PATRIR is one of the core organisers of the Global Youth Rising forum, one of Romania’s most active and dynamic organisations and a leading contributor to peacebuilding in the world.
As Kai F. Brand Jacobsen, the founder of the Institute, said: “PATRIR was begun with three volunteers and two and a half broken computers. Over the years it has come to be seen as one of the leading organisations contributing to peacebuilding in the world – from broad programmes of partnership and cooperation with a wide range of organisations, our extensive work in training and professional development / capacity building for practitioners, governments, experts, and citizens on the ground working to stop wars, end violence or deal with conflicts in their communities, to a wide-range of international peace operations and support programmes. At ‘home’ in Cluj-Kolozsvar and more broadly in Romania, the Institute is actively involved in working to promote peace education in schools, strengthen government and civil society capacities for peacebuilding, address and overcome hate speech, and much, much more.”
PATRIR was founded in 2001 as a non-governmental, non-profit, politically independent organization in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The institute has as basic principles non-violence, conflict transformation, the promotion of human rights through information and awareness raising by solutions oriented, social, political and economic analysis. PATRIR was created as a result of numerous dialogues with representatives from various social sectors, as a response to the need of change within the local communities. In its strive to support the local communities in their development and meeting everyday challenges, the Institute lays its activity on to the following pillars: action, training, research, advocacy and awareness raising. It joins together diagnosis, necessary to identify problems and challenges with prognosis and therapy, disseminating information and making sure that the promoted message reaches across communities. PATRIR is the joint effort of hard working people believing in its values. These people coordinate, work or volunteer for the existing departments and programmes or in the administrative division of the Institute.
Through patience, dedication, hard work, and a commitment to professionalism and passion, the Institute is working to enable both immediate results and long-term contributions to building an architecture, culture, and practice of peacebuilding. It is working with practitioners, policy makers and the public to deepen our knowledge, skills and understanding, and to make visible an important choice. The choice of whether we continue policies and practices which escalate violence, insecurity and instability for billions of people world-wide, or whether we find alternatives, and commit our social, economic, political, scientific, cultural and human resources and capacities to transforming conflicts by peaceful, determined means. The choice of overcoming all forms of structural, cultural and direct violence is up to us; every single one of us.
PATRIR consists of 3 departments implementing the organisational vision and mission nationally and internationally.
The Department of Peace Operations (DPO) works upon request from conflict parties and local, national and international organisations and agencies to support violence prevention, peacebuilding, mediation and post-war recovery. The mission of the DPO is to strengthen capacities and infrastructures for peace operations, to gather best-practices and lessons-learnt, to improve the quality and effectiveness of peacebuilding programmes in conflict affected countries and support on-going mediation and peace processes. DPO experts include practitioners, analysts, diplomats and current and former military.
The International Peace and Development Training Center (IPDTC) was established in 2003 as one of the main centers of PATRIR. The role assigned to it is to pioneer and develop training & capacity building programmes for those working in conflict affected, war and post-war environments. IPDTC works towards the vision of improved quality, impact and effectiveness of peacebuilding, conflict transformation, violence prevention and post-war recovery , where individuals, communities and organisations are empowered with skills, tools, knowledge and commitment to address conflicts constructively through peaceful and effective means. Thus, IPDTC holds the mission to provide high-quality practical skills and knowledge-based training programmes for conflict party leadership, government and decision makers, practitioners and those working with conflicts in the field.
The Department for Peace Education and Development (DEPD) was formed in 2010 from the initial Youth Peacebuilding Center. The mission of DEPD is to work for a world in which people share the belief that their attitudes and behaviours are decisive in resolving conflicts and waging peace, a world in which they can and do act upon that belief. The major programme lines of DEPD are (i) participatory democracy and civic engagement, (ii) development education and awareness raising and (iii) promotion of multiculturalism and combatting discrimination.
We welcome you to Cluj-Napoca to join us in the Global Youth Rising gathering to build peace and meet our wonderful trainers, Andra Tanase, Kai F. Brand-Jacobsen and Sabin Muresan.