International Center on Conflict and Negotiation (ICCN)

The Goal of the Project is to strengthen the civil society in Georgia and overcome the post-totalitarian mentality in population preventing the liberal democratic values to spread in the Georgian society. Problems targeted over the period of the programme include:

Ethnic nationalism and xenophobia including prejudices against neighboring nations, minorities inside the country and the wide-spread ethnic-discriminatory attitudes, gender discrimination including domestic violence, etc Thus, the programme implies starting a multy-functional network of synerizing strong teams of civil society actors that will systematically and professionally operate in selected urban centers especially in the high-risk zones to inform and educate local population.

One of the major components is the already available outputs of the "Building Integrity in Georgia" (BIG) project and the adjacent structure - the Civil Council for the Protection of Basic Rights and Freedoms. Using the already existing structure and expanding its work will facilitate the process of creating new mechanisms and tools for monitoring the situation locally, making evaluations and establishing the rapid response system

The Outputs

There are two major outputs expected from the programme: Nation-wide network, well-connected, trained and skillful, operating thought an interconnected system of local hubs in regions of Georgia though resource centers, focal points, etc. The second output is the National Action Plan (NAP) for Conciliation, Conflict Resolution and Civil Integration to be submitted to the Government of Georgia with broader ownership of CS/NGOs, ethnic, religious minority groups, IDP/refugees, communities of conflict zones.

The preliminary phase lasting for 18 months implies preparing the National Action Plan and starting first hubs in the regions, as well as prepare a number of working papers on the problem of religious and ethnic minority integration in Georgia.