ECHOES AND RESONANCES: CRITICAL CHALLENGES FOR YOUTH AND PEACE BUILDING IN KASHMIR

WISCOMP brought together over 40 academicians, policy makers, civil society and grassroots activists for a one-day Consultative Dialogue titled, ‘Echoes and Resonances: Critical Challenges for Youth and Peace Building in Kashmir’ on 23 March 2017. In the context of United Nations Security Council Resolution on Youth, Peace and Security, the dialogue focused on the possibilities of engaging with youth for peacebuilding in the region. Some of the important questions that were raised included: How to bring forth young voices from Kashmir and acknowledge their lived experiences? How youth positively respond and transcend to the existing cycles of violence while living it in these contexts? How does this violence impact young men and women differently? If so, how do we bring to the fore herstory and how does it change the understanding of victimhood and agency? How do we move forward in ways that provide alternative spaces for constructive relationship building and just peace? How does education, art and other creative mediums become an alternative space for resistance, expression and peacebuilding in Kashmir? The dialogue brought on the table the opportunities and challenges for youth and peacebuilding in Kashmir, and the possibilities to address it.