See press release with quotes from several signatories

Open letter to President-elect Trump and government officials at all levels

Take an urgent stand to build respect and prevent violence based on gender, religion, race, ethnicity or political views

30 November 2016

We, as scholars or practitioners in the field of conflict resolution, wish to assist in building a renewed spirit of mutual respect in the United States. We are concerned about reports of hundreds of incidents of vandalism, intimidation and threats of violence to persons based on their gender, religion, race, ethnicity or political opinion. Such acts have escalated since the US election and are being reported in a number of places in the United States with significant spillover into Canada.

We have just lived through an extremely polarizing election during which people on all sides have felt disrespected, hurt, and angry. The wounds are still quite painful. We appreciate the President-elect's 13 November 2016 comments during an interview that racial and ethnic slurs and violence must stop. We believe additional statements are important at this time to prevent further violence.

We urge President-elect Trump and all government officials to use their leadership positions to ensure public understanding that no elected or appointed leaders will condone violence or discriminatory acts or speech. We ask you to make urgent and firm public statements that emphasize the rule of law and the US Constitution, including the First Amendment that guarantees peoples' rights to freedoms of religion, speech, the press and peaceful assembly. We request that such statements be included in speeches, media interviews and social media postings.

We underline the text which sets out the "five pillars" of the First Amendment demanding that:

Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

We look forward to learning what concrete steps you will take to prevent acts of hatred, and to foster mutual understanding, respect and civility within the USA.

60 Signatories:
  1. Mohammed Abu-Nimer, PhD, Professor, School of International Service; American University, Washington, DC
  2. Kevin Avruch, PhD, Dean, Henry Hart Rice Professor of Conflict Resolution and Professor of Anthropology, School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia
  3. Dale Bagshaw, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor, University of South Australia, President of the Asia Pacific Mediation Forum and the Elder Mediation Australasian Network
  4. H. Allen Blair, MCIArb, Robins Kaplan Distinguished Professor of Law and Senior Fellow, Dispute Resolution Institute, Mitchell Hamline School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota
  5. Rebecca Jaremko Bromwich, BA (Hon) LLB, LLM, PhD, Director, Graduate Diploma in Conflict Resolution Program, Department of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
  6. Leslie K. Bruce, JD, Director, Healthcare Leadership and Community Outreach, Extended Studies, University of California San Diego
  7. Robert A. Baruch Bush, Distinguished Professor of Law, Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York; Co-Founder and Board Member, Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation, Dayton, Ohio
  8. Kevin P. Clements, Professor, Chair and Director, The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
  9. G. Michelle Collins-Sibley, PhD, Professor of English and Chair, Department of Interdisciplinary & Liberal Studies, University of Mount Union, Alliance, Ohio; Member of the Board of Trustees, Peace and Justice Studies Association.
  10. Barbara Coloroso, MA, educator, and author of The Bully, The Bullied, and The Not-So-Innocent Bystander and Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide..and why it matters, Littleton, Colorado
  11. E. Deason, Joanne Wharton Murphy/Classes of 1965 and 1973 Professor of Law, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, Columbus, Ohio
  12. Jayne Seminare Docherty, PhD, Academic Programs Director, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Virginia
  13. Timothy Donais, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Global Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
  14. Maureen F. Fitzgerald, PhD, Gender Diversity Advisor, Mediator, former lawyer and author, Vancouver, Canada
  15. Joseph P. Folger, PhD, Professor of Adult and Organizational Development at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; President, Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation, Dayton, Ohio
  16. Jacqueline N. Font-Guzmán, PhD, JD, MHA, Professor of Law and Director, The Werner Institute, Creighton University School of Law, Omaha, Nebraska
  17. John Forester, PhD, Professor, Department of City & Regional Planning, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
  18. Neil Funk-Unrau, PhD, Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution Studies and Associate Dean of Menno Simons College, Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, Canada
  19. Mark Gerzon, President, Mediators Foundation, Boulder, Colorado
  20. Mary V. Gelinas, Ed.D., Gelinas James, Inc., Cascadia Center for Leadership, Arcata, California
  21. Terence W. Harris, MA, JD, Mediator, Instructor, Douglas College, Vancouver, Canada
  22. Evan Hoffman, PhD, Senior Associate, The Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
  23. Chris Honeyman, Managing Partner, Convenor Conflict Management, Washington DC
  24. Rev. Kenneth W. Howard, Executive Committee, Faith Community Advisory Council, Montgomery County Maryland, Germantown, Maryland
  25. Ralph H. Kilmann, PhD, former Professor of Organization and Management (30 years) and Director of the Program in Corporate Culture, Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh; now CEO and Senior Consultant of Kilmann Diagnostics, whose mission is Resolving Conflict Throughout the World; co-author of the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument
  26. Laurie King, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
  27. Wendy Kroeker, Co-Director, Canadian School of Peacebuilding, Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies department, Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, Canada
  28. Winona LaDuke, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Honor the Earth; Founder, White Earth Land Recovery Project; Anishinaabee Nation, White Earth Reservation, Minnesota
  29. John Lande, Isidor Loeb Professor Emeritus, Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution, University of Missouri School of Law, Columbia, Missouri
  30. Patricia Lane, JD, Chartered Mediator, Chartered Arbitrator, Victoria, Canada
  31. Michael Loadenthal, PhD, Executive Director, Peace and Justice Studies Association, Washington, DC; Visiting Professor, Sociology & Social Justice, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
  32. David Lord, Co-Chair, Peacebuild: The Canadian Peacebuilding Network, Ottawa, Canada
  33. Carl Luna, PhD, Professor of Political Science, San Diego Mesa College; Visiting Professor of Political Science, and Director, Institute for Civil Civic Engagement, University of San Diego, California
  34. Julie Macfarlane, PhD, Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada
  35. Barbara Sunderland Manoussom, PhD, Manousso Mediation & Arbitration, LLC, Manousso Mediation Training and ADR Services, Houston, Texas
  36. Bernie Mayer, PhD, Professor of Dispute Resolution, The Werner Institute, Creighton University School of Law, Omaha, Nebraska
  37. Laura McGrew, PhD, Consultant, Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation, New York
  38. M. Jerry McHale, QC, Lam Chair in Law and Public Policy, Faculty of Law and School of Public Administration University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
  39. Chief Ovide Mercredi, Former National Chief, Assembly of First Nations, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
  40. Michael Minch, PhD, Peace and Justice Studies Director, Summit: The Sustainable Mountain Development and Conflict Transformation Global Knowledge and Action Network and Professor of Philosophy, Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah
  41. Christopher W. Moore, PhD, Partner, CDR Associates: Collaborative Decision Resources, Boulder, Colorado
  42. Robert Morales, BSc, JD, Chief Treaty Negotiator, Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group, Cowichan Tribes, British Columbia; Chair, Summit Chief Negotiators for First Nations engaged in the BC Treaty Negotiation Process, British Columbia, Canada
  43. Catherine Morris, JD, LLM, Director, Peacemakers Trust; Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Law, and MA Program in Dispute Resolution, School of Public Administration, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada
  44. Forrest S. Mosten, Mediator, Limited Scope and Collaborative Attorney; Adjunct Professor of Law, UCLA; and Chair, Brown-Mosten International Client Consultation Competition (Affiliated with the International Bar Association)
  45. Jack Payden-Travers, Secretary, Peace and Justice Studies Association, Washington, DC; and past-Executive Director of the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund, Lynchburg, Virginia
  46. Dean Peachey, PhD, Executive Director, University of Winnipeg Global College, Winnipeg, Canada
  47. Elisabeth Porter, PhD, Professor, Centre for Peace and Security, Hawke Research Institute, University of South Australia
  48. Sharon Press, Professor and Director, Dispute Resolution Institute, Mitchell Hamline School of Law, Saint Paul, Minnesota
  49. Edmund Pries PhD, Global Studies, Religion and Culture, Social Entrepreneurship and Community Engagement, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; Co-Chair, Peace and Justice Studies Association, Washington, DC
  50. Darynell Rodríguez Torres, Executive Director, Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflicts (GPPAC), The Hague, The Netherlands
  51. Gloria Rhodes, PhD, Associate Professor of Peacebuilding and Conflict Studies, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Virginia
  52. Lisa Schirch, PhD, North American Research Director; Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research; Senior Policy Advisor with the Alliance for Peacebuilding; and Research Professor at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Virginia
  53. Andrea Kupfer Schneider, Professor and Director, Dispute Resolution Program, Marquette University Law School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  54. Laurence Sherman, Visiting Professor, Graduate Certificate Program in Conflict Resolution, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada; Public Disputes Mediator, Architect and Urban Planner, Toronto, Canada
  55. Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, PhD, Associate Professor & Acting Head, Department of Native Studies, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
  56. Stacie I. Strong, Manley O. Hudson Professor of Law and Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
  57. Johonna Turner, PhD, Assistant Professor of Restorative Justice and Peacebuilding, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Virginia
  58. Nancy A. Welsh, Professor of Law and William Trickett Faculty Scholar, Dickinson School of Law, Penn State University, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
  59. Terrence T. Wheeler, Adjunct Professor of Law, Co-Director, Center for Dispute Resolution, Capital University Law School, Columbus, Ohio
  60. Howard Zehr, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Restorative Justice, Co-Director, Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Virginia

Affiliations are indicated for purposes of identification only and the views expressed are those of the individuals, not their institutions.

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