By Amanda Perry-Kessaris, University of Kent.
This blog is was originally posted at amandaperrykessaris.org
Cyprus has passed its longest ever period without any negotiations to solve, the Cyprus problem. Civil society actors in Cyprus (including CPDC via its C-Up initiative), are pressing for greater public involvement in the peace process. Likewise, the Secretary-General of the United Nations has called for ‘inclusive cooperation and links between the two communities now, and ultimately in the peace process‘.
Some have suggested the use of citizens’ assemblies in which a representative group of people draw on expert evidence and lived experience to collaboratively generate policy recommendations for policy-makers. Such processes have been used by governments all over the world to address a range of policy issues, but never in Cyprus.
Concerns have been raised that such deliberative processes tend not to activate the imagination. This is significant in a Cypriot context because members of any island-wide deliberative process must be able to (empathetically) imagine the perspectives of ‘other’, and (systemically) imagine alternatives to the status quo. One method of activating the imagination, recently tested by the UK government, is an interspecies council, in which humans represent the perspective of non-human species in facilitated discussion.
Could a deliberative process, such as a citizens’ assembly, be used to design a future peace process for Cyprus? Could creative practices, such as a pre-assembly inter-species council, help to activate the imagination of members of such an assembly?
These questions were at heart of a Workshop organised by Meltem Onurkan Samani (Cyprus Peace and Dialogue Centre), Fiona Mullen (Sapienta Economics), and Amanda Perry-Kessaris (Kent Law School) in November 2024.
Twenty participants with experience of involvement in the Cyprus peace process were selected to represent a balance of identities, especially with respect to origin (north and south of the island) and gender. The Workshop was held at the Home for Cooperation, a community centre located within the UN-controlled buffer zone in Nicosia; funded by a Socio-Legal Studies Association Impact Grant; and governed by the University of Kent Research Ethics Policies and Practice framework.
The Workshop was structured in two parts, each including information sharing and participatory elements. It adopted a designerly approach: making ideas visible and tangible, and emphasising experimentation.
Examples of ‘briefs’ designed to prompt and facilitate focused discussion. Image Credit: Amanda Perry-Kessaris
Part A: Citizens’ assemblies
Resources from DemocracyNext were used to explain what citizens’ assemblies are, where and for what purposes they have been used, what ‘good’ they can do, and what are the conditions of success.
Workshop participants were then invited to complete two ‘briefs’ designed to highlight and begin to address two of the many practical challenges facing anyone seeking to design a citizens’ assembly:
- Brief 1 What questions could a citizens’ assembly answer? Here participants were asked to assess the potential suitability of a specific range of questions against criteria identified by Democracy Next.
- Brief 2 What information would assembly members need? Here participants were asked to identify specific types of information that assembly members would need in order to perform their role, and from where such information might be sourced.
A complete set of instructions these briefs is available here.
Part B: Interspecies councils
Examples of species ‘labels’ used in the mini-interspecies council. Image Credit: Amanda Perry-Kessaris
Resources from Policy Lab (UK), Moral Imaginations and the Treaty of Finsbury Park project were used to explain what interspecies councils are, how they have been used by government and civil society actors, and what ‘good’ they can do, and what are the determinants of success. Resources from the CreaTures project were used to locate interspecies councils as part of a wide range of creative practices that are increasingly being used to prompt and facilitate social transformation.
Workshop participants were then invited to complete two ‘briefs’ designed to focus attention on how an interspecies council might help to ‘onboard’ members of a citizens assembly charged with designing a future peace process.
- Brief 3 What is it like to participate in an interspecies council? Here participants were asked to take part in a mini interspecies council by learning about, inhabiting, and representing a non-human species.
- Brief 4 Could a pre-assembly interspecies council be useful? Here participants were asked to reflect on how their capacity for (empathetic and systemic) imagination was impacted by their experience of the mini interspecies council; and on whether if at all the imaginative capacity of members of a future citizens’ assembly might be impacted.
A complete set of instructions for these briefs is available here.
Next steps
Three findings emerged from the Workshop:
- It is reasonable to anticipate general support from civil society actors across the island for exploring the potential of citizens’ assemblies in Cyprus, although not necessarily specifically in relation to designing the future peace process.
- Any citizens’ assembly requires careful and inclusive planning, all the more so one charged with addressing a topic as complex and contentious as the design of the Cyprus peace process.
- Any citizens’ assembly addressing the future of the Cyprus peace process would need to prompt and facilitate the imaginative (as well as the practical and critical) capacities of members. It would also need to make space for emotion and memory.
The next steps are to continue to:
- Gather and share knowledge around the concept of deliberative democracy, especially citizens’ assemblies, and around supporting creative practices, including interspecies councils;
- Test potential support for these and other devices from other stakeholders such as public authorities, private enterprises, and international bodies;
- Generate, gather, and share insights into the potential risks and rewards associated with these devices, especially through designerly experimentation with Cypriot stakeholders.
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