A UNDP-funded 2002 conference and 2004 workshop, and a ten nation case study commissioned by UNDP made it clear that while parliaments have the potential to play significant mediating roles in conflict and post conflict situations, they most often fail to rise to that potential. The case studies uncovered examples of parliaments helping mitigate conflict – either through their actions, or through the willingness of conflicting parties to trust the future, more representative parliaments to enact provisions of peace agreements they had agreed to – but also revealed an inadequate focus on and understanding of how parliaments might be supported in playing this conflict-mediating role. This paper, on Supporting Parliaments as Mediators in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations, meant to serve as a resource for those conducting the case studies. It is organized around a series of related propositions and discusses the main issues practitioners would come across when carrying out their research.
