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.

‘Historic Win’: UN Members to Start Talks on ‘Inclusive and Effective’ Global Tax Standards

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article by Jessica Corbett from Common Dreams

Tax justice advocates around the world on Wednesday celebrated the unanimous adoption of a resolution to “begin intergovernmental discussions in New York at United Nations Headquarters on ways to strengthen the inclusiveness and effectiveness of international tax cooperation.”


The U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the “promotion of inclusive and effective international tax cooperation at the United Nations” was spearheaded by the African Group —which is composed of the continent’s 54 member states—and comes after about a decade of delays on the topic at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

“We note that the OECD has played a role in these areas,” a representative of the Nigerian delegation to the U.N. reportedly said Wednesday. “It is clear after 10 years of attempting to reform international tax rules that there is no substitute for the global, inclusive, transparent forum provided by the United Nations.”

“The African Group urges countries to remain committed to the development of inclusive tax instruments at the United Nations and encourage the OECD to play a supporting role in this regard,” the Nigerian representative continued.

After the resolution was adopted, Global Alliance for Tax Justice executive coordinator Dereje Alemayehu declared that “this is a historic win for the tax justice and the broader economic justice movement and a big step forward to combat illicit financial flows and tax abuse.”

“African countries stood together and made historic strides, breaking through the long-standing blockade by the OECD countries,” Alemayehu added. “Shifting power from the OECD is paramount to end the exploitation and plunder of developing countries.”

Tax Justice Network chief executive Alex Cobham similarly commended member nations “on their bold action today to move rule-making on global tax into the daylight of democracy at the U.N.,” highlighting that “the adopted resolution will now open the way for intergovernmental discussions on the negotiation of a U.N. tax convention and a global tax body.”

A proposed amendment to the resolution from the United States that would have cut the mention of “the possibility of developing an international tax cooperation framework or instrument that is developed and agreed upon through a United Nations intergovernmental process” was defeated.

Cobham emphasized that the resolution moved forward despite the fact that “the OECD has been unprecedentedly aggressive in its lobbying.”

“Some OECD countries spoke in favor of the organization’s role after the resolution’s adoption, but… the OECD’s two-pillar tax proposal is on life support, with even the organization’s own members… struggling to defend its work,” he said. “Work which has failed to deliver after nearly a decade of promises and work which has left countries losing $483 billion in tax to tax havens a year; and work which has been widely identified as exclusionary by countries outside the core membership of rich countries. Ultimately, this only confirms the importance of moving tax rule-making to a globally inclusive and transparent forum at the United Nations.”

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Question for this article:

Opposing tax havens and corruption: part of the culture of peace?

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Though it was backed by more than 100 countries and jurisdictions last year, the OECD’s international tax reform framework has been called “skewed-to-the-rich and completely unfair,” with critics warning that its 15% global minimum tax for multinational corporations is “way too low.”

“Fears that the OECD process had stalled grew over the summer after the nation of Hungary blocked a 15% minimum corporate tax from being adopted in the European Union,” The Hill reported Wednesday. Experts said the timing of the UNGA resolution was tied to “the delay on the OECD provision that stipulates where a corporation can be taxed for the use of its products as well as frustration from lower-income countries about the amount of that tax.”

According to news outlet:

“There’s a document that’s supposed to be coming out in December outlining which unilateral measures will need to be abandoned, including digital services taxes,” Daniel Bunn, president of the Tax Foundation, a Washington think tank, said in an interview. “The goal is to have a multilateral treaty ready for signature middle of next year.”

On the amount that corporations can be taxed—which is known as Pillar Two within the agreement—E.U. finance ministers are set to meet again in December.

“The language of their announcement is that they’re going to be ‘aiming for agreement’ on Pillar Two, but it’s not clear that that’s certain. Hungary has been holding things up,” Bunn added.

Other analysts in Washington say that the interests of developing countries are not given proper consideration in the OECD’s framework, an oversight that could further delay a final deal.

Tove Maria Ryding, tax coordinator at the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), said Wednesday that “some rich countries are still holding on to the archaic idea that they can keep global rule-making on tax under the control of the OECD—also known as the rich countries’ club.”

“But today’s vote shows that at the end of the day, they know they cannot stop the development towards inclusive, transparent, and U.N.-led tax governance, which is already highly overdue,” Ryding argued. “The OECD-led governance is coming to an end—both because it was deeply unjust and biased in favor of a few rich countries. But also because the OECD has so blatantly failed to stop international tax abuse.”

While welcoming the success of the resolution on Wednesday, Pooja Rangaprasad at the Society for International Development warned that “the post-adoption statements by some developed countries have made it clear that the road ahead will be challenging.”

“However, it is in the interest of all countries to fix an outdated international tax system that is bleeding hundreds of billions of dollars in much-needed resources and public revenue,” Rangaprasad said. “The fight continues in holding all our governments accountable to agree to an effective U.N. tax convention that will ensure wealthy corporations and elites pay their fair share in taxes.”

Cobham of Tax Justice Network stressed that “the intergovernmental discussions next year will be crucial in setting the path for this new era of international tax. It is vital that countries in each region of the world follow the African leadership that underpinned this success, and engage together to generate common positions on an ambitious agenda.”

global, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, United Nations,

How the Islamic Revolution Gave Rise to a Massive Women’s Movement in Iran

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article by Behrooz Ghamari Tabrizi in Counterpunch

Let me start with a straightforward proposition that is everywhere on social and mass media these days: The Islamic Republic’s patriarchal repression of women reached a tipping point after the murder in custody of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini by the Guidance Patrol on September 16, 2022. A revolt, led by young women, engulfed the entire country under the banner of women, life, freedom. At the root of this movement is the anti-women core of the Islamic regime and the struggle of Iranian women against it since its very beginning in 1979.

The whole nation — inside and outside the country, the global community, the progressive Left as well as the hawkish Right, stand in solidarity with this movement. The protests that began against the compulsory hijab and the demand for abolishment of the Guidance Patrol, has now become a full-fledged intersectional revolt for regime change in Iran, led by women.


This indeed is true that the Islamic Republic instituted draconian patriarchal policies after the revolution on 1979 that stripped the very basic formal rights that women had been granted under the ancien régime. These measures formally reduced women to second-class citizens in matters of marriage, custody, inheritance, crime and judiciary, dress code, segregation, and many other spheres of social life.  Yet, despite all this, women’s social mobility and presence in public sphere grew exponentially in the past four decades.  Ironically, this is in part an effect of the unintended consequences of these policies. Women learned very quickly how to navigate the new terrain, push the boundaries of the new institutions, and in practice gain access to rights and privileges from which the Islamic Republic deprived them. The recent revolt could not materialize without the remarkable agentive presence and mobility of women who carved out a space for ceaseless social and political engagement during the past four decades. Women are revolting because they refuse to continue the struggle in a field the boundaries of which are drawn in the dilapidated spirits of patriarchy.  Their gains have reached a hard as well as a glass ceiling that needs to be overcome.

The Iranian revolution succeeded in ending the monarchy on February 11, 1979. On February 26, only two weeks after the victory of the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini annulled the Family Protection Law of 1967 and its 1975 amended version, which had given women more rights in divorce and matters of custody under the Shah. Since its inception, the clergy by and large had opposed the law’s basic premises, which they believed violated the Islamic views on women’s role in family.  Khomeini knew that the unity and uniformity that his leadership afforded the revolutionary movement would not remain uncontested for long after the triumph of the revolution. He knew that the spirit of Islam and the symbolic revolutionary language with which it inspired millions of Iranians of many creeds and classes needed to be translated into a body of institutional projects of postrevolutionary state-building.  So, he seized the opportunity to put women under the control of their menfolk.

Despite such overt assaults on women’s rights, most political parties continue to address women’s issues in the frame of revolutionary politics, nationalism, class struggle, and anti-imperialism.  For the first few months after the revolution, except for the National Front, the oldest liberal organization in Iran, and small Trotskyist group, Left and liberal parties remained ambivalent about women’s issues. They failed to recognize the remarkable contribution of women to the revolutionary struggle and the need to check the assault on their rights.  At the time, most of the women’s organization operated as an appendix to different political parties to further the anti-imperialist struggle and tied women’s issues to greater demands for social justice.

The establishment of the Islamic Republic proved inconsistent with fundamental women’s formal and legal rights.  Despite earlier assurances, on the eve of March 8, 1979, less than a month after the triumph of the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini called upon the Provisional Government to uphold Islamic dress codes in its offices.  His pronouncement scandalized many who played a significant role in the revolutionary movement, including several members of his own Revolutionary Council.  This was the second time, after the abrogation of the Family Protection Law, in three weeks that issues of women’s right had become a point of contention in the postrevolutionary power struggle. That was why the festive preparations for the first postrevolutionary International Women’s Day turned into a rally with specific women’s rights demands such as the recognition of women judges and, most importantly, a call against compulsory hejāb.  Thousands of women gathered in Tehran University and the next day in front of and inside the hallways of the Ministry of Justice chanting: In the Spring of freedom, absent is the rights of women.

Instituting compulsory hejāb even in the tightly controlled parliament and implementing it throughout the country was not an easy proposition. It took another four years for the mandate to become an enforceable law. Different factions inside the government as well as influential clerics in seminaries raised questions about the wisdom of such a law, its religious justification, as well as its feasibility. Nevertheless, the new law went into effect on August 9, 1983.

The institution of compulsory hejāb and other patriarchal measures in cases of travel, marriage, custody, inheritance, criminal laws, etc. all of which formally reduced women to second-class citizens, gave yet more credibility to feminist concerns that the Islamic republic would entirely force women out of the public sphere. Comparisons were made with Reza Shah.  Some argued that whereas he liberated Muslim women by the “unveiling law” that banned the hejāb in public spaces in 1936, the Islamic Republic was now forcing women back into the private sphere where they would be subjected to the repressive domestic patriarchy.  Yet curiously – these contrasting policies produced paradoxical results on the ground. Reza Shah’s “unveiling” did not liberate women, and the Islamic Republic’s repressive measures did not imprison women at home. Ironically, it was under Reza Shah’s “unveiling law” that a great majority of women in urban areas were forced to stay at home, either because they chose not to appear in public without a veil or were not allowed to leave their homes by their fathers or husbands. Under the Islamic Republic, despite the institution of repressive anti-women laws, rather than being imprisoned in their homes, women gained unprecedented mobility in the country and year after year increased their presence in the public sphere.

These were unintended consequences, but they were quite substantial. As a consequence of the restrictions imposed on women in public places, a new system emerged of what I call patriarchy by proxy. The new laws created the possibility for a great majority of socially conservative Iranian families who were previously reluctant to see women’s participation in social affairs, to trust the new “Islamized” public sphere as an extended domain of patriarchal/religious order. The state became the ultimate guardian of patriarchy and by becoming so, paradoxically, sanctioned an unprecedented mobility among rural and urban women. Despite barring women from entering key political and judicial positions of decision-making, women entered and shaped the conditions of those spheres in significant numbers.

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Question related to this article:
 
Prospects for progress in women’s equality, what are the short and long term prospects?

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In practice, gender politics and policy under the Islamic Republic have been far from the mere enactment of literal readings of the Qur’anic verses or a replication of women’s repression in Saudi Arabia. There is no doubt that the postrevolutionary regime instituted formal and legal apparatuses in order to constitute a homo Islamicus. But in its realpolitik, the Islamic Republic negated the anxieties that it would implement a literal reading of the Qur’an and expunge women from the pubic and restrict their lives to the domestic sphere. A quick look at the human development indexes in relation to women’s status in education, health, sports, artistic and cultural production, and civic engagement shows that the women in Iran have the most visible presence in public sphere in its history.  These changes were not the result of top-down state policies, but rather the consequence of a contentious engagement between different factions within the polity, women’s community and civic institutions, and political parties and activists.

From the time of revolution in 1979 to the latest reports in 2019, women’s literacy rate rose from 36% to 97.93%; share of women students in higher education rose from 15% to 60%; women’s life expectancy rose from 55 to 77; infant mortality decreased from 90 per 1000 to 10 per 1000. None of these could have been possible without a remarkable presence of women in public space and their involvement in policy planning and implementation.

The significant presence of women in the public arena created unanticipated shifts in gender relations in the country, conditions that forced even the most patriarchal factions in power to advocate unlikely propositions regarding women’s role in society. In 2006-2007 school year, women comprised 60% of incoming class of university students, and that trend continues. The conservatives of the 8th Parliament introduced legislation for affirmative action for men to catch up with women in higher education. The conservative parliamentarians, who otherwise insist that the place of women is at home to raise a virtuous family, argued that women who use resources of free public universities had to commit to a 10-year employment (public or private) after graduation. The paradox there is self-evident.

Another measure that contributed to the remarkable shift in family structure and gendered relations in public and private spheres was an aggressive family planning and population control program that was instituted in 1989. Although the Islamic Republic repealed the family planning and protection laws of the old regime soon after assuming power, in a significant shift, in 1988, the government introduced and carried out one of the most efficient family planning programs in the economically developing world.   Dictated by the perceived necessity of containing an unchecked rise in population, the program successfully reduced the population growth rate from the high of 3.4% in 1986 to 0.7% in 2007. During the same period, the number of children per family dropped from 6.5 to less than 2. Before his death in 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini endorsed the new program thus affording religious legitimacy to this ideological reversal.  As the Candadian-Iranian anthropologists Homa Hoodfar has shown, without national consensus-building, a massive mobilization of women, both by government agencies as well as non-governmental agents, promoted with effective religious justification, and offered through an efficient delivery service in birth control and contraceptives (such as distribution of free condoms), and premarital sex-education programs, this ambitious family planning project could not have been realized. Called by many “The Iranian Miracle,” the program was so successful that, fearing the emergence of an aging population, the authorities are now trying to encourage families to have more children.

The purpose of this brisk history is not to draw a sanguine picture of women’s conditions in contemporary Iran. The complexities of how government and non-governmental actors interact on these issues, how the expansion and containment of state power shape the social realities of women of different classes and ethnicities, or how religious doctrines and convictions hinder or facilitate women’s mobility cannot be fully detailed here.  Rather, I want to show that the Islamic Republic instituted policies and imposed patriarchal laws that produced unintended consequences in gender relations and women’s mobility. For an uprising to materialize, there needs to be a socially mobile, politically conscious, and subjectively free population. Iranian women have long been the fierce political actors we see on the street, not the oppressed, shadowy, veiled subjects that are the meat and potatoes of foreign misperception and paternalism. Yes, a mighty patriarchy shaped social order in Iran, like many other places in the world, but women were never its hapless captives. That image, the helpless veiled women, while effective in gathering support in global liberal feminist circles who believe that Muslim women need to be saved, does not correspond to the practice of those women’s everyday lives and fails to credit two generations of Iranian women for their political creativity.

At its core, Women-Life-Freedom is a movement for dignity and sovereignty of the subject.  It is a movement that has changed the political culture of defiance and expressions of dissent. Its radical creativity— posters, songs, graffiti, and imaginative forms of collective action, has opened in practice the possibility of thinking of politics anew. The transformative acts of insubordinate bodies and liberated souls has made party platforms and unruffled sermons ineffective and obsolete.

While Iranian women and their male allies fight against the state’s brutal crackdown, their aspiring revolt, with its novel singularities, faces instrumentalization by regional and global actors, facilitated through a misreading of Iranian women’s history of deliberate and agentive action. While the global reach of this movement through the media operates as an instrument of its effective dissemination, paradoxically, it also subjects it to a discursive violence.

We should not misread the core principles of Women, Life, Freedom as being a simple “desire for the west” by a population who are simply fed up.  Under such a misreading, a whole host of unsavory interests, from neocolonial expansionists to ethno-nationalist separatists, from delusional monarchists to all those who still lament being on the losing side of the 1979 revolution, try their best to claim ownership of this movement.  Yet Iranian women on the ground have been the very actors who historically have created the conditions of possibility for their protest.  They have opened space for themselves and their daughters in the face of a state desire for repressive patriarchy. Over decades they have succeeded to take advantage of the unintended consequences of state policies; they are not merely reacting—they are instead determined.

Today’s massive women’s movement in Iran represents one of the great achievements of the 1979 revolution—a revolution that generated hope-bearing, conscious subjects who have perpetuated themselves for more than four decades – despite and in the face of all manner of repression. The paradoxical effects of the Islamic Republic policies brought women to the centerstage of social transformation in Iran. Now that transformation has reached a point of frontal war with the state. Iranian women today hold key positions in journalism, artistic and cultural production, civic engagement, political organizing, higher education, scientific communities, local political offices, etc. Daughters of those women, irrevocably demand an extension and expansion of their mothers’ positions without any patriarchal restrictions, either by the state or inside their homes.

Those demands will only be realized through the transformation of the state, or by rethinking the meaning of the state. How this transformation will unfold and with what means is yet not known, but its inevitability is evident. How fortunate we are that these generations of women taking the lead.

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Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi is an Iranian-born American historian, sociologist, and professor.

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Mideast

Say NO to U.S. wars! Actions took place in more than 70 areas across the US and Canada

. .DISARMAMENT & SECURITY. .

An article from Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement

During the past week (as of October 23, 2022), antiwar actions were held in more than 70 areas.  The actions took place mostly in the United States in answer to a call from the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), but we were joined by a coalition of antiwar groups from Canada and also by some European countries.  We did not expect such an overwhelming response from our movement, but we learned people are ready to hit the streets and build a strong unified antiwar movement.


Understanding that the 2 main parties in the US are both imperialist and pro-war, the actions were called right before the US midterm elections.  Although the US and NATO are neck deep in their war with Russia in Ukraine and we may be closer to nuclear war than at any time in the past, there was no debate about war during this election period.  This despite that fact that the sanctions on Russia along with the US destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines has led to an economic crisis in the US and especially in Europe that is causing great hardship to the working people in North America and Europe.

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Question for this article:

The peace movement in the United States, What are its strengths and weaknesses?

Can the peace movement help stop the war in the Ukraine?

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The Ukraine war is also exposing deep cracks in the US empire that will change the world.  After the humiliating defeat of the US and NATO in Afghanistan, the looming defeat of the US and NATO in Ukraine along with the economic crisis is moving countries out of the orbit of the US as power is shifting to the East.  Few countries, especially in the Global South have gone along with the US sanctions on Russia.  We have also seen cracks in NATO and the European Union as the US uses the crisis to try and move Europe away from its trade relationships with Russian and China in order to bring more profit to US corporations at the expense of Europe.

So, it is extremely important that our actions took place and it is extremely important that they continue.  In Canada, a coalition was developed to build the actions that has the potential of strengthen their movement and, in the US, we must do the same.  Although, the major news media ignored our actions, we were in the streets and visible and are stronger for it.

If your group is not a member of UNAC, it is more important than ever that it joins.  In unity, there is strength.  To have your peace or social justice group join UNAC,  please go here.

UNAC demands:
Stop Washington’s war moves toward Russia and China
Stop endless wars: Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Palestine, everywhere

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, North America

At Fez forum, UN chief calls for global ‘alliance of peace’ recognizing inclusion and richness of diversity

DISARMAMENT AND SECURITY .

An article from the United Nations

In a world where “old evils – antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry, persecution of Christians, xenophobia, and racism – are receiving new leases on life”, the UN Alliance of Civilizations is helping to show the way on how to act in solidarity, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, said on Tuesday.

Mr. Guterres was speaking at the opening of the 9th Global Forum  of the UN Alliance of Civilizations (AOC) which is taking place in Fez, Morocco. 

“The forces of division and hate are finding fertile ground in a landscape marred by injustice and conflicts,” said Mr. Guterres calling for the creation of an alliance of peace  through recognizing “diversity as richness” and investing in inclusion; and making sure that “all of us – regardless of race, descent, origin, background, gender, religion, or other status – can live lives of dignity and opportunity.”  

“The Holy Quran teaches us that God created nations and tribes ‘so that we might know one another’,” said UN Secretary-General urging at this time of peril, to be inspired by the essence of these meanings and “stand together as one human family – rich in diversity, equal in dignity and rights, united in solidarity.” 

‘Clash of interests and ignorance’ 

Miguel Angel Moratinos, the UNAOC High Representative, recalled the thesis of prestigious American political scientist Samuel Huntington, in his famous lecture on the “clash of civilizations,” but gave his views on the idea. 

Mr. Moratinos asserted that “international conflicts cannot be the sole consequence of religion, culture or civilizations. It must be stated bluntly: there is no clash of civilizations. There is a clash of interests and a clash of ignorance.” 

For the High representative, the world is not facing a clash of civilizations, because the world of the 21st century is global and interconnected. Hence, “we are one humanity facing multiple global challenges.” 

“The recent crises affecting the international community have shown us that there are no borders that can stop viruses and wars, whether they occur in Europe or in any other corner of the world,” Mr. Moratinos stated, noting further that, “a regional war, the war in Ukraine has affected the peace and stability of the entire international order.” 

“In the face of defending tolerance, let us defend mutual respect. In the face of defending coexistence, let us defend living together: “convivencia” [coexistence]. 

Indeed, he said: “In the face of defending minorities, let us defend the equal rights of all citizens; In the face of exclusion and separatism, let us defend inclusion and fraternity; In the face of only a dialogue of civilizations, let us engage ourselves in an Alliance of Civilizations, in a collective commitment.” 

‘Politics speaks to citizens, religion speaks to their souls’ 

The Forum takes place against the backdrop of an extremely complex global context marked by myriad challenges, ranging from the surge in violent extremism, terrorism, xenophobia, hate speech to racism, discrimination, and radicalism, among others.  

Over 1,000 representatives from nearly 100 countries participated in the event, including Advisor to the King of Morocco, André Azoulay, who delivered a powerful message of solidarity on behalf of th4e King, focusing on the importance of finding pathways to peace, unity and solidarity, and how Fez and wider Morocco embodied these values. 

(Click here for a version of this article in Spanish)

Question for this article:

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

“Morocco is built around a model of openness, harmony and synergy that has seen the convergence of Arab-Islamic, Amazigh and Saharan-Hassanian confluents, and that has, at the same time, been enriched by African, Andalusian, Hebrew and Mediterranean tributaries,” he said. 

In his remarks to the Forum, Mr. he explained that Morocco was committed from the beginning has been committed to this avant-garde and has remained there with constancy through: Firstly, promoting openness as a pillar of the culture of peace; secondly, living religion as a vehicle of peace; thirdly, working for development – in the broadest sense of the term – as an ingredient for peace. 

“Politics speaks to citizens, religion speaks to their souls, dialogue speaks to their civilizations”, stressed Mr. Azoulay, adding that there is really no point in carrying out major projects “if we do not manage to go beyond this first link in the chain of ‘living-together’, in the name of a single humanity, which puts back human beings at the center of its concerns.” 

On the margins of the Forum, the PLURAL+ Youth Video Festival, a joint initiative between UNAOC and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), with a network of over 50 partner organizations worldwide that support the creative efforts of young people and distribute their videos worldwide, took place today. 

This festival aims at encouraging and empowering youth to explore the pressing social issues of migration, diversity, social inclusion, and the prevention of xenophobia and to share their creative vision with the world. 

“We are in our 14th year of collaboration with our friend and partner UNAOC for the PLURAL+ Youth Video Festival,” said Antonio Vitorino, Director General of IOM.   

“We share their commitment to promote the benefits of safe migration, to better the inclusion of migrants, and particularly young migrants, and to improve the misleading narratives that generate negative perceptions of migrants, and which are, concerningly, too often popularized in contemporary media,” he added, congratulating the young participants who received today. 

After receiving his award for his short film Adventure in Other Seas, Twelve-years old Ariel Pino, from Spain, spoke on behalf of his colleagues Diego, Paula and Danie, thanking the jury for their recognition. 

Their film is about a fish who decided to migrate from its community to another, and the hardship it faced along the way but also the bad treatment from the fishes in the new community. 

Ariel pointed out that they learnt many things while making their film: 

“First is to put ourselves in the place of the people who are crossing the sea; and second is to contribute to the new community that we migrate to. And most importantly we learn that we shall be good to our family.” 

Recognized PLURAL+ videos are chosen on the basis of their potential to have an impact on issues of migration, diversity, social inclusion, and the prevention of xenophobia, as well as on their artistic, innovative, and creative content.  

This year, PLURAL+ has received 246 video entries from 53 countries, of which 21 have been selected recognized. 

Fez Declaration 

During its work today, the 9th Global Forum adopted the Fez Declaration, which stressed, among others, the importance of the central role of education, women as mediators and peace-makers, combating discrimination and intolerance based on religion or belief anchored in human rights, sport as a vector for peace and inclusiveness, balancing migration narratives through programming, the role of religious leaders in promoting peace, coexistence and social harmony, reinvigorating multilateralism through culture of peace and on countering; and addressing online hate speech. 

The Declaration also commended the international initiatives, including those by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designed to promote the safeguarding of cultural heritage in time of peace and in the event of armed conflicts, and encouraged the members of the Group of Friends of the Alliance of Civilizations to condemn the unlawful destruction of cultural heritage and religious sites. 

It underlined also the positive impact that migration can have on countries of origin, transit and destination, including through promoting cultural pluralism.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global, United Nations,

Colombian government and ELN advocate for peace in Venezuela

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION . .

An article from Prensa Latina

Resuming talks between the Colombian Government and the guerillas National Liberation Army (ELN) in Caracas, Venezuela, on Tuesday (Nov 22) , demonstrated willingness to move towards peace.


(l-r) Silvana Guerrero, Aureliano Carbonell, Pablo Beltrán, Carlos Martínez and Danilo Rueda participate in the peace talks between the Colombian government and the ELN today at the Humboldt Hotel in the Waraira Repano (Avila) national park in Caracas. | Photo: EFE/ Rayner

Despite the differences that may exist, the negotiators expressed in a joint declaration their disposition, optimism, certainty, and hope to resume talks, with a political and ethical will, that have been frustrated over the years,

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(Click here for a Spanish version of this article.)

Questions related to this article:

What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

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High Commissioner for Peace Danilo Rueda expressed certainty in achieving a satisfactory conclusion “with all the differences we may have” because we have found in the delegation a kind attitude and the compliance this time to reach peace.

The head of the ELN delegation, Pablo Beltrán, stated that the Colombians “cannot see each other as enemies,” the work we have done is reconciliation, finding common points again, and building a nation in peace and equity.

Historical Pact Senator Iván Cepeda underlined his faith and hope that the changes of the Government peace delegation are true, as we have started in a few hours to “experience tuning” with the ELN peace delegation

Cuba, Norway, and Venezuela, the guarantor countries of the peace talks, have seen the process, that began on Monday, with hope. The Colombian Government and the ELN signed for this process in Caracas on October 4 and expressed gratitude for the trust placed in them.

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Latin America

Peace Pals International Art Exhibition and Awards

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

Excerpts from the website of Peace Pals International

This year, Peace Pals International celebrated our 25th anniversary with artwork coming from 77 countries and 4,540 young people creating beautiful artwork filled with love and hope for a peaceful world.  We would like to thank our International Judges for 2022  for taking the time and voting for our winners and finalists.


Video of exhibition and awards

To view the Winners and Finalists Artwork, Please CELEBRATE our 25th Anniversary with us and watch the video above or click on an image below. .


First prize and second prize for ages 5-7.

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Question for this article:
EDUCATION FOR PEACE, global

Marching for peace in Ukraine: thousands in Rome ask for the peaceful resolution of the war

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article from Agenzia Nova

A long colorful procession marched today in Roma to protest the conflict in Ukraine. The snake of people gathered in the late morning in a square of the Republic full of rainbow flags, banners, symbols of peace and the 600 associations that participated in the march. At the head of the procession, which paraded up to piazza San Giovanni – passing through via Cavour, piazza dell’Esquilino, piazza di Santa Maria Maggiore and via Merulana -, the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri and the general secretary of the CGIL, Maurizio Landini, who accompanied the march holding the banner of the Italian Peace and Disarmament Network. The demonstration, organized to ask for a negotiation for peace, was organized by the trade unions CGIL, CISL and UIL, ARCI, ACLI, ANP, together with the community of Sant’Egidio, the association Libera, Emergency, Sbilanciamoci and the Aoi.

A large stage set up with white and red balloons welcomed the demonstrators as the march arrived. And from here the interventions of the institutions and representatives of various organizations alternated. Reduce military spending in favor of investments for poverty, ecological transition and decent work, guarantee shared security, which “does not come from weapons that only cause suffering to the populations”: these were some of the demands raised by the stage.

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Questions related to this article:

Can the peace movement help stop the war in the Ukraine?

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“My compatriots feel the consequences of this war personally. We believe that every conflict must be resolved in a peaceful way because human life is the greatest value, the life of every Ukrainian is the greatest value like the life of every Russian “, said in a video message an activity of the pacifist movement. Ukrainian, to the cheers of the crowd. According to the organizers, 100 people participated in the parade, 45 for the Police Headquarters.

(Editor’s note: According to Agence France Presse the police reported that the peace rally was attended by some 30,000 people.)

Among those present at the event also the secretary of the Democratic Party, Enrico Letta and the president of the 5-star Movement, Giuseppe Conte who explained: “Today there are no political flags but citizens who parade, who tell the Italian government and not only that we are tired of this strategy that only provides for military escalation, we want a peace negotiation, difficult to build but we must succeed and this cry rises loudly from the silent majority of the country ”. For Rome it is “very important to be here for peace against this terrible war unleashed by Putin,” said Gualtieri. “We stand by the Ukrainian people because they work to make peace and law prevail,” he added.

Today’s goal “is to overcome war as an instrument for regulating relations between states”, he continued Landini. “We must not only stop this run-up but prevent nuclear weapons from continuing to be built and it is time to shift spending on health, knowledge, training and work to allow people to live in peace but with dignity. China and the United States play a decisive role in this phase – he stressed – and I believe that Europe must also play a role in the relationship between Ukrainians and Russians that is able to ensure that a ceasefire prevails, that can start the negotiations and – he concluded -, as proposed by the President of the Republic, I believe it is time to work to build an international peace conference since behind this war there is a re-definition of the political equilibrium of the world ”.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Europe

The Western Sanctions That Are ‘Choking’ Syria May Be Crimes Against Humanity

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article by Benjamin Norton in Agencia Uruguaya de Noticias

The United Nations special rapporteur said the “outrageous” sanctions the West has imposed on Syria are “suffocating” millions of civilians and “may constitute crimes against humanity.” The country’s economy contracted 90%. Nine out of 10 Syrians live in poverty.

“The entire [Syrian] population is in life-threatening conditions with severe shortages of drinking water,” electricity, fuel and food, the UN special rapporteur reported on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, Alena Douhan.


Foto: Syrian children walk past ruins on their way home from school / UNOCHA / Ali Haj Suleiman 

The United Nations special rapporteur said the “outrageous” sanctions the West has imposed on Syria are “suffocating” millions of civilians and “may constitute crimes against humanity.” The country’s economy contracted 90%. Nine out of 10 Syrians live in poverty.

“The entire [Syrian] population is in life-threatening conditions with severe shortages of drinking water,” electricity, fuel and food, the UN special rapporteur reported on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, Alena Douhan.

She wrote about the “enormous negative effect of unilateral sanctions”, which have “a devastating effect on the entire population” and “a devastating effect on almost all categories of human rights”.

“Maintaining unilateral sanctions amid the current catastrophic and still deteriorating situation in Syria may amount to crimes against humanity against the entire Syrian people,” the UN expert said.

Douhan, a respected international law professor, visited Syria for 12 days in October and November to investigate the impact of sanctions on the country. On November 10, she released a preliminary report that “calls for the lifting of long-standing unilateral sanctions that ‘suffocate’ the Syrian people.”

The UN special rapporteur described a medieval-style blockade, in which sanctions have “eroded to the level of complete extinction the purchasing power of households, which are in a prolonged state of survival.”

“The sanctions imposed have shattered the state’s ability to respond to the needs of the population, particularly the most vulnerable, with 90% of people now living below the poverty line,” she wrote.

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(click here for the article in Spanish.).)

Question related to this article:

Are economic sanctions a violation of human rights?

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

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Prices have risen more than 800% since 2019, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost, and sanctions block the importation of “food, medicine, spare parts, raw materials, and items necessary for the country’s needs and economic recovery,” she said.

While Western governments claim to have humanitarian exceptions to their sanctions regimes, the UN expert stressed that “secondary sanctions and over-compliance” by international financial institutions prevent Syria from importing necessary goods, and have even made it very difficult for UN institutions and international humanitarian aid organizations to operate in the country.

Today, more than half of Syrians suffer from food insecurity. Furthermore, 24% of Syrians are disabled and 14.6% suffer from diseases.

The sanctions have also prevented the government from rebuilding damaged infrastructure, and have caused a “shortage of electricity and drinking water”, leading to daily blackouts, including in hospitals, contaminated water and even a cholera outbreak.

Due to the occupation of Syria’s oil-rich regions by the US military and its Kurdish allies, government oil production is only 10% of its pre-2010 levels, and with Western sanctions making the oil importation nearly impossible, the Syrian people face a chronic shortage of gasoline and fuel.

Douhan called for the unilateral sanctions that the United States and Europe have imposed on Syria to be lifted immediately, stressing that they are illegal under international law.

The UN expert has also previously traveled to Venezuela and reported that illegal Western sanctions had similar devastating effects on the civilian population there, while depriving the government of 99% of its revenue.

Most of the sanctions imposed on Syria came after the West launched a proxy war against the country in 2011. But the UN expert noted that Washington has imposed sanctions on Damascus since 2004.

Aggressive US sanctions imposed against Syria in 2011 and 2012 expanded to a de facto blockade in 2019, with the passage of the Caesar Act, which Douhan noted “authorized secondary sanctions against non-US persons anywhere in the world who provide financial resources.” , materials or technological support to the Syrian government or that carry out transactions with it”.

The European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada and Australia have imposed similar sanctions, along with the Arab League, which is dominated by the Persian Gulf monarchies.

As part of her trip, Douhan met with representatives not only of the Syrian government but also civil society organizations, health clinics, financial institutions, humanitarian groups, businesses, universities and religious bodies, as well as other UN entities. that operate in the country.

Douhan will present the final version of her report to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2023.

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*Benjamín Norton is a journalist, writer and filmmaker. He is the founder and editor of Multipolarista, and lives in Latin America.

HUMAN RIGHTS, Mideast

The Elders welcome historic breakthrough on loss and damage at COP27, but call on G20 leaders to phase out fossil fuels faster

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

A press release from The Elders

The agreement reached at COP27 in Egypt shows that solidarity and co-operation between nations on the world’s most pressing issues is possible through negotiation and compromise, even in testing times. But the world needs urgent actions, not just carefully crafted words, to avoid climate catastrophe.


Photo: Rafapress/Shutterstock

We welcome governments’ reaffirmation of the need to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5℃,  the historic breakthrough on financial help for countries experiencing loss and damage caused by climate change, and the pressure COP27 has added for bold reform of the international financial system to generate more climate finance.

We now call on G20 leaders in particular to build on this restored foundation of cooperation to implement the changes needed, before it is too late. It is time for governments to turn their commitments into real change, not more promises that are broken. 

With the 1.5℃ limit reinforced in the final COP27 agreement, following similar commitments at the G20 summit last week, world leaders now have a clear mandate to redouble efforts to reduce global emissions by 43% by 2030. This will require bold leadership at home to convince citizens and businesses that the costs of inaction outweigh the costs of action, and reform of the multilateral development banks to generate more money to support countries most in need of help.

We welcome the recognition that renewables are the answer to the energy crisis, but regret that not all governments could agree the necessity of phasing down fossil fuels to keep 1.5℃ alive, notably Saudi Arabia and Russia. Disappointingly, developed countries failed to follow up on their COP26 pledge to double adaptation finance by agreeing a roadmap for delivery. At future COPs, climate science must drive decisions, and commitments must be kept.

We welcome the USA and China’s renewed dialogue at the G20 and COP27. We call for sustained leadership from the world’s two largest economies and emitters, and for all G20 countries to reduce emissions more rapidly and accelerate their phase out of fossil fuels by transitioning faster from coal, oil and gas to renewable energy. We urge accelerated financing of just transition partnerships in South Africa, Indonesia and elsewhere to ensure this change happens across all major emitters.

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Question for this article:

Sustainable Development Summits of States, What are the results?

Despite the vested interests of companies and governments, Can we make progress toward sustainable development?

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We commend youth activists, indigenous communities, other civil society organisations and businesses who refused to allow governments to backtrack on the Paris Agreement and COP26 commitments to 1.5℃. Their persistence, in spite of unacceptable state restrictions on civic space in Egypt, reminds us why COPs should be open and inclusive, with hosts abiding by their human rights commitments. The climate crisis affects us all, and everyone’s voice should be heard in finding solutions to it.

The outcome of COP27 demonstrates the potential for multilateral negotiations to deliver tangible results, sometimes against predictions. But this was only a partial success. There is no room for complacency, given the continuing increases in global emissions and extreme weather events around the world.

Mary Robinson, Chair of The Elders and former President of Ireland, said:

“In a year of multiple crises and climate shocks, the historic outcome on loss and damage at COP27 shows international cooperation is possible, even in these testing times. Equally, the renewed commitment on the 1.5℃ global warming limit was a source of relief. However, none of this changes the fact that the world remains on the brink of climate catastrophe.

“Progress made on mitigation since COP26 in Glasgow has been too slow. Climate action at COP27 shows we are on the cusp of a clean energy world, but only if G20 leaders live up to their responsibilities, keep their word, and strengthen their will. The onus is on them.

“All climate commitments must be transformed into real-world action, including the rapid phase out of fossil fuels, a much faster transition towards green energy, and tangible plans for delivering both adaptation and loss and damage finance. We avoided backsliding and made progress in Sharm El-Sheikh. Now leaders must stop sidestepping and fulfil their promises to safeguard a liveable future.”

Graça Machel, Deputy Chair of The Elders and first Education Minister of Mozambique, said:

“This was the ‘African COP’, and at COP27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh the multiple crises of food, energy and the impacts of climate change on vulnerable nations were at the forefront of discussions. Though there were restrictions on civil society in Egypt, people living on the frontlines of the climate crisis still made their voices heard: their cries for a loss and damage fund for nations devastated by climate impacts were heeded. Now rich countries must deliver on their promises and ensure the funding starts to flow as quickly as possible.”

Ban Ki-moon, Deputy Chair of The Elders and former UN Secretary-General, said:

“Richer countries – particularly those in the G20 – must continue to come together to address the threat posed by the climate crisis, and to seek solutions inside and outside the UNFCCC system. We have seen signals of solidarity on tackling climate change at COP27, but these signals must evolve into meaningful actions that benefit the most vulnerable. COP27 is part of a process, not an endpoint.”

global, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, United Nations,

In COP27 Speech, Lula Vows to Make Amazon Destruction ‘A Thing of the Past’

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article by Kenny Stancil from Common Dreams

Leftist Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vowed Wednesday to halt deforestation of the Amazon and to establish a special ministry to protect Indigenous forest dwellers from human rights abuses.


Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president-elect of Brazil, speaks at the COP27 summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt on November 16, 2022. (Photo: Christophe Gateau/picture alliance via Getty Images)

During a  speech  at the United Nations COP27 climate conference in Egypt—his first on the international stage since he  defeated  Brazil’s outgoing far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, just over two weeks ago—Lula  said  that “there’s no climate security for the world without a protected Amazon,” roughly 60% of which is located in Brazil.

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Question for this article:

Despite the vested interests of companies and governments, Can we make progress toward sustainable development?

Latin America, has it taken the lead in the struggle for a culture of peace?

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Parts of the Amazon, often referred to as the “lungs of the Earth” due to its unparalleled capacity to provide oxygen and absorb planet-heating carbon dioxide, recently  passed  a key tipping point after Bolsonaro  intensified  the destruction of the tropical rainforest during his four-year reign. According to one  estimate , Bolsonaro’s regressive policy changes are responsible for the eradication of as many as two billion trees in South America’s largest nation.

“This devastation [of the Amazon] will be a thing of the past,”  said  Lula, who previously served as Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2010 and takes office again on January 1. “The crimes that happened during the current government will now be combated. We will rebuild our enforcement capabilities and monitoring systems that were dismantled during the past four years.”

Most of the deforestation that occurred under Bolsonaro was illegal, propelled by logging, mining, and agribusiness companies that often used violence to run roughshod over Indigenous inhabitants of the Amazon.

“We will fight hard against illegal deforestation,” the 77-year-old Lula, a member of the Workers’ Party, continued. “We will take care of Indigenous people.”

“I’m here to tell you that Brazil is back in the world. Brazil is emerging from the cocoon to which it has been subjected for the last four years,” added Lula, who drastically reduced deforestation and channeled an economic boom into downwardly redistributive programs that  curbed inequality  when he governed Brazil earlier this century.

Latin America, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT