A five-day international conference on peace and non-violence is being held in Kathmandu on the first week of November. Participants from over 40 countries will attend the conference being organised by Alternatives to Violence Programme (AVP) from November 5 to November 10.

The AVP is a training programme enabling participants to deal with potentially violent situations in new and creative ways.

Subash Chandra Kattel, general secretary of AVP, said they have been running workshops with public school teachers, university teachers and students, community groups, and social workers. 

He said such workshops are being held in Kathmandu, Pokhara, Surkhet, Kavre, Parbat, Tanahu, Nuwakot, and Lalitpur.

“We help people in learning ways to cope up with day-to-day conflicts that individuals and community face. We guide people in seeking resolution without escalating conflicts,” said Kattel. “Similar issues will be discussed during the conference.”

The AVP states that their workshops draw on the shared experience of participants, using interactive exercises, discussions, games and role-plays to examine the ways we respond to situations where injustice, prejudice, frustration and anger can lead to aggressive behaviour and violence. According to the organisation, the first AVP International gathering was held in New York in 1990 and since then has been hosted by 8 countries in the past 25 years.