About the Center

Up until the recent past, Kurdish society only had access to a limited and outdated number of tactics to resolve social tension and disharmony. With the coming of the uprising, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) recognized the need for an independent authoritative body which could maturely direct its young and fragile liberty and implement methods of co-operation and conflict resolution to preserve and strengthen such a state. Thus, in June, 2001, ACCCR was established in Beirut, Lebanon. It is a coalition of six research centers in Iraqi Kurdistan and the United States that work collaboratively on building a stable conflict resolution and an untarnished educational capacity in the Kurdistan Region. The six institutions comprising ACCCR include the University of Duhok, Salahaddin, and Sulaimani in the Kurdistan Region; Columbia University, American University and the Conflict Management Group, Cambridge, MA.

The ACCCR provides an otherwise unavailable space for academics, Political parties' representatives, and civil society in Kurdistan to work with one another and with U.S. partners to consider new possibilities for building a peaceful, just, and democratic society in Iraq. The ACCCR office at Duhok University consists of professors from the University of Duhok, in addition to representatives from the Women’s Union in the Kurdistan/Duhok branch.

Objectives

Prepare workshops to facilitate conflict resolving skills.

Cooperation between universities in Iraqi Kurdistan and American Universities to prepare and train specialists in the fields of conflict resolution.