ENND

European Network for Non-Violence and Dialogue

The “European Network of Non-violence and Dialogue” (ENND) was initiated by the NGO Partners for Democratic Change (PDCS), Bratislava, and started in August 2016. Its major goal is to promote nonviolent approaches to current value conflicts and to stimulate the process of collecting and sharing of what diverse CSOs have learned about third-party interventions, process-based tools for public debate, and the prevention of conflict, polarisation and violence in 7 different countries: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Germany.

Prevention and intervention in conflicts

The project focuses on conflicts that currently attract attention in European media and public, and, thus, stir public discussions, influence opinions and form values among citizens. Furthermore, the project aims to create a functional network that may become a counterbalance to tendencies in Central and Eastern Europe which diverge from the ideals and values of a united Europe. With this objective in mind, ENND also intends to form a network of civil society organisations and individuals who are capable of preventing and intervening in value conflicts, mitigating situations of polarisation and possibly also help de-radicalising individuals. Learning from each other, collecting tested conflict intervention approaches, supporting each other’s interventions, and organising public campaigns that promote common goals and values of human rights and European cooperation, are among the concrete aims of the ENND initiative.

Existing conflicts and good practices to prevent escalation

In the first phase of the project, all partners prepared a mapping study on social value conflicts in the project countries and organisations and good practices to prevent their escalation, which can be downloaded. Based on this assessment, the project continued with the creation of the actual network, including activities, such as several network meetings, the development of the network’s common value statement (the ENND Manifesto), several international workshops on the exchange of good practices in preventing violence and group hatred, the production of short films presenting some of these approaches, and two international conferences.

Duration

1.1.2017 - 30.06.2018

Funding

This project was co-financed by Europe for Citizens under the Strand 2: Civil Society Projects 2016. Information about the implemented activities with indicated numbers of involved countries and participants can be accessed here.