Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation Terminology

An agreement in which all the affected parties are in conformity (agreed) with the solution.

Consensus is a form of decision-making that emphasizes cooperation and the search for the most advantageous solution for all under the existing circumstances.

Consensus is achieved through the sharing of information, perspectives, group discussion, persuasion, and the synthesis of ideas. There are levels of consensus: a) when all accept with satisfaction the solution found, b) when the agreement is adequate but not entirely satisfactory, or c) when disagreement is registered but there is no intention to block the group from reaching a solution.

The illegal overthrow and seizure of a government apparatus through threatened or actual violence by individuals of the respective government often led by military, political, or governmental figures.

Cultural Violence represents the existence of prevailing or prominent social norms that make direct and structural violence seem “natural” or “right” or at least acceptable. For example, the belief that Africans are primitive and intellectually inferior to Caucasians gave sanction to the African slave trade. Galtung’s understanding of cultural violence helps explain how prominent beliefs can become so embedded in a given culture that they function as absolute and inevitable and are reproduced uncritically across generations.

https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/what-we-do/our-approach/peace-violence

The shared beliefs, traits, attitudes, behavior, products, and artifacts common to a particular social or ethnic group.

An identifiable lessening (in quantity or severity) of violent exchanges among parties.

The handover of conventional weapons or armaments during or directly following an armed conflict or war.

A psychological process that people employ to strip human qualities from an enemy to make it easier to persecute and defeat him/her.

A participatory decision-making process that emphasizes an examination of all the existing perspectives on an issue or conflict, a logical examination of all the viable alternatives to resolving the issues in the hope of reaching a consensual solution to the matter.

The removal of military or paramilitary forces from a determined area or the concession of particular weaponry by one or all parties engaged in conflict.