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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. View all posts by CPNN Coordinator →

Costello students take part in UK Peace Jam

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article from the Costello School

Twelve Year 10 Costello students attended a pioneering conference at Winchester University exploring human rights for indigenous people. They welcomed a special guest, Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum from Guatemala. In 1992, Rigoberta Menchú Tum was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of efforts to improve the rights of the Mayan of Guatemala and native people everywhere. She was the first indigenous person to receive the award. During the 30 years of dictatorship, war and violence that followed the 1954 military takeover 200,000 Guatemalans were murdered. Rigoberta helped her father organise resistance, and, despite losing both her parents, two brothers, a sister-in-law and three nieces and nephews to the violence, persevered with the search for a peaceful way to resist military oppression.

The two-day conference held at The University of Winchester, and organised by Peace Jam UK, welcomed around 250 delegates including secondary school students from all over the UK.

Throughout the weekend, the Peace Jam conference discussed Nobel Peace Prize winners and various themes including identity, difference, power, privilege, peace and non-violence in an increasingly complicated world.

Early on in the conference the audience were invited to ask Rigoberta questions and Joe Duerden made a real impression when he asked Rigoberta “As the next generation of humans, how can we tell our world leaders to treat our world with peace rather than violence?

Students were also given the opportunity to present their local community projects to an audience, as part of the One Billion Acts of Peace movement – a fundamental element of the academic Peace Jam programme. Some of the students learnt about a scheme called “Roll out the Barrels”,

In Africa and developing countries around the world, women and children carry their own weight in water, in dirty jerry cans and containers, not just from a local pump (a few hundred yards away) but sometimes over 6 miles or even further, just to survive – “Roll out the barrels” provides a simple solution!

Other students visited Hyde Gate Residential home and spent time talking to residents and taking part in activities with them whilst others went onto the streets of Winchester to talk to young people about the Street Reach Community Project.

The Conference had a huge impact on all the students and they are setting up a Costello Peace Jam group in the summer term with the aim to launch our own contribution to the Billion Acts of Peace campaign! For as Rigoberta told the students, “We all have energies and if we combine these energies we can make a difference!

All of the Costello students would like to say a HUGE thank you to the Basingstoke and Deane Rotary Club who so kindly sponsored their trip and without whom this opportunity may not have been possible!

Question for this article:

Youth initiatives for a culture of peace, How can we ensure they get the attention and funding they deserve?

March 25, 2016EDUCATION FOR PEACE, EuropeEuropeCPNN Coordinator

On remote Philippine island, female forest rangers are a force to be reckoned with

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

A blog by Molly Bergen, Conservation International

In honor of International Women’s Day (March 8), Human Nature is spotlighting “conservation heroines” around the globe. In this piece, we meet Nolsita Siyang, an indigenous farmer and mother of 10 who also finds time to patrol her community’s ancestral home as a forest ranger.

Nolsita Siyang, a forest ranger who regularly patrols the protected area surrounding her village on the island of Palawan, Philippines. (© Conservation International/photo by Tim Noviello)

Nolsita Siyang has not had an easy life. A member of the Palawan indigenous group on the southern end of the Philippine island of the same name, she has spent most of her nearly five decades farming a small plot of land on the slopes of the Mount Mantalingahan mountain range.

Siyang lives in Raang, a mist-shrouded, thatch-roofed village accessible only by a winding footpath that becomes a river of mud during the rainy season.

About 10 years ago, her husband, Federico, had a stroke, leaving him mostly incapacitated. Now the family relies primarily on the income she brings in. Each week, Siyang — usually accompanied by several of her 10 children — trudges several kilometers down the footpath from her village to the market in the lowlands, carrying surplus corn, peanuts and other wares on her back in hopes of making a sale.

Between caring for her land, making trips to the market and looking after her family, Siyang doesn’t have a lot of spare time, yet she chooses to spend it volunteering as a forest ranger, patrolling the protected area surrounding her village.

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Questions for this article

Indigenous peoples, Are they the true guardians of nature?

(Article continued from left column)

Why does she do this? Siyang’s community is linked to the land by tradition, spirituality and survival. If the land isn’t protected, life as she knows it will cease to exist. Together with her only daughter, she is proving that women play a vital role in securing their community’s future.

The Palawan people are believed to be the descendants of the first settlers of the island, who may have arrived more than 50,000 years ago. Even today, the island’s sparse, pot-holed roads and lush greenery feel far removed from the air-conditioned shopping malls and urban sprawl that characterizes much of modern Philippines.

Most of the 12,000 or so people who identify as Palawan live in small villages around Mount Mantalingahan, the highest peak on the island and considered sacred by locals. In Siyang’s words: “The forest is our home, and has a direct connection to our daily lives.”

Palawan people observe a traditional boundary system called bertas, which identifies sacred sites based on myths passed down by their ancestors. These areas are left undisturbed based on the belief that the nature they contain has unseen guardians. These parcels of forest are interspersed with areas where indigenous people regularly hunt, grow crops and gather forest products, from wild vegetables to medicinal plants to reeds used for weaving intricate Palawan baskets.

Recognizing the need to conserve this vital place, Palawan communities were instrumental in establishing the Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape (MMPL) around their villages in 2009. The park covers more than 120,000 hectares (almost 300,000 acres), and is jointly managed by a protected area management board composed of representatives from local and national government, NGOs (including Conservation International), religious groups and the indigenous community.

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article)

March 23, 2016East Asia, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTEast AsiaCPNN Coordinator

Fishing ban in remote Pacific waters is working, report finds

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

A blog by Bruno Vander Velde, Conservation International

A ban on commercial fishing in one of the world’s most significant hotspots of marine biodiversity appears to be working, according to a new report. The proof is in the pictures — in this case, satellite images compiled by Global Fishing Watch, a web-based platform developed by the marine conservation organization Oceana, in partnership with Google and SkyTruth.

A lively reef in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, set aside as a marine protected area by the island nation of Kiribati in 2006. Commercial fishing was banned there in 2015. (© Keith A. Ellenbogen)

The hotspot in question, the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) — a Montana-sized swath of ocean set aside as a marine protected area by the island nation of Kiribati in 2006 — was declared off-limits to all commercial fishing in 2015. According to the report, Global Fishing Watch revealed a stark reduction in the number of fishing vessels detected there after the policy was enacted.

Monitoring and enforcing a ban on fishing in such a vast and remote area of ocean was all but impossible without recent advances in satellite technology and ship tracking. The new report shows the promise of this technology as a crucial piece of the puzzle for protecting oceans, proponents say.

“When sound policy, effective monitoring and reliable enforcement work together, we can truly protect important ocean ecosystems,” Jacqueline Savitz of Oceana said in a statement released Thursday. “With a fishing ban in place in PIPA, commercial fishing vessels seem to have gone elsewhere, giving tuna and other important fish stocks a chance to recover and seed other fishing grounds.”

(Article continued in the right side of the page)

Question for this article:

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

(Article continued from the left side of the page)

Applying the same formula of policy, monitoring and enforcement in other marine protected areas, she said, might help to protect other marine ecosystems from illegal fishing of the kind chronicled recently in a recent New York Times report on poachers in the Pacific.

Located within the Republic of Kiribati in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, the Phoenix Islands are one of Earth’s last intact oceanic coral archipelago ecosystems, boasting more than 120 species of coral and 514 species of reef fish. The ecosystem has remained intact in large part due to its relative isolation, but the growing reach and sophistication of commercial fishing had begun to put increasing pressure on one of its most prized resources: the tuna that spawn in the region. The west central Pacific, which includes PIPA, is home to the largest tuna fishery on the planet.

This tuna is crucial both to Kiribati’s economy and to its own food security, and for years, groups including Conservation International have been working with Kiribati to better manage and protect its territorial waters, an area the size of India. Revenue from commercial fishing and licensing in other parts of Kiribati’s waters amount to almost half its national income; however, due to its large span and limited monitoring capacity, Kiribati loses untold millions of dollars of income per year from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in its surrounding ocean waters.

Experts are hopeful that the tide may be turning.

“It is beautiful when a plan comes together the way PIPA has, and the data [that] Global Fishing Watch has provided us is a sign that large-scale ocean management can work,” said oceans expert Greg Stone, an executive vice president at Conservation International (CI) and an adviser to the government of Kiribati. “The government of Kiribati, the New England Aquarium and CI have been working for the better part of two decades to get PIPA to this point, and though we are seeing validation of success, we know PIPA’s story is just beginning and we need to remain vigilant.”

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article)

March 23, 2016East Asia, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTEast AsiaCPNN Coordinator

USA: Building New “Nonviolent Cities”

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article by John Dear in Common Dreams (reprinted according to provisions of Creative Commons)

Last year, I was invited to give a talk on peace in Carbondale, Illinois. I was surprised to discover that in recent years, activists from across Carbondale had come together with a broad vision of what their community could one day become—a nonviolent city. They wanted a new holistic approach to their work, with a positive vision for the future, so that over time their community would be transformed into a culture of nonviolence.

(Image: Nonviolent Carbondale/Facebook)

They created a coalition, a movement, and a city-wide week of action and called it, “Nonviolent Carbondale.” They set up a new website, www.nonviolentcarbondale.org, established a steering committee, set up monthly meetings, and launched “Nonviolent Carbondale” as a positive way to promote peace and justice locally. In doing so, they gave everyone in Carbondale a new vision of what their community could become.

From the start, the Carbondale activists held their local organizing meetings occasionally before city council meetings, which they then attended together as a group. At city council meetings, they started suggesting and lobbying ways their city could become more nonviolent. Their movement eventually became based out of the main Carbondale Library. Over the years, they have done positive work with their police department, local schools and the school system, religious communities, the library system, and local non-profits. As grassroots activists, they have lifted up a positive vision of their community and brought it into the mainstream.

Over the years, they put their energies into their “11 Days” program – 11 days in March filled with scores of actions and events for all ages across the city. Twice their 11 days focused on peace; twice on compassion, and last year the focus was on food. One of the outcomes from last year’s 11 Days, for example, was a new organic food market started in the poorest neighborhood in town.

“Nonviolent Carbondale” offers a model for activists, movements, and cities across the country. With their example in mind, the group I work with, Campaign Nonviolence, [www.campaignnonviolence.org] is launching the “Nonviolent Cities” project using “Nonviolent Carbondale” as an organizing model for other cities.

Taking the lead from friends and activists in Carbondale, Campaign Nonviolence invites citizens across the U.S. to organize a similar grassroots movement in their city, to put the word “nonviolent” in front of their city, and to help others envision, organize and work for a nonviolent local community. As far as we can tell, this organizing tool has never been formally tried anywhere in the U.S., except in Carbondale. This movement is a new next step in the visionary, organizing nonviolence of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Perhaps the key aspect of “Nonviolent Cities” is that each city will be summoned to address its violence in all its aspects, structures, and systems; to connect the dots between its violence; and to pursue a more holistic, creative, city-wide nonviolence, where everyone together is trying to practice nonviolence, promote nonviolence, teach nonviolence and institutionalize nonviolence on the local level, to really build a new nonviolent community for itself and others. We want not just to undermine the local and regional culture of violence, and end all the killings, but to transform it into a culture of nonviolence.

(Continued in right column)

Questions for this article:

How can culture of peace be developed at the municipal level?

(Continued from left column)

This means that “Nonviolent Cities” organizers would promote the vision, teach nonviolence, and inspire people at every level in their community to work together for a new nonviolent community and a new nonviolent future. That would include everyone from the mayor and city council members to the police chief and police officers, to all religious and civic leaders, to all educators and healthcare workers, to housing authorities, to news reporters and local media; to youth and grassroots activists, to the poor and marginalized, children and the elderly. Together, they would address all the issues of violence and pursue all the angles and possibilities of nonviolence for their city’s transformation into a more nonviolent community. The first goal would be a rapid reduction in violence and an end to killing.

Nonviolent cities would work to end racism, poverty, homelessness, and violence at every level and in every form; dismantle housing segregation and pursue racial, social and economic integration; end police violence and institutionalize police nonviolence; organize to end domestic violence and teach nonviolence between spouses, and nonviolence toward all children; work to end gang violence and teach nonviolence to gang members; teach nonviolence in every school; pursue more nonviolent immigration programs and policies; get religious leaders and communities to promote nonviolence and the vision of a new nonviolent city; reform local jails and prisons so they are more nonviolent and educate guards and prisoners in nonviolence; move from retributive to restorative justice in the entire criminal justice system; address local environmental destruction, climate change, and environmental racism, pursue clean water, solar and wind power, and a 100 percent green community; and in general, do everything possible to help their local community become more disarmed, more reconciled, more just, more welcoming, more inclusive, and more nonviolent.

If Carbondale, Illinois can seek to become a nonviolent city, any city can seek to become a nonviolent city. This is an idea whose time has come. This is an organizing strategy that should be tried around the nation and the world. The only way it can happen is through bottom-up, grassroots organizing, that reaches out to include everyone in the community, and eventually becomes widely accepted, even by the government, media, and police.

Two international groups pursue a similar vision–International Cities for Peace (www.internationalcitiesforpeace.org) and Mayors for Peace (www.mayorsforpeace.org, which has 6965 cities committed in 161 countries)—but, as far as I can tell, no U.S. group has ever attempted to invite local communities to pursue a vision of holistic city-wide nonviolence or organize a grassroots movements of nonviolent cities.

On our website, www.campaignnonviolence.org, we have posted “Ten Steps Toward a Nonviolent City,” a basic initial list of organizing tasks for local activists which includes: creating a local steering committee; finding a mainstream institution that can serve as a base; organizing a series of public meetings and forums; studying violence in the community; meeting with the mayor and the city council; and organizing a city-wide launch.

Gandhi once remarked that we are constantly being astonished by the advances in violence, but if we try, if we organize, if we can commit ourselves, he declared, we can make even more astonishing new discoveries and advances in nonviolence. With the example of “Nonviolent Carbondale” before us, we have a way to organize every local community and city in the nation, a way to envision how we can all one day live together in peace with justice, and the possibility of new hope. If we follow the example of Nonviolent Carbondale, we can help transform our culture of violence into something completely new—a culture of nonviolence. That should always be our goal.

March 21, 2016DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, North AmericaNorth AmericaCPNN Coordinator

Guantanamo could be turned from a war facility to a peace park

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

Based on an article by Joe Roman and James Kraska in Science magazine

As US president Obama makes a visit to Cuba, the following opinion has been published by Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science: “The United States should deliver on President Obama’s recent plan to close the military prison at U.S. Naval Station Guantánamo Bay and repurpose the facilities into a state-of-the-art marine research institution and peace park, a conservation zone to help resolve conflicts between the two countries. This model, designed to attract both sides . . . could unite Cuba and the United States in joint management, rather than serve as a wedge between them, while helping meet the challenges of climate change, mass extinction, and declining coral reefs.”

Mangroves dot Guantánamo Bay with the U.S. naval base airstrip seen in the distance. Photo by Luke Frazza/AFP/Getty Images

The authors are Joe Roman, a conservation biologist at Vermont University and James Kraska, a law professor at the US Naval War College.

They suggest it could become ” ‘a “Woods Hole of the Caribbean,” housing research and educational facilities dedicated to addressing climate change, ocean conservation, and biodiversity loss.”

Both Cuba and the United States have strong interests in preserving the marine environment. The Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, located on Cape Cod in the United States, is recognized as one of the leading scientific institutions of its typle in the world. And, according to the authors, Cuba has taken strong measures to preserve its coral reefs and coastal waters since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, They have developed “extensive protected areas, a constitution with strong environmental provisions, and an aggressive stance on climate change, putting it at the center of Caribbean conservation efforts. It has established the largest marine park in the Caribbean, the Jardines de la Reina (Gardens of the Queen), with abundant sharks and groupers.”

Tha authors place their proposal in the context of peace parks: “The world’s first peace park is the Water-ton-Glacier International Peace Park on the border of Canada and the United States, a symbol of goodwill between the countries. There have been successful transitions from military bases and conflict zones in other countries. After the United States left Fort Clayton to Panama, for example, part of the base was transformed into Ciudad de Saber (City of Knowledge), a government-sponsored complex that has attracted international scholars and the United Nations Development Program. Although the future of land along the corridor of the former Iron Curtain is uncertain, the European Green Belt initiative could transform the continent and help species such as lynx, brown bears, and imperial eagles recover. Such international parks are signs that humans can respect each other, even after conflicts, and protect other species that share our planet.”

They conclude that “the Guantánamo peace park and research center would encourage nations to convert military bases and conflict zones into areas of creativity, cooperation, and biodiversity conservation. For the next generation, the name Guantánamo could become associated with redemption and efforts to preserve and repair international relations and the planet.”

Question(s) related to this article:

Peace parks: Are they promoting peace?

March 20, 2016FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, North AmericaNorth AmericaCPNN Coordinator

Kofi Annan, Foreign Ministers Pledge Support for a Mine-Free World by 2025

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article from the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines

Former Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan joined Foreign Ministers from Canada, Chile and Colombia in a packed room of Geneva’s Palais des Nations on 2 March 2016, pledging support for the Mine Ban Treaty as states embark on the “final stretch” towards a mine-free world. More than 35 donor states and states with landmine contamination, as well as mine clearance experts and UN bodies, explained how they will work towards this goal.

Other eminent personalities lending their support during the high-level panel opening the First International Pledging Conference for the Implementation of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention included the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Director of the United Nations Office in Geneva, the Head of Danish Demining Group, and the Campaign Manager of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

The half-day conference highlighted the need for sustained financial resources and political support to meet the goals of the Mine Ban Treaty to the fullest extent possible by 2025, an aspirational deadline embraced by States Parties to the treaty during an international meeting in Maputo in 2014. It also aimed at ensuring sufficient resources for the treaty’s Implementation Support Unit.

Chile hosted the event, as current President of the Mine Ban Treaty, announcing that “Much remains to be done but the end is in sight. We are now in the last stretch towards a mine-free world!”

Sri Lanka surprised the audience with the announcement that the Cabinet had approved accession to the Mine Ban Treaty, a major development in South Asia where only three states (India, Nepal and Pakistan) will remain outside the treaty after Sri Lanka formally accedes.

1 March 2016 marked 17 years since the entry into force of the Mine Ban Treaty, a historical instrument of disarmament and humanitarian law. Under the treaty, states have stopped using, producing and selling antipersonnel mines, they have destroyed some 49 million stockpiled mines, cleared vast tracts of land, and taken steps to provide assistance to victims of the weapon. With 162 States Parties, the Mine Ban Treaty is one of the most universally accepted treaties.

More about the Pledging Conference:

Highlights from the conference storified by Michael P. Moore from Landmines in Africa

Canada Recommits to a Mine-Free World while Sri Lanka Approves Accession to Ottawa Treaty, Mines Action Canada

A Mine-Free World Is Possible, Danish Refugee Council / Danish Demining Group

(Thank you to the Good News Agency for calling this to our attention.)

Question for this article:

Can land mines be completely abolished?

March 18, 2016DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, globalglobalCPNN Coordinator

Education International and other Global Union Federation delegations begin their work at the 60th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY .

An article from Education International

The full labour delegation present in New York, USA, is made up of an unprecedented 150 women union leaders from 34 countries. The Education International (EI) delegation to the 60th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW60) has joined the other Global Union Federations (GUFs) delegations for the first week of the Commission’s deliberations (March 14th-18th).

Click on the photo to enlarge

The EI delegation got to work already on Sunday 13th, in conversation with Nora Fyles, Head of Secretariat of the UN Girl’s Education Initiative (UNGEI). Fyles gave a short presentation on ‘Policy Advocacy: UNGEI Speaking Out for Girls’ Education’, which was followed by a conversation with the EI delegates about their respective unions’ advocacy around girls’ education, and other gender and education issues.

Later in the day, EI delegates joined the full labour delegation for a briefing session, in which seasoned and new delegates alike were given information about the first week of CSW60, and the events planned by the GUFs, the ILO and key allies among the thousands of women’s rights organisations that are currently in New York for CSW60.

The CSW60 priority theme is Women’s Empowerment and its Link to Sustainable Development; and the review theme is The Elimination and Prevention of all Forms of Violence against Women and Girls (the Agreed Conclusions from CSW57). The priority theme is auspicious because CSW60 is the first major UN event to take place since the 2030 agenda for sustainable development was agreed, and the new sustainable development goals (SDGs) were adopted in September 2015. CSW60, therefore, presents a unique opportunity to bring the gender and education community for dialogue around the interlinkages between SDG 4 on education, and SDG 5 on gender equality.

On Wednesday March 16th, together with the Mission of Norway to the UN and UNGEI, EI will jointly host a side event entitled ‘Financing for Education: A Key to Empowering Women and Girls’. The EI President, Susan Hopgood, will speak on the panel, as will Ms Tone Skogen, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway, Ms Geeta Rao Gupta, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF, Ms Meighan Stone, President, Malala Fund and Mr Justin van Fleet, Director, International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity. The event will be moderated by Mr Yannick Glemarec, Deputy Executive Director Policy & Programmes, UN Women, and introductory remarks will be offered by Ms Alice Albright, CEO, Global Partnership for Education.

Read the joint official GUF CSW60 statement, and keep up to date with what the labour delegates are up to here.

Follow the GUF delegation at the UNCSW on Twitter: https://twitter.com/unioncsw

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article)

(Click here for a French version of this article)

Question for this article

Does the UN advance equality for women?

The following article by Lyndal Rowlands in the Inter Press Service, suggests that the UN is not making much progress on its commitments for women’s equality:

2015 marks anniversaries for two significant commitments made to increasing women’s participation at peace tables.

Yet despite the Beijing Platform for Action and the Security Council Resolution 1325 both committing to increasing women’s participation in peace building 20 and 15 years ago, respectively, there has been very little progress to report.

The latest available statistics show that women made up only 9 per cent of negotiators at peace tables between 1992 and 2011. That the most recent data is from 2011 shows that more work is needed even in basic areas such as data collection and reporting of women’s participation in peace building.

IPS summarises here four reasons we should value women’s participation at the peace table more, based on discussions at the 59th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) over the past week.

Beijing Platform for Action Section E

Women and Armed Conflict Diagnosis

Strategic objective E.1. Increase the participation of women in conflict resolution at decision-making levels and protect women living in situations of armed and other conflicts or under foreign occupation. Actions to be taken.

Strategic objective E.2. Reduce excessive military expenditures and control the availability of armaments. Actions to be taken.

Strategic objective E.3. Promote non-violent forms of conflict resolution and reduce the incidence of human rights abuse in conflict situations. Actions to be taken.

Strategic objective E.4. Promote women’s contribution to fostering a culture of peace. Actions to be taken

Strategic objective E.5. Provide protection, assistance and training to refugee women, other displaced women in need of international protection and internally displaced women. Actions to be taken.

Strategic objective E.6. Provide assistance to the women of the colonies and non-self-governing territories. Actions to be taken.
Women Bring Commitment and Experience to the Peace Table
Often the first people invited to participate in formal peace negotiations are the people holding the guns and the last are women who have expertise in building lasting peace.

Zainab Bangura, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, told a CSW side event on Tuesday last week, “In the Central African Republic, the only community where they were not killing each other was a community where the Christian women said, ‘These Muslim women are our sisters.’

“Why? Because the women in the community said, ‘We have lived together for the last 100 years’,” Bangura said.

In the Phillipines, Irene Santiago was a member of the government panel that negotiated peace with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Santiago came to the table with years of experience working with Christian, Muslim and Indigenous women leaders for peace.

Speaking at a CSW side event at the International Peace Institute (IPI) on Thursday, Santiago said that she knew that her years of experience working with civil society for peace stood her in good stead to make a significant contribution to formal peace negotiations, which she did.

Speaking with IPS, Santiago said women’s voices not only have to be heard, but that they also have to be acted on.

“For women. It’s almost never always about themselves, it’s always about our children, our husbands but also about our communities,” Santiago told IPS.

In Africa, women have fought to be included in peacemaking, even when their contributions have not been recognised.

Bineta Diop, Special Envoy on Women Peace and Security to the African Union, says that mediators need to be held accountable when they only invite the people who hold guns to the peace table and ignore women’s contributions.

“I have been involved in many crises where women were knocking at the door and saying we want to be at the table,” Diop said.

Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, known as the father of Security Council Resolution 1325, said that the determination of African women to be involved in peace negotiations should be seen as an inspiration by other countries.

Despite serious difficulties, war and conflict, African women have shown continued determination to hold their countries accountable, Chowdhury said.

Gender Equality in Peace Time Prevents Conflict
Also speaking at the IPI, Valerie Hudson, co-author of ‘Sex and World Peace’, said that her research has shown that the way women are treated within a country is one of the most accurate indicators of the quality of relations that country will have with other countries.

Diop agreed with Hudson, saying that countries that are likely to fall into conflict have higher levels of discrimination and inequality.

“Discrimination against women, especially the non-participation and non-inclusion of women in democracy is … one of the root causes of the conflict,” Diop said.

Ambassador Choudhury agreed with these sentiments, telling IPS, “I believe that no country can claim that their country is not in conflict if women’s rights are denied, if women’s equality is not ensured, if women’s participation at all participation levels is not there.

“I think that if we women are violated, if women’s equality of participation is not there we cannot say that we are at peace, we are in conflict with ourselves. This is a conflict which is happening within ourselves and within the countries. We don’t have to go into the traditional description of conflict, civil conflict or fighting with another country,” Chowdhury added.

Dr. Youssef Mahmoud, Senior Adviser at the International Peace Institute also speaking at the IPI event said, “A world where 51 per cent are ignored is a dangerous world for everyone. I can’t imagine why any men would be indifferent to this.”

Women Are Active In Civil Society
Several discussions at the CSW questioned why militaries were the primary actors in peace building, while non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society’s expertise was not called on.

Les délégations syndicales commencent leur travail lors de la 60e Session de la Commission de la condition de la femme des Nations Unies

. . . EGALITE HOMMES/FEMMES . . .

Un article de Internationale de l’Education

La délégation syndicale présente à New York, aux Etats-Unis, est composée de 150 femmes dirigeantes syndicales issues de 34 pays du monde, un nombre sans précédent. La délégation de l’Internationale de l’Education (IE) à la 60ème session de la Commission de la condition de la femme des Nations Unies (CSW60) a rejoint les autres délégations de fédérations syndicales internationales pour la première semaine des délibérations de la Commission (du 14 au 18 mars).

Cliquez sur le photo pour l’élargir

Nora Fyles, Responsable du Secrétariat de l’Initiative des Nations Unies pour l’éducation des filles (UNGEI). Fyles a donné une courte présentation portant sur le thème ‘Policy Advocacy: UNGEI Speaking Out for Girls’ Education’ (plaidoyer politique: l’UNGEI s’exprime pour l’éducation des filles), qui a été suivie d’une conversation avec les déléguées de l’IE au sujet des activités de plaidoyer de leurs syndicats respectifs sur le thème de l’éducation des filles et autres problématiques liées au genre et l’éducation.

Plus tard dans la journée, les déléguées de l’IE ont rejoint la délégation syndicale dans son ensemble pour une séance d’information lors de laquelle les délégué(e)s nouveaux/elles et aguerri(e)s ont reçu des informations concernant la première semaine de la CSW60, ainsi que sur les événements prévus par les fédérations syndicales internationales, l’Organisation internationale du Travail et les principaux alliés parmi les milliers d’organisations des droits des femmes actuellement présentes à New York pour assister à la CSW60.

Le thème prioritaire de la CSW60 est l’Autonomisation des femmes et lien avec le développement durable; et le thème examiné est l’Élimination et prévention de toutes les formes de violence à l’égard des femmes et des filles (conclusions concertées à la CSW57). Le thème prioritaire est auspicieux car la CSW60 est le premier événement majeur des Nations Unies à se dérouler depuis que l’agenda pour le développement durable 2030 a été convenu, et les nouveaux objectifs de développement durable ont été adoptés en septembre 2015. La CSW60 représente donc une occasion unique de rassembler la communauté du genre et de l’éducation pour un dialogue autour des liens entre l’objectif de développement durable 4 sur l’éducation et l’objectif de développement durable 5 sur l’égalité des sexes.

Le mercredi 16 mars, en collaboration avec la mission de la Norvège auprès des Nations Unies et l’UNGEI, l’IE organisera conjointement un événement parallèle intitulé ‘Financement de l’éducation: une clé pour l’autonomisation des femmes et des filles’. La présidente de l’IE, Susan Hopgood, prendra la parole, ainsi que Tone Skogen, la Ministre adjointe des Affaires Etrangères de Norvège, Geeta Rao Gupta, Directrice exécutive adjointe de l’UNICEF, Meighan Stone, Présidente du Malala Fund et Justin van Fleet, Directeur de la Commission internationale sur le financement des opportunités éducatives dans le monde. L’événement sera animé par Yannick Glemarec, Directeur exécutif adjoint Politique et Programmes d’ONU Femmes, et les remarques introductives seront offertes par Alice Albright, Directrice générale du Partenariat mondial pour l’éducation.

Lire la déclaration conjointe officielle des fédérations syndicales internationales relatives à la CSW60, cliquez ici pour découvrir le travail des délégué(e)s syndicaux/ales.

Suivre la délégation des fédérations syndicales internationales à la CSW des Nations Unies sur Twitter : https://twitter.com/unioncsw .

(Merci à Janet Hudgins, le reporter de CPNN pour cet article)

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