Our programme associates

Tahir Aziz Programme Associate for Kashmir  
taziz@c-r.org

Tahir Aziz has worked for the last five years as a Senior Associate at the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, an NGO based in Washington DC where he was closely involved in conflict transformation activities in Kashmir. Previously he was Director of the Human Rights Commission of the Government of Pakistan–administered Kashmir and a Visiting Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), London, under its South Asia Programme. Tahir holds two Masters degrees – one in Anthropology awarded by the Quaid-e-Azam University, Pakistan (with a thesis based on field research with the Kashmiri community in England) and the second in International Peace and Conflict Studies at the Joan B. Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, USA. Tahir has written papers on Kashmir for international organizations including IISS London, the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), Washington D.C. and Voices, a US-based online journal. 

Catherine Barnes

Catherine is a freelance consultant working on conflict issues through training, facilitation and research. She was the Accord Series Editor / Programme Manager in 2000-2001 and continues to work with Accord, most recently as editor of the issue on 'Public Participation in Peacemaking'. In 2003, Catherine also carried out an in-depth review for the Caucasus Programme of their work on the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict.

Catherine holds a doctoral degree from the Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in the USA. She spent her early professional life as a community activist and social worker in rural West Virginia and then as a campaigner with the Mental Health Law Project. She worked with the Institute of World Affairs on training programmes for the United Nations diplomatic community and then as programme coordinator for Europe/Former Soviet Union/Americas with Minority Rights Group International. Catherine has published works on minority groups in Central and Eastern Europe and Somalia, and has produced several training manuals on conflict resolution, negotiation, and advocacy skills.

Diana Francis

Diana is a former President of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation and current Chair of the Committee for Conflict Transformation Support. She managed CR’s Balkans Programme throughout 2001 and more recently, has worked with the Caucasus Programme. As a freelance facilitator, trainer and consultant, she mainly works with people trying to address political and inter-ethnic conflict. She has experience in many countries, including those in the European post-communist world, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Diana’s doctorate was based on four years of action research into the theory and practice of training for conflict transformation, including conflict resolution, conflict analysis and strategy for non-violent action for change. This work formed the basis of her book, People, Peace and Power: Conflict Transformation (Pluto Press 2002). Diana also facilitates dialogue of all kinds. In the UK, she acts as a facilitator for organizations wishing to evaluate their work, strengthen external and internal working relationships, make future plans or deal with conflict constructively.

Ellie Keen

Ellie has worked with the Caucasus Programme since 2000 and is responsible for the development of educational initiatives with teachers, students and partner organizations, primarily in Abkhazia. She runs teacher-training workshops in education for citizenship and human rights with local partners, and is helping them develop a textbook on citizenship issues in the context of an unresolved conflict.

Ellie has also been responsible for Amnesty International’s human rights education programme in Russia and Eastern Europe since 1999, working closely with local partners to develop networks of human rights educators and activists and to produce supporting educational materials. In addition, she frequently works as an expert on Council of Europe civic and human rights education projects. From 1994 until 1999 Ellie ran the Eastern Europe programme for the Citizenship Foundation. She has a background in philosophy and her interest in child development led her to study the work of Lev Vygotsky in Moscow, where she lived and worked from 1991 to 1994. She has co-authored several educational resources on human rights and citizenship.

Clem McCartney

Clem is an independent consultant on conflict and community issues. His work with CR since 1997 has seen him provide ongoing support on a wide range of issues and regions, from Fiji to the Caucasus. Clem’s interests include how to create the conditions for negotiations, dialogue processes and the problems of implementing peace agreements, and conflicts during the post-settlement phase. In his work with the Caucasus Programme, Clem acts as a co-facilitator for the ongoing Schlaining dialogue process between Georgian and Abkhaz politicians and civil society activists, jointly organized by CR and the Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management. In 2002-03 he organized the Northern Ireland aspects of CR’s five Georgian-Abkhaz study visits to the UK.

Clem wrote the lead article for the 2003 update of the Accord publication, ‘Striking a Balance: The Northern Ireland Peace Process’, which he edited in 1999 along with its subsequent education pack in 2000. Other Accord project work has taken Clem to Bougainville to help develop a critical literacy kit.

Clem is also an associate of the Berghof Center and acts as a resource person for its Sri Lankan programme. He maintains an interest in his home area, Northern Ireland, and helps with the conflict resolution activities of Quaker Peace and Social Witness, especially in South Asia.

Guus Meijer

Guus was Chair of CR’s Council when it began in 1994 and later became Co-Director for five years between 1997 and 2002. As Co-Director he was responsible for organizational development and oversight of CR’s work in the Balkans, West Africa and the Media & Conflict programme. He equally managed CR’s support to its Angolan partners and served as the Issue Editor and Project Coordinator for the Accord project on Angola.

Guus has organized and conducted conflict resolution training programmes in different parts of the world and for different constituencies. He was Training Director at INCORE in Northern Ireland (1995-97) and Training Officer at International Alert in London (1993-95). Before this he worked in the 1970s and 1980s as a lecturer in socio-linguistics at universities in the Netherlands and Mozambique, and as coordinator of the Eduardo Mondlane Foundation in Amsterdam. Guus is a graduate of the University of Amsterdam and the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, where he now lives and works as a free-lance consultant and trainer in peacebuilding and conflict transformation, with a focus on Africa.