Unlike many others in the “Parents” generation, Paul Wahrhaftig came to conflict analysis and resolution and to peacemaking mainly from a “domestic” angle – in other words, through his involvement in local, racial, and urban conflicts in the United States. His background was legal, his geographical focus was in the U.S. heartland, and much of his work took place in Pittsburgh where he established the Conflict Resolution Center Inc., a center which operated as a clearing house for information and contacts for over 30 years.
Wahrhaftig and his Center were important components of the development of Alternative Dispute Resolution [ADR] in the United States and internationally. Over the years he developed many contacts – personal and institutional – with colleagues in Canada, Australia, Northern Ireland, South Africa and other parts of the world where there was interest in replacing cumbersome legal processes with procedures which were flexible and which gave victims the chance to feel part of an approach that allowed their voices to be heard and their concerns to be addressed. In later years, this all became linked to the issue of “restorative” versus “retributive” justice, and to the increasing use of truth and reconciliation processes in the aftermath of protracted and violent conflicts.
Paul Wahrhaftig worked tirelessly in this chosen arena of NGO activity. For years, he was an influential member of the organizing committee of the now defunct National Conference for Peace and Conflict Resolution [NCPCR] and helped to organize and at times to host the annual conference which sought to bring together dreamers, activists, and scholars in a huge and heterogeneous meeting, where they could exchange ideas and experiences. He was a key figure in helping to link Father Bill Headley’s new program in peace and justice at Duquesne University with the local community in Pittsburg and its nearby mediation center.
Paul’s editorship of the monthly Conflict Resolution Notes – to which he frequently also contributed as author – left him little time for his own writing but he deservedly won some fame as the co-author [with his colleague Hiskias Assefa] of a much read and much valued account of urban conflict in Philadelphia. The MOVE Conflict in Philadelphia told the story of the conflict involving local communities and local authorities in Pittsburg, which ended [if it has ended] with the police dropping a bomb on a city block and incinerating some members of MOVE, the irritating – and, to some, menacing – alternative lifestyle group. His later account of the start of the ADR movement in the U.S., Community Dispute Resolution, Empowerment, and Social Justice, is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in that particular aspect of the field and its often neglected “parents.”
JB/CRM
Through his involvement in local, racial, and urban conflicts in the U.S. for more than 30 years, as epitomized by his co-authorship of a book on the MOVE Conflict in Philadelphia, Paul Wahrhaftig and his Conflict Resolution Center in Pittsburg became founding components in the development of the Alternative Dispute Resolution [ADR] movement.
