We were pleased to welcome Pierre Hazan, author of the book Négocier avec le diable. La médiation dans les conflits armés "Negotiating with the devil. Mediation in armed conflits" for a conference and debate on Thursday December 15th, 2022. This meeting was prepared and moderated by Rony Brauman.

The actions of mediators and that of humanitarian workers in armed conflicts apparently have little in common, apart from the desire to be useful. However, when looked at more closely, the central features of their work share notable common points. The relationship of trust that we, as well as they, need to create with the belligerents is tricky in that the line between reasonable compromise and selling out is always uncertain and insidious. Like humanitarian workers, mediators can only find their space in so far as the belligerents find it interesting for them to be there.

We, as well as they, seek to establish and maintain links with actors labelled as terrorists – a single term covering multiple realities – and more broadly, with various perpetrators of violence. This leads to potentially conflicting relations with international justice and the proponents of the fight against impunity.

Pierre Hazan is a mediator and a senior advisor for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, one of the main organizations dealing with mediation in armed conflicts. He has extensive field experience in this area and has written numerous books and articles on transitional justice. In September, he published "Négocier avec le diable. La médiation dans les conflits armés" (with Editions Textuel) and shared his reflections during this conference and debate.