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.

Remembering the US soldiers who refused orders to murder Native Americans at Sand Creek

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article by Billy J. Stratton in The Convesation

Every Thanksgiving weekend for the past 17 years, Arapaho and Cheyenne youth lead a 180-mile relay from the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site to Denver.

The annual Sand Creek Massacre Spiritual Healing Run opens at the site of the Sand Creek Massacre near Eads, Colorado, with a sunrise ceremony honoring some 200 Arapaho and Cheyenne people who lost their lives in the infamous massacre. This brutal assault was carried out by Colonel John Chivington on Nov. 29, 1864.


Members and supporters of the Arapaho and Cheyenne Native American tribes, 2014.

While the Sand Creek massacre has been the subject of numerous books< , much less attention has been given to a href="http://www.jhwriter.com/?page_id=4">two heroes of this horrific event: U.S. soldiers Captain Silas Soule and Lt. Joseph Cramer.

These were men who rejected the violence and genocide inherent in the “conquest of the West.” They did so by personally refusing to take part in the murder of peaceful people, while ordering the men under their command to stand down. Their example breaks the conventional frontier narrative that has come to define the clash between Colonial settlers and Native peoples as one of civilization versus savagery.

This is a theme I’ve previously addressed as a scholar in the fields of American Indian studies and Colonial history, both in my book on the Indian captivity narrative genre, “Buried in Shades of Night,” and more recently in writings on Sand Creek.

The letters of Soule and Cramer

Soule’s noble act of compassion at Sand Creek is humbly conveyed in a letter to his mother included in the Denver Public Library Western History Collections: “I was present at a Massacre of three hundred Indians mostly women and children… It was a horrable scene and I would not let my Company fire.”

Refusing to participate, Soule and the men of Company D of the First Colorado, along with Cramer of Company K, bore witness to the incomprehensible. Chivington’s attack soon descended into a frenzy of killing and mutilation, with soldiers taking scalps and other grisly trophies from the bodies of the dead. Soule was a devoted abolitionist and one dedicated to the rights of all people.

He stayed true to his convictions in the face of insults and even a threat of hanging from Chivington the night before at Fort Lyon.

In the following weeks, Soule and Cramer wrote letters to Major Edward “Ned” Wyncoop, the previous commander at Fort Lyon who had dealt fairly with the Cheyenne and Arapaho. Both harshly condemned the massacre and the soldiers who carried it out. Soule’s letter details a meeting among officers on the eve of the attack in which he fervently condemned Chivington’s plans asserting “that any man who would take part in the murders, knowing the circumstances as we did, was a low lived cowardly son of a bitch.”

Describing the attack to Wynkoop, Soule wrote, “I refused to fire and swore that none but a coward would.” His letter goes on to describe the soldiers as “a perfect mob.”

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Question for this article:

“Put down the gun and take up the pen”, What are some other examples?

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This account is verified by Cramer’s letter. Detailing his own objections to Chivington, whom he describes as coming “like a thief in the dark,” Cramer had stated that he “thought it murder to jump them friendly Indians.” To this charge, Chivington had replied, “Damn any man or men who are in sympathy with them.”

In Soule’s account, he writes, “I tell you Ned it was hard to see little children on their knees have their brains beat out by men professing to be civilized.”

While few Americans – especially those living outside of Colorado – may know their names, Soule and Cramer are honored and revered by the descendants of the people they tried to save. According to David F. Halaas, former Colorado state historian and current historical consultant to the Northern Cheyenne, without their courage in disobeying Chivington’s orders and keeping their men from the massacre, “the descendants probably wouldn’t be around today,” and there would be no one to tell the stories.

The horrific descriptions of Soule and Cramer prompted several official inquiries into the atrocity. Both men also testified before an Army commission in Colorado as witnesses. While the officers and soldiers responsible escaped punishment, their testimony brought widespread condemnation upon Chivington, who defended the massacre for the rest of his life.

These investigations also ended the political career of the Colorado territorial governor, John Evans, who had issued two proclamations calling for violence against Native people of the plains, and for organizing the 3rd Colorado Cavalry Regiment in which Chivington was placed in command.

Sites of reverence and healing

The Cheyenne and Arapaho will return to Denver this year to honor their ancestors and remember Soule’s and Cramer’s conscience and humanity. This will be done through an offering of prayers and blessings, along with the performance of honor songs.

On the third and final day of the healing run, they will gather for a sunrise ceremony at Soule’s flower-adorned grave at Denver’s Riverside Cemetery. The participants will then continue on to 15th and Lawrence Street in downtown Denver. There, a plaque is mounted on the side of an office building at the place where Soule was murdered on April 23, 1865. His death, for which no one was ever brought to justice, occurred only two months after he testified against Chivington before the Army commission.

Over the last few decades, Soule’s grave and place of death have been transformed into sacred sites of remembrance within a violent and traumatic frontier past.

The catastrophe of the Sand Creek Massacre is recognized by historians as among the most infamous events in the annals of the American West. Even now, it is the only massacre of Native people recognized as such by the U.S. government, with the land itself preserved as a national historic site for learning and reflection.

In Cheyenne and Arapaho stories, this event remains an ever-present trauma and persists as part of their cultural memory. In addition, it encapsulates the stark moment of betrayal against their ancestors and the theft of their lands.

The story of Soule’s and Cramer’s actions and their courage to say “no” to the killing of peaceful people at Sand Creek is an important chapter of U.S. history. I maintain that it is people like Soule and Cramer who truly deserve to be remembered through monuments and memorials, and can be a source for a different kind of historical understanding: one based not on abstract notions of justice and right, but upon the courage and integrity it takes to breathe life into those virtues.

On the 152nd anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre, as we honor the memory of those who died at Sand Creek, may we also be inspired by the heroic actions of these two American soldiers.

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

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, North America

Challenge in Colombia: Peace displacing violence as inspiration for the arts

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article By Camila Pinzón Mendoza for Huffington Post (translated by CPNN and reprinted according to the principles of “fair use”)

Colombian artists, filmmakers, musicians, playwrights and writers have a new challenge: to create peace instead of violence. At least if the agreements between the government and the guerrillas are complied with and respected. This is an interval of time without precedient for the Colombians for which they are not only witnesses but also creators. Two centuries of violence have defined their ways of feeling, thinking, living and inspired some of their best works of art, but today is a new time, the time of post-agreement .


Scene from the official trailer at El Fin de la Guerra

Living in a country without war brings to Colombians new ways of thinking, of narrating and of living. It’s a paradigm shift since the signing of the peace agreement with the FARC, on November 24, 2016, a transit scenario. This will be explored and reflected in the Neiva Cinexcusa Film Festival between the 23rd and 27th of October. It is the most important cinematographic and cultural meeting of the department of Huila and southern Colombia, a multidisciplinary event that involves literature, music, journalism and social sciences.

“We came from an overdose of film about drug trafficking and characters built in molds and clichés,” says Luis Eduardo Manrique Rivas, director of Cinexcusa. “Maybe,” he adds, “this is the time to tell stories with more real and current characters in more intimate environments that generate identification.” In this direction, the film Pariente, which will premiere at the Festival, will represent Colombia at the Oscars of 2018. The film talks about the enemies of peace. It tells the story of Willington’s love for Mariana while the rumor of a thief in the streets and a series of violent deaths bring back the memories of fear through “rural characters who are complex, contradictory and in dispute about the lack of love and of course, violence.”

“The territory of literature exists between history and myth,” reflects Daniel Ferreira (Colombia, 1981), a guest writer at the Festival. For the writer, “the torn opening of reality allows the past to become central, ordering the past and its contradictions with another sense in a distanced way that provides clairvoyance for the future”. Ferreira is the author of the novel, Viaje al interior de un gota de sangre (Alfaguara, 2017), recently published, in which he reconstructs a massacre through the voices of the victims and for whom “there are no collective, only individual truths”.

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(Click here for the original Spanish version of this article.)

Question for this article:

Film festivals that promote a culture of peace, Do you know of others?

What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

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For twelve years now, Cinexcusa has addressed through the arts, the social and political problems of Colombia and the world, such as mistreatment of women, Nazism and the armed conflict of the country. Through Cinexcusa have passed authors like the Colombian Alfredo Molano, who has dedicated his life to narrate the history of violence in Colombia in books such as “Los años del tropel: relatos de la violencia,” “Trochas y fusiles,” and his most recent, “A lomo de mula.” Last year, the Argentinean Andrés Neuman, was invited and he brought the individual and collective experiences that he explores in”Una vez Argentina”. Two years ago the guest was the Argentine chronicler Josefina Licitra, who has narrated the memory of the devastated of the tragedy of Epecué in his book, “El agua mala, un episodio similar al ocurrido en Armero”. Other participating authors have included Manuel Rivas, Lucrecia Martel and Leila Guerriero.

During these five days there will be more than 30 activities, with 28 guests and 22 films, including feature films and short films, in 12 public settings in Neiva. Neiva, a city in the south of the country on the banks of the Magdalena River, has been an unavoidable place of passage, a strategic enclave for the support of the armies: a place of war. Now it is celebrated as an encounter of art, culture, peace.

The central theme of the projections of this 12th edition is the post-agreement. Thirteen films on this theme make up the bulk of the program, which also includes participation by the directors themselves or experts who open the debate, such as the director of Pariente, Iván Gaona, the well-known actor Álvaro Rodríguez and the film critic Augusto Bernal. With the purpose of providing a panorama of the national filmography, there is also the section of “Colombian Cinema”, a space to talk with the creators about their creation processes and experiences during the shooting. There is also a sample of short films, which has become a national contest, to disseminate and stimulate audiovisual projects, and a sample of films that are screened in several schools in the city, called “Cinema on the board”, which seeks to bring the cinema to the classrooms.

You are invited to look at some of the films that will be screened at Cinexcusa, a light on the contexts of war and post-conflict. Click here and scroll down for film trailers.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America

Prague: International youth conference: Reaching High for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article from Abolition 2000

A conference for young academics, professionals and activists to advance initiatives and build cooperation for nuclear disarmament will be held just before the Prague Insecurity Conference, which flows on from the Prague Agenda Conferences held annually since former U.S. President Barack Obama gave his historic speech in Prague putting forward the vision and commitment to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world.


(Click on image to enlarge)

There is now a different U.S. administration, as well as new political realities and international conflicts to be addressed in order to reduce the risks of nuclear confrontation and make progress toward the elimination of nuclear weapons. There are also new opportunities including the Treaty on the Prohibition on Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) adopted at the United Nations in July 2017, and the UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament (UNHLC) which will take place in May 2018.

A key focus of the conference will be to explore the political and economic dynamics of nuclear weapons policies, and the ways in which youth can engage with parliamentarians, governments, UN agencies and other civil society networks to influence policy and support the UN processes, especially the 2018 UNHLC.

The conference will include workshop sessions, networking, action planning and a visit to the ATOM Museum, a former nuclear weapons depot approximately one-hour drive from Prague.

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Question related to this article:

Can we abolish all nuclear weapons?

A UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament: Distraction or progress?

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Workshop sessions, with opening presentations by youth, include:

1 Nuclear risk reduction and incremental disarmament measures;

2 Nuclear weapons and sustainable development – economic aspects including nuclear divestment;

3 The TPNW and other international law prohibiting nuclear weapons;

4 2018 UNHLC on nuclear disarmament;

5 Engaging parliamentarians, UN, mayors and other key constituencies;

6 Planning youth actions and intergenerational cooperation.
Click here for the conference flyer.

To register please contact Marzhan Nurzhan marzhan@pnnd.org

Cosponsors: Abolition 2000, Basel Peace Office , Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament , Střediska Bezpečnostní Politiky, Unfold Zero and Prague Vision

The conference is being organised by the Abolition 2000 Youth Network, a working group of Abolition 2000, the global civil society network to eliminate nuclear weapons. The Abolition 2000 youth network brings together young activists from Abolition 2000 member-organisations and affiliated networks including Amplify, Ban All Nukes generation (BANg), Chain Reaction 2016, CTBTO Youth Group, Global Zero, IALANA, ICAN, IPPNW Student Network, PNND youth, Parliament of the World’s Religions youth, Pugwash Student and Youth, UNFOLD ZERO, Youth Future Project and others.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Europe

USA/Ecuador: Film festival to present story of roots, nature

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article from Red Rock News

“The Roots Awaken” is a hopeful story about how indigenous communities — despite their differences in traditions — are connected to each other through their sacred relationship with nature.

The Sedona International Film Festival presents a free film screening of “The Roots Awaken,” featuring an introduction and Q-and-A with the film’s director, Kumiko Hayashi. This one-time-only screening will be held at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Wednesday, Oct. 25, at 4 p.m. Free tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis.


(click on photo to enlarge)

“The Roots Awaken” is a documentary film that reveals how diverse indigenous communities from the Andes mountains to the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador are united at heart through their prayer to protect their land and maintain their culture in a globalized world. The film is a hopeful story about how indigenous communities — despite their differences in traditions — are connected to each other through their sacred relationship with nature.

Told through the narration of a young woman, the film begins as people from South to North America gather together at the Kumbre Konciencia Global, which takes place on an ancient pyramid located on 0’0”, Cochasqui, Ecuador.

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Question for discussion

The understanding of indigenous peoples, Can it help us cultivate a culture of peace?

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This gathering was an assembly to create a culture of peace surrounding the topics of ancestral medicine, technology and nature. From the gathering, we follow the ceremonies of each community as they pray to maintain their culture and sacred traditions in the face of globalization and to resist big companies in protection of their territory.

In this increasingly fast-paced world, how do the elders pass on their ancient wisdom to the youth? From Ayahuasca ceremonies in the depths of the Amazon rainforest, to protests using music in the streets of Quito, the film explores the importance of prayer in the presence of culture.

“The Roots Awaken” was made in collaboration with 12 indigenous communities in the country of Ecuador through a process of community cinema, where the individuals in the film participated in the production. The aim of the film is to support the indigenous communities that co-created the film and their movement to maintain their ancestral lands and cultures through new collaborative initiatives.

Part of the proceeds from the film will go directly to building an educational center in the Amazon rainforest for international guests to come and learn about medicinal plants and ancestral cultures.

Join us for a special free premiere of “The Roots Awaken” and a Q-and-A with Hayashi. This free screening was made possible with the generous support of Adele Sands.

“The Roots Awaken” will be shown at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Wednesday, Oct. 25, at 4 p.m. All tickets are free and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Tickets are available in advance at the Sedona International Film Festival office; by calling 282-1177; or online at SedonaFilmFestival.org. The theater and film festival office are located at 2030 W. SR 89A in West Sedona.

Latin America, North America, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY,

Agents of Peace: Hakamat Women in North Darfur Promote Peaceful Coexistence in the State

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article from Relief Web

Yesterday, around 30 Hakamas and 10 key influential community leaders and native administrators in North Darfur have participated in a two day community outreach peace forum facilitated by both UNAMID Civil Affairs and UNDP.

The forum aimed at supporting a culture of peace involving mediating intercommunal disputes and promoting inter-communal peaceful coexistence, enhancement of dialogue and strengthening the social fabrics in North Darfur through the active engagement of women.


Hakamat women

The Hakama women who traditionally chant songs instigating tribal war leaders to fight in the frontlines are now being taught ways to propagate peace messages like peace songs and other peace building initiatives in their communities instead of singing war songs.

The community outreach forum also aimed at enhancing and promoting gender mainstreaming in peace building initiatives and conflict resolution through involving Hakamat in mediation and peace talks.

In addition, a strategy for promoting peaceful coexistence and conflict prevention through traditional resolution mechanisms was devised with the aim of encouraging female led initiatives in North Darfur.

One of the Hakamas, Bakhita Musa , remarked at the closing of the workshop, “This workshop really provided me with so many useful insights especially towards the role of women in peace building and how violence against women must end. We the Hakamas call for all these virtues in our songs.” Bakhita then sang a new song composed especially for that day for the audience where in an expressive voice chanting “Peace Breeze is coming, put the gun down” .

Question for this article
Africa, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

Mexico: The government of Zacatecas installs a fifth room for peace and juvenile restorative justice in the Sain Alto school of Cobaez

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . .

An article from the state of Zacatecas

The Bachilleres Schools of Cobaez in the State of Zacatecas already have rooms of Peace and Juvenile Restorative Justice in five establishments; The last of these spaces has now been established for the teaching and student community of the Sain Alto school.

According to Cobaez’s General Director, Juan Antonio Ruiz García, these spaces have been created by the State Government to meet the needs of young people so they can resolve conflicts through dialogue and consensus between the parties concerned.

It is not a question of punishing an aggressor,” he added, “but of deterining the causes that have motivated the behavior and solving the conflict through the culture of peace. The victim, the teachers and the mothers and fathers are all part of the resolution of the problem.

The four other Peace and Juvenile Restoration Justice Rooms are located in the schools of Roberto Cabral del Hoyo, Víctor Rosales, Zacatecas and Luis Moya. Likewise, it is planned to install more spaces like these in Ermita de Guadalupe, Enrique Estrada and Valparaiso.

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(Click here for the original article in Spanish)

Discussion question

Restorative justice, What does it look like in practice?

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Ruiz Garcia urged students to be promoters of what they learn in the Peace and Justice Room, to be transmitted in their homes and community; also invited them to practice tolerance and dialogue, because that means seeing beyond our differences.

For her part, Flor Morales Duke, Director of Citizen Orientation of the Secretariat of Public Security (SSP), said that these actions are part of a general peace initiative, and this room, intended to benefit young people, will be a place of training for peace and social skills.

Ricardo Isaac García Valerio, director of the Sain Alto campus, addressed the students to point out that in that space they can resolve disputes, eradicate discrimination, bullying and violent acts through the culture of peace.

As complementary actions to the program, the director of training of the Human Rights Commission of the State of Zacatecas, Luis Rincón Gallardo, gave a conference to 550 students on the Culture of Peace: Prevention of violence and promotion of values ​​for harmonious coexistence.

Within the framework of the Peace Circles and the Implementation Strategy of the Prevention and Attention to School Violence Program, the teachers of the School also participated in the workshop called Paradigms of Restorative Justice, taught by Myrna Ordaz Alarcón.

Finally, the Chief of the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education, Victor Octavio Espinoza Lozano, assisted the members of the Unit of Peace and Restorative Justice; to unveil a plaque in the fifth room of Peace and Juvenile Restorative Justice of the Cobaez.

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Latin America

Ecuador: ‘Dedicated Lives’ at the Casa Carrión

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article from the Agencia Pública de Noticias de Quito

“Dedicated Lives”, a book on non-violence written by authors of the Press Association of Ecuador will be presented at the Casa Carrión this Wednesday, October 25th, at 7:00 p.m.

As part of its journalistic work, the Pressenza team in Ecuador conducted a series of interviews which are published in this book. The objective of this effort is to recover and disseminate the experience of 12 people who in Ecuador have dedicated their lives to a struggle, initiative, or task that contributes to the construction of a non-violent Ecuador. They are twelve testimonies, twelve examples for our future.


(Click on image to enlarage)

The book will be published under the label of Manthra Editores. The main characters will include: Leonor Bravo and her dream of promoting reading, Nila de Aguiar on the situation of Afro-descendants, María del Carmen Barros on the importance of community building, Pascale Laso and the formation of the group Mujeres de Frente, Luis Montaluisa and Catalina Álvarez for their struggle for the rights of indigenous peoples; emblematic figures of the Ecuadorian Culture of the XX century.

The press agency Pressenza has been operating for 9 years. Its initial motivation was to cover the World March for Peace and Nonviolence. Journalists and photographers from some countries joined in this cause. In 2014, Pressenza was legalized in Ecuador as an International Press Agency, with a focus on Peace and Nonviolence, and for three years it has been a member of APE (Association of Foreign Press in Ecuador). Pressenza has about 250 volunteers in more than 30 countries, specialized in communication, social activism, cultural and academic fields.

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(Click here for the original version in Spanish.)

Question(s) related to this article:

Journalism in Latin America: Is it turning towards a culture of peace?

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With a universalistic humanistic perspective, Pressenza is a space open to the expression of ordinary people. It works with issues related to humanism, non-violence, human rights, disarmament and discrimination, actively promoting collaboration agreements and alliances with other agencies, as well as links of reciprocity with portals, platforms, information and communication media, specific communities and cultures.

It has a wide network of news media that achieve worldwide dissemination of its local proposals, nourishing its information with the material provided by the agency. It is present in 30 countries and issues its information service daily in English, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German and Greek. It has columnists, reporters, photographers, graphics, video and translators on five continents, who contribute without profit their professional work, whose basic condition is their autonomy, independence and self-management.

In Ecuador, for 5 years, it has been promoting the Fair of Non-Violent Initiatives and, for 3 years, the October initiative for Peace and Non-Violence, whose activities are carried out jointly with groups, foundations and organizations that carry news about initiatives that promote non-violence and non-discrimination.

“Non-Violent October,” is a project of civil society, formed by a group of individuals and non-profit organizations, with the aim of promoting a humanistic and human rights approach, to motivate a culture of peace, active non-violence and non-discrimination, as life actions to contribute to the integration of individuals and their peoples.

“Non-Violent October,” carries out various activities throughout the year, especially in October, which begins with the International Day of Nonviolence. The work is collaborative and self-managing. It does not receive any kind of investment from a public or private entity, thus promoting the empowerment of individuals for individual and collective transformation.

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Latin America

Madrid will again host the World Forum for Peace in 2018

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article from La Vanguardia (reproduction strictly for non-commercial purpose)

The Spanish capital will host again in November 2018 the second edition of the World Forum for Education for Peace which it held in April this year, with the participation of over 400 international representatives who sought solutions to the different types of urban violence.


Manuela Carmena

Mayor Manuela Carmena, has announced that Madrid will once again host the event in remarks to journalists at the end of an event commemorating United Nations Day. She said that the Spanish capital has “identified with peace as a possible instrument of governance and development. ”

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(Click here for the Spanish original of this article)

Questions for this article:

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

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The forum, promoted by the mayor of Madrid and her Parisian counterpart, Anne Hidalgo, will stay for the second consecutive year in Madrid because “it is necessary to fix well” the forum, according to the mayor, who wants “Madrid to remain the capital of peace”.

In the first edition held between 19 and 21 April, experts from more than 70 countries, a hundred of them mayors, addressed solutions to various forms of interpersonal violence, which has generated between 2000 and 2014 the death of six million people, more than those killed in wars.

The King inaugurated the meeting in which local governments and civil society organizations signed the “Madrid Commitment of Cities of Peace” to promote “a culture of peace”, to create actions against violence that go beyond “punishment” and fight against corruption.

The meeting addressed different types of violence: youth gangs, racism, homophobia, gender violence, school bullying and urban inequality.

On this occasion, according to EFE municipal sources, the team of Manuela Carmena will work to include personalities of the highest level, and the Forum will be attended by the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG).

The first edition was held in the impoverished district of Villaverde (in the south of the Spanish capital), which welcomes large numbers of emigrants and unemployed citizens.

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Europe

Panama: CUMIPAZ promotes justice and democracy

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article written by Lineth Rodriguez for Metro Libre (translated by CPNN)

Panama is home to the third Summit of Integration for Peace, which tomorrow (21 October) will have its closing ceremony, and which has discussed issues of great importance, from scientific work for the preservation of Mother Earth and Humanity to diplomacy and education .


“We work for an altruistic cause, including sowing a culture of peace, building a culture of peace, promoting and defending human rights, respect for human dignity, tolerance for equality and peaceful resolution of conflicts,” said Magistrate Camilo Montoya Reyes.

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(Click here for the original Spanish version of this article.)

Question for this article:

Proposals for Reform of the United Nations: Are they sufficiently radical?

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He said that among its programs, the organizer, the World Embassy of Activists for Peace, seeks to strengthen justice and impartiality in the international arena, especially to strengthen the International Criminal Court, which is responsible for investigating international crimes.

Also, they seek to democratize the UN, so that the Security Council is enlarged to have not only the present five permanent members, but also a permanent member from Latin America.

The following are presentations in the morning session:

– Proposal for strengthening the autonomy and effectiveness of the Criminal and International Court by Dr. Ania Salinas Cerda;

– Challenges of International Justice in detecting alarm signals, and in preventing genocidal atrocities by Judge Rafaa Ben Achour;

– Introduction to the Peace and Democracy Panel in Latin America and Latin America as an Island of Peace by attorney Ernesto Samper Pizano, former president of Colombia.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Latin America

Mexico: Expanding the Women’s Network against Gender Violence

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article from the Heraldo de Coatzacoalcos

As part of the program “Strengthening for Security” (Fortaseg) carried out by the City Council of Coatzacoalcos and the program Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (DIF), under the direction of its Gender Unit, 25 women from the Benito Juárez Norte colony received their certificates as members of the Women’s Network against Gender Violence.

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Question related to this article:

Protecting women and girls against violence, Is progress being made?

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The Director of Gender Unit of the DIF, Liliana Alonso Martínez, stressed that more women will be added to the network. Its purpose is outreach to women who have been victims of violence so that they know where to go to request assistance, whether legal, medical or psychological.

Within the framework of this accreditation, dozens of people gathered inside Plaza Forum, to add their signatures against gender violence and in favor of a culture of peace in Coatzacoalcos.

(click here for the original Spanish version of this article.)

Latin America, WOMEN'S EQUALITY