Civil Forum for Peace

Georgian-Ossetian Civil Forum was founded in 2007 in the initiative of Georgian and Ossetian civil society activists and NGO’s with the support of Dutch peace organization IKV PAX Christi.

In the aim of building trust and creating peaceful atmosphere of coexistence in Georgian and Ossetian societies Civil Forum promotes dialogue between the divided groups. More specifically Forum organizes different meetings among Georgian and Ossetian activists, experts and journalists. Organization sets youth engagement in this kind of events as one of its main priorities.

For sharing experience Civil Forum with the support of donors organizes Georgian-Ossetian study trips in different European countries.

Nowadays, Forum gathers more than 100 civil activists and five nongovernmental organizations from Georgia and South Ossetia. The representatives of Georgian and Ossetian organizations as well as international organizations are invited as partners and experts in the framework of different projects.

The main mission and objectives of the organization:

To support peacefull settlement of the the Georgian-Ossetian and Georgian-Abkhazian conflicts;
To develop dialogue between Georgian-Ossetian and Georgian Abkhazian societies;
To achieve sustainable peace and coexistence between sides divided by the conflict;
To organize alternative negotiation processes with the involvement of analysts and major think thanks of the civil society;
To organize and lobby peace iniciatives and new processes in national and international level;
To protect human rights;
To develop civil society;
To observe presidential ,parlamentary and local electeions in Georgia;
To protect minority rights and lobby their interests;
To organize local and international scientific conferences with partnership of academic groups;
To support youth rights and freedom and develop their skills. To support their their self-realization in the society;
To protect interests of the people with special needs ans to support their integration in the society.

In the framework of 2008-2014, various Georigan-Ossetian joint meetings were held in different cities, namely in: Amsterdam, Hague and Leiden (Netherlands), in Ankara and Istanbul (Turkey), in Brussels (Belgium) and in Yerevan (Armenia).

In 2008, the meetings unfolded in several rounds in the framework of Georgian-Ossetian dialogue format, the so called “Ankara format” created by Forum in the support of Turkish partners and donors.

In 2010 the Leiden Declaration was adopted by Civil Forum members played important role in bringing Georgian and Ossetian civil societies closer to each other. The above mentioned declaration was discussed during the Geneva negotiations and was approved unanimously by the dialogue participants.

In 2009-2010 Yerevan hosted trainings in strategic planning where the Forum member organizations took part. The same year project named “Increase the capabilities of Georgian-Ossetian Forum” was carried out in Bakuriani.

Among the activities implemented by the Forum and its member organizations, the following projects need to be highlighted: