Reconciliation: Seeking Peace and Justice Through Non-Oppression

Reconciliation should be seen as a process and not as a goal. The peacebuilders'role is to make that process move forward. This thesis argues that oppression can be seen as a continuum in which oppressive reactions to oppression appear, limiting the reconciliation process. Specifically, it looks at the wys in which non-violent peace seekers react to oppression. The field of peace studies evolved as a reaction to the oppressiveness of violence, focusing on the ways to reduce it, rather than trying to understand oppression itself. As a result, reconciliation often means achieving 'negative peace.' Criminal courts, truth and reconciliation commissions and peacebuilding strategies, sometimes respond to reactions to oppression, contributing to the advancement of the vicious circle of oppression. The thesis also presents a tool to transform this circle into a virtuous one: non-oppression. Reconciliation, healing memory and conflict transformation are possible.