Committee for Peace in the Caucasus

OUR AIMS

Our primary objective is to put an end to the “media blackout” on the region. The CPC aims at creating awareness among the public opinion, the media, the institutions and the political forces about the conflict in Chechnya, which has now been continuing for more than eleven years, and about the frozen conflicts in the rest of the Caucasus. In particular, a consequence of the ongoing conflict has led to the spilling over of violence into other parts of the Northern Caucuasus, with devastating effects on both the civil society and the regional political equilibrium. The CPC’s aim is to break the worrying silence of the media, the international organisations, the political world and the Western governments on the constant violations of human rights in Chechnya, a silence through which these become accomplices to a bloody war, to policies that are becoming more and more authoritarian, and, indirectly, to terrorism.

Besides the informational aim, the CPC has as a goal the organisation of initiatives aimed at encouraging the reconciliation process between the warring parties, by resuming dialogue. It’s an attempt to promote conflict resolution and confidence building experiments, in which all sides are invited to sit at the negotiating table in order to facilitate discussion. The CPC puts itself forward as a mediator, in order to facilitate discussion, offering itself as an extraterritorial, non violent and non-partisan intermediary in favour of process of inter-cultural, inter-ethnic, and inter-religious pacification. It would be a model of confidence building, aiming at the mutual acceptance and knowledge of the warring parties, in a permanent “workshop of conciliation”.

The CPC seeks to gets involved with institutions, universities, schools and other institutions, in order to facilitate cultural exchanges in Italy and Europe for disadvantaged persons and victims of ongoing conflicts. These initiatives would be especially aimed at the young generations, more easily prey of extremist ideologies, in order to assist the formation of a future leadership that, hopefully, will one day use its experience for the purpose of the material, political and moral reconstruction of the civil societies now devastated by war. A further aim of the CPC is to aid the assistance of war victims in Chechnya; especially refugees and the children maimed by landmines, or affected by typical war symptoms, so that they might obtain the visa necessary to be treated in Italian and European hospitals.

Finally, the CPC, aware of the global implications of instability, lack of civil rights and long-lasting peace in the Caucasus, supports the NGOs that are fighting for the respect of human rights, and the movements for democracy in the region.
The irrenounceable aim of the CPC is non-violence, and the uncompromising condemnation of terrorism, whether at the hands of national armies, or of groups with no links to a government.