All posts by CPNN Coordinator

About CPNN Coordinator

Dr David Adams is the coordinator of the Culture of Peace News Network. He retired in 2001 from UNESCO where he was the Director of the Unit for the International Year for the Culture of Peace, proclaimed for the Year 2000 by the United Nations General Assembly.

Oaxaca, Mexico: State Government Promotes Culture of Peace as a Public Policy

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article from the Gobierno del Estado de Oaxaca

Within the framework of the Training Conference for Municipal Authorities elected by Indigenous Regulatory Systems 2024, the Government Secretariat (Sego) presented the Program “Peace with Justice and Well-being” for the People of Oaxaca.

In this sense, the director of Culture of Peace of Sego, Leticia Cruz López, reported that in the sessions held this January 8 and 9 in the Oaxacan capital, municipal authorities were called upon to develop actions for the implementation of peace policies and promotion programs.

In this way, the aim is to contribute at the local level, to the positive transformation of social and agrarian conflicts for the benefit of girls, boys, young people, women and men of Oaxaca.

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(Click here for the Spanish original of this article)

Questions for this article:

The culture of peace at a regional level, Does it have advantages compared to a city level?

Is there progress towards a culture of peace in Mexico?

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“We thank the new elected municipal authorities for accepting the implementation of a culture of peace with an intercultural approach, since municipalities are a key element in influencing the strengthening or reestablishment of the community fabric,” she stated.

These trainings are part of the accreditation process for the municipal authorities who assumed their duties on January 1 of this year, carried out by the Sego Undersecretary responsible for Municipal Strengthening.

The state official highlighted that the municipal authorities show their interest in being part of the State Network of Municipalities as Agents of Social Peace, as well as working with their councils with tools to establish community dialogues, spaces for mediation and conciliation in their towns and build processes of conflicts resolution.

With these actions, the State Government and the municipalities join forces so that Oaxaca is transformed with respect, diversity, equality and justice, so that community environments are strengthened and privileged by peace and where differences are worked on constructively.

Some of the municipal authorities that joined the Network of Municipalities Agents of Social Peace are: Mariscala de Juárez, Santa María Yalina, Santo Domingo Albarradas, San Melchor Betaza, San Juan Cotzocón, Santiago Camotlán, San Pedro and San Pablo Ayutla, San Miguel del Río and Ixtlán de Juárez, among others.

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DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Latin America

Artists Pledge to Boycott German Institutions Over Stifling of Pro-Palestine Speech

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION . .

An article from Hyperallergic

Hundreds of artists and cultural workers around the world signed a petition calling to boycott German cultural institutions in response to the nation’s “McCarthyist policies” targeting critics of Israel’s violence against Palestinians.

(Update January 23. In response, the Berlin Senate has now dropped the anti-semitism clause in their funding agreements.


One of the graphics accompanying the Strike Germany petition features the word “Strike” overlaid on an icon of German art history: “Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer” (“The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog”) (1818) by Romanticist Caspar David Friedrich. (image via Strike Germany)

Signed by over 650 people including artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Palestinian poet and activist Mohammed El-Kurd, and French writer Annie Ernaux, the anonymously authored “Strike Germany” petition questions the European nation’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, according to which “the targeting of the state of Israel” can be construed as a form of hostility toward the collective Jewish people. Since the German parliament’s 2019 resolution equating the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement with antisemitism, the persecution of pro-Palestine speech and symbols has had profound effects on the local heavily state-subsidized art world.

“As the genocidal campaign on Gaza continues — amounting to one of the deadliest assaults on a civilian population in our times — the German state has intensified the repression of its own Palestinian population and those who stand against Israel’s war crimes,” the petition reads. “Palestine solidarity protests are mislabeled as anti-Semitic and banned, activist spaces are raided by police, and violent arrests are frequent.”

Germany has stood by Israel nearly unconditionally since the October 7 Hamas offensive that killed at least 846 Israeli civilians, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the first Western leader to visit after the attack, declaring that the country had “every right to defend itself.” Since then, as Israel faces accusations of genocide at the United Nations’s top court and the death toll from its ongoing bombardment of Gaza tops 23,000, Germany’s position has shifted slightly but remained staunchly supportive.

Earlier this month, the Berlin Senate introduced a clause that would require recipients of public funds to sign a self-declaration against “any form of antisemitism” as defined by the IHRA. Over 5,600 Berlin-based cultural workers across artistic disciplines, including visual artists Jumana Manna and Jesse Darling, opposed the controversial proposal in a recent open letter; such laws, the missive says, “only serve to create an administrative basis for disinviting and canceling events with cultural workers who are critical of Israel.”

Paradoxically, Germany’s persecution of anti-Israel voices sometimes extends to members of the nation’s Jewish community. Last year, Hamburg’s first antisemitism commissioner publicly attacked South African artist and scholar Adam Broomberg, a vocal critic of Israel who is himself Jewish, because of the artist’s solidarity with the BDS movement.

After he was hired as a visiting professor at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design this fall, the school’s rectorate told him he could no longer instruct students, according to Broomberg, who explained that he had reached a “verbal agreement” with the administration barring him from teaching, although he would remain on the school’s payroll through the end of his contract this spring.

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Questions related to this article:

Free flow of information, How is it important for a culture of peace?

Presenting the Palestinian side of the Middle East, Is it important for a culture of peace?

(continued from left column)

“I think the real danger here is a closing down of academic thinking and critical thinking,” Broomerg said. “And it also puts a lot of the amazing colleagues I had there in very precarious positions, because if journalists and the Senate are going to be scouring people’s social media feeds or anything they’ve ever written, and if you see my situation as a test case, you can imagine that a lot of them feel very anxious.”

The professor was leading a seminar that centered Palestinian and Israeli experiences and histories and had planned a small student trip to Bethlehem and Hebron, although the excursion was canceled after the events of October 7. He claimed the school’s decision was due to pressure from the German government and right-wing press, which has mentioned Broomberg’s active anti-Zionist posts on social media.

A Karlsruhe University spokesperson told Hyperallergic it could not comment on the contractual details of its employees, adding that as a public university, it “must mediate between public interest and the protection of its members.” The spokesperson stated that when confronted with “controversial” social media posts from Broomberg, the school decided to “seek a conversation” with him, to involve the school’s Academic Senate, and to consult “external experts.”

“It really feels kind of McCarthyite,” Broomberg added, repeating the same phrase used in the Strike Germany petition.

Yamna El Atlassi, a Belgium-based Diversity and Inclusion consultant for the cultural sector who travels frequently to Germany, said she sees artists in the nation “facing a level of repression not seen in recent history.”

“I’ve always seen discrimination in play in the cultural sector in all Western countries, but the difference is that Germany was presenting itself as a champion of progressive thinking,” El Atlassi told Hyperallergic. “The dissonance between this attitude and what is really going on is important.”

She specifically cited the controversy surrounding Documenta 15, during which several participating artists in the summer 2022 exhibition faced accusations of antisemitism for their pro-Palestine stance. On October 9, Documenta’s leadership released a statement decrying the curatorial collective ruangrupa, which organized the 15th edition, for its “liking” of social media posts expressing sympathy with the Palestinian cause.

Dystopic episodes of institutions stifling pro-Palestine expressions are far from absent from the United States’s cultural spaces, where just this week, the news of Indiana University canceling an exhibition of 87-year-old Palestinian artist Samia Halaby’s works — reportedly over her vocal advocacy for her country — drew outrage. Meanwhile, faculty members there penned a letter this week decrying the school’s decision to suspend their colleague Abdulkader Sinno, a Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies professor, for his alleged involvement in organizing an event with the Palestine Solidarity Committee. The missive asserts that the school’s decision comes as American universities are being pressured to “curtail free speech over the Israel-Palestine conflict.”

But in Germany, whose crimes and burden of guilt against the Jewish people are inscribed permanently in its history, the attitude taken toward Jewish figures who question the Israeli state’s actions strikes many as especially chilling. The irony was felt a month ago when the Russian-American, Jewish writer Masha Gessen received a scaled-down version of Germany’s Hannah Arendt Prize, nearly revoked altogether after they penned a New Yorker article in which they compared the humanitarian crisis in Gaza to Nazi German ghettos.

“German post-reunification ‘remembrance culture’ (Erinnerungskultur) — the state campaign to address Germany’s genocide of the Jews — acts as a repressive dogma, reinvigorating the oppression that real ‘rememberance’ should work against,” the Strike Germany petition articulates.

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Europe, FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

Algeria: National Graffiti Festival-Sétif; Fethi Mjahed wins 1st Prize

. EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article from L’Expression (translation by CPNN)

The artist Fethi Mjahed from Tiaret won the Best Graffiti Prize on Thursday at the end of the fifth edition of the National Graffiti Festival which opened Monday in Sétif for his optimistic work. Second and third places went respectively to Hamza Mokrani from Khenchela and Salah-Eddine Adhimi from Sétif.


(click on image to enlarge)

(Click here for the original French version of this article)

Question related to this article:
 
Can popular art help us in the quest for truth and justice?

In a statement to APS, Nacer Fadli, president of the organizing committee and director of the Office of Youth Establishments (ODEJ) of Sétif, recalled that “40 artists from several wilayas took part in this traditional event organized by the league of cultural and scientific activities of young people in concert with the Odej and the direction of youth and sports as part of the implementation of the annual program of the supervisory ministry

Unlike previous editions during which the participants drew on the walls in different places in the city, the organizers opted this year to put the grafitti on wooden panels on the square adjoining the Sétif amusement park. The panels can then be used to decorate certain establishments or participate in other competitions, said Mr. Fadli.

The objective of the festival is to make these works of art a means of raising awareness of citizenship and the dissemination of the culture of peace, while allowing young people to exchange their experiences and participate in local activities, added the head of Odej.

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EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Mideast

“Culture of Peace” Recommendation for UN summit “Pact for the Future”

DISARMAMENT AND SECURITY .

Received at CPNN from Anne Creter, Peace Through Unity Charitable Trust

Today’s New Year’s Day opens with sharing the following “Culture of Peace “recommendation our UN NGO Global Movement for the Culture of Peace sub-group submitted yesterday (New Years Eve) as input to the big September 23-24, 2024 UN Summit of the Future “Pact for the Future” being developed now. 

The “actionable” evolutionary UN Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace A/RES/53/243 adopted by the General Assembly (GA) in 1999 must be integrated into A Pact for the Future (PACT) for greater UN innovation and synthesis, as it can provide a missing link helping the UN fulfill its mission to “end the scourge of war.” Aligned with the science of nonviolence, Culture of Peace is a comprehensive, UN established “blueprint” or “roadmap” of actions necessary at all levels of existence to manifest sustainable peace. If utilized in the PACT, Culture of Peace could provide a new, unified global structure for the UN to connect and coordinate worldwide peace actions for greater synergy and effectiveness. War will be inevitable until a better, rational, productive system is solidly in place providing the structure and platform for conflict resolution to routinely happen.

Chapter II: International peace and security:

The UN’s 75-year-old quest “to end the scourge of war” has paradoxically devolved into a worldwide culture of violence at this most dangerous inflection point in history. Thus, it is imperative that the advanced peacebuilding concept of the Culture of Peace be a focal point within this futuristic PACT, for it has received growing understanding and appreciation both at the UN and within civil society in the last 25 years. In keeping with its recently evolved history at the UN, A/RES/53/243 adds clear “actionable” guidance aligned with the relatively new field of peace studies at a time when the world is hopelessly paralyzed by the existential escalation of violence at all levels which, in becoming normalized, threatens even greater planetary peril. Examples of civil society “Infrastructures for Peace” based on A/RES/53/243 now making a difference in the world are the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission in Oregon USA and Rotary International showing great progress of peace at local city levels.

The landmark UN Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace (A/RES/53/243) was adopted by the GA on 13 September 1999 after nine months of hard negotiations skillfully led by Bangladesh Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, Former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the UN; Founder of the Global Movement for the Culture of Peace, who said: “I believe this document is unique in more than one way. It is a universal document in the real sense, transcending boundaries, cultures, societies and nations. Unlike many other GA documents, it is action-oriented and encourages actions at all levels, be they at the level of the individual, the community, the nation or the region, or at the global and international levels.” It defines Culture of Peace as a set of values, attitudes, modes of behavior and ways of life that reject violence and prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes to solve problems through dialogue and negotiation among individuals, groups and nations. Per the A/RES/53/243 mandate, the Programme of Action by its pure “action” structure speaks to the PACT’s goal of “action-oriented” recommendations, citing actions at all levels that are necessary to build the Culture of Peace within the following Eight Areas of Action:

1) Fostering a culture of peace through education
2) Promoting sustainable economic and social development
3) Promoting respect for all human rights
4) Ensuring equality between women and men
5) Fostering democratic participation
6) Advancing understanding, tolerance and solidarity
7) Supporting participatory communication & free flow of information & knowledge
8) Promoting international peace and security

UNESCO was charged with writing the “Declaration and Programme of Action” led by David Adams, Former Director, UNESCO Unit for International Year for Culture of Peace. It is not by accident that the term originated at UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and “Cultural” Organization) at a meeting in Africa in 1989. For Culture appears in the very name of UNESCO which was established as the UN’s cultural organization. Culture here is defined in the broad anthropological sense, not in the narrow popular sense restricted to music, dance, and other arts. UNESCO was not concerned with culture for its own sake, but culture for the sake of peace. It made a distinction between the old concept of peace between sovereign states and a new concept of peace between peoples. UNESCO’s constitution preamble declared in 1946: “That a peace based exclusively upon the political and economic arrangements of governments would not be a peace which could secure the unanimous, lasting and sincere support of the peoples of the world, and that the peace must therefore be founded, if it is not to fail, upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind.” As UNESCO stated: “Each of these areas of action have been priorities of the UN since its foundation; what is new is their linkage through the culture of peace and non-violence into a single coherent concept. This is the first time all these areas are interlinked so the sum of their complementarities and synergies can be developed.”

Question for this article:

What is the United Nations doing for a culture of peace?

A/RES/53/243 gives clear guidelines on a new mode of governance which calls on the entire UN system; all governments, and all peoples to work together to build a more free, fair, and peaceful global neighborhood through a positive, dynamic participatory process where dialogue is encouraged, and conflicts are solved in a spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation. It was a watershed moment when A/RES/53/243 was passed as never before had an “action-oriented” template been created based on the science of nonviolence articulating all the peacebuilding actions needed at every level from inner to international for world peace to take shape. A/RES/53/243 is innovative because it embodies this new peace knowledge by design, stating all the multi-dimensional, congruous actions that need to happen for the Culture of Peace to materialize. These preventative, multi-level actions by individuals and groups must be implemented and monitored in Member States to “end the scourge of war” – a function the UN could oversee by creating a “Culture of Peace Council” equal in status to the Security Council to balance its two main purposes of peace and security through developing national “Culture of Peace” Action Plans.

Culture of Peace is a clarion call for individual and collective transformation, indispensable for the safety, security and development of planet earth. Therefore, to make the PACT truly transformational, the concept of Culture of Peace must be integrated within it, reflective of the “new” positive view of peace. “Negative” peace is the absence of violence. Peace has traditionally been thought of simply as that. But we know now that peacebuilding is so much more. “Positive” peace is defined as the attitudes, institutions and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies, like better economic outcomes, measures of well-being, levels of inclusiveness and environmental performance. “Positive” peace is transformational in that it is a cross-cutting factor for progress. Use of the word ‘Peace’ connotes “negative” peace, old paradigm thinking whereas ‘Culture of Peace’ connotes a new-paradigm “positive” peace mindset.

Culture of Peace has a recent rich history of evolution at the UN in the last 25+ years since A/RES/53/243 was first adopted in 1999. We are told it takes between ten to twenty years from the time UN resolutions are passed for them to be fully understood and utilized. Culture of Peace is no exception. The term was hardly ever used at the UN in the first ten years of its passage (the first decade of the new millennium). It took 12 years before the major breakthrough of the first High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace took place in 2012. That big milestone was first conceived back in the year 2000 when the International Year for the Culture of Peace was declared, along with its 2000 Manifesto for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence crafted by Nobel Laureates. Then from 2001 to 2010 there was the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World, producing Mid-Decade and End-of-Decade Culture of Peace Progress Reports, including a continuously running virtual Culture of Peace News Network of actions taken each month around the world in all eight of the Culture of Peace Areas of Action. Also, a UN NGO Culture of Peace Working Group which morphed into the Global Movement for the Culture of Peace NGO Coalition, along with 12 annual Culture of Peace High Level Forums with yearly self-standing GA Culture of Peace resolutions passed. Now that these milestones have been achieved, it is time for A/RES/53/243 to be fully utilized by being integrated within this forward-looking PACT.

Integrating Culture of Peace wisdom into the PACT would make that document more UN synthesized and wholistically complete, better enabling full implementation of A/RES/53/243. Culture of Peace is a state-of-the-art concept in human consciousness aligned within the powerful new discipline of peace studies. A/RES/53/243 provides a currently missing overarching peacebuilding framework on how to construct true and lasting world peace. Rendering it essential to the PACT would endow this major futuristic document genuine “new paradigm” relevance. So let Culture of Peace (already existing in the heart of humanity) become the foundation upon which our children and their children’s children can continue building the future civilization. As unleashing the knowledge of how to cultivate world peace in this way will accelerate desperately needed UN reform and transformation.

Chapter V: Transforming global governance:

Article 5 of A/RES/43/243 states that “governments have an essential role in promoting and strengthening a culture of peace.” Per the 2023 UN New Agenda for Peace Action #3 – one recommendation is to develop national prevention strategies to address the different drivers and enablers of violence and conflict in societies and strengthen national “Infrastructures for Peace.” Further that Member States seeking to establish or strengthen national “Infrastructures for Peace” should be able to access a tailor-made package of support and expertise. Uniting these 2 UN guiding principles “Culture of Peace and “Infrastructures for Peace” together would be an impactful step forward in UN fulfillment of its peace mission. For Culture of Peace establishes this UN peace vision as normative and prescribes the roadmap of actions needed at all levels to actualize it. Governmental “Infrastructures for Peace” such as “Departments and Ministries of Peace” are the roadways or platforms of peace architecture that support essential peace actions (like diplomacy) to readily occur so peace can take root and grow. Coupled together these two constructs give shape, form, and substance to building the “capacity” for peace by operationalizing and institutionalizing peacebuilding as the missing connective layer needed to sustain peace. Both principles are designed to prevent and reduce violence thus are mutually reinforcing. Integrated within the PACT, their synergistic impact of collaborative connection would facilitate significant UN reform and transformation.

UN NGO “Global Movement for the Culture of Peace” Signatories:

Peace Through Unity: Kate Smith, Director; Iris Spellings, UN NGO Representative; Anne Creter, UN NGO Alternate Representative

Pathways to Peace: Tezikiah Gabriel, Executive Director; David Wick, President

The Good News Agency – Associazione Culturale dei Triangoli e della Buona Volontà Mondiale: Georgina Galanis, UN NGO Representative

Comments

If you wish to make a comment on this article, you may write to coordinator@cpnn-world.org with the title “Comment on (name of article)” and we will put your comment on line. Because of the flood of spam, we have discontinued the direct application of comments.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global, United Nations,

BDS Movement: Act Now Against These Companies Profiting from the Genocide of the Palestinian People

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article from the BDS Movement

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian society that is leading the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, salutes activists, organizations and institutions worldwide that have expressed meaningful solidarity with our urgent struggle to stop Israel’s unfolding genocide in Gaza by escalating boycott and divestment campaigns. The spreading boycotts of complicit Israeli and multinational corporations can be effective if done strategically.  

Below is a detailed guide of our targeted consumer boycotts, divestment and pressure campaigns. Help us spread the word to maximize our impact!


(Click on image to enlarge)

Ending all state, corporate and institutional complicity with Israel’s genocidal regime is more urgent than ever. Our lives and livelihoods literally depend on it.

Targeted Boycotts vs. Non-targeted Boycotts

People of conscience around the world are rightfully shattered, enraged, and sometimes feeling powerless. Many feel compelled to boycott any and all products and services of companies tied in any way to Israel. The proliferation of extensive “boycott lists” on social media is an example of this. The question is how to make boycotts effective and actually have an impact in holding corporations accountable for their complicity in the suffering of Palestinians? 

The BDS movement uses the historically successful method of targeted boycotts inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the US Civil Rights movement, the Indian anti-colonial struggle, among others worldwide. 
 
We must strategically focus on a relatively smaller number of carefully selected companies and products  for maximum impact. We need to focus on companies that play a clear and direct role in Israel’s crimes and where there is real potential for winning, as was the case with, among others, G4S, Veolia, Orange, Ben & Jerry’s and Pillsbury. Compelling huge, complicit companies, through strategic and context-sensitive boycott and divestment campaigns, to end their complicity in Israeli apartheid and war crimes against Palestinians sends a very powerful message to hundreds of other complicit companies that “your time will come, so get out before it’s too late!”

Many of the prohibitively long lists going viral on social media do the exact opposite of this strategic and impactful approach. They include hundreds of companies, many without credible evidence of their connection to Israel’s regime of oppression against Palestinians, making them ineffective.

That being said, all peaceful popular efforts, including boycott and divestment, to hold all genuinely complicit corporations (and institutions) accountable for supporting Israel’s grave violations of Palestinian rights are justified and called for. It is perfectly legitimate, for instance, to boycott companies whose Israeli branch or franchise has supported Israel’s unfolding genocide in Gaza, some of which we mention below in the grassroots organic boycott targets section.

Also, a company or product may make perfect sense as a boycott target in one context or city but not another. This context-sensitivity is a key principle of our movement. Regardless, we all have limited human capacity, so we’d better use it in the most effective way to achieve meaningful, sustainable results that can truly contribute to Palestinian liberation. We therefore call on our supporters to strengthen our targeted campaigns and boycott the complicit companies named on our website to maximize our collective impact.

The following are the current top priority boycott targets of the global BDS movement.

We have split these targets into four sections:

1. Consumer boycott targets – The BDS movement calls for a complete boycott of these brands carefully selected due to the company’s proven record of complicity in Israeli apartheid.

2. Divestment targets – The BDS movement is pressuring governments, institutions and investment funds to exclude and divest from as many complicit companies as practical, especially weapons manufacturers, banks, and companies listed in the UN database  of business involved in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise, as well as the WhoProfits  and AFSC Investigate  databases of companies enabling the occupation. Below we give some of the targets we are campaigning against.

3. Pressure (non-boycott) targets – The BDS movement actively calls for pressure campaigns against these brands and services due to their complicity in Israeli apartheid. We have not, on strategic grounds, called for a boycott of these brands and services, instead we strategically call on supporters and institutions to mount other forms of pressure on them until they end their complicity in Israeli apartheid.

4. Organic boycott targets – The BDS movement did not initiate these grassroots boycott campaigns but is in support of them due to these brands openly supporting Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.

1. Consumer boycott targets:

Siemens


Siemens (Germany) is the main contractor  for the Euro-Asia Interconnector, an Israel-EU submarine electricity cable that is planned to connect Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory to Europe. Siemens-branded electrical appliances are sold globally.

PUMA


Since 2018 we have called for a boycott of PUMA (Germany) due to its sponsorship  of the Israel Football Association, which governs teams in Israel’s illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land. In a major BDS win in December 2023, PUMA leaked news to the media that it will not be renewing its contract when it expires in December 2024. We continue to call for #BoycottPUMA until it ends its complicity in Israeli apartheid.

Carrefour


Carrefour (France) is a genocide enabler. Carrefour-Israel has supported Israeli soldiers partaking in the unfolding genocide of Palestinians in Gaza with gifts of personal packages. In 2022, it entered a partnership  with the Israeli company Electra Consumer Products and its subsidiary Yenot Bitan, both of which are involved in grave violations against the Palestinian people.

AXA


When Russia invaded Ukraine, insurance giant AXA (France) took targeted measures against it. Yet, as Israel, a 75-year-old regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid, wages a genocidal war on Gaza, AXA continues to invest  in Israeli banks financing war crimes and the theft of Palestinian land and natural resources.

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Question related to this article:

How can war crimes be documented, stopped, punished and prevented?

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Hewlett Packard Inc (HP Inc)


HP Inc (US) provides  services to the offices of genocide leaders, Israeli PM Netanyahu and Financial Minister Smotrich.

SodaStream


SodaStream is actively complicit in Israel’s policy of displacing the indigenous Bedouin-Palestinian citizens of Israel in the Naqab (Negev) and has a long history of racial discrimination against Palestinian workers.

Ahava


Ahava cosmetics has its production site, visitor center, and main store in an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territory.

RE/MAX


RE/MAX (US) markets and sells property in illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land, thus enabling Israel’s colonization of the occupied West Bank.

Israeli produce in your supermarkets


Fruits, vegetables, and wines misleadingly labeled as “Product of Israel” often include products of illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land. Israeli companies do not distinguish between the two, and neither should consumers. Boycott produce  from Israel in your supermarket and demand their removal from shelves.

2. Divestment targets:

Elbit Systems
Elbit Systems  is apartheid Israel’s largest arms company. It “field-tests” its weapons on Palestinians, including in Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Palestinians in Gaza. On top of building killer drones, Elbit makes surveillance technology for Israel’s apartheid wall, checkpoints and Gaza fence, enabling apartheid. The US and EU use Elbit’s technology to militarize their borders, violating refugee and indigenous peoples’ rights.
 

HD Hyundai/Volvo/CAT/JCB


Machinery from HD Hyundai (South Korea), Volvo (Sweden/China), CAT (US), and JCB (UK) has been used by Israel in the ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of Palestinians through the destruction of their homes, farms, and businesses, as well as the construction of illegal settlements on land stolen from them, a war crime under international law.
 
Barclays


Barclays Bank (UK) holds more than £1 billion in shares of, and provides more than £3bn in loans and underwriting to nine companies whose weapons, components and military technology have been used in Israel’s armed violence against Palestinians.

CAF


Basque transport firm, CAF, builds and services the Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR), a tram line that serves Israel’s illegal settlements in Jerusalem. CAF benefits  from Israel’s war crimes on stolen Palestinian land.

Chevron


US fossil fuel multinational Chevron is the main international corporation extracting gas  claimed by apartheid Israel in the East Mediterranean. Chevron generates billions in revenues, strengthening Israel’s war chest and apartheid system, and exacerbating the climate crisis.

HikVision


Amnesty International has documented  high-resolution CCTV cameras made by the Chinese company Hikvision installed in residential areas and mounted to Israeli military infrastructure for surveillance of Palestinians. Some of these models, according to Hikvision’s own marketing, can plug into external facial recognition software.

TKH Security


Amnesty International has identified  cameras made by the Dutch company TKH Security used by Israel for surveillance of Palestinians. TKH provides Israeli police with surveillance technology that is used to entrench apartheid. 

3. Pressure (non-boycott) targets:

Google and Amazon (US)

As the Israeli military bombed homes, clinics, and schools in Gaza and threatened to push Palestinian families from their homes in occupied Jerusalem May 2021, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud executives signed a $1.22 billion contract to provide cloud technology to the Israeli government and military. By supporting Israeli apartheid with vital technologies, Amazon and Google are directly implicated in its entire system of oppression, including its unfolding genocide in Gaza. Join the #NoTechForApartheid campaign. While the campaigns targeting these corporations have not called for boycotts, other forms of pressure have been adopted to force them to end their complicity.

Airbnb/Booking/Expedia


Airbnb (US), Booking.com (Netherlands) and Expedia (US) all offer rentals in illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land. While the campaigns targeting these corporations have not called for boycotts, yet, other forms of pressure have been adopted to force them to end their complicity.

Disney


The Disney-owned Marvel Studios (US) is promoting in the next Captain America film a “superhero” that personifies apartheid Israel. Both companies are therefore complicit in “anti-Palestinian racism, Israeli propaganda, and the glorification of settler-colonial violence against Indigenous people,” as Palestinian cultural organizations have stated.

4. Grassroots organic boycott targets:
McDonald’s (US), Burger King (US), Papa John’s (US), Pizza Hut (US), WIX (Israel), etc. are now being targeted in some countries by grassroots organic boycott campaigns, not initiated by the BDS movement, because these companies, or their branches or franchises in Israel, have openly supported apartheid Israel and/or provided generous in-kind donations to the Israeli military amid the current Israeli offensive against 2.3 million Palestinians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip–described by leading international scholars of international law as an “unfolding genocide.” If these grassroots campaigns are not already organically active in your area, we suggest focusing your energies on our strategic campaigns above.

Remember, all Israeli banks and virtually all Israeli companies are complicit to some degree in Israel’s system of occupation and apartheid, and hundreds of international corporations and banks are also deeply complicit. We focus our boycotts on a small number of companies and products for maximum impact.

Additional resources: To learn more about companies complicit in Israel’s abuses of Palestinian human rights visit Who Profits, Investigate, and the UN database of companies involved in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.

– – – – –

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global, HUMAN RIGHTS, Mideast,

English bulletin January 1, 2024

. GOOD NEWS FROM LATIN AMERICA .

Efforts continue to stop the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The UN General Assembly voted 153 in favour to 10 against and 23 abstentions to demand a ceasefire. And the UN Secretary-General has been asked to put the ceasefire to a vote by a global referendum.

While Europe and the Middle East, abetted by the United States, continue to destroy themselves with war and the culture of war, not only in Gaza but also in the Ukraine, there is good news from another part of the world. In Latin America, the people of Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina continue to cultivate a culture of peace. This continues the trend that Latin America leads the world in developing a culture of peace. Over the years, CPNN has published more articles from this region than from any other, with Africa being second.

Colombia is developing a strategy of tourism for sustainable development and peace, including peace tourism territories, local economic development, purposeful tourism promotion and the construction of a culture of peace around tourism.

In Colombia, the city of Medellin celebrates its most peaceful days in the last 40 years, thanks to the work of the Non-Violence Secretariat that was created in 2020. The work includes attention to the victims of the armed conflict, and with opportunities and training for peace signatories; with measures to prevent the involvement of adolescents and young people in organized crime; with training in a culture of peace for boys and girls; and with the implementation of actions for reparation between victims, community and those responsible.

From November 24 to December 8 in Colombia, the Peace Cinema Festival took place, with the screening of more than 30 cinematographic pieces, including feature films and short films, that give an account of the New Colombia that has arisen after the signing of the Peace Agreement. The programming of the festival includes public training spaces, forums, workshops, dialogues and projections around memory and peace.

Added to these efforts is the proposal of the Global Alliance for Infrastructure and Ministries of Peace – Latin America and the Caribbean chapter, presented in November to the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives in Bogotá, to create a Ministry of Peace that coordinates the construction and culture of peace actions throughout the country in collaboration with the ministries in charge of health, education, environment, culture and security.

In Mexico, the VI Global Culture of Peace Forum took place at the University of Guadalajara, including a master conference “Peace Studies in Latin America”, as well as a panel “Construction of Citizenship and Promotion of the Culture of Peace” and the international tables “Education, Consciousness and Peace”, Public Policies of Peace, Security, Justice and Peace.

Also in Mexico, the program Multipliers of Peace has impacted more than 19 thousand young people in the state of Guanajuato. The program uses the “Humanízate” methodology, consisting of various activities that involve the participation of the youth community, such as discussions, training sessions, conferences, macro games and virtual meetings. In this strategy, young people between 17 and 30 years old can participate who intend to generate a positive change in their life and environment, building a culture of peace.

At the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the Permanent Seminar on Social Sciences was dedicated this year to the reconstruction of the social fabric and the culture of peace. During 18 sessions methodologies were analyzed, experiences of community and territorial interventions were shared, and theoretical approaches were addressed to provide elements for the understanding and relevance of the reconstruction of the social fabric and the culture of peace.

Also at the Metropolitan Autonomous University, Mexico City, the recently created Research Network on Culture of Peace, Justice and “Solid Institutions” carried out various peacebuilding actions throughout the year. In September 2023, this Network held the First Days for Peace with conferences and workshops on peace education, meditation and strategies to build peace in Latin America.

At the assembly of the National Association of Universities and Higher Education Institutions, 113 rectors of universities and public and private institutions in Mexico committed to a joint strategy for the construction of a culture of peace. This commitment is made within the framework of the new General Law of Higher Education that makes a university education mandatory for “The culture of peace and the peaceful resolution of conflicts, as well as the promotion of the value of equality, justice, solidarity, the culture of legality and respect for human rights”.

The joint work between Colombia and Mexico has also been observed throughout this year. José Luis Calderón and Irene Álvarez, officials of the Ministry of the Interior, Mexico, edited the book “Culture of human rights for a future of peace. Experiences in Mexico and Colombia“, published by the Economic Culture Fund. This book is proposed as a reference for future binational collaborations for peacebuilding in Latin America.

In Brazil, the 2nd Restorative Justice Dialogue in Schools was organized by the Ministry of Education. This was the first step in the implementation of a Technical Cooperation Agreement for the implementation of the “Restorative Justice in Schools” project signed by the Ministry and the National Council of Justice. The objective is to promote a culture of peace and non-violence in schools, using practices that involve dialogue, accountability and repairing the damage caused by conflicts.

Brazil has long been a leader in the development of restorative justice.

In Argentina, despite the recent election results, progress continues towards a culture of peace. On December 6, an international meeting on Participatory Conflict Resolution Methods “Human Rights, democracy and culture of peace” was held in the City of Salta with more than 400 mediators from different organizations at the federal level. During the conference, different panels were held with experts working on different thematic axes related to Participatory Conflict Resolution Methods throughout Argentina.

The current issue of the magazine CoPaLa-Construyendo Paz Latinoamericana, is dedicated to the Declaration for the Transition towards a Culture of Peace in the 21st century, through reflections and experiences of peace building in several countries in the region that include Argentina, Chile , Colombia, Mexico and Puerto Rico. The issue is free and open for reading.

Even if we fail to see progress towards a culture of peace in international relations, i.e. between national governments, we can find it in initiatives such as those listed above at the national and local levels. These countries of Latin America show us how it can be done.

HUMAN RIGHTS



UN Asked to Submit its Call for “An Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza” for Signature by the Peoples of the World

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY



Guernica stands in solidarity with Gaza

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT



Tourism as an engine of peace: strategies for sustainable development in Colombia

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION



UN General Assembly Adopts Resolution Demanding Immediate Humanitarian Ceasefire in Gaza, Parties’ Compliance with International Law, Release of All Hostages
  

WOMEN’S EQUALITY



Graça Machel: Enhancing women’s participation in peacebuilding is key to building a peaceful world

EDUCATION FOR PEACE



Mexico: Multipliers of Peace impact more than 19 thousand young people from Guanajuato

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY



Nuclear Abolitionists Occupy New York

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION



Brazil: Ministry of Education advances the debate on restorative justice
d-democratic, d-disarmament, Latin America

Calendar of Resistance for Palestine 2024: update as of December 30, 2023

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION . .

An article from Samidoun, Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all Palestinian, Arab and international supporters of Palestine to escalate their organizing and struggle to stand with the heroic Palestinian resistance and confront colonial Zionist genocide and imperialist complicity and involvement. (The list below will be constantly updated at least once a day – please share the link with your friends and comrades!)

These events are organized by many groups around the world — wherever possible, we link to the original organizers so that you can be in direct contact!

NOTES:

  • This list is for action-oriented/outdoor/protest actions specifically. Check out our events listings for the webinars, discussions and meetings we’re involved in!
  • Direct actions like those by Palestine Action are some of the most important and material actions of resistance and solidarity taking place — but they are typically not announced in advance, and those that are not announced in advance are not listed here!
  • We know that these events are mainly international and that the Arab people are marching everywhere for Palestine – we will be honored to add more Arab events whenever we are informed!
  • Times and details may change. Wherever we have it, we have linked to the original organizers’ accounts, posters and pages. Please follow these for the latest information – and don’t hesitate to send us updates!
  • List below is ordered by date, then by country in alphabetical order in English, then by city in alphabetical order in English.

TO ADD YOUR EVENT TO THE CALENDAR: Email us at samidoun@samidoun.net or tag us on social media!

Monday, January 1

BAHRAIN

IRELAND

UNITED STATES

Tuesday, January 2

UNITED STATES

Wednesday, January 3

AUSTRALIA

Thursday, January 4

ENGLAND

NETHERLANDS

SPANISH STATE

UNITED STATES

Friday, January 5

AUSTRALIA

NETHERLANDS

SOUTH AFRICA

UNITED STATES

Saturday, January 6

AUSTRALIA

ENGLAND

GERMANY

(continued in right column)

Question related to this article:

Presenting the Palestinian side of the Middle East, Is it important for a culture of peace?

(continued from left column)

SWEDEN

UNITED STATES

Sunday, January 7

AUSTRALIA

CANADA AND QUEBEC

  • SECHELT, BC (CANADA) – Sun Jan 7, 11:30 am, Davis Bay Wharf (Vigil).

DENMARK

NETHERLANDS

UNITED STATES

Monday, January 8

AUSTRALIA

Tuesday, January 9

UNITED STATES

Wednesday, January 10

AUSTRALIA

UNITED STATES

  • ANNAPOLIS, MD (US) – Wed Jan 10, 6:30 pm, Lawyers Mall, State Circle (Vigil)

Friday, January 12

AUSTRALIA

UNITED STATES

  • ST PAUL, MN (US) – Fri Jan 12, 4 pm, Summit and Snelling Aves.

Saturday, January 13

AUSTRALIA

ENGLAND

IRELAND

SPANISH STATE

SWITZERLAND

UNITED STATES

Sunday, January 14

AUSTRALIA

CANADA AND QUEBEC

  • SECHELT, BC (CANADA) – Sun Jan 14, 11:30 am, Davis Bay Wharf (Vigil).

Tuesday, January 16

UNITED STATES

Sunday, January 28

HAWAI’I

Thursday, February 29

AUSTRALIA

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, global, Mideast,

South Africa Initiates Case Against Israel at International Court of Justice

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article by Julia Conley in Common Dreams (licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

“No one knows apartheid like those who fought it before,” said  one Palestinian rights advocate on Friday in response to the news that South Africa has taken a “historic”  new step to hold Israel accountable for its relentless bombardment and violent yearslong occupation of Gaza—calling on the International Court of Justice to declare that Israel has breached its obligations under the Genocide Convention.


South Africans hold a Free Palestine March on December 16, 2023 in Eldorado Park, South Africa. (Photo by Laird Forbes/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) in South Africa said  it is “gravely concerned with the plight of civilians caught in the present Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip due to the indiscriminate use of force and forcible removal of inhabitants” and called on the ICJ to take action to force Israel to “immediately cease” its current attacks on Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.

The motion was filed as the death toll in Gaza surpassed 21,500 people and tens of thousands of displaced residents fled an Israeli ground offensive, as airstrikes continued in southern Gaza.

Noting that South Africa has consistently condemned all attacks on civilians, including the assault by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, the country’s representatives at the ICJ said Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is “genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial, and [ethnic] group.”

“The acts in question include killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, and inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction,” reads the application filed at the ICJ.

South Africa took its latest action regarding Israel less than two weeks after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced  the government had submitted documents to the International Criminal Court (ICC) supporting its demand, made in November with several other countries, that the court investigate Israel for war crimes.

While the ICC prosecutes individuals and governments for committing war crimes, the ICJ operates under the United Nations to rule on disputes between countries. The ICJ’s orders are binding for Israel, as the country is a U.N. member state.

(continued in right column)

Question related to this article:

How can war crimes be documented, stopped, punished and prevented?

(continued from left column)

South Africa has joined international human rights experts—including the U.N.’s top expert on human rights in occupied Palestine—in saying Israel’s blockade of Gaza and violent treatment of those in the enclave and the West Bank is a form of apartheid, comparing Israeli policies to the racial segregation that was imposed for nearly five decades by the white minority that controlled South Africa.

Last month, the government voted to suspend diplomatic ties  with Israel until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government agrees to a permanent humanitarian cease-fire.

“South Africa has continuously called for an immediate and permanent cease-fire and the resumption of talks that will end the violence arising from the continued belligerent occupation of Palestine,” the government said Friday.

Journalist Jeremy Scahill was among those who recognized the significance of South Africa’s application at the ICJ, noting  that the country “fought for its own liberation against an apartheid regime supported for decades by the U.S.,” which is backing Israel’s assault on Gaza despite international outcry and protests within the United States.

“The U.N. Genocide Convention must be upheld. Israel must be held accountable,” said former U.N. human rights official Craig Mokhiber, who resigned  from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in October in protest of the U.N.’s failure to stop Israel’s massacre of civilians. “International law must be preserved.”

At the ICJ, South Africa called  for an expedited hearing on Israel’s actions and asked the court to indicate provisional measures under the Genocide Convention to “protect against further, severe, and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people.”

Article 2 of the Genocide Convention, adopted in 1948, states that genocide includes acts committed with the “intent to destroy, either in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.”

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, pointed out  Friday that “the three leading Israeli officials have declared the intent” to wipe out Gaza’s population.

Bishara noted that Israeli President Isaac Herzog said  in October that all civilians in Gaza are “responsible” for Hamas’ attack on southern Israel, days after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said  the military would collectively punish the enclave’s population, who he called “human animals.”

Netanyahu also  said  this week that so-called “voluntary migration” of Gaza residents is the ultimate objective of Israel’s assault.

On Friday, the spokesperson for Israel’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, Lior Haiat, dismissed  South Africa’s motion as “baseless” and a “despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the court.”

Despite top officials’ recent statements, Haiat said the government has “made it clear that the residents of the Gaza Strip are not the enemy.”

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director for Human Rights Watch, called  South Africa’s move “a vital step to propel greater support for impartial justice.”

(Editor’s notes. As of January 4, South Africa was joined in their motion by Malaysia and Turkey and as of January 11 by Brazil and Colombia. As of January 11, readers are urged to watch the proceedings at United Nations Web TV.)

global, HUMAN RIGHTS, Mideast, United Nations, ,

Mexico: the First Conference for Peace is held at the Metropolitan Autonomous University in Cuajimalpa

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

An article by Maribel Lozoyade from UAM/UNIDAD CUAJIMALPA

A group of research professors from the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM) has created the Research Network on Culture of Peace, Justice and Solid Institutions. Its objective is to promote a culture of peace through reflection, education and discussion of issues, as well as the implementation of actions that contribute to the strengthening of the ideals of peace. This initiative seeks to intervene and have a social impact in solving problems from various disciplines.

In commemoration of the International Day of Peace, established by the UN on September 21, the Network organized the First Days for Peace. The opening ceremony took place on September 18 at the Cuajimalpa Unit of the UAM, and was attended by authorities from the different academic units that are part of this university.

Dr. José Antonio de los Reyes Heredia, general rector of the UAM, inaugurated the conference and highlighted that universities and Higher Education Institutions have the responsibility of addressing priority issues, satisfying specific needs and accompanying society in its adaptation to challenges. current. This involves promoting perspectives of peace, working to eradicate violence and assuming environmental responsibility. The rector stated that the UAM has incorporated these efforts transversally into its university policies.

(Article continued in right column)

(click here for the original version in Spanish).

Questions for this article:

Is there progress towards a culture of peace in Mexico?

(Article continued from left column)

De los Reyes Heredia pointed out that these days highlight the efforts made by various entities to strengthen their institutions. Almost half a century after the founding of the UAM, the university is implementing strategies that reflect the important social contribution it has had over five decades. He concluded by stating that these first days reflect the identity of the university community and how they wish to be perceived as an institution.

Professor Octavio Mercado González, rector of the UAM-C, stressed that current times are characterized by enormous challenges and threats in different areas and scales. He expressed concern about the polarization of public discourse and how social media influences the local and global context. He highlighted that public universities must reaffirm their ability to contribute to the debate from a climate of respect that makes room for all voices.

“Working in cultures of peace allows us to generate spaces, agreements, but above all, reinforce the way in which the university addresses problems. Universities are not islands, they are not separated from these conflictive environments. We cannot think of the notion of a culture of peace as an absence of conflict, but as the way to address these conflicts towards mediation and construction of agreements that allow a climate of respect to give voice to all parties and to sustain the life of the community.”

Dr. Gabriel Pérez Pérez, director of the Division of Social Sciences and Humanities, explained that the First Conference for Peace takes place until September 22 in different spaces of the UAM academic headquarters. He thanked the work of Dr. Jesús Elizondo, research professor at the UAM-C and head of the Research Network on Culture of Peace, Justice and Solid Institutions, for his remarkable work in ensuring that these sessions were carried out in a public space such as the UAM.

Finally, Dr. Claudia Salazar Villava, member of the Network, spoke on behalf of her research team and highlighted that this initiative seeks to create spaces for learning, debate, reflection and exchange to strengthen the work in favor of peace and justice from different units and approaches. “The network seeks for this Culture of Peace week to be the stage that makes visible the institutional efforts that contribute to the strengthening of peace, the peaceful transformation of conflicts and harmony. We must address the context of violence that affects the daily lives of the university community by promoting reflection and the development of strategies of respect, mutual care and supportive forms of coexistence.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America

Revista CoPaLa, Constructing Peace in Latin America, July-December 2023

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

Extracts from the Revista núm. 18, introduction by Roberto Mercadillo and David Adams

. . . after long reviews and discussions, between 2019 and 2021, the three of us (Roberto Mercadillo, David Adams and Federico Mayor) undertook the task of shaping a new Declaration for the Transition towards a Culture of Peace in the 21st century following a cognitive approach to human consciousness with four axes: recognize, remember, understand and act. . . . (with regard to action) we propose 12 strategies that can be acted on in two simultaneous routes: local and global. The local route is fundamentally pedagogical to be carried out, mainly, by organized civil society supported by local governments. The global route involves the creation of a “Security Council of Mayors” made up of representatives of the major cities in all regions of the world and the expansion of the General Assembly of the United Nations to integrate citizens of the world in the analysis, proposals and resolutions of the problems that affect us.

In February 2022, with Cristina Ávila-Zesatti, Correspondent of Paz – Mexico, Myrian Castello from Fábrica dos Sonhos – Brazil, and Alicia Cabezudo from the Global Alliance for Peace Ministries and Infrastructures – Latin America and the Caribbean, we formed a group of academics, construction companies, peace educators and journalists in Latin America to discuss the relevance of the Declaration in this region of the world and join efforts for its dissemination. . . .

In September 2002, CoPaLa Magazine opened the call to publish a special issue that would give space to experiences, Latin American thoughts and proposals focused on culture and peacebuilding that coincide with the premises set forth in the Declaration for the Transition towards a Culture of Peace in the 21st Century. As a result of this effort, the current Number 18 of the CoPaLa Magazine provides Spanish-speaking readers with 15 texts with a diversity of ways of communicating and thinking about peace . . .

(1) The first essay exposes cognitive and universalist positions on the human mind. In “Culture of peace: A selfish paradox”, Clemens C.C. Bauer reflects on Nietzsche and the life of the Bodhisattva to argue that understanding our feelings and thoughts leads us to recognize our own well-being intertwined with the well-being of others. . .

(2) It is precisely from the historical approach and from his own experience, that Edgardo Carabantes Olivares writes “Peace and Human Rights in Chile fifty years after the overthrow of Allende”. Half a century after the coup d’état in 1973, the author wonders about the inadequacies of the political, social and cultural system that keeps the people Chile in a space that is neither dictatorship nor democracy, but rather a hybridocracy characterized by hidden violence, a negative peace and manipulation of the exercise citizen. He emphasizes civil disobedience, active nonviolence, and hope as acts of resistance to always choose life and peace.

(3) Meanwhile, in “Total Peace: A New Opportunity for Peace Initiatives ex-combatants of the FARC”, Laura C. Fuentes and Juan D. Forero analyze peace initiatives from and for ex-combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. These initiatives form resistance to the Colombian conflict and constitute peacebuilding strategies. The “Total peace”, proposal of the recent and current administration of the Colombian government, could provide – the authors suggest – a stable framework for the construction of a more just and equitable society . . .

Citizen organizations

(4) In “The (re)construction of peace in Mexico through communication”, Lucía Calderón observes and analyzes the violence experienced in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. She describes how the population became managers of information that kept them safe from the actions of criminals. She emphasizes that, to a large extent, the recovery of peace depends on the willingness of the society to rebuild itself and to become aware of the alliances they can build with their peers.

(5) From Mexico City, Arturo Ramírez Ruíz writes “Rodar el pueblo: structures of youth learning and community reception”. He describes and analyzes youth actions organized to ride bicycles and, with this, to build learning structures, community centers and spaces to coexist and live with others. Pedaling the bicycle, says the author, becomes a political act of resistance and vindication of rights that imply knowledge and know how to organize ourselves, know how to take care of ourselves, know how to show solidarity, know how to resist, know how to transform and know how to sustain ourselves.

(6) In “Chiapanecas moving collectively towards a life free of violence: challenges and learning”, Mónica Carrasco Gómez shows us a meticulous and daring participatory ethnography of a collective project of women to build economic independence and live free of violence in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. After searching and creating safe spaces to express their voices, women reestablished a collaborative environmentthat favored their economic independence, becoming aware of their power relations and learning new ways of relating in which the intention to act or speak had no
objective of imposition, but rather the possibility of cooperation.

(7) Carolina Escudero gives us “Culture of peace in the TEB campaign on forced disappearances in Spain.” Through qualitative research, she analyzes the “We Are Here” campaign with families who are victims of the forced disappearance of babies in Spain. She describes the alliances between organizations that ensure Truth, Justice and Reparation that lead to, as one of the participants says, accepting that “We are all equal, we are a family”. The TEB campaign contributes to managing conflict, by denouncing and recognizing the abuses by the State and institutions during the dictatorship, by placing democracy as an antidote to violence, and by strengthening cohesion and group action.

(Continued in right column)

(Click here for the original article in Spanish.)

Questions related to this article:
 
Latin America, has it taken the lead in the struggle for a culture of peace?

(Continued from left column)

Education

(8) In “Teaching ethics in the face of the Technological Revolution (CRI). A hermeneutics-analogue perspective”, Alfonso Luna Martínez raises relevant ethical dilemmas for the assimilation if technological and industrial change in education. He concludes with an ethical proposal, presenting us with the need to overcome the neoliberal capitalist world and to regulate access to the data about people’s interests, so that they are not used in mass manipulation to define market and consumption trends.

(9) Jair Alejandro Vilchis Jardón writes “Thinking about neoliberalism. A critical view from analogical pedagogy of everyday life.” The author calls us to understand that the capitalist model not only acts in the economic sector, but has managed to permeate the educational system through excessive loads and/or work hours justified under the logic of production. He also invites us, collectively, to think about more humane ways of doing science with aspiration of social justice and not as productive agents of knowledge.

(10) In “Understandings about interculturality and its pedagogical implications”, Ximena Marin Hermann reflects on the relationships between interculturality and pedagogy. Interculturality, she suggests, emerges from the need to build public policies focused on social differentiation and globalization, from the resistance and defense of cultural particularities and their identities, and from the investigation to understand the problems of diversity and cultures. Its pedagogical implications lead to the construction of an inclusive intercultural citizenship that would allow us to answer the question “Can we talk about citizen and social construction based on pluriversity and what would be the keys to being able to travel this path?”

(11) Elia Calderón Leyton presents “Education for peace: reflections from literacy criticism”. Her text shows us the importance of writing and critical reading in education. Alluding to the thought of Husserl, Arendt, Habermas, Foucault and Cortina, she points out the need to practice the confrontation of knowledge and experience, as well as to distinguish inequalities in pedagogical practices. Critical thinking contributes to the pedagogy of peace and the ability to listen to others as a political act, because it places the individual in a community to transform doubt into truth, to understand and achieve authentic dialogue in Latin America.

(12) In “Educating towards a culture of peace in the 21st century: Guidelines for thinking and acting”, Anita Yudkin Suliveres proposes a positive vision of peace and a critical approach to education that prioritizes creative thinking, awareness of local problems and global, novel ways of investigating, experiencing and knowing, the cultivation of empathy and solidarity, the arts and the generation of spaces for participation. As educators, we must rethink what happens in educational processes, the experiences of training at all levels and reconsider both the study contents and the capabilities and knowledge that we aspire to promote.

(13) Mónica Lizbeth Chávez González in “School violence and interstitial spaces in Mexico. An ethnographic approach in Uruapan, Michoacán” presents an ethnography of focus groups in a secondary school. She describes how young people, through pedagogy of violence, build relationships and spaces of risk, vulnerability, impunity and defenselessness. Youth are presented as perpetrators of school violence and power through threats, certain criminal practices or the exercise of violent sexual-affective behavior. She urges us to attend to the intersection between these manifestations of violence to collectively them as daily problems.

Action and innovation

(14) In “Culture of peace, service-learning and citizen training: Experiences and reflections”, Benilde García-Cabrero, Alejandro R. Alba-Meraz and María Montero-López Lena reveal to us their proposal for education-action arising from the analysis of three psychosocial interventions carried out by themselves in Mexico. They describe the philosophical underpinnings and pedagogical methods of service-learning as an alternative to promote a culture of peace and citizen training in higher education institutions. With this, they deploy the transformative role of higher education for social awareness, the assumption of collective responsibility and the sense of responsibility. Service-learning enables groups who have a peace or social justice mission to reap the benefits of mutual support and collective action.

(15) In “Psicocalle Colectivo: A university proposal for education and construction of peace”, Lorena Paredes, Mosco Aquino and Roberto E. Mercadillo narrate the trajectory of a transdisciplinary university initiative to understand by means of neuroscience, anthropology and psychology the phenomena of street life and psychoactive substance use. They propose an action research model framed in the culture of peace and compassion as ways to connect with others and to use scientific knowledge in everyday life. Compassionate feeling and acting should motivate our action when confronted with the suffering of others. The culture of peace leads to actions towards the construction of an
active peace, conciliatory, emancipatory and resistant for life on the street and in the use of psychoactive substances.

Issue 18 of CoPaLa closes with a review of two relevant books

“The right to peace and its developments in History” (2022) published by Tirant lo Blanch, edited by María de La Paz Pando Ballesteros and Elizabeth Manjarrés Ramos: a review written by Erika Tatiana Jiménez Aceros. The book covers the history of Human Rights and the history of peace and peace research, thereby, unfolding the methodologies and objects of study of peacebuilding and allowing us to understand our history with new configurations.

“The other in the sand: 20 glances and a blink at Western Sahara” (2014) published by Gedisa and by the Metropolitan Autonomous University and coordinated by Roberto E. Mercadillo and Ahmed Mulay. This book, reviewed by Luis Guerrero, presents the vision of academics, activists and journalists from Latin America on the war, the conflict and the peace strategies developed in the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. With this review, we stand in solidarity with the Sahrawi circumstance, we remember it and make it visible in Latin America in this year 2023 that commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Polisario Front, an organization that has maintained the survival of the Sahrawi people, their quest for peace and their demand for autonomy

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Latin America