Mission
Praxis Institute for Social Justice is a private non-profit organization focusing on transitional justice, legal reform, mental health and community reconstruction in conflict and post-conflict societies. Our Research Associates conduct action-oriented research, guided by the belief that local level initiatives should impact national polices, and that the social sciences can contribute to more responsible and humane public policy.
In our research and education projects we analyze the resources that facilitate individual, familial and communal recovery in post-conflict settings. We facilitate communication among local level actors and increase the visibility of their initiatives so that successful efforts in one region may inform peace-building, legal reform and community reconstruction elsewhere. To move from theory to action, Praxis works with local partners to provide human rights training, local capacity building, and seminars and conferences on conflict resolution, reparations and reconciliation.
Since its inception in 2002, Praxis Institute for Social Justice has worked extensively in Latin America, developing new directions for work on post-conflict reconstruction. We emphasize the need for non-medicalized approaches to post-war recovery, and the importance of local initiatives and citizen participation in building sustainable peace in the long term. Our Research Associates bring a multidisciplinary perspective to our work, convinced that conflict resolution, community mental health, peace-building and reconstruction are simultaneously political, social, economic, spiritual and cultural processes.
Our work has been funded by the Shaler-Adams Foundation, the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos- Siembra Democracia, the United States Institute for Peace, the Women and Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government, the Global Security and Cooperation Program of the Social Science Research Council, the Ford Foundation-Consorcio de Salud de Perú, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.