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.

A message from Palestine: This is the time to re-imagine, re-create and restore.

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An post from the Facebook page of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability

A few days ago we were sent a message about the failure of political leaders to change the catastrophic situation we are facing for our planet. One can attest to many things: 85% of the world’s wetlands lost, 50% of reefs died since 1950 (14% since 2010), a third of forests disappeared, and a 15% increase in the global consumption of individual materials since 1980, and bees decreased 40% (the bees) Crops Which depend on insects for vaccination is 36% of the world crops), humans were less than 1% of the breast biological mass and now humans and our hybrid animals have become 96% of the mammals biocals and soon there will be more plastic than fish in the planet’s water

This is the time for work. This is the time to re-imagine, re-create and restore….

1) We held a workshop to launch work on the National Biodiversity Strategy and Work Plan (NBSAP) for Palestine. This is based on our work on the National Biodiversity Report of the Diversity Agreement (posted here. ). Director General of Natural Resources in the Environment Quality Authority, Dr. Issa Adwan, opened the workshop, who pointed out that the national strategy for biodiversity contributes to supporting Palestine commitments globally and locally to a healthy planet even in the face of colonial occupation.

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Question for this article:

If we can connect up the planet through Internet, can’t we agree to preserve the planet?

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Professor Mazen presented a presentation on the mechanism of building strategies and national work plans for biodiversity including examples of strategies for other countries. Mr. Mohammed Mohasna, Director of Biodiversity Management in Environmental Quality Authority, presented the roles of stakeholders including organizing a weekly workshop on key topics every Thursday 11 am Palestine Time for the next six months. The meeting is here – in two parts (Let us know if you would like to participate and/or help in this crucial project).

2) Participate in Rotary meetings for Palestine and House of Meat to plan more service projects. Rotary puts the global environment in its top five priorities

3) Participating in a workshop on gas species management (this in addition to climate change and habitat destruction are the three most negative issues affecting biodiversity)

4) Participating in a workshop on preserving biodiversity in developing countries (speakers from 10 countries).

5) We presented many seminars to students and others from Palestine and the world on areas ranging from human rights to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

6) Through the project “Unity and Diversity in Nature and Society” funded by the EU Peace Building Initiative we organized in cooperation with the Directorate of Education in Bethlehem a training workshop for teachers on biodiversity in Palestine

7) With the same funding, we organized Thursday students’ visit to the museum and parks and learned about the importance of preserving biodiversity. We’re getting a mobile education unit this week to provide conservation efforts for remote communities.

This is the time for work. This is the right time…. Join us.

Email info@palestinenature.org

Mideast, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Rallies around the world send a message to COP26

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

A press survey by CPNN

While negotiators for a climate agreemen meet, they are face with a worldwide movement in addition to the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Glasgow. Here are some photos from the media.



Members of the climate action group Extinction Rebellion lay in the street during a protest in Brussels, Belgium, November 6. (Julien Warnand/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)


Extinction Rebellion protesters conducting a mock funeral procession featuring a burning Koala march in St Kilda on November 06, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. Photo: Getty Images


Members of the ‘climate crisis resistance alliance’ hold a protest in Palu, Indonesia, on November 6. (Adi Pranata/ZUMA Wire)


Environmental activists display portraits of world leaders in front of the Paris city hall on November 6, in France. (Christophe Petit Tesson/EPA-EFE-Shutterstock)


People participate in a rally during a global day of action on climate change in Seoul, South Korea, on November 6. (Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images


People participate in a rally during a global day of action on climate change in Manila, Philippines, on November 6. (Maria Tan/AFP/Getty Images)


Exile Tibetans participoate in a street protest to highlight environmental issues in Tibet ahead of he COP26 summit, in Dharmsala, India, Friday Oct. 22, 2021

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Question for this article:

Are we seeing the dawn of a global youth movement?

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In New York, climate change protesters form a blockade against rush-hour traffic on the FDR Drive by Cherry St. Photo by Robert Mecea


People stay in front of the Brandenburg Gate as they take part in a ‘Fridays For Future’ climate protest rally in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Oct. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)


Extinction Rebellion began a week of protests in Wellington this week, on Monday demanding Te Papa change the English translation of the Treaty of Waitangi currently on display. Photo by Kevin Stent/STUFF.


Fiji police stop climate rally by youths. Organisers told local media police also removed their banners. They say the youths wanted to show their support for the Fijian COP26 delegation in Glasgow. Photo: Facebook


Activists take part in Global Day of Action For Climate Justice on day seven of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Istanbul [Dilara Senkaya/Reuters]


In Victoria (Canada), climate activists march down Government Street on Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021 as they make their way from Centennial Square to the B.C. legislature as part of a global day of action coinciding with the COP26 UN global climate summit in Glasgow. DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST


Representatives of parent groups tell Alok Sharma in Glasgow that their children’s health depends on an end to funding for fossil fuel industries. The delegation represented almost 500 parent groups from 44 countries and may be the biggest parent mobilisation on any issue in history. Photograph: Handout

global, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Mouvement de la Paix Appeals for the French to Contribute to the Success of the Global Day of Action on Climate Change

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

A declaration by Mouvement de la Paix (translation by CPNN)

Previously, on September 25, in some sixty cities, Mouvement de la Paix demonstrated for “peace, climate, nuclear disarmament, social justice and human rights” through appeals signed by numerous organizations (see the texts of the calls below).

For the actions of November 6, on the occasion of the COP 26 in Glasgow, Mouvement de la Paix is a signatory of the national call “United for the climate” which states that “Climate change endangers everyone all over the world. It is global. It demands global responses: massive reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, the fight against polluters and their systems of production system, international solidarity between the rich countries and the global South. Social justice and the protection of Human rights. must be the guiding principles of action for climate justice ”.

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(Click here for the original article in French)

Question for this article:

What is the relation between the environment and peace

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In addition to these objectives Mouvement de la Paix, like the UN and hundreds of organizations around the world, stresses that actions for climate, peace and human rights are linked and that the climate challenge requires a drastic reduction in global military spending and the elimination of nuclear weapons which also represent a mortal danger to humanity.

We regret as an example that the European Green Deal for the climate provides only 100 billion euros per year at European level, while the European Court of Auditors recommends 1112 billion euros per year and that in a single year, world military spending is 1,732 billion euros according to Sipri. With this logic and with the concern for transparency of the data, Mouvement de la Paix joins 180 other organizations at the international level in the international appeal that during the COP26, the governments commit themselves to significantly reduce their military greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (See the petition here) and that a specific working group be set up within the IPCC to measure the pollution linked to military activities.

For these reasons, Mouvement de la Paix is ​​calling everywhere in France, on Saturday November 6, 2021, to contribute to the success of the global day of action for the climate.

Appel unis pour le climat pour le 6 novembre

Appel national unitaire de convergence pour le 25 septembre : paix, climat, désarmement nucléaire, justice sociale et droits humains

Appel du collectif national en marche pour la paix pour le 25 septembre

Europe, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Amid rain and wind, Catholics join 100,000 demonstrators at COP26 climate march

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article by Brian Roewe from the National Catholic Reporter

On a wet, windy and cold day in Scotland, an estimated 100,000 people took to the streets of Glasgow on Nov. 6 in demonstrations calling for increased action and results from COP26, the two-week United Nations climate summit being hosted by the United Kingdom.

Among the throngs of people marching from Kelvingrove Park to Glasgow Green as part of the Global Day of Action for Climate Justice were hundreds of Catholics, many hailing from the U.K. while others represented countries across Africa, the Pacific, Europe and the Americas.


(Alphonce Muia/CYNESA)

EarthBeat asked some of the participants to share in their own words what the march meant to them and what message they sought to send to delegates and world leaders at COP26.

Ayaat Hassan, Student at Notre Dame Catholic High School in Glasgow, and part of SCIAF, the official relief and development agency of the Catholic Church in Scotland

“We’re here to represent the youth of today, because climate change is going to have the biggest impact on us and we deserve to have our voices heard. The message this march sends is that we care about this a lot.”

Lorna Gold (pictured), Board chair, Laudato Si’ Movement

“It’s very moving to be here with the Laudato Si’ globe and all the activists. We just hope the message here gets through to the COP itself. … So far it’s very high on aspirations and it’s high on long-term targets. But there’s no detail.”

Jesuit Fr. Leonard Chiti, Provincial for Jesuits in Southern Africa

“I bring a message from the poor adversely affected by climate change. Global warming and extreme weather patterns are making it difficult for people to survive. I come here asking everyone to act now to save the planet and save the lives and livelihoods of people in Southern Africa and other less-developed countries.”

Members of the Catholic Youth Network for Environmental Sustainability in Africa (CYNESA)

“CYNESA joined the global environmental movement [at both the youth climate strike on Nov. 5 and Global Day for Climate Justice on Nov. 6] to march and send a strong message of acting for [the] climate crisis with the urgency it deserves in the streets of Glasgow.

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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?

Are we seeing the dawn of a global youth movement?

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“We made it known to the world that in Africa, most young people do not choose to be climate activists, but are forced, because their own survival is fully threatened and their future is not certain [because of] water scarcity, food insecurity, extreme weather events forcing high numbers of them to migrate to Europe in very appalling conditions.

”The future is not a destination that will wait for us; it is one that we must create, and CYNESA joins the global environmental movement to demand climate justice and a more ambitious outcome from this COP26 as the window of the opportunity to turn around the devastating effects of climate change, as we are the only generation with this unique burden of responsibility to do something about [the] climate crisis.”

Rodne Galicha, Executive director, Living Laudato Si’ Philippines

“Eight years after the onslaught of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, more than a thousand people are still missing. Year after year thenceforth, the intensity of extreme weather conditions is increasing.

“COP26 is an opportunity to address losses and damages, both for humanity and ecosystems. Climate action is not only about common but differentiated responsibilities, but a collective conscience and uncompromised moral imperative towards intergenerational justice, equity and common good.”

Alex Ugoh (pictured), 19-year-old CAFOD climate campaigner from Rainham, East London (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development)

“I am here to represent the drive and enthusiasm of young people across the globe who want a more sustainable tomorrow. The opportunity to be surrounded by a community of passionate young adults focused on future-proofing their planet for generations to come was something I simply could not pass up.”

Lydia Machaka (pictured), CIDSE climate justice & energy officer

“We push on, no matter what! We need climate action now!” she said, even despite barriers, whether inside the summit or with the rainy weather outside.

Sophie Pereira (pictured), 18-year-old CAFOD climate campaigner from Colchester, Essex

“We are living in a climate crisis, and I believe the youth deserve to be standing right next to the world leaders, contributing to their decisions.

“As young people, we are the next generation. We will be living in the world that the generation before left us. Because of that, we deserve a voice and deserve to stand together and fight for the world we’re living in before it’s too late.”

Giorgio Gotra, CIDSE campaign project officer

“Inspired by Laudato Si’, we renew our commitment to ‘change for planet and to care for the people’ and joined the march in Glasgow.”

Jane Mellett (pictured), Laudato Si’ officer, Trocaire, and member of Laudato Si’ Movement

“We sang. We chanted. We prayed. And it just was a very powerful day. Everyone is here for our common home, for climate justice and to call for justice for the most vulnerable people in our world and planet Earth.”

global, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, United Nations,

Remembering Georgi Vanyan: for peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article by Onnik James Krikorian from Osservatorio balcani e caucaso transeuropa

Peacebuilder and true activist, anti-nationalist Georgi Vanyan died at the age of 58 on October 15th. He is especially remembered for the enormous effort to bring Azerbaijani and Armenians to dialogue


Georgi Vanyan © Meydan TV

The last time I spoke to Georgi Vanyan was by telephone at the end of September. The Armenian human rights and peace activist was visiting Tbilisi to meet with Emin Milli, the Azerbaijani founder and former director of Meydan TV. He had already interviewed Georgi about his peacebuilding activities and there were now plans to visit the Georgian village where many of his previous activities were held.

Georgi invited me accompany them, but there was one problem.

The 58-year-old was feeling ill and needed to test for COVID-19 before we could meet. Two days later, he sent a text message to say that he had tested positive and had to self-isolate in Tbilisi. He’d be in touch once he had recovered, but things took a turn for the worse and he was hospitalised. Eventually moved on to a ventilator, Georgi Vanyan was pronounced dead on 15 October.

The loss was a personal tragedy for those that knew him and also for a handful of committed individuals that had been working across closed borders in pursuit of regional peace.

“Now, at this stage of the Armenian-Azerbaijani reconciliation process, the peacebuilding community needed him more than ever,” tweeted Baku-based regional analyst and researcher Ahmad Alili. “Sincere Person. Genuine Peacebuilder. Great Loss. Rest in Peace, Georgi.”

For most others, however, Georgi’s passing went unnoticed.

“I am so afraid that Georgi Vanyan’s story will be left untold in Armenia as well as globally,” says Milli. “I observed social media yesterday and I saw almost no Armenians, with rare exception, talking about this [loss]. It was as if nothing happened and as if this man did not exist. It was as if this wasn’t the only courageous man in Armenia and Azerbaijan that did the things that he did.”

A controversial figure in Armenia, the silence was hardly surprising. The whole media and information space had been engaged in a coordinated campaign of public defamation against him for well over a decade. In 2007, a group of nationalist bloggers disrupted his Days of Azerbaijan event at an experimental school in Yerevan and in 2012 a nationalist mob launched an assault on his attempts to screen Azerbaijani films in Armenia’s second largest city of Gyumri.

And during the 2020 Karabakh War, while many peace-builders instead became proponents of war, Vanyan released an open letter calling for Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to stop the fighting and to enter into dialogue with Baku. His words fell on deaf ears in both countries, although the Armenian police did notice enough to threaten a hefty fine if he continued to make such calls.

But perhaps Georgi’s best-known project was his convening of regular meetings of Armenian, Azerbaijan, and Georgian activists, academics, and journalists in the village of Tekali. Inhabited by ethnic Azerbaijanis, Tekali is located in Georgia close to its borders with Armenia and Azerbaijan and was arguably one of the few genuine grassroots peace initiatives in the region.

The proximity of Tekali for those living in the regions of all three countries allowed almost anyone to participate. Bucking the usual ‘closed doors and usual suspects’ approach by other peace-building projects held in expensive hotels or holiday resorts, the local community also benefitted from the Tekali Process. Villagers, for example, would provide and earn income from the catering.

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Question related to this article:
 
Can peace be achieved between Azerbaijan and Armenia?

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And as a sign of how effective Tekali had been in facilitating people-to-people contact, one discussant on an Azerbaijan TV show warned in 2019 that Georgi Vanyan’s approach was dangerous. “For Azerbaijan there is only the enemy on the other side of the border, nobody else” the discussant said. “If an Azerbaijani soldier sees that the other side also has mothers, sisters, coffins, and tears then he won’t obey his orders.”

But this criticism was unknown in Armenia where he had been forced to live out his last remaining years in poverty close to the border with Azerbaijan. In one online meeting dedicated to his memory, Armenian activist and Tekali participant Sevak Kirakosyan remembered that Georgi still pushed NGOs to move their activities to where it really mattered – in actual conflict-affected communities.

When Georgi’s body was transferred to the Armenian capital for burial, several prominent figures did at least go to pay their last respects. There was Boris Navarsadyan, head of the Yerevan Press Club (YPC), Ashot Bleyan, the head of the school where Georgi had invited Azerbaijani intellectuals and writers in the late 2000s, and Soviet-era dissident Paruyr Hairikyan, for example.

Armenia’s Epress.am, a regular fixture at Tekali, also covered the memorial but only a few others joined them.

Mariam Yeghiazaryan was one. The 26-year-old team member from Bright Garden Voices, a grassroots cross-border initiative to bring Armenians and Azerbaijanis together online in the aftermath of last year’s 44-day war, implies that this might have been for the best.

“Before going to the funeral, I was afraid that something bad would happen in the mourning hall,” she says. “Something that would be disrespectful to him and his legacy, as had happened during and after the [film] festival. Fortunately, it didn’t․”

And even though the young activist had never met Georgi, she says that she payed more attention to his peacebuilding work following the 2020 Karabakh War and especially his death. Yeghiazaryan now compares him to other prominent Armenians, including the great Armenian writer Hovhannes Tumanyan and slain Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor Hrant Dink.

“We honour Tumanyan, a truly great writer and a humanist,” she says, “ but I do not know how many have read his letters and articles about the Armenian-Tatar clashes. We honour Hrant Dink, not so much for his legacy and contribution, but for the chance to use and manipulate his death because he was murdered by a Turkish nationalist, forgetting that his whole life was aimed at Armenian-Turkish dialogue. What is the difference between them and Vanyan?”

She also remembers how Georgi had instead been labeled as a ‘traitor’ by those who were, in effect, opposed to a negotiated and mutually concessionary peace deal.

“Journalists played a big role in this case I note with regret,” she says. “There are terrible articles with terrible headlines, reports, and videos. How many quality articles, interviews can be found in Armenian about Vanyan? The fact that Vanyan’s death was almost not covered in the Armenian media is not about him, but about Armenia and Armenian journalism. It is extremely sad. Extremely.”

And it is this that concerns Milli the most.

“I’m very worried that his narrative could die with him,” he says. “I had seen courage that I had never seen before and I realised that there was nobody in Azerbaijan, including myself, that would dare to organise a Days of Armenian Cinema [in Azerbaijan]. Vanyan’s courage was so powerful that it impacted me profoundly. It was the moment that nationalism died in me.”

Milli, now having left Meydan TV, now has a new project, the Restart Initiative, which while primarily seeking to contribute to the development of Azerbaijan will also seek to nurture and develop dialogue with Armenia and Armenians. Some of Georgi’s former initiatives might well be resurrected for this purpose.

“I hope his Tekali project will be implemented [again],” remarks Yeghiazaryan, and I hope his approach will be the subject of discussion, debates, research, and daily conversations – both in Armenia and in Azerbaijan.”

(Editor’s note: In a new article about Georgi Vanyan in Al Jazeera, entitled Georgi Vanyan’s peace legacy must live on, Emin Milli adds that there is talk about a forthcoming meeting between Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, with increasing hope in the South Caucasus that perhaps the two countries will make some progress on peace.)

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Europe, Mideast,

Fridays for Future: Who we are

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

Excerpts from the website of Fridays for Future

FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE or FFF, is a youth-led and -organised global climate strike movement that started in August 2018, when 15-year-old Greta Thunberg began a school strike for climate. In the three weeks leading up to the Swedish election, she sat outside Swedish Parliament every school day, demanding urgent action on the climate crisis. She was tired of society’s unwillingness to see the climate crisis for what it is: a crisis.

To begin with, she was alone, but she was soon joined by others. On the 8th of September, Greta and her fellow school strikers decided to continue their strike until the Swedish policies provided a safe pathway well under 2° C, i.e. in line with the Paris agreement. They created the hashtag #FridaysForFuture, and encouraged other young people all over the world to join them. This marked the beginning of the global school strike for climate.
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Question for this article:

Are we seeing the dawn of a global youth movement?

How can just one or a few persons contribute to peace and justice?

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Their call for action sparked an international awakening, with students and activists uniting around the globe to protest outside their local parliaments and city halls. Along with other groups across the world, Fridays for Future is part of a hopeful new wave of change, inspiring millions of people to take action on the climate crisis, and we want you to become one of us!

JOIN US

OUR GOALS​

The goal of the movement is to put moral pressure on policymakers, to make them listen to the scientists, and then to take forceful action to limit global warming.

Our movement is independent of commercial interests and political parties and knows no borders.

We strike because we care for our planet and for each other. We have hope that humanity can change, avert the worst climate disasters and build a better future.

Every day there are more of us and together we are strong. Everyone is welcome. Everyone is needed. No one is too small to make a difference.

OUR DEMANDS

HOW TO STRIKE

Check how you can make a difference with a strike or action.

FIND OUT HOW!

global, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The Best Weapon for Peace : Maria Montessori, Education, and Children’s Rights

. EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

A book review from The University of Wisconsin Press

This book is by Erica Moretti (see below).


“Innovative and extremely well-documented. This volume reframes the life and work of Maria Montessori within the context of international peace studies. She deserves recognition as a pioneer who faced gender barriers and nevertheless almost won the Nobel Peace Prize. Moretti gracefully weaves portraits of historical topics into this narrative of Montessori’s intellectual life.”
—Mary Gibson, John Jay College and the Graduate Center–CUNY

The Italian educator and physician Maria Montessori (1870–1952) is best known for the teaching method that bears her name. She was also a lifelong pacifist, although historians tend to consider her writings on this topic as secondary to her pedagogy.

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Question related to this article:
 
What is the best way to teach peace to children?

What is the relation between peace and education?

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In The Best Weapon for Peace, Erica Moretti reframes Montessori’s pacifism as the foundation for her educational activism, emphasizing her vision of the classroom as a gateway to reshaping society. Montessori education offers a child-centered learning environment that cultivates students’ development as peaceful, curious, and resilient adults opposed to war and invested in societal reform.



Using newly discovered primary sources, Moretti examines Montessori’s lifelong pacifist work, including her ultimately unsuccessful push for the creation of the White Cross, a humanitarian organization for war-affected children. Moretti shows that Montessori’s educational theories and practices would come to define children’s rights once adopted by influential international organizations, including the United Nations. She uncovers the significance of Montessori’s evolving philosophy of peace and early childhood education within broader conversations about internationalism and humanitarianism.
 
Erica Moretti  is an assistant professor of Italian at the Fashion Institute of Technology–SUNY. She is the recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award in Scholarship and Creative Activities.

The book is published as part of the following series:

George L. Mosse Series in Modern European Cultural and Intellectual History
Steven E. Aschheim, Skye Doney, Mary Louise Roberts, and David J. Sorkin, Series Editors

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, global

Global Teacher Prize: Juline Anquetin-Rault

. EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article from The Global Teacher Prize (reprinted by permission)

(Editor’s note : Juline Anquetin-Rault came to our attention by way of a article in a local newspaper in France, Tendence Ouest, where she is quoted as being inspired by the pedagogical methods of Maria Montessori. CPNN has long maintained that this pedagogy is a good model for peace education. Montessori’s methods are usually used for young children, but Juline has adapted the methods to use with adolescents. )

She is now a candidate for the Global Teacher Prize as follows:


Video from Global Teacher Prize

Even as a child, Juline Anquetin Rault knew she wanted to become a teacher, but there was a time when she doubted whether her dream would come true. When she took the national exam to become a history and geography teacher, she ranked 607th out of 6,000 candidates, but only the top 604 were hired as public school teachers. Juline was crushed, but resolved to retake the exam the following year. In the meantime, she started working as a teaching assistant in a local school. On her first day, as she helped students with their homework and went over their lessons with them, Juline knew she had found her calling, and would become a teacher no matter what. She decided to start a tutoring agency, and also began teaching in private schools that did not require educators to pass the national exam.

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Question related to this article:
 
What is the best way to teach peace to children?

(Article continued from left column)

Juline now splits her time between tutoring and teaching history and geography at an apprenticeship school. There, many of her students start out disliking school, having struggled in formal education, and a large portion are foreign students still learning to speak French.  

Juline believes learning should be fun, and that pupils should feel empowered to progress on their own. She has developed innovative teaching methods to engage her students, including treasure hunts and ‘pop culture’ classes using films. To help her students regain their confidence, she teaches them that failure and making mistakes are a valuable part of learning. Each class incorporates autonomous workshops, which can include internet research, online quizzes or studying maps. Juline’s methods have proven successful, with clear improvements not just in her students’ grades, but also in their mental health. In an end of year survey, 98% of students at Juline’s school said they would recommend this way of learning, and a project is in the works to apply it at national level. 

Outside of teaching, since 2017 Juline has organised yearly trips for students at her apprenticeship school. In 2020, she launched an organisation to fundraise for these outings. For Juline, travelling with students is a key way to teach them to be more tolerant. Many of her pupils have never even been to Paris, which is just 90 minutes from Rouen. She has also raised funds for children in Asia and Africa to access health and education services, and encourages regular dialogue between these children and the students at her tutoring agency.   

Juline is committed to helping her fellow teachers be the best they can be, and hosts training sessions to share her knowledge with colleagues. She teaches her peers how to use new technologies and memorisation techniques based on the latest cognitive science. She also frequently looks at what other teachers around the world are doing, and is inspired by passionate teachers. Juline runs a popular YouTube channel on which she shares learning and teaching materials with students and educators. If she wins the Global Teacher Prize, she would spend the funds on helping train even more teachers, to transform French education for the better.

(Thank you to Kiki Adams, the CPNN reporter for this articl

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Europe

COP26: Thousands of young people take over Glasgow streets demanding climate action

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article from the United Nations

“What do we want? Climate justice! When do we want it? Now!” echoed throughout central Glasgow on Friday as thousands of protesters took the streets during the dedicated “Youth Day” at COP26.

Although the march was initially organized by Fridays for Future, the youth-driven movement inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, people of all ages gathered at George Square to demand climate action.


UN News/Laura Quiñones

From small children waving their handmade picket signs, to older adults demanding a better future for those that will come after them, the COP26  host city saw citizen activists in unprecedented numbers rallying to get their message heard.

An even larger march is expected on Saturday. 

Welsh citizen Jane Mansfield carried around a sign that read: “Code red for humanity”, the signature phrase  UN Secretary General António Guterres used after the latest IPCC report  published earlier this year warned of a looming climate catastrophe. 

“I really care about the world that we are passing on to future generations, and what we are doing to the Global South. I live in southwest Wales and climate change is clearly happening, but we don´t even grasp what is happening in so many other parts of the world and I am scared,” she told UN News. 

Latin-American Indigenous leaders were also among today’s demonstrations. They were the ones leading the march and several of them sent a loud message to world leaders: stop extracting resources and to ‘leave carbon in the ground’. 

“Indigenous people are dying in the river; they’re being washed away by massive floods. Houses are being washed away, schools full of children inside, bridges, our food our crops, everything is being washed away”, they said at a stage in George Square. 

Meanwhile, some activists wore bobblehead masks of presidents and prime ministers and depicted them as being arrested with signs that read “climate criminals”. 

More real action, less ‘greenwashing’ 

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was the last to appear on the protest’s stage, where she criticized world leaders for their continued “blah, blah, blah” after 26 years of climate conferences and put in doubt the transparency of the commitments they have made during this COP. 

“The leaders are not doing nothing; they are actively creating loopholes and shaping frameworks to benefit themselves, and to continue profiting from this destructive system. This is an active choice by the leaders to continue the exploitation of nature and people and the destruction of presents and future living conditions to take place”, she said, calling the conference a “greenwashing event”. 

Other Fridays for Future members, speaking to UN News, asked for more participation and better youth representation in the negotiations that are underway at COP26. 

“Every year we have been disappointed by COP, and I don’t think this year will be different. There is a sliver of hope but at the same time we don’t see enough action, we can’t achieve anything with just pledges and empty promises”, said a representative of Youth Advocates for Climate Change in the Philippines  

(article continued in right column)

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?

Are we seeing the dawn of a global youth movement?

(Article continued from the left column)

“Negotiations are happening and yet we are here in the street, because we haven’t been included. The richest people come in their private jets and take the decisions. We are here and we won’t be ignored. We will make our own space”, another climate advocate added. 

The Youth Statement 

The same call was made inside the conference’s Blue Zone, where climate activists from YOUNGO, the Children and Youth Constituency of UN Climate Change, delivered to the COP Presidency and other leaders a statement signed by 40,000 young people demanding change. 

The statement raised several points of concern, among them inclusion in climate negotiations. It also asked Patricia Espinosa, the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to support young people’s efforts to have a paragraph mentioning the importance of the youth included in the final declaration that is expected to be adopted at the end of COP26. 

“We will be bringing these issues and demands to the attentions of the delegations, all of them are absolutely reasonable and justifiable,” she vowed during a panel discussion with young leaders.  

The statement, which was handed over to Ministers, also asks for action on climate finance, mobility and transportation, wildlife protection and environmental conservation. 

“Wherever I have been in the world, I have been struck by the passion and the commitment of young people to climate action. The voices of young people must be heard and reflected in these negotiations here at COP. The actions and scrutiny of young people are key to us keeping 1.5 alive and creating a net-zero future”, said Alok Sharma, COP26 President. 

Meanwhile, the UK and Italy, in partnership with UNESCO, Youth4Climate and Mock COP coordinated new global action to equip future generations with the knowledge and skills to create a net-zero world.  

As Education Ministers and young people gathered, over 23 countries put forward national climate education pledges, ranging from decarbonizing the education sector to developing school resources. 

The youth are right: the new commitments aren’t enough 

The UNFCCC published its latest updates of the national commitments  thus far to reduce carbon emissions, and although some advances have been made during the conference, they are still not enough. 

“A sizable increase, of about 13.7 per cent, in global greenhouse emissions in 2030 compared to 2010 is anticipated”, the report says. 

Before COP, the increase was calculated at 16 per cent, but for the world to be able to curb global heating and avoid disastrous consequences, emissions must be cut by 50 per cent in the next nine years. 

For Carla Huanca, a young activist who travelled all the way from Bolivia to be in Glasgow with her friend, the dinosaur “T-Resilient”, another extinction can’t be a possibility. 

“We young people will be the ones that will inherit this planet, and that is why it is so important that our voices are heard. We demand government actions so we can all have the planet we want,” she told UN News.

(Thank you to Phyllis Kotite, the CPNN reporter for this article.)

Europe, global, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, United Nations, ,

Olive Trees and the movement for justice in Palestine

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article by CPNN

This is the season for the olive harvest in the Middle East. According to Al Jazeera, “About 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinian families rely on the olive harvest, which takes place every year between October and November, for their income – including more than 15 percent of working women.”

CPNN has received, read and appreciated the video below in which the olive trees and olive harvest are seen as a symbol for the movement for justice in Palestine.


`A scene from the video “The olive trees are growing again in Gaza.”

Unfortunately, there are forces in Israel opposed to justice in Palestine, and for them the olive tree and olive harvest is also a symbol but one that they wish to destroy.

According to the same article in Al Jazeera, “During the 2020 olive harvest season, OCHA documented  at least 26 Palestinians injured and more than 1,700 trees vandalised. As of October 4, 2021, the UN group for humanitarian affairs recorded at least 365 settler attacks against Palestinians. This week, a 10-day campaign  to aid and protect farmers was launched in areas considered to be at high risk of Israeli settler attacks.”

The 10-day campaign mentioned by Al Jazeera is managed by the Union of Agricultural Work Committees. In response on October 19, the Israeli government has outlawed this organization, along with five others, claiming that that they are “terrorist.”

Human Rights Watch , in a joint statement with Amnesty International, writes the following about the Israeli decision :

(continued in the right column)

Question for this article

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

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“This appalling and unjust decision is an attack by the Israeli government on the international human rights movement. For decades, Israeli authorities have systematically sought to muzzle human rights monitoring and punish those who criticize its repressive rule over Palestinians. While staff members of our organizations have faced deportation and travel bans, Palestinian human rights defenders have always borne the brunt of the repression. This decision is an alarming escalation that threatens to shut down the work of Palestine’s most prominent civil society organizations. The decades-long failure of the international community to challenge grave Israeli human rights abuses and impose meaningful consequences for them has emboldened Israeli authorities to act in this brazen manner.

“How the international community responds will be a true test of its resolve to protect human rights defenders. We are proud to work with our Palestinian partners and have been doing so for decades. They represent the best of global civil society. We stand with them in challenging this outrageous decision.”

Despite the official Israeli position, there are are Israelis who support the Palestinian olive harvest. In another website we find the following:

“There are repeated efforts to replant destroyed trees, including by Israeli activists, who earlier this year brought 200 trees to plant in Burin.

“A week later we came [back again] and a lot of the trees were uprooted — the new trees — so we replanted them,” said Rabbi Nava Heretz.

A member of the Israeli organisation Rabbis for Human Rights, the 66-year-old has for years been harvesting olives alongside Israeli and foreign volunteers. Activists have also been attacked by settlers, including an elderly rabbi whose arm was broken in 2019.

“We are going to places where there is a threat on the Palestinian farmers,” she said, standing between olive trees in the Burin area.”

The article concludes with remarks from a Palestinian:

“Going beyond economics, Mr Abu Jiyab said olives remain an important symbol across Palestine. ‘Palestinians cherish this tree,’ he said, which has grown for hundreds of years. ‘Whether we are in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the border areas or far from the border areas, we consider this tree like one of our children.’”

Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY