Non-Governmental Organization

The Duisburg Institute for Linguistics and Social Science (Duisburger Institut für Sprach- und Sozialforschung, DISS) has been working in the field of exclusion processes in society for more than 15 years. Its work aims at grasping social problems, analysing their sources and effects. Analyses of media politics and every-day discourse are published regularly in a special edition. DISS also distributes a magazine on selected controversial issues of every-day political life twice a year complementing two annual workshops. Its extensive archive on politics, history and right-wing extremism provides information for scientists, students and journalists working in the field of anti-discrimination.

Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK) at the Department of Political Science at the University of Heidelberg

The HIIK is a registered charitable organization which devotes its work to research, documentation and analysis of national and international conflicts. The HIIK was founded in 1991 to continue the work of the research project entitled "Conflicts since 1945" headed by Prof. Dr. Frank R. Pfetsch at the Department of Political Science at the University of Heidelberg.

The HIIK publishes a report called Conflict Barometer every December. This report describes the recent trends in global conflicts. It is divided into five world regions and shows all the current conflicts in detailed tables combined with short descriptive text elements. In addition it includes global trends in the conflict behaviour of the different states, as well as the measures that were taken for conflict resolution in the respective year. Coups d'état, attempted coups d'état, acts of international terrorism as well as new measures of conflict resolution are also recorded.

In their Cosimo database, the HIIK records information about the political conflicts that have taken place since 1945. Since 2003, a relational database system has been in use that has revised, updated and expanded the entire set of data of the 1.3 version of the Cosimo conflict database. Today, Cosimo 2.0 contains information about more than 500 conflicts with more than 2,500 instances that have complicated their resolution. The new version enables a delineation of the detailed conflict development in its violent and non-violent phases with the help of the systematic recording of the individual phases of fighting. Furthermore, the database includes extensive details about the structure of governmental and non-governmental participants in the conflict recorded by years.

The HIIK creates regional and global abstracts, counts, and analyses from the Cosimo data base for journalists, researchers, institutes, public institutions, and everyone who is interested in conflict management.

The OeVA - Oecumenical Planing-Comittee for the Intercultural Week in Germany (ÖVA - Ökumenische Vorbereitungsausschuss) prepares the annual intercultural week (IKW) which is taking place all over the country. It recommends content focuses, suggests a theme, carries out the annual, nationwide preparatory conference  offers materials available for the preparatory groups and organizes a central nationwide inaugural event.In the EPC 15 members are appointed from the churches. Up to six additional members are coopted from institutions, organizations and socially important areas.

What is the intercultural week?
The annual intercultural week (IKW) is an initiative of the German bishops' conference (DBK - Deutschen Bischofskonferenz), the Protestant church in Germany (EKD - Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland) and the Greek-orthodox Metropolie that takes place throughout all Germany. The intercultural week is held ince 1975 at the end of September and is supported by churches, local authority districts, welfare associations, trade unions, integration advisory boards and commissioned, migrant's organizations and initiative groups. In 2016 about 5,000 events were carried out in more than 500 towns and municipalities. The Refugee Day is a component of the intercultural week.

Greenpeace is an international environmental organization which fights with direct actions free of power for the protection of the natural resources of human and nature and for justice for all living beings. Greenpeace works on the subjects of seas, agriculture, rubbish, forests, climate changes, biodiversity, energy transition, the arctic, environment & economy. Greenpeace was founded in 1971 and today it is represented in more than 40 countries. More than three million people support Greenpeace worldwide, out of that are about 590,000 conveyor members in Germany. Greenpeace works independently of governments, parties and economic interest groups. Greenpeace doesn’t get any financial help from the EU or UN for their projects.

The Berghof Foundation is an independent, non-governmental and non-profit organisation that supports efforts to prevent political and social violence, and to achieve sustainable peace through conflict transformation. Established by Professor Georg Zundel in 1971, members of the Zundel family in their roles as shareholders and trustees remain dedicated to the organisation’s long-term development. Based in Germany, the NGO is run by a diverse team working closely with partners in selected regions. An international Board of Trustees supports its work.

ARiC Berlin provides background information and materials on the situation of migrants, refugees and ethnic minorities as well as on matters concerning German immigration and asylum legislation. It also promotes events and initiatives aimed at fighting discrimination, violence and right-wing extremism. Thus, ARiC seeks to promote tolerance and improve intercultural relations.

By means of the AriCbase database information system, data concerning contact details and publications can easily be assembled, administered, and accessed.

The database contains in excess of 40,000 entries and is updated regularly. It includes a list of 13,000 publications and more than 27,000 references to articles in newspapers and journals. All entries are arranged according to subject.

ARiC Berlin carries out projects aimed at providing education and information on issues like racism, right-wing extremism, migration, integration etc. We also seek to promote national and international networking.

We provide:

• Advice and support for social and integration projects
• General information and help (also via e-mail); online media database (more than 40,000 references to articles from newspapers and magazines, books, videos, etc.), annotated data base (about 3,500 references) with addresses of organizations and institutions
• Education, organization of presentations, recommendations on publications dealing with topical issues (on request)

Consortium of more than 40 non-governmental organisations with the aim of implementing an effective development policy at the national level, committed to solidarity and social justice.