CPNN

The culture of peace is increasingly promoted at the level of the city according to the articles we have been publishing so far this year in CPNN.

At the highest level, the mayor of Madrid, Manuela Carmena, and the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, are planning to hold an international forum against violence and for peace education. Along with Brussels, their cities have suffered the most from terrorist attacks in Europe. While nation states promote military responses, they propose education for non-violence.

While nation states continue to make nuclear weapons, the network of Mayors for Peace, with over 6,900 cities in 161 countries, continues to prioritize the struggle for nuclear disarmament. We recently published an article from one of their member cities, Wellington, New Zealand.

The network of International Cities of Peace, with 130 member cities in 40 countries, has recently announced an alliance with the newly formed network of Compassionate Cities that includes 70 cities in almost 50 countries that have affirmed the Charter for Compassion, which promotes a culture of peace at the local level.

In the United States there is a growing movement of cities that undertake the transformation to a culture of peace.

In New Haven, Connecticut, this is the fourth year that the City Peace Commission, an organ of city government, has published a report on The State of the Culture of Peace in New Haven. The report identifies priorities for action by the city. Two of their priorities have been featured in recent CPNN articles: restorative justice in the schools, and welcoming refugees.

The city of Ashland, Oregon, has recently established an official City Culture of Peace Commission, and among its tasks is a similar annual report on the state of the culture of peace in their city. Other tasks include the training of peace ambassadors, peace education in schools, a directory of community resources that promote a culture of peace, and a monument containing the World Peace Flame.

Civil society organizations in Wilmington, Delaware, are developing a “strategic vision, plan and resource document that will bring peace to Wilmington. The plan will deal with the actions needed to transform a culture of violence to a culture of peace. The plan would include input from civic groups, city and state governments and agencies, churches, students, the elderly, and general public.”

A new initiative aims to create a network of Nonviolent Cities, modeled after an initiative in Carbondale, Illinois. Its goals are similar to those of New Haven, Ashland and Wilmington: “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.”

The practices promoted by culture of peace cities include mediation, restorative justice and participative budgeting, as described in previous CPNN articles.