The role of civil society organisations in ethnic conflict resolution in Georgia: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Ethnic conflicts in Georgia have almost 30-year-long history. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, two Georgian regions – Abkhazia and Samachablo (so called South Ossetia) claimed independence. These two regions were/are militarily and politically supported by Russia. International actors and organisation like UN, EU and OSCE have also participated in round table meetings between the parties. However all of negotiations at the official level have failed to resolve the conflicts. Instead, Georgia and Russia do not have diplomatic relations with each other and waged war in 2008. Hence, it is of huge significance to look into the opportunities and challenges for the civil society organisations in the process of conflict transformation. Therefore the aim of the thesis is to contribute to the existent literature about the challenges and opportunities faced by civil society organisations (CSOs) while working for ethnic conflict resolution in Georgia. The main focus was to analyse the role and the activities of the CSOs to discuss the problems that hinder them from conducting productive projects in the conflict regions. The research has shown that civil society organisations face common challenges, which have different solutions according to the characteristics of the problem. The thesis is a good basis for further research on the issue of the ethnic conflicts in Georgia.