ABSTRACT
Conflict resolution has grown tremendously over the past 30 years as a recognized discipline in universities and as a profession. According to the Conflict Resolution Spectrum, there is a continuum of processes to address conflicts. Once individual and third-party processes have been utilized, extra-legal processes are to be pursued before the last resort of violence. These are practices that are outside legal boundaries, such as nonviolent action. Nonviolent action is a tool for social change and a lifestyle that contributes to peace. Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi is an architect of nonviolent action, a method to fight injustices and to bring about social change. Gandhi, a lawyer trained in England, spent 20 years in South Africa before becoming a leader in India’s independence movement against British rule. Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRC) have become common processes to discover and document systemic racism that resulted in violence, human rights violations, and genocides by governments.
