatives and offer recommendations for how to foster peace and reconciliation in regions affected by conflict.

Join the discusion and register now!

SPEAKERS

Aung Myo Hein

Aung Myo Hein Harry serves as the Head of the Rakhine Program at Search for Common Ground Myanmar. He oversees multi-year peacebuilding projects in Rakhine including social cohesion, local governance, rumour management and conflict sensitive support etc. He has participated in a number of initiatives which supported the country's transition to a democratic and peaceful nation, including the 2008 Cyclone Nargis response efforts, initiatives to prevent intercommunal conflict during the 2010 general elections and peacebuilding efforts throughout the country, including in Rakhine State.

Myo Lin

Harry Myo Lin is a trainer and community activist working on conflict resolution, civic engagement, interreligious dialogue, and legal reform. He currently serves as the Myanmar country expert at KAICIID. Previously, Harry founded and worked as Executive Director of The Seagull, a Mandalay-based organization promoting human rights and peace. In addition to his work at the community level, Harry worked with Freedom House to advocate for policies that promote inclusive development, peace and human rights. Harry has also lectured on civic engagement, conflict transformation, and transitional justice at the Institute for Political and Civic Engagement in Mandalay. He was featured in Time Magazine in 2019 as one of “Eight young leaders to shape the decade ahead” for his work on peace building in Myanmar. Harry holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Wrexham Glyndwr University in the United Kingdom and a Bachelor’s Degree from Yadanarbon University in Mandalay as well as a graduate certificate on Conflict Transformation from the School of International Training’s (SIT) Conflict Transformation across Cultures (CONTACT) programme.

MODERATOR(S)

Pietro Siena

Pietro Siena, a national of Italy, has served as the Team Assistant for the Interreligious Dialogue Hub at KAICIID since 2017. In his capacities, Pietro supports the development of the Myanmar, Central African Republic (CAR), Nigeria and Arab Region programmes. In addition, on behalf of KAICIID, he assisted as junior researcher in the development of the proposal of the Plan of Action for the Protection of Religious Sites led by UN Alliance of Civilizations. Pietro holds a M.A. in International Affairs from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, Austria and a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Milan.

Where Online- Zoom Application

Time 11:00 AM Europe/Lisbon