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.

Colombia: National Meeting on Education for Peace

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

Presentation of the final report

Thinking about Education for Peace is the fruit of the National Conference on Education for Peace, held in Colombia on 1 and 2 October 2015. In this gathering there emerged ways of building and living life, led by youth, women, men weaving their daily lives amid resilient and creative practices that challenge and redefine the imaginary and cultural references that have sustained various types of violence.

colombia

The National Meeting on Education for Peace, was undertaken with the following objectives: 1) to articulate experiences and facilitate exchange of knowledge on education for peace among different actors and sectors of society from the perspectives of education for peace and building cultures of peace; 2) Generate a reflection with a broad spectrum on the challenges that the current situation presents to education for peace, in both social organizations and educational institutions at all levels, and 3 ) Promote a consensus to generate public policies in education for peace.

We have considered it essential to collect the experience of the National Meeting on Education for Peace. Therefore, we set out to investigate the question: What is the agenda of peace education that was proposed at the national meeting? Of course it is ambitious goal to record all the wealth, conversations, practices, concerns, desires and diversity of this meeting. However, this report, Thinking about Peace Education, aims to highlight the main commitments emerging from the many conversations that took place on 1 and 2 October at the National Meeting on Education for Peace. Therefore, we have structured this publication as follows:

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(Click here for the original Spanish of this aricle.)

Question(s) related to this article:

What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

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CROSSROADS, to account for the genesis of this meeting and its coordinates in the processes of peace building, which for more than two decades have been promoting different actors in Colombia, in the context of education for peace, from the convergence of diverse, new synergies, dynamics and actors scenarios evidence.

METHOD, to account for the methodological proposal for the meeting, which involved 652 assistants, from twenty departments, representatives of two hundred eighty organizations that take actions for peace education.

COMMITMENTS for peace education, to account for the hopes and commitments that emerged at the National Meeting on Education for Peace, from a reading exercise of the conversations were in the meeting and can guide actions and processes different scenarios.

SOME PROPOSALS to account for proposals for concrete actions that emerged in several of the workshops. The actions are grouped into several areas: social mobilization, generation and strengthening of public policy, university chairs for peace, human rights education and administrative and institutional framework.

OTHER PERSPECTIVES, to account for reflections and perspectives by the foreign and domestic guests at the National Meeting on Education for Peace: The professors Alicia Cabezudo, Rosa Ludy Arias Campos, Marina Caireta Sampero, Janet Gerson, David Adams, and Carlos Eduardo Martinez Hincapie, wanted to bring some elements from what they felt and observed in relation to their own experiences and studies on education for peace.
This publication was edited by a group of people from several of the founding organizations of the National Conference on Education for Peace, who collected the agreements and proposals from the table convenors in order to guide the methodological and systematic processes.

We hope this publication Thinking about Peace Education will be a contribution to building cultures of peace in Colombia, as an effort to contribute to the many initiatives and processes that are interwoven in the search for a country reconciled and peaceful.

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Latin America

Colombia: Encuentro Nacional de Educación para la Paz

. LIBERTAD DE INFORMACIÓN .

Presentación del informe final

Pensar en educación para la Paz, es una publicación fruto del Encuentro Nacional de Educación para la Paz, realizado el 1 y 2 de octubre de 2015. En este espacio de encuentro emergieron formas de construir y habitar la vida, lideradas por jóvenes, mujeres, hombres, que tejen su cotidianidad en medio de prácticas resistentes y creativas, que cuestionan y resignifican imaginarios y referentes culturales que han sostenido diversas violencias.

colombia

El Encuentro Nacional de Educación para la Paz, se realizó con los objetivos de: 1) Poner en diálogo estas experiencias y facilitar el intercambio de saberes sobre la educación para la paz entre distintos actores y sectores de la sociedad desde la perspectiva de la educación para la paz y en torno a la construcción de culturas de paz; 2) Generar una reflexión de amplio espectro, sobre los retos que el contexto actual le presenta a la educación para la paz, tanto en las organizaciones sociales como en las instituciones educativas de todos los niveles que trabajan en esta dirección en el contexto nacional y 3) Potenciar acuerdos para la generación de políticas públicas en educación para la paz.

Consideramos fundamental recoger la experiencia del Encuentro Nacional de Educación para la Paz. Por ello, nos propusimos indagar alrededor de la pregunta ¿Cuál es la agenda de educación para la paz propuesta en el encuentro nacional? Desde luego que es ambicioso registrar toda la riqueza, las conversaciones, las prácticas, las preocupaciones, los anhelos y la diversidad de este encuentro. Sin embargo, Pensar en Educación para la paz, tiene por objetivo evidenciar las principales apuestas que emergen de las múltiples conversaciones que tuvieron lugar el 1 y 2 de octubre en el Encuentro Nacional de Educación para la Paz. Por ello hemos estructurado esta publicación de la siguiente manera:

Un cruce de Caminos, para dar cuenta de la génesis de este encuentro y sus coordenadas en los procesos de construcción de paz, que durante más de dos décadas han venido impulsando distintos actores en Colombia, en el marco de la educación para la paz, desde el que se evidencia la convergencia de actores diversos, nuevas sinergias, dinámicas y escenarios.

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(Clickear aqui para la version inglês.)

 

Question related to this article:

What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

Ver el boletín de CPNN: Colombia se prepara para la paz.

(El artículo continúa desde el lado izquierdo de la página)

Un método para encontrarnos, para dar cuenta de la propuesta metodológica, que facilitó el encuentro de seiscientos cincuenta y dos asistentes, provenientes de veintisiete departamentos del país, representantes de doscientas ochenta organizaciones que realizan accio- nes de educación para la paz.

Pensar en educación –Apuestas para la paz, para dar cuenta de las apuestas que emergen en el Encuentro Nacional de Educación para la Paz, a partir de un ejercicio de lectura de las conversaciones que se tuvieron en el encuentro y pueden orientar acciones y procesos en distintos escenarios.

Algunas propuestas para la acción, para dar cuenta de las propuestas de acciones concretas que se dieron en varias de las mesas de trabajo. Estas acciones se agrupan en varios campos: la movilización social, la generación y fortalecimiento de política pública, la Cátedra para la paz, la educación en derechos humanos y el andamiaje administrativo e institucional.

Otras miradas, para dar cuenta de las reflexiones y miradas que hicieron los invitados extranjeros y nacionales, en el marco del Encuentro Nacional de Educación para la Paz: Las profesoras Alicia Cabezudo, Rosa Ludy Arias Campos, Marina Caireta Sampero, Janet Gerson y los profesores David Adams, y Carlos Eduardo Martínez Hincapié, quisieron aportar algu- nos elementos desde lo que sintieron y observaron en relación con sus propias experiencias y estudios que sobre la educación para la paz y la paz misma han venido realizando.

Esta publicación estuvo a cargo de un grupo de perso- nas de varias de las organizaciones convocantes del Encuentro Nacional de Educación para la Paz, que recogieron los acuerdos y propuestas de la mesa de convocantes, para orientar los procesos metodológicos y de sistematización.

Esperamos que esta publicación Pensar en Educación para la paz, sea un aporte a la construcción de culturas de paz en Colombia, como un esfuerzo por contribuir a las múltiples iniciativas y procesos que se entretejen en la búsqueda de un país en paz y reconciliado.

Uncategorized

Documentary Review: “Where to Invade Next” by Michael Moore

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

A film review by Ulkar Alakbarova

Each country has its own issues. Some have more, some have less. But one country has more internal issues than any other country in the world – The United States of America. In Michael Moore’s WHERE TO INVADE NEXT, you will discover some interesting facts that will make you wonder as to how is it possible that the greatest country on Earth can’t make its own people achieve the dream life they should have had a long time ago?

Moore
(click on photo to enlarge)

The idea of Moore’s documentary film is to invade a particular country that has something that the Americans don’t have. Moore begins his first trip with Italy, where he meets a charming middle class Italian couple, who tell us their lifestyle. From them, you will find out that every Italian is entitled to 8 paid weeks of vacation, two hours of lunch break, 15 days of vacation for newly married for their honeymoon, and 5 months of fully paid maternity leave. Moore strongly emphasizes here how important it is for Americans to implement this idea in the U.S. where, by law, every American is entitled to have only ‘0’ paid statuary vacations.

The second country the filmmaker invades is France, where he shows the importance of educating children to eat healthy food. While he takes us to a rural, and if I can say, not to a rich city at all, the food children are given in the school is equal to 5 stars’ restaurant in the North America. Instead, Moore shows the meal American students eat in the school: defrosted pizza and strange meal that looks like it had been kept in the fridge for ages. Moore’s third country being invaded is Finland, which offers the best education in the world, while Slovenia offers free University education. Saying that, it certainly looks like the richest country in the world is way behind those who have the annual budget a hundred times less than the United States.

WHERE TO INVADE NEXT is a great example of what a single country must do in order to make the life of its own people less stressful. Moore’s aim here is not to insult or embarrass his fellow Americans, but rather, make them to admit the gaps they have, and the urgency to fill it as soon as possible. It compares the prison system of Norway against the U.S., where no longer the rule being invented by the founders of the Great Nation: “no cruel or unusual punishment” is being followed.

In the end, this film can make you laugh, while, it`s uncomfortable truth may some viewer`s feelings. it touches quite a serious subject matter that somebody must look into. It reveals the negative side of American society that could not learn from past lessons. However, the filmmaker still looks optimistic, hoping that the ideas he claimed from foreign countries will help his country to restore its name before its citizens. Saying that, this film may be about America, but in the meantime, it’s about every country in the world that must face the issues they have, and fix it, if they want our next generation to have a prosperous future. But before it happens, allow yourself to be invaded by Moore`s brilliant film, that must be seen by everyone.

Question(s) related to this article:

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, North America

The Senegalese feminist Bineta Diop: United against war in Africa

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY .

An article from L’Actualité (reprinted as non-commercial use)

Giving voice to those who have no voice: that is the daily struggle of Bineta Diop. Special Envoy of the African Union (AU) for women, peace and security since 2014. A trained lawyer, she wants to increase women’s participation in the prevention and resolution of conflicts. “Peace and security are still dominated by men,” says the 66-year-feminist, wearing a turquoise robe and turban.

Diop
Bineta Diop. (Photo: EPA/Nic Bothma)

Founder of the association Femmes Africa Solidarité, which marked since 1996 the emergence of women’s movements for peace on the continent, she spends much of her time “on the ground” meeting with refugees and internally displaced, including women whose rights have been violated. From Somalia to South Sudan, Nigeria and Burundi, she collects their stories, lists the emergencies, and defines the actions to be implemented.

She has no fear to confront Heads of State. In 2001, for example, with a delegation of women from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, she convinced the feared Charles Taylor, then president of Liberia, to participate in a regional summit on peace, thus avoiding the outbreak of war. She has also collaborated on various reconciliation programs in areas of crisis and in post-conflict election observation missions. And ishe s currently working on the establishment of an index to track the progress of the condition of women in every country in Africa.

Ranked among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2011 Bineta Diop remains hopeful despite the violence that still ravage the continent.

“What makes me hopeful is to see that women are able to organize despite everything,” she said. “To see them come together in very difficult conditions, to keep smiling and never give up.”

Actualité interviewed her at the World Summit for Innovation in Education (WISE) in Doha, Qatar, where she gave a lecture.

For 20 years, Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS) has involved women in prevention and resolution of conflicts. What are the main results?

FAS has allowed women to organize and develop skills to become leaders in the establishment of peace. Violent conflict has a major impact on women, their bodies are often used as a weapon of war, a battlefield. But when it comes to solving problems, they are not invited to the discussion table, contrary to the demands of Resolution 1325 of the United Nations Security Council. The mobilization of women can provide a positive change of attitude, we can be an army without weapons. We can bring together Christian and Muslim women and various ethnic groups to talk and to develop common positions.

How can they manage to override their differences, especially when they have suffered so much conflict, even raped?

While men kill, society makes women responsible for the family, children’s education, care of the old … They therefore have a greater interest in peace and security. They can use their status as mothers and sisters in order to win. FAS provides training throughout the continent to help them understand that the real causes of these conflicts are not religious or ethnic, but related to the sharing of power and resources. Once sensitized, they arrive very quickly to transcend their differences and to put aside their grudges.

(Click here for the original French version)

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Question for this article

Can the women of Africa lead the continent to peace?

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Is religion a motor or a brake for peace, in your eyes?

Religion can be used to ignite conflict, but it is not the source. Men have always used regionalism and ethnicity to defend a political strategy. And now, the Boko Haram and al-Shabaab use Islam to manipulate people. Many listen to them because they are not educated and do not understand the religious texts. And in religion as in politics, women are dominated and have no voice.

What has caused the proliferation of terrorist groups?

The international community and all of us have perhaps made mistakes. Dictators have been overthrown without replacement, which created a political vacuum and space for these groups. And poverty is fertile ground. These groups infiltrating populations are embedded in families. They recruit unemployed youth by promising them paradise and virgins to no end. And they provide communities with what they need: water, electricity, basic education … and everyone closes her eyes. Especially since they are sowing fear.

How can women contribute to their dismantling?

More and more people want to fight against those who take their communities hostage and are not concerned with the interests of the population. The proof is that when their leaders are driven to a village by the military, they are quick to burn everything they had built! To overcome these movements, we must push the state to immediately replace what al-Shabaab and others have set up. People dream of a better world, we must give it to them! But for now, nobody is talking about that. Instead, they talk about military security and intelligence but not the roots of the problem. The State has failed in its responsibility to provide jobs …

In his recent book Africanistan (Fayard, 2015), French scientist Serge Michailof fears that the population explosion in Africa produces the same effects as in Afghanistan. What do you think?

We should not look only at the dark side, there is not chaos throughout Africa. The continent has the resources, and the potential for the greatest economic growth in the world. We have farmland, lakes, oil, sun … and youth who, when properly equipped and motivated, can move mountains. But we need to be better organized. If Africa was not as divided, with 54 countries who look only inward, if we had a comprehensive policy around common interests, we could share our wealth.

Is this the spirit of the Pan-African Vision 2063 action plan, drawn up by the AU?

Absolutely! To achieve it, we consulted everybody: young and old people, women, the private sector … in order to build a prosperous continent, where there may be conflicts, but less violence, and where we can finally benefit from our resources. There is a growing realization: political leaders realize that they involve young people if they want to move forward. And more and more women are involved, are elected, are becoming heads of state. Africa has suffered enough, it is time that men and women of the continent take their destiny in hand, because nobody will do it for them. One objective of the plan is to silence all weapons before 2020, and women certainly have a role to play in that.

Training for Peace

Her work experience in conflict zones has motivated Bineta Diop to create the Pan-African Centre for Gender, Peace and Development in 2005. Located in Dakar, Senegal, the Centre offers training throughout the continent, directly at a community level.

Africa, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

La féministe Sénégalaise Bineta Diop: Unies contre la guerre en Afrique

. . . EGALITE HOMMES/FEMMES . . .

Un article de L’Actualité (reproduit dans un but non commercial)

Faire entendre celles qui n’ont pas de voix: c’est le combat quotidien de Bineta Diop. Envoyée spéciale de l’Union africaine (UA) pour les femmes, la paix et la sécurité depuis 2014, cette juriste de formation veut augmenter leur participation dans la prévention et la résolution de conflits. «La paix et la sécurité sont encore dominées par les hommes», déplore cette féministe de 66 ans, en boubou et turban turquoise.

Diop
Bineta Diop. (Photo: EPA/Nic Bothma)

Fondatrice de l’association Femmes Afrique Solidarité, qui a permis depuis 1996 l’éclosion de mouvements féminins pour la paix sur le continent, cette femme de terrain consacre une bonne partie de son temps à la rencontre des réfugiées, des déplacées, des femmes dont les droits ont été violés. De la Somalie au Soudan du Sud, du Nigeria au Burundi, elle recueille leurs témoignages, dresse la liste des urgences, définit les actions à mettre en place.

Affronter des chefs d’État ne lui fait pas peur. En 2001, par exemple, avec une délégation de Guinéennes, Sierraléonaises et Libériennes, elle a convaincu le redouté Charles Taylor, alors président du Liberia, de participer à un sommet régional sur la paix, évitant ainsi le déclenchement d’hostilités. Elle a aussi collaboré à divers programmes de réconciliation en zones de crise et à des missions d’observation électorale postconflits. Et travaille en ce moment à la mise sur pied d’un indice pour suivre les progrès de la condition des femmes dans chaque pays d’Afrique.

Classée parmi les 100 personnes les plus influentes du monde par le magazine Time, en 2011, Bineta Diop garde espoir en dépit des violences qui ravagent toujours son continent.

«Ce qui me réconforte, c’est de voir que les femmes arrivent à se regrouper malgré tout, dit-elle. De les voir se réunir dans des conditions très difficiles, garder le sourire et ne jamais baisser les bras.»

L’actualité l’a rencontrée lors du Sommet mondial pour l’innovation en éducation (WISE), à Doha, au Qatar, où elle donnait une conférence.

Depuis 20 ans, Femmes Afrique Solidarité (FAS) travaille à l’engagement des femmes dans la prévention et la résolution de conflits. Quels sont ses principaux résultats?

FAS a permis aux femmes de s’organiser et d’acquérir des compétences pour devenir des leaders dans l’instauration de la paix. Les conflits violents ont des répercussions majeures sur les femmes, leur corps étant souvent utilisé comme une arme de guerre, un champ de bataille. Mais quand il s’agit de régler les problèmes, celles-ci ne sont pas invitées à la table de discussion, contrairement à ce que préconise la résolution 1325 du Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies. La mobilisation des femmes peut pourtant entraîner un changement d’attitude positif: nous pouvons être une armée sans armes. Cela amène des femmes chrétiennes, musulmanes et d’ethnies différentes à se parler, à élaborer des positions communes.

Comment arrivent-elles à passer outre à leurs différends, surtout quand elles ont autant souffert des conflits, ont été violées…

Pendant que les hommes s’entretuent, la société rend les femmes responsables de la famille, de l’éducation des enfants, des soins aux vieux… Elles ont donc un intérêt plus grand pour la paix et la sécurité. Et peuvent utiliser le fait d’être reconnues comme mères, comme sœurs, pour s’imposer. FAS offre des formations sur le continent pour les aider à comprendre les causes réelles de ces conflits, qui ne sont pas religieuses ou ethniques, mais liées au partage du pouvoir et des ressources. Une fois sensibilisées, elles arrivent très vite à transcender leurs différends, à mettre de côté leurs rancœurs.

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(Cliquez ici pour une version anglaise de cet article.)

Questions for this article:

Can the women of Africa lead the continent to peace?

(. . . suite)

La religion est-elle un moteur ou un frein pour la paix, à vos yeux?

Elle est utilisée pour enflammer les conflits, mais n’en est pas la source. Les hommes ont toujours utilisé à fond les régionalismes, les ethnies, pour défendre une stratégie politique. Et maintenant, les Boko Haram et autres al-Shabaab utilisent l’islam pour manipuler les gens. Beaucoup les écoutent, car ils ne sont pas instruits et ne comprennent même pas les textes religieux. Et dans les religions comme en politique, les femmes sont dominées et n’ont aucune voix.

Qu’est-ce qui a causé la prolifération de ces groupes terroristes?

La communauté internationale, nous tous, avons peut-être commis des erreurs. Certains dictateurs ont été renversés sans être remplacés, ce qui a créé un vide politique et de l’espace pour ces groupes. Et puis la pauvreté est un terreau fertile. Ces groupes infiltrent les populations, s’incrustent dans les familles, recrutent les jeunes désœuvrés en leur promettant le paradis et des vierges à n’en plus finir. Pour se faire apprécier des collectivités, ils leur donnent ce qui leur manque: l’eau, l’électricité, l’éducation de base… Et tout le monde ferme les yeux. D’autant qu’ils font régner la peur.

Comment les femmes peuvent-elles contribuer à leur démantèlement?

Elles sont de plus en plus nombreuses à vouloir se battre contre ces gens qui prennent leurs collectivités en otage et ne se préoccupent pas des intérêts de la population. La preuve, c’est que lorsque leurs dirigeants sont chassés d’un village par les militaires, ils s’empressent de brûler tout ce qu’ils avaient construit! Pour vaincre ces mouvements, il faut pousser l’État à venir tout de suite remplacer ce que al-Shabaab ou d’autres avaient mis en place. Les populations rêvent d’un monde meilleur, qu’on le leur donne! Mais pour le moment, personne ne parle de ça, on parle de sécurité militaire et de renseignement, mais pas des racines du problème: l’État qui faillit à ses responsabilités, le manque d’emplois…

Dans son récent livre Africanistan (Fayard, 2015), le chercheur français Serge Michailof craint que l’explosion démographique en Afrique ne produise les mêmes effets qu’en Afghanistan. Qu’en pensez-vous?

Il ne faut pas voir que le côté sombre, ce n’est pas le chaos partout en Afrique. Le continent a du potentiel, des ressources, et enregistre la croissance économique la plus importante au monde. Nous avons des terres cultivables, des lacs, du pétrole, du soleil… et la jeunesse qui peut, quand elle est bien outillée et motivée, soulever des montagnes. Mais il faut qu’on s’organise mieux. Si l’Afrique n’était pas aussi divisée, avec 54 pays qui se regardent le nombril, si on avait une politique d’ensem­ble, autour d’intérêts communs, on pourrait partager nos richesses.

C’est l’esprit du plan d’action panafricain Vision 2063, élaboré par l’UA?

Tout à fait! Pour le réaliser, nous avons consulté tout le monde: les jeunes, les femmes, les vieux, le secteur privé… Pour bâtir un continent prospère, où il y aura peut-être des conflits, mais moins de violence, et où on profitera enfin de nos ressources. Il y a une prise de conscience: les leaders politiques se rendent compte qu’ils doivent s’occuper des jeunes s’ils veulent avancer. Et de plus en plus de femmes s’impliquent, sont élues, devien­nent chefs d’État. L’Afri­que a assez souffert, il est temps que les hommes et les femmes de ce continent prennent leur destin en main, parce que personne ne le fera pour eux. L’un des objectifs de ce plan est de faire taire les armes avant 2020, et les femmes ont à coup sûr un rôle à y jouer.


Des formations pour la paix

Son expérience de travail en zones de conflit a motivé Bineta Diop à créer le Centre panafricain pour le genre, la paix et le développement, en 2005. Situé à Dakar, au Sénégal, le Centre offre des formations sur tout le continent, directement dans les collectivités.

Uncategorized

USA: New Haven Peaces Out. A Bit

. .DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION. .

An article by Aliyya Swaby, New Haven Independent (reprinted by permission)

The public schools “restorative justice” plan and the resettling of refugees in town strengthened New Haven’s “culture of peace” this past year, according to a new report.

swaby
Almost 200 “pink out” for Planned Parenthood (Photo by Lucy Gellman, New Haven Independent).

Compiled by the New Haven Peace Commission, the third annual report — “The State of the Culture of Peace in New Haven” — incorporates anonymous statements from 15 local activists on the ways that the city is improving or stagnating in eight different categories.

The conclusion: New Haven is moving toward peace. But slowly.

The report judges peace in New Haven by eight categories based on the United Nations Culture of Peace initiative launched in 1989. Each category was developed as a contrast to a characteristic of the culture of war: sustainable and equitable development, democratic participation, equality of women, tolerance and solidarity, disarmament and security, education for peace, free flow of information, and human rights.

Report author David Adams was at UNESCO until 2001, where he worked on the “Culture of Peace Programme” for promoting peace efforts nationwide. Nations, Adams said, operate under cultures of war, dominated by armament, propaganda, economic inequality and authoritarian control. But cities need cultures of peace to be successful.

“Cities don’t have enemies. Countries have enemies,” he said. “If we want to change the world and make peace, we should work at the level of the city and not at the level of the state.”

The full report can be read here.

The activists spoke anonymously, so that they spoke honestly, Adams said. “What you see is that it’s not perfect, but the city does work for the culture of peace.” The adoption of restorative justice in New Haven Public Schools, allowing kids to work through their problems instead of suspending them for disciplinary issues, is a major step forward in promoting peace, he said.

The Peace Commission is working to set up meetings with the chairs of Board of Alders education and youth committees in order to push for permanent funding for the restorative justice program. “Restorative justice addresses fundamental problems in the culture of peace. If we can do it in the schools, we can do it in society as a whole,” he said.

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Questions for this article:

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

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New Haven’s Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS) jumped into the national media in November for welcoming a family of Syrian refugees after the governor of Indiana refused to accept them into the state. This is an example of a “solidarity program” promoting community despite inequality in the city, according to the report.

The report also tracks programs that have not lived up to expectations from past years. Though the first peace report in 2013 lauded jobs program New Haven Works when it was first created to address unemployment and under-employment, this year’s report calls those early hopes “largely unfulfilled.”

New Haven Works has found jobs for 500 people in 18 months. That number is a “drop in the bucket,” the report quotes an activist saying.

Another major area of stagnation in creating a culture of peace in the city, according to Adams, is lack of sustainable, equitable development. Though thousands of new apartments are being developed, many are luxury units, “far beyond the reach of those who are being forced out of Church Street South, not to mention families and individuals already homeless or in over-crowded housing,” the report reads.

The prominence of women in politics this year—including Mayor Toni Harp’s reelection and Board of Alder President Tyisha Walker’s election by fellow alders—is a good model for woman’s equality, according to the report.

And New Haven supported Planned Parenthood at a rally on the Green against nationwide attacks attempting to cut sexual health services for women, the report says.

But women are largely heads of their households among the urban poor and often employed part-time or for low wages without benefits, the report said. Many have husbands or boyfriends in prison or who cannot find jobs because of a record.

The first report in 2013 said it was too early to judge whether community policing would be effective in New Haven. The new report characterizes it as still a work in progress.

“It takes a while to change the police force,” Adams said. “Developing trust takes years … Hopefully it will continue to move forward.” In other cities, the police are seen as an “occupying army, not as the fabric of the city.”

Earlier this week, the Peace Commission met to discuss the report and consider issues to address next year. Adams said it will continue pushing for a permanent restorative justice program and will need to come to consensus on another task.

A half dozen people sit on the commission. “The problem is when a lot of people think of peace, they think of business between countries. But when you talk about a culture of peace and define it this way, it becomes clear that it’s something people can do in their daily lives,” Adams said. “It brings peace home.”

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, North America

Book review: Hilary Klein’s Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

A book review by Alicia Swords, North American Congress on Latin America

Hilary Klein (2015) Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories. New York: Seven Stories Press.

When poor, indigenous people and peasants took over land and municipal governments in Chiapas, Mexico on January 1, 1994 just as the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect, the uprising shook the world. Through individual interviews and collective interviews at women’s assemblies, Hilary Klein’s book, Compañeras, charts the changes in women’s roles, leadership, rights, and power in intimate relationships, families, and communities that the Zapatista movement brought.

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Zapatista collectve bakery, Olga Isabel, Chiapas, Mexico. (Hilary Klein)

The title Compañeras captures the core of Klein’s project, which both describes her subject, Zapatista women and their political relationships, as well as her approach of being a compañera herself by building relationships of trust and mutual support. From 1997 to 2003, Klein worked in collaboration with women’s collectives in Zapatista communities in Chiapas. She co-developed a project called Mujer y Colectivismo, which supported Zapatista women’s cooperatives with leadership development, popular education materials, regional gatherings, and rotating loan funds. Regional authorities asked her to teach basic mathematics to women who needed these skills to run their cooperatives. In times of heavy state repression, she joined human rights delegations to interview women after military attacks on their communities. In the process Klein developed a high degree of trust with women leaders; she “slept in their homes, worked in their cornfields with them, and played with their children” (p. xxii). The richness of the interviews and collective testimony through group interviews is based on thattrust.

Other sympathetic outsiders-with-inside-perspectives and engaged scholar-activists in Chiapas have written about the Zapatistas, including June Nash, Rich Stahler-Sholk, Leandro Vergara-Camus, Mariana Mora, and Shannon Speed, to name a few. Klein’s work in Compañeras reflects this sort of committed engagement at its best.

With so much outside interest, Zapatista authorities developed criteria for engagement and meaningful involvement for scholars. In 2001, Zapatista women authorities in Morelia and La Garrucha asked Klein to conduct a set of interviews in more than two dozen communities to document and teach about the movement’s history from women’s perspectives. It is significant that Compañeras grew out of these interviews, driven by the movement participants’ own desire to teach the history of their organizing. Unlike descriptions of movements intended solely to inform outsiders, Compañeras addresses questions that clearly matter to the Zapatista women themselves, along with questions that matter to outsiders hoping to bring lessons from the Zapatista movement to their own spheres.

Each chapter uses both individual and collective interviews. The first three chapters outline the history and emergence of the Zapatista movement. We learn the history of injustices in Chiapas through interviews with mothers and grandmothers of Zapatista insurgents. Women military commanders describe their experiences of the 1994 uprising, and insurgents discuss the challenges of clandestine organizing. Participants explain the complex relationship between the liberation theology and the Zapatista movement, women’s struggles to rid communities of alcohol, the first above-ground organizing, the 1994 uprising, and the passage of the Women’s Revolutionary Law.

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Question for this article

Do women have a special role to play in the peace movement?

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Chapters four and five address how women have changed power dynamics in Chiapas through struggles over land and militarization. Building on historical struggles for land, we see how women participated in the Zapatista land takeovers and current struggles against neoliberal land privatization policies. We learn of the militarization, the failed San Andrés dialogues, and of confrontations with the military in their communities in 1998.

The remaining chapters, six through nine, reveal women’s experiences within the process and structures of the Zapatista movement. “Women who give birth to new worlds” chronicles the evolution of women’s participation and leadership in the Zapatistas’ political structure, economic cooperatives, and regional gatherings, along with changes in the Zapatistas’ own gender analysis. “Zapatista Autonomy” describes a range of women’s experiences in the emerging autonomous systems: Good Government Councils, the community justice system, health care and education. “Transformation and Evolution,”depicts the unevenness of changes in women’s rights and their ability to exercise those rights, acknowledging challenges and gaps between rhetoric and reality. It also highlights new strategies, such as consciousness-raising with men, shifting expectations for men’s involvement in domestic work, and raising children with new gender ideas. “Beyond Chiapas” shows efforts by Zapatista women to connect with women beyond Chiapas to build a broader movement for justice and dignity.

Maps, a timeline, glossary, and a list of suggested readings make this book an accessible introductory resource on the Zapatistas for students, organizers, and scholars. Throughout, Klein’s account reflects deep respect, comprehension, complexity, and nuance. She combines systematic research, a genuine desire for the movement to achieve its goals, and the honesty to carefully examine its shortcomings.

Latin America, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

Center for Peace Building and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka, to receive the Niwano Peace Prize

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

A press release from the Niwano Peace Foundation

While a relatively small island of twenty-two million people, Sri Lanka is a diverse country, home to multiple religions, ethnic groups, and languages. The country has suffered decades of violence and a civil war, which was ended only in 2009. Making things worse, Sri Lanka was hit by the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. The end of the war brought new hope for sustainable peace, but the challenges to its achievement remain large.

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Photo from project Defusing tensions and promoting peace in Sri Lanka by the Center for Peace Building and Reconciliation

The Centre for Peace Building and Reconciliation was founded in 2002 by Dishani Jayaweera and Jayantha Seneviratne, who are also life partners and Sinhala Buddhists by birth. The CPBR is a non-profit organization promoting peacebuilding, peace-making and non-violent conflict transformation. It supports personal and societal transformation within and between ethnic, religious, linguistic and regional communities in Sri Lanka, working at all the grassroots, local and national levels. To achieve goals of national reconciliation, the CPBR focuses those considered to hold the greatest influence and promise for transformation: religious leaders, women, and young people.

The presentation ceremony will take place in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, May 12th, at 10:30 a.m. In addition to an award certificate, the CPBR’s representative will receive a medal and twenty million yen.

To avoid undue emphasis on any particular religion or region, every year the Peace Foundation solicits nominations from people of recognized intellectual and religious stature around the world. In the nomination process, some 600 people and organizations, representing 125 countries and many religions, are asked to propose candidates. Nominations are rigorously screened by the Niwano Peace Prize International Selection Committee, which was set up in May of 2003 on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Niwano Peace Prize. The Committee presently consists of ten religious leaders from various parts of the world, all of whom are involved in movements for peace and inter-religious cooperation. Here are some comments by members of the Committee on the selection of the CPBR for this year’s award:

– I support this organization because there is evidence in its work that positive results are achieved under trying and challenging circumstances. I am inspired and encouraged by the fact that it is locally led, and that its approach to peace building combines the energy and creativity of the youth, with the invaluable wisdom of clergy and the elders. (Ms. Nomfundo Walaza)

– I’ve been aware of the long war in Sri Lanka that ended in 2009. Despite that sadly conflicts have flared up from time to time because of the lack of reconciliation work between the religious communities. CPBR works to build trust and social ties that is key to reconciliation and peace engaging youth and religious leaders. Two Sinhala Buddhists set up the Center with compassion for humanity based on their Buddhist beliefs. (Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra)

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, South Asia

Netherlands: The Peaceable School

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

Excerpts from the Manual for the Peaceable School, submitted to CPNN by John Zant

This programme, The Peaceable School, was designed in 1999 for use in Dutch primary schools to improve the social and emotional climate in school and classroom, by teaching pupils and teachers how to resolve conflicts constructively and by promoting pupil participation and community- building. The Peaceable School is widely spread in The Netherlands: by 2007, approximately 300 primary schools have implemented the programme (a yearly increase of approximately 50 schools). . .

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The Peaceable School has become a programme that strives to make school and class into a democratic community in which everyone feels responsible and involved, with the resolution of conflicts as its starting point. This programme teaches pupils, teachers and parents skills for resolving conflicts, other than by (physical or verbal) violence.

The programme includes a series of lessons for all age groups (including activities for children in Pre-school), intensive training for teachers, classroom observation and coaching and workshops for parents (see section 4). Besides training in conflict-resolution skills, all those involved learn to live with each other in a positive way by setting high standards of behaviour towards each other.

Increasing the responsibility of the pupils for their class and the school is key to this: the school as a community. Pupils learn to be responsible for the resolution of problems in the class and at school. Peer mediation is the most obvious result.

In this programme, peer mediation does not stand alone, but is part of an extensive curriculum. Through the weekly lessons, the pupils gradually work towards a climate in which the resolution of conflicts, other than by violence, becomes normal. Only when all the pupils know what mediation is and have practised it, does the school train a number of them specially as mediators.

Research results of surveys of similar programmes in the U.S. are encouraging. Evaluation research shows a significant reduction of incidents, suspensions, insults, punishments, etc. in all the schools that have implemented conflict resolution and peer mediation (Metis Associates, Inc., The Resolving conflict creatively programme: 1988-1989. Summary of significant findings. New York, 1990). Nearly all the schools report improvement in the general school climate. A large survey of 15 schools in New York, in which 5000 7 to 11-year-old pupils were followed, shows a significant decline in aggressive behaviour and a significant rise in achievement in reading and arithmetic by pupils who had followed more than 25 lessons from the curriculum (Aber J.L., Brown J., and C.C. Henrich, Teaching Conflict Resolution: an effective school-based approach to violence prevention. The National Center for Children in Poverty. New York, 1999).

After two years, nearly all the schools working with The Peaceable School in The Netherlands report a considerable change in the culture. Simple measurements (with thermometers, check-lists, observation) show progress in the actual and sensed feeling of security in almost all the schools.

Question for this article:
EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Europe

Afrique: Pour Que Vive La Liberté Promise

LIBERTÉ DE L’INFORMATION .

Un article par Nestor Bidadanure (abrégé)

Quel est le facteur idéologique majeur qui légitime la violence identitaire dans l’Afrique post-coloniale? Comment le concept de Culture de Paix peut-il contribuer à l’instauration d’une paix durable en Afrique ?

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Illustration of article from The Thinker (copyright shutterstock)

L’héritage de la liberté

« Chaque génération doit, dans une relative opacité, découvrir sa mission, la remplir ou la trahir » disait Frantz Fanon, dans son livre Les Damnés de la terre, rédigé en 1961 et qui influencera fortement la conscience politique des militants anticolonialistes et tiers-mondistes de son époque. Si nous nous plaçons du côté des générations qui ont vécu l’esclavage, la colonisation et l’apartheid, nous pouvons dire, avec une certaine prudence, que la réalité politique du continent africain s’est aujourd’hui globalement améliorée. Les lois qui légitimaient l’inégalité entre les humains et justifiaient l’occupation des territoires des peuples des cultures différentes ont été abolies. Des dirigeants progressistes africains ont réussi à déjouer des manipulations identitaires coloniales en fédérant les résistances internes et organisant les solidarités panafricanistes et internationales avec d’autres peuples en lutte. La violence politique et économique que continuent de vivre de nombreux peuples africains ne doit nous faire oublier les victoires remportées sur l’oppression. Grâce à la lutte des peuples, d’importants droits économiques et sociaux ont été conquis dans une large partie du continent. Une certaine égalité citoyenne et de genre a vu le jour sur les décombres des lois discriminatoires. Nous devons nous souvenir qu’aucun droit n’est naturel : chaque espace de liberté dont nous jouissons aujourd’hui est le fruit des batailles épiques des peuples pour la justice et la dignité humaine.

Outre la culture de résistance, nous sommes aussi les héritiers des valeurs et techniques de résolution pacifique des conflits. Face à des tragédies comme l’apartheid, le génocide au Rwanda, la guerre au Mozambique, nous avons vu les peuples puiser dans leur culture ancienne pour sortir de l’impasse et réconcilier des sociétés durement éprouvées.

C’est grâce à l’héritage de la liberté des combattants d’hier que nous pouvons aujourd’hui regarder l’avenir avec optimisme et affirmer avec certitude qu’une Afrique meilleure est possible. En fait le défi majeur de notre génération ne consiste pas à commencer l’histoire mais à refuser de s’arrêter au milieu du long chemin parcouru par les générations qui nous ont précédés dans la lutte pour liberté. Car aussi longtemps que subsistera la guerre et la pauvreté dans la plus petite portion du continent africain, la liberté promise par les pères du panafricanisme aura besoin d’autres héros pour advenir. Tant qu’existeront des peuples privés de liberté quelque part au monde, nul ne devra se sentir totalement libre.

La mission de la génération post-coloniale et post-apartheid que nous sommes consiste donc à lutter pour une paix durable en Afrique. Pour ce faire, il est essentiel de commencer par appréhender le système de pensée qui continue à rendre possible la pauvreté et la violence identitaire dans notre continent. En d’autre mots, il faut identifier l’obstacle majeur à l’émergence d’une Afrique libre, démocratique et sans exclusion pour laquelle ont lutté les générations précédentes. Une Afrique où la paix n’est plus un rêve mais une réalité.

De notre point de vue, l’essentiel de la violence politique et économique dont sont victimes les peuples africains aujourd’hui s’enracine dans un système de pensée que nous appelons le Populisme Identitaire Radical (en abréviation le PIR). Quel est donc le visage du PIR et en quoi le concept de Culture de Paix peut-il nous servir d’anti-thèse aux préjugés qui servent d’ossature au PIR ?

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(Cliquez ici pour la version anglaise de cet article.)

Question(s) related to this article:

Where in the world can we find good leadership today?

(. . . suite)

Le populisme identitaire radical

. . . en Afrique, la décolonisation juridique n’a pas été suivie d’une rupture idéologique avec le modèle de gouvernance coloniale chez une partie de l’élite politique. Celle-ci a perpétué, au delà des indépendances, le rapport violent au peuple. Si pour les colons l’ennemi était les indépendantistes, chez l’élite post-coloniale, non libérée mentalement des préjugés coloniaux, le nouvel ennemi est devenu l’autre perçu comme différent. Les discriminations contre le colonisé ont été remplacé par les discriminations contre l’autre ethnie, l’autre religion, les ressortissants de l’autre région, les étrangers… La pratique coloniale de diviser pour mieux régner est jusqu’à aujourd’hui l’arme politique préférée des élites extrémistes. Le phénomène des crimes contre l’humanité tels que le génocide des Tutsi au Rwanda, en 1994, des massacres à caractère ethnique au Burundi, en 1993, la guerre fratricide au Sud Soudan, les crimes de masse orchestrés par l’armée du seigneur, la LRA, en Ouganda et en RDC, la guerre menée par les organisations islamistes radicales d’Al Shabab en Somalie, de Boko haram au Nigeria, Al Qaïda et l’Etat islamiste en Libye, au Maghreb et au Mali s’enracinent dans des système de pensée théorisés qui légitiment la violence extrême. . . C’est contre le PIR que les nouveaux combattants de la liberté doivent se dresser pour que puisse un jour advenir une Afrique en paix avec elle même.

Par populisme, il faut entendre la démagogie politique distillée à travers des discours de haine de l’autre différent. . . . Par identitaire, il faut entendre l’instrumentalisation des différences réelles ou supposées à des fins de prise ou de conservation du pouvoir . . . Par radical, il faut entendre la volonté d’extermination de l’autre différent. . .

Pour une Afrique en paix

La Culture de Paix n’est pas un concept fermé. C’est un concept qui intègre les éléments constitutifs des traditions des peuples qui permettent la résolution pacifique des conflits et la diffusion des valeurs de paix. De ce point de vue, la philosophie d’Ubuntu, la tradition d’Ubushingantahe au Burundi, la justice traditionnelle et participative Agacaca au Rwanda sont autant d’éléments constitutifs de la Culture de Paix. Analysons les clefs constitutives de la Culture de Paix en rapport avec la situation africaine.

1-Le respect de la vie, de la personne humaine et ses droits. . .

2-L’accès des citoyens aux droits économiques et sociaux . . .

3- La résolution pacifique des conflits et la réconciliation . . .

4- L’égalité entre les hommes et les femmes ainsi que l’inclusion des diversités . . .

5- La démocratie et la liberté d’expression . . .

6- Le respect de l’environnement . . .

La Culture de Paix doit être pensée et enseignée comme un idéal qui permet de relier et de renforcer ce qui a été délié. C’est une théorie inclusive et réconciliatrice. Elle est l’anti-thèse du PIR. C’est une théorie qui permet de penser les différences au sein d’une nation comme une précieuse richesse. Elle nous rappel qu’il n’y a pas d’identité nationale hors la diversité tant culturelle qu’humaine de l’ensemble des citoyens. La Culture de Paix plaide pour l’accès de toutes et tous aux droits humains. Car rien n’est nouveau sous le soleil : c’est toujours la pauvreté et l’ignorance qui font le lit à la démagogie identitaire.

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