Mexico: UABC advances in the culture of peace

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

An article from Lindero Norte Noticias (translation by CPNN)

The University Council of the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC), the highest collegiate body representing the Cimarron community, approved the report on activities and the 2025 Work Plan of the Institutional Program for the Culture of Peace (PICP).

The report was presented by the coordinator of the unit for Gender, Diversity and Educational Inclusion (UGDIE), Yessica Martínez Soto, who highlighted that it reports on the actions carried out in five areas: educational inclusion; gender and violence; diversity and interculturality; mainstreaming of the culture of peace; and collaboration networks.

Among the activities presented by Dr. Martínez Soto is the formation of the LSM-UABC Commission made up of 16 people from the university community, who were in charge of interpreting the university motto in Mexican Sign Language (LSM).

Other notable actions include the publication, on November 25, 2023, of the “Declaration by which the Pronouncement of Zero Tolerance is issued for any situation or expression that violates the well-being and rights of people at UABC”; the ÚNETE and ORGULLODIVERSA UABC campaigns.

Discussions on university experiences were also organized, in which topics such as the inclusion of people with disabilities at UABC, women in academia, and the implications of trans identity in the classroom were addressed.

In addition, workshops, training sessions and discussions were held on topics such as inclusive language, autism, art and gender, prevention and eradication of violence, interculturality and higher education, suicide prevention, teaching, culture of peace and human rights.

In collaboration with BBVA and the Vice-Rectorate of the Tijuana Campus, the Job Fair for People with Disabilities was held. Likewise, work was done on training peace agents, through the integration of the Reading Circle for Peace.

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(click here for the original version in Spanish).

Questions for this article:

Is there progress towards a culture of peace in Mexico?

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Likewise, the project “Daily Steps for Peace” was implemented, through which, through a monthly digital calendar, each day an informative and dissemination resource is offered related to the main dimensions that contribute to the construction of a culture of peace, such as human rights, gender, diversity and inclusion.

The UGDIE coordinator explained that, among the actions scheduled in the PICP 2025 Work Plan, are the preparation of guides, decalogues and protocols that establish guidelines for inclusion from language, disabilities, for the construction of peace actions in university instances, attention to sex-gender diversity and harmonious coexistence.

The university violence meter will also be created, a program to prepare trainers in non-violent communication, a MOOC course on peace culture, a toolbox for self-care and personal peace, and a network of young people for peace.

Likewise, a university consultation will be held on violence and discrimination rates; the route for reissuing documents due to change of identity will be outlined, and a day of intercultural self-determination will be organized.

Modifications in the educational program and academic unit

Likewise, with the purpose of responding to the needs demanded by the global context, the University Council approved modifications of the educational program of the doctorate in Administrative Sciences.

Finally, at the request of the Technical Council of the Faculty of Sports, the Faculty was divided into three independent academic units, one for each campus. The split is based on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions and needs presented by the Faculty. In addition, it will contribute both to the efficient decentralization of the university’s resources and functions and to the promotion and development of the region.

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FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Latin America

Costa Rica: Ministry of Culture and Youth launches “Song of Peace for the Ocean” contest

.. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ..

An article from the Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud de Costa Rica

Music is a powerful tool to generate change; that is why the Ministry of Culture and Youth (MCJ) has launched the “Song of Peace for the Ocean” contest, so that a Costa Rican artist can compose the music for this hymn to the ocean.


video of the contest

The Government of the Republic of Costa Rica, through the Ministry of Culture and Youth (MCJ), assumes the commitment to the environment and the culture of peace, extended to human relations with the ocean, to encourage good conservation and protection practices.

This is the goal of promoting Costa Rican musical composition, a song in an orchestral format with a choir which will be performed by MCJ artists, within the framework of the Third United Nations Conference on the Ocean (UNOC), tol be held in June 2025, in Nice, France.

(Click here for the original article in Spanish.)

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Questions for this article:

What is the relation between the environment and peace

What place does music have in the peace movement?

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This goal will be achieved with the support of the La Libertad Metropolitan Park Foundation, the collaboration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Religion, the Ministry of Environment and Energy and the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism.

Given the relevance of the aforementioned conference, the Ministry of Culture and Youth will contribute with an artistic-cultural contribution through the presentation of the “Song of Peace for the Ocean.” This work will be performed by the Costa Rican Youth Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Choir of Costa Rica, highlighting Costa Rica’s cultural heritage and musical heritage.

This initiative is part of joint actions to conserve and protect the marine environment, as part of the “Declaration of Peace for the Ocean” that was signed by ministers, government representatives, members of civil society, the academic and scientific community, as well as other stakeholders, at the high-level event on “Ocean Action: Immersed in Change”, which took place in San José, Costa Rica, from June 7 to 8, 2024.

The “Song of Peace for the Ocean” proposes to bring together instruments and voices to motivate the global movement for a more sustainable management of marine resources.

Please see the participation rules here.

Proposals meeting the eligibility requirements will be received from October 9 to 25, 2024.

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EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America

Felipe Mac Gregor and the culture of peace

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION .

An article by Rudecindo Vega Carreazo in Otramirada (translation by CPNN)

This October 2nd marks the 20th anniversary of the journey into eternity of RP Felipe Mac Gregor SJ, the former rector of the PUCP (Pontifical Catholic University of Peru) and the United Nations University, the creator of the concept “Culture of Peace”, universalized by UNESCO and enshrined in a Universal Declaration of the UN. It is a shame that in Peru this universally valuable achievement is little known and recognized. Hopefully it can be taken up and valued today in a crisis of violence, insecurity and crime. Hopefully the PUCP, which owes so much of its development and institutionalization to him, can promote a permanent project of this type.

I was a PUCP student when he was no longer Rector, but his image was of validity and admiration, distant and unattainable for a student from the barrios and small towns (in my case, Camporredondo). Thanks to my teacher Marcial Rubio Correa (former PUCP rector as well) I had the good fortune and honor of working with MacGregor for 12 years, first at the Peruvian Association of Peace Studies (APEP) and then at TRANSPARENCIA. I have hundreds of teachings, anecdotes, life lessons as simple as they are profound.

Thanks to his generosity and that of Marcial, I shared with them, at APEP, the central team of multidisciplinary research on “Structural violence in Peru” (for me they were a master’s degree and a doctorate without a degree together), “Violence in the Andean Region: Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela” (another master’s degree and doctorate on Latin American reality) and; the investigation into drug trafficking and cocaine that developed proposals from Peru, Bolivia and Colombia that were presented at the summit of Presidents Barco, Alan García and Paz Zamora with Bush Sr. in 1990 (another specialized master’s degree).

Between 1988 and 1992 I learned about another of MacGregor’s concerns, little developed, the concept of “Human Security.” He said, always ahead of time, that it was one of the great problems that the world would face in the coming decades. Imagine how valuable his advice would be in times like the present where insecurity, violence and crime reign everywhere. Father Felipe moved with incredible ease in that world of influencing decision-making for worthy causes. I was very happy, running from my house in SMP to the PUCP in Pueblo Libre, then to the Colegio Inmaculada in Surco (where he was also Rector and resided) and the Universidad del Pacífico in Jesús María where he presided over the Institute for Peace.

In TRANSPARENCIA he was equally valuable and wonderful. I got to know his love for Peru and the future of Peru, his vocation for human rights and democracy. To take advantage of his prestige, he was invited by Fujimori to create and preside over the High Commissioner for Human Rights, but he rejected it in front of the ministers and presidents of the PJ (judiciary) and MP, pointing out that those functions were already in those constitutional bodies.

(Article continued in the column on the right)

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

Questions related to this article:

How can we carry forward the work of the great peace and justice activists who went before us?

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I also remember, because I accompanied him to an event organized by the JNE (National Elections Jury) controlled by Fujimori in 1999, in which the central speaker and honoree was him as a member of TRANSPARENCIA. Before the full JNE, politicians, judicial authorities, prosecutors, congressmen and the executive, his conference focused on the autonomy and independence of the JNE, the role of the rule of law and the defense of democracy and why electoral power could not be manipulated by the government. superb master class, I was an eyewitness, we left together, this time alone, without company protocol, he leaning on my arm, in the elevator with a sweet, half-broken voice he said to me “Was I right? I had to tell them what Peru deserves, but let’s get out quickly, otherwise they will only understand and not let us leave.” In TRANSPARENCIA he was a voice that gave institutional personality, how necessary his knowledge and voice would be for our Peru today, which suffers its worst moral, institutional, political, electoral crisis. Many times I comfort myself with his teachings and anecdotes.

One time he asked me what my promotion was at the Colegio Inmaculada, I told him I had studied at the GUE Nicolas de Piérola in El Agustino, that my primary school I studied at the School Center N°131 of Chachapoyas and that I was from Camporredondo; Without being surprised, with a naturalness that reached my bones, he told me “that is why we understand each other, that is why we get along so well, you are a Jesuit without being a Jesuit and I am a civilian being a Jesuit.” I admired him more, much more. He asked me again, why was I an atheist or perhaps agnostic? I told him that I was not an atheist, nor an agnostic nor a nihilist, that I was just a young man confused about his beliefs and that I had not yet found my way. Again, without any gestures of surprise, he told me that he “was also a confused priest and continued to search for his way”; and, quoting Machado, he told me “each of us will make our own way as we go.” He was a sublime teacher, a priest teaching a disciple to find his own way, not to follow his own.

I did not see him much during the last years of his life, but we were aware of each other. His death did not surprise me, but it did surprise me; At his wake, in his church, Our Lady of Fatima, without realizing it, but with much peace and security, after many years, I prayed again, for the joy of having known him, for his earthly life, for his eternal life. Today I continue to do so, sporadically it is true, and his image and name always come to my mind. He will continue to build his path in eternity, while I continue trying to build my earthly path, knowing that “that is why we understand each other, that is why we get along so well.” Glory to you, Father Felipe Emilio Mac Gregor Rolino S.J.; in my memory and heart always.

(Editor’s note: As described here Felipe MacGregor launched the initiative for a culture of peace at UNESCO.)

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FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Latin America

Eleven organizations call to “achieve a culture of peace” as a “collective duty” in Zaragoza, Spain

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

Un artícle en El Diario (Google translation)

Representatives of eleven social organizations met this Friday (October 4) in the Aula Magna of the Paraninfo in Zaragoza to start a “campaign for peace and against wars.” After the reading of the manifesto by journalist Gervasio Sánchez, they gathered at the entrance to the University of Zaragoza.

These are the Federation of Neighbourhoods, WILPF Spain, the Peace Research Seminar (SIP), the Federation of Parents’ Associations of Students of Aragon, the Aragonese Federation of Solidarity-Circles of Silence, the Federation of Students, Casa Palestina, Welcome Refugees, Insumisos, Culture and Peace and, lastly, UM DRAIGA-Friends of the Sahara.

“We are a group of diverse people who, faced with the perplexity, indignation and discouragement of citizens over the bloody events in Palestine, Ukraine and a host of almost forgotten armed conflicts, have begun to attempt a campaign for peace and against wars,” they said in announcing the initiative.

“The idea is – they added – to claim Zaragoza as a city of peace, to remember previous mobilizations and to call on citizens to participate in various initiatives, some already underway and others yet to be developed.”

In the manifesto, entitled ‘Stop the war, win the peace’, they argue that “justice can only be ensured through peace” and that “justice alone brings equality”. “There is no true democracy if the goal of peace is not at the base of politics and at the heart of truth”, they point out.

Mentioning the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, they point out that by increasing “arms spending” “funds needed to meet urgent social needs, both near and far” are being diverted.

They also refer to the Law on the Culture of Peace approved in March of last year in the Cortes of Aragon and denounce that, far from being fulfilled, some of its objectives have been “drastically forgotten”, such as development cooperation.

Finally, they call for mobilization “from the most diverse social groups” to “denounce those who promote the culture of militarism.” “We call for seeking this commitment, and we are committed to working for it,” they conclude.

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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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Here is the full manifesto:

LET’S STOP THE WAR, LET’S WIN THE PEACE

Only through peace can justice be guaranteed. And only through justice can equality be born. There are no alternative paths, and no other perspectives can be dreamed of. There is no true democracy – whatever arguments you like – if the goal of peace is not at the foundation of politics and at the heart of truth.

Achieving a culture of peace is not only about rejecting war, but also – and these are the words of the United Nations – about supporting sustainable development, overcoming poverty and building a world of equality.

In the times in which we live, there are more than nine major armed conflicts, and many more of those that are called less intense. In the news around us, we learn daily of the consequences of two wars – the one that Russia started by invading Ukraine, and the one by Israel occupying and striking the territories of Gaza and the West Bank – that deny all principles, not only those of moral and social duty, but those of international law itself. Two wars with consequences that may be irreparable. The first of them, already converted into a war between Russia and NATO, which in fact reproduces the policy of blocs with all that this means in the cultural, commercial, technological and military fields; and the second, transformed into a true genocide against the Palestinian people, doomed by force, hunger and exile to disappearance.

At the same time, spending on weapons is increasing, diverting funds needed for urgent social needs, both near and far, turning the production and trade of weapons into a powerful root cause of wars and a profitable business for those who profit from death.

To condemn aggression, to work for peace, to create reasons for coexistence and to denounce the return to a policy of blocks in search of world hegemony, is a collective duty that must transcend personal pain and rejection, and become a movement capable of expressing the need to combat a state of war for no other reason than the interest and benefit of groups and individuals.

On March 9, 2023, the Cortes of Aragon approved the Law on the Culture of Peace, and unreservedly committed to promoting the commitment of institutions and society to education and research for peace, development cooperation and humanitarian action, dialogue, non-violent action and mediation. The approved law has been far from seeing, not only fulfilled, but promoted, its objectives, some of which – such as development cooperation – have, in fact, been drastically forgotten.

It is time, therefore, for a meeting to be sought from the most diverse social spheres of those who are seriously committed to peace and are willing to mobilize whatever human and material resources are necessary. Let the voice and action of those who are not determined to stand by and watch the current situation impassively and in pain, be raised to denounce those who promote the culture of militarism, leaving a record of why wars occur, what is behind what is done, what is intended, what consequences they have for those who suffer them and for everyone, and what response they deserve.

We call upon you to seek this commitment, and we oblige ourselves to work for it.

NO TO WARS

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DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Europe

Nihon Hidankyo’s Nobel Peace Prize Win Could Not Have Come at a More Important Moment

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article by Joseph Gerson from Common Dreams

The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Nihon Hidankyo is long overdue and could not come at a more important time.

The Hibakusha (A-bomb witness/survivors) of Nihon Hidankyo have been among the world’s most courageous and steadfast advocates of nuclear disarmament. The organization has focused on three core demands: Preventing nuclear war, eliminating nuclear weapons, and obtaining essential medical care for A-bomb victims.


Members of Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots Japanese organization of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki attend a press conference on October 12, 2024 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

Hidankyo was founded in 1956, in the wake of the Bravo H-Bomb test 1,000 times more powerful that the Hiroshima A-bomb, which poisoned Japanese fishermen and Marshall Islanders.

As Wilfred Burchett, the first Western journalist to witness the ruins and suffering in Hiroshima in 1945 later reported, despite their excruciating physical and emotional suffering, the Hibakusha became the world’s most powerful and influential force for the abolition. With the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, the voices of the Hibakusha, their tortured testimonies, and their truth that human beings and nuclear weapons cannot coexist will now ring out more powerfully around the world.

Nihon Hidankyo was repeatedly nominated for its now well-earned Peace Prize, and the Nobel Committee is now to be celebrated for finally making this year’s decision. With the world, our species, facing the greatest danger of nuclear apocalypse since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, this year’s Peace Prize will refocus world attention on the urgency of renewing nuclear disarmament diplomacy. In addition to Russian nuclear threats related to the continuing Ukraine War, an accident, incident, or miscalculation growing out of provocative U.S., allied, and Chinese military operations in and around the Taiwan Strait and the South China/West could ignite escalation to a nuclear cataclysm.

With uncertainties about a possible Trump election victory, there are growing demands among Japanese and South Korean elites for their nations to become nuclear powers. The U.S. and Russia have lowered their official operational thresholds for launching their nuclear weapons. All of the nuclear weapons states are upgrading their nuclear arsenals and delivery systems, with the U.S. committing an estimated two trillion dollars to “modernize” its systems when that money could be spent to stanch and reverse the climate emergency and to address other urgent human needs.

Let us marvel and learn from the reality that Hibakusha, who were literally the last people on earth, once seen by U.S. leaders and media as “vermin” to be eliminated, have awakened the conscience of the world after suffering what was probably the world’s worst war crime. And contrary to the myth propagated by President Truman, the A-bombs were not necessary to defeat Japan. Senior U.S. military officials from Eisenhower to LeMay and Leahy advised the president that “it wasn’t necessary to hit Japan with that awful thing” Secretary of War Stimson had already advised that Japan’s surrender on terms acceptable to the U.S. could be negotiated.”

Hibakusha’s friends, families and neighbors were incinerated, irradiated, and physically ripped apart by the radiation’s heat and blast waves of the world’s first A-bombs. An entire city was destroyed and burned to the ground. Midst their own agonies, Many Hibakusha were unable to save their families in their shattered and burning homes. They witnessed ghostlike figures, no longer recognizable as human beings, some holding their eyeballs or intestines in their hands marching to their deaths, often in cisterns or the city’s rivers. In the months and years that followed, many died from radiation inflicted cancers and other diseases. Memories remain of the birthing of mutant babies and of other young children whose lives were cut short by radiation diseases.

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(Click here for an article in French on this subject.)

Question related to this article:
 
Can we abolish all nuclear weapons?

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With initial fears that the radiation diseases might be contagious and about genetic damages, Hibakusha’s suffering was compounded by marginalization and discrimination. As a result of the U.S. military occupation which continued until 1952 and subsequently with Japan functioning as the United States’ subservient ally, essential medical and other support services were long denied to Hibakusha.

Among the achievements of Nihon Hidankyo and its allies are the collaborations they have built with other “global hibakusha.” These included forced laborers who had brought from Japanese occupied Korea who also suffered the A-bombings. Compassionately and strategically they supported and joined with nuclear weapons test victims from the Marshall Islands, the United States, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tahiti, the Christmas Islands, and other Pacific Islands.

Together with their testimonies in communities across the world and in the United Nations they forged the powerful but still inadequate taboo against the use of nuclear weapons. With their testimonies at the U.N. and elsewhere they have won the majority of the world’s governments to the understanding that for the human species to survive, priority must be given to the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, not so-called “state security” interests. Hibakusha’s testimonies were essential to the successful negotiation of the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons which seeks to hold the nuclear weapons states accountable to their Article VI Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty obligation to engage in good faith negotiations for the complete abolition of nuclear weapons.

That nuclear weapons have not been used since the Nagasaki A-bombing was an unfortunate misstatement in the Nobel Peace Prize Committee’s award announcement. As Daniel Ellsberg, a principal author of the United States’ nuclear war planning in the Kennedy administration. taught during many international crises and wars, the U.S. has used its nuclear arsenal in the same way that an armed robber uses his gun when pointed at his victim’s head. Whether or not the trigger is pulled, the gun has been used. Tragically, this is playbook with which the Russian government has been working from with its Ukraine-war nuclear threats.

It is worth noting that in response to the announcement of the award, Hidankyo referenced the terrible assaults on the people of Gaza. The Hibakusha have identified with victims of other holocausts and massacres going back to Vietnam when they identified with the people under the bombs. They then warned of the danger that the U.S. might resort to nuclear attack (which the U.S. prepared and threatened in 1954, 1957 and with President Nixon’s 1969 “madman” nuclear mobilization.

Numerous popular initiatives are at work in the world which will be boosted by the Peace Prize award to Nihon Hibakusha. In the U.S., the Back from the Brink campaign, initiated by Physicians for Social Responsibility, has been at the cutting edge. It’s call for negotiation of a verifiable agreement to eliminate nuclear weapons, renunciation of first-use policies, ending the president’s sole authority to launch nuclear weapons, taking U.S. nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert, and to cancel the plan to replace the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal with enhanced weapons has been endorsed by 43 members of congress and numerous U.S. cities and states.

The Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security works to prevent nuclear war and achieve a nuclear weapons-free world via its advocacy of Common Security. This is the ancient truth that no nation can achieve security at the expense of its rival. As with the INF Treaty that ended the Cold War before the fall of the Cold War, peaceful coexistence and security can be achieved only through mutual recognition, and respectful, if difficult, win-win negotiations between rivals.

In the face of the horrors on nuclear weapons and drawing on the courage of Hibakusha, this is the paradigm on which the Hibakusha’s vison of a nuclear weapons free world can be achieved.

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global

Coop-medias, the citizen cooperative that wants to give “a real breath of fresh air” to independent media

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION . .

An article by Mathilde Picard in Verts (translation by CPNN)

Coop a festive atmosphere. On Wednesday, October 9, the world of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) and that of independent media met at the Académie du Climat in Paris to launch the Coop-medias cooperative. The goal: to consolidate the finances of the independents and strengthen the links between them in the face of the concentration of the press in the hands of a few billionaires.


Public radio broadcast on the occasion of the launch evening of the Coop-medias cooperative, at the Académie du Climat in Paris. © Margot Desmons/Vert

“Coop-medias creates a bridge between two worlds that did not speak to each other: that of the social and solidarity economy and that of independent media,” according to Mathieu Molard, editor-in-chief of Streetpress.

On Wednesday, October 9, the launch of this cooperative was a sell-out at the Climate Academy in Paris. The platform dedicated to financing independent media is now accessible to citizens so that they can take shares starting at €100. The goal? “To raise €500,000 in three months,” hopes Lucie Anizon, CEO of Coop-medias and Secretary General of the renewable energy cooperative Enercoop.

Politis, Vert, Blast, Médiacités, Les Jours…. Already 22 media and around ten companies from the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) have become members. Thanks to this fundraising, it will be possible to distribute initial financial aid in 2025 in the form of a call for projects.

To present how the cooperative works, journalists, members of the SSE and civil society took the microphone. The evening was broadcast as a public radio show, on the website of the cooperative media “Le moment”, in the form of a round tables to imagine a new economic model for independent media.

The general director of Coop-médias, Lucie Anizon, explained to Vert the origin of the project: “I was surprised that no independent media had said: let’s raise capital funds and pool our resources. They told us that they didn’t have the time, the energy or the know-how, so we did it with them by bringing our know-how from the SSE.”

“Taking information out of market logic”

In the room, everyone shared the observation of a critical weakening of media plurality. 81% of press sales are now held by eleven billionaires, according to the video launching the platform. Faced with this, Julia Cagé, an economist specializing in media, encourages us to “take information, which is a public good, out of the logic of the market and shareholders”.

At Coop-médias, there are no paid shareholders, and the governance for allocating funding is based on the model of one member = one vote. The result: “a real breath of fresh air” so as not to depend solely on calls for donations and “no longer be on life support”, says Paloma Moritz, a journalist at Blast.

The forum discussed the need to strengthen the finances and visibility of independent media, an advertising agency for the SSE, the presence of independents on TNT channels and the role of social networks in the dissemination of their content.

(continued on right column)

(Click here for the French original of this article.)

Questions related to this article:

Free flow of information, How is it important for a culture of peace?

How can we develop the institutional framework for a culture of peace?


Robin Saxod, co-founder of Coop-medias and Lucie Anizon, CEO of Coop-medias. © Mathilde Picard/Vert

(continued from left column)

Strengthening ties to fight against the far right

This rapprochement between independent media comes from the rallies against the far right, organized on June 27 and July 3 at Place de la République in Paris, on the occasion of the legislative elections (see our report). The cooperative is therefore “nonpartisan but deeply political,” says Robin Saxod, co-founder of Coop-médias.

Throughout the evening, the speakers encouraged us to continue the fight against the increasingly numerous reactionary speeches in the media bought by billionaires Vincent Bolloré and Pierre-Edouard Stérin. Speakers called for stopping the criminalization of political and social protests and for fighting against disinformation on climate change and feminism.

To strengthen the resources of journalists, Coop-médias proposes to pool certain services such as accounting, website management and legal aid… A welcome idea for Eloïse Lebourg, co-founder of Médiacoop, a local media outlet based in Clermont-Ferrand: “When I was threatened by fascist groups after investigating them, I was very happy to have someone who knew a lawyer. When you investigate the far right in a medium-sized town, you are more easily spotted, you sometimes feel isolated.” For her, Coop-médias must be an opportunity to “get out of the pattern of very Parisian independent media, there are independent structures everywhere in France, I would like us to have more visibility and to cooperate more.”

At the end of the evening, conversations continued around the buffet. Yan Pierre le Luyer, co-founder of Grow Studio, which produces podcasts, decided to take a share in the cooperative as he explains, to “rebalance the discourse in the media and therefore equip ourselves with the same means as our opponents”. The radio show will be broadcast on Aligre FM (93.1) and Radio Campus Paris (93.9) next Wednesday.

Vert has become a member of Coop-médias to help strengthen the ecosystem of independent media.

(Editor’s note: CPNN took part in this event and has also become a member of Coop-médias, for the same reason.)

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DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Europe, FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

International dialogue for peer mediation

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

received by email at CPNN from informazioni@risorsacittadino.org 

Good morning,

Risorsa Cittadino Soc. Coop. Sociale, an agency certified by the Italian Justice Minister to train mediators, is an organisation involved in a divulgation project about the mediation’s culture, called “Invece di Giudicare®” – “Instead of Judging” – (with the European Commission’s recognition). It develops around a net creation between secondary schools called “mediation’s friends”.

This project aims to raise awareness, in the matter of peer mediation, among every subject involved in schools and young people in general; the peer mediation practices could benefit students in school but even outside of it – for example, in youth communities.

(Article continued in right column)

Question for this article:

Mediation as a tool for nonviolence and culture of peace

(Article continued from left column)

We would be very interested in establishing a dialogue with organizations within countries where the peer mediation is well known, aiming at sharing experiences and building common opportunities.

Our proposal does not require an over formalisation: we would like to form an informal group, composed by organisations reflecting together on past experiences and the possibility of developing common projects which, through juveniles, could create a better future.

Furthermore, we look out for the chance of developing European projects and lobbying activities with the European Council and the European Union, if shared demands should emerge.

A phone contact will follow this letter: our operators will be happy to meet the needs and reasons of interested organisations.

We would be really grateful if you could tell us in advance if you’re interested, or not, in getting in contact with us to take a common path.

We thank you in advance for your interest and time,

Best Regards
The Organizing Secretary
N.B. for further details, you can:
– visit our website: Invece di Giudicare
– write us: informazioni@risorsacittadino.org
– phone us: +39 0543 37 09 23 / + 39 338 746 55 65

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Europe

Start of the 3rd World March for Peace and Nonviolence: A global call for unity

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article from Pressenza

On October 2, Gandhi’s birthday, the 3rd World March for Peace and Nonviolence started in Costa Rica, an initiative launched by the organization “World Without Wars and Violence”. The march began in a country that has been committed to peace since 1948 The opening ceremony took place at the University for Peace (UPAZ), the only institution of its kind in the world. Founded in 1980 by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 35/55, it is dedicated to training students from over 120 nations to create a peaceful future.


Photo by Energia per i diritti umani

Francisco Rojas Aravena, the rector of the UPAZ, opened the event and emphasized the transformative power of education in building peace. Giovanny Blanco, coordinator of the “World Without Wars and Violence” in Costa Rica, expressed his pride that Costa Rica was chosen as the venue for the start and finish of the 3rd World March. He called for unity to create a new era of peace through active nonviolence.

Federico Monge, representative of the Office of the Ombudsman, also spoke and emphasized that peace is a universal right that belongs to all people. Raquel Zeledón Sánchez, Vice President for Student Life at the Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED), emphasized the role of education and women in promoting peace and developing communities.

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(Click here for a version in Spanish of this article or here for a version in French.)

Question(s) related to this article:

Latin America, has it taken the lead in the struggle for a culture of peace?

Does Costa Rica have a culture of peace?

(Article continued from left column)

Rafael de la Rubia, initiator of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence, called on those present to dedicate themselves to personal and social growth. He called on everyone “to contribute something inspiring to this joint effort that the World March represents”. The speeches concluded with a collective reading of the ethical commitment to not use knowledge against humanity, led by Vanessa Vaglio of “World Without Wars and Violence” (MSGSV).

The ceremony ended with a symbolic act in which the members of the grassroots team from Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Guadeloupe, Honduras, Italy, Poland, Germany and Suriname, together with representatives of the authorities, students and teachers, formed a large peace symbol by holding signs with the word “peace” in different languages.

The event was accompanied by a rousing cultural performance involving the Duo Contrapunto (Alejandra Espinoza and Gerardo Cascante), the rhythm group of the Liceo Diurno from Ciudad Colón, and children from the Quizarco School, who performed dances from the Huetar de Quitirrisí indigenous community. This celebration marked the beginning of a global day of action dedicated to the promotion of peace and nonviolence, issues of vital importance in today’s world.

After the opening ceremony, the march continued from the university to the Escuela del Rodeo, where children with small Costa Rican flags welcomed the World March. A caravan of buses and vehicles then led the march to the center of the capital, San José. There, the city’s mayor, Yariela Quirós, and local government representatives joined the march, which finally led to the Costa Rican parliament. At the Parliament, the deputies presented Rafael de la Rubia with a motion in support of the 3rd World March for Peace and Nonviolence.

Finally, a collection of signatures was launched for a declaration of support from the entire population of Costa Rica, with the female parliamentarians* being the first signatories.

The event ended with a symbolic tribute to the Costa Rican Declaration of Peace to All the Peoples of the World and the Abolition of the Army. This took place in the Plaza de la Abolición Militar (Military Abolition Plaza), located next to the Costa Rican Parliament building.

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FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Latin America

The Peace Vibe Fest brings youth from 20 communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina

. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article from the Official Website of the European Union

More than 130 citizens, young people from 20 communities across Bosnia and Herzegovina participated in the first Peace Vibe Fest, that started on September 21, the International Day of Peace, and ended on October 2, the International Day of Nonviolence. The Peace Vibe Fest contributes to better mutual understanding and celebrates efforts and initiatives for a peaceful and stable future for all.

“Although peacebuilding in BiH at first sounds like something complicated, through this Festival we wanted to show that even the small steps that each of us takes can grow into something big and contribute to strengthening trust in our communities,” said 18-year-old Lamija from Vareš. Together with her friends, Lamija organized music workshop as part of the festival, where they created a song about peace. “It is one of our contributions to spreading positive messages and peaceful vibrations.”

Festival was organized with the support of the project „Empowering Trust and Cohesion in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Communities“ (“Možemo bolje”) that is jointly implemented by the European Union in BiH, the United Nations in BiH, the OSCE Mission to BiH and the Council of Europe – Office in Sarajevo.

Theater workshops, film screenings, street actions, dialogues and musical events were held during the festival, where citizens from numerous communities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina connected in fostering a culture of peace, within and between communities.

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Question related to this article:
 
Youth initiatives for a culture of peace, How can we ensure they get the attention and funding they deserve?

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Radoslav Tokić, president of Croatian Cultural Society „Napredak“ from Jajce, that organized workshop of applied theatre during the festival, said: “Knowledge of history and culture helps in better understanding of others and respect for diversity. Through this workshop, we want to offer our fellow citizens theater as a great tool for working in the community, especially with young people”.

In addition to the activities in local communities, the central event of the Peace Vibe Fest gathered 60 young people in Sarajevo for creative and educational workshops with an aim to empower young people to recognize their role in fostering a culture of peace. Through dialogue on peacebuilding, discussions on the role of young people, analysis of social messages, and theatrical play and improvisation, the participants of the Festival developed new skills and messages of peace that they want to spread in their communities.

“I haven’t been to a more interesting workshop in a long time. Where there were tricky topics, we saw that everything can be resolved through talk and dialogue in order to understand the other side”, said Jasmin from Maglaj.

One of the participants, Aleksandra from Ugljevik, also shared her positive experience: “I really liked the interaction between all participants, that there is no judgment, that everyone is accepted, and that we can all express our opinion. The workshops were phenomenal”.

The project “Možemo bolje” continues to work with local communities, citizens, government representatives and other important partners to strengthen and promote trust and cohesion within and between communities.

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Europe, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

From Paris to Caracas, thousands march in support of Gaza around the world, one year after October 7

. TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY . .

An article from Le Parisien (translated by google)

“Freedom and justice for the Palestinians!” Thousands of people demonstrated in support of Gaza across Europe and South Africa on Saturday for the first anniversary of the bloody conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

Holding placards and Palestinian and Lebanese flags, several thousand protesters marched through the centre of the British capital late in the morning. Leading the march were former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (now an independent) and former Scottish Prime Minister Humza Yousaf.


London, October 5, 2024. Many protesters wore keffiyehs, symbols of the Palestinian struggle. Reuters/Chris J Ratcliffe

“Stop the bombing”, “Free, free Palestine” and “Stop bombing hospitals” were among the most popular slogans chanted in London by protesters, who marched peacefully. “We need a ceasefire now. How many more innocent Palestinians or Lebanese people have to die?” asked Sophia Thomson, 27, who was demonstrating with friends. “The fact that there are so many of us shows that the government is not speaking for the people,” she added.

A demonstration in memory of the 1,205 people killed in the unprecedented Hamas attack in Israel on October 7 is also due to be held in London on Sunday.

In Dublin, the Irish capital, several hundred people demonstrated in support of the Gazans, shouting “freedom and justice for the Palestinians”.

In Berlin, a pro-Palestinian demonstration brought together more than a thousand people and another pro-Israeli demonstration brought together around 650, according to the police. Outside the procession of this last demonstration, 26 people who had accosted the demonstrators were arrested, a police spokesperson told AFP.

In Rome, pro-Palestinian youth clashed with the police, with bottles thrown, firecrackers, tear gas and water cannons used, after a demonstration that brought together thousands of people. “Italy must stop selling and sending weapons to Israel”, “Free Palestine” and “Israel, a criminal state”, the demonstrators shouted.

During the offensive led in response by Israel, at least 41,825 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN. In Lebanon, according to the authorities, more than 2,000 people have been killed since October 2023.

Representatives of LFI at the Paris demonstration

In France, several thousand people marched in Paris and several other cities to show their “solidarity with the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples” and to ask the French government to do more.

In Paris, 5,000 demonstrators, according to the police, marched from Place de la République to Place de Clichy, shouting “Palestine will live, Palestine will win”. At the head of the procession were several political figures from the radical left, including representatives of La France Insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Manon Aubry. Among them, MP Thomas Portes, interviewed by AFP, once again asked President Emmanuel Macron to “recognise the State of Palestine”.

At the microphone of a truck present in the procession, Jean-Luc Mélenchon reiterated his call for students to “flaunt the colors of Palestine” and “Lebanon” from October 8, in response to a ministerial circular on maintaining order in universities on the eve of October 7, the anniversary of the Hamas attack in Israel.

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(Click here for the original article in French.

Question related to this article:

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

(continued from left column)

But for Mohammed Ghili, 52, a member of the association Solidarité Palestine, if “it’s good news, it comes far too late” in the face of what he calls “genocide”. In the crowd, Maya, 37, a French-Lebanese physics researcher who arrived from Beirut a week ago, said she was “stunned by the media coverage” of the escalation in Lebanon. “We don’t hear about the bombing of civilians”.

Among the thousand people who also marched in Lyon according to the prefecture, Jérôme Faÿnel, president of a local collective supporting the Palestinian people, said that it was an opportunity for him to denounce the anniversary of “one year of unheard-of brutality”.

In Toulouse, 300 demonstrators chanted the name of “Georges Abdallah”, in reference to the Lebanese pro-Palestinian activist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, imprisoned for 40 years for complicity in murder. His 11th request for release is to be examined on 7 October. “How can a court decision be issued on 7 October?” exclaimed Soraya, 50, who did not wish to give her last name. She denounces “a bias” on the part of the justice system, one year to the day after the unprecedented attack by Hamas.

Flo, 22, an unemployed resident of Vienne (Isère), who did not wish to give his last name, came to demonstrate as he has been doing for a year, and for him, it is a “fight”: not a “symbolic fight”, but a “fight for justice” for the Palestinian and Lebanese people.

In Nantes, two marches bringing together some 350 people in total, according to an AFP journalist, marched through the streets of the city center. In Strasbourg, there were 200 demonstrators, as in Bordeaux, where they observed a minute of silence “in homage to the martyrs” before walking peacefully, chanting “Palestine will live, Palestine will win”.

Gatherings in Switzerland and South Africa

In Basel, Switzerland, thousands of people also gathered in a park near the train station for a national pro-Palestinian demonstration called by the Swiss-Palestine Federation and a hundred or so organizations.

In Madrid, 5,000 people, according to the authorities, demonstrated at the call of the Solidarity Network against the Occupation of Palestine (RESCOP), with placards saying “Boycott Israel” or “Humanity is dead in Gaza”. The demonstrators called on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has taken a number of critical positions against Israel in recent months, to break off diplomatic relations with the country.

In Venezuela, hundreds of supporters of the government of Nicolás Maduro and members of the Arab community demonstrated in front of the UN headquarters in Caracas. Carrying a 25-metre-long Palestinian flag and shouting “Long live free Palestine” or “Iran, Iran, strike Tel Aviv”, the Chavistas presented the UN with a document calling for an end to the “genocide” of the Palestinian people and for “concrete actions” against Israel.

In South Africa, in central Cape Town, hundreds of people demonstrated, waving Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans at a pro-Gaza rally. Holding placards accusing Israel of genocide and racism, the protesters – many wearing keffiyehs, a symbol of the Palestinian struggle against Israel – marched toward the South African parliament.

“Israel is a racist state” and “We are all Palestinians,” protesters chanted. Some of them said they supported South Africa’s complaint to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Pretoria maintains that Israel’s offensive in Gaza violates the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.

Many South Africans compare Israel’s stance toward the Palestinians to apartheid, the segregationist regime imposed by the white minority in the country until the first multiracial elections in 1994.

(Editor’s note: The video of the rally in New York City is especially impressive.)

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Africa, Europe, Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY, ,