Introduction

Objectives

The ICLL tool is designed for application to inter-community conflicts. Its purpose is to analyse the processes that lead to the escalation of violence in areas where different communities with a history of antagonistic relations cohabit. These historic antagonisms are generally linked to a range of factors that can be of a social, economic or political nature. This analytical tool also allows one to outline possible responses for the operational and structural transformation of the conflict. This tool therefore contains a proposal for the transition from analysis to action to create change within a given conflict situation.

Firstly, some clarifications:

• By ‘operational transformation’ of the conflict, we mean the capacity to prevent that a given incident with a localised origin, involving a limited number of individuals whose conflict is on a personal level, becomes a violent conflict encompassing whole communities through ‘contagion’.

• By ‘structural transformation’, we mean the capacity to implement mediation that will have a sustainable impact on local actors, bringing about the systematic use of peaceful methods within their models of action and decision making.