Tag Archives: United Nations

‘Fascist Rhetoric’ Becoming Commonplace in US and Europe: UN

…. HUMAN RIGHTS ….

An article by Nadia Prupis for Common Dreams (reprinted according to provisions of Creative Commons)

The “rhetoric of fascism” is on the rise in the U.S. and Europe, a United Nations official warned on Thursday, a disturbing trend that puts “unprecedented pressure” on human rights standards around the world.

“Anti-foreigner rhetoric full of unbridled vitriol and hatred is proliferating to a frightening degree, and is increasingly unchallenged,” said Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the U.N. human rights chief. “The rhetoric of fascism is no longer confined to a secret underworld of fascists, meeting in ill-lit clubs or on the ‘Deep Net.’ It is becoming part of normal daily discourse.”


People protest in the wake of Donald Trump’s election. (Photo: Ben Alexander/flickr/cc)
(click on photo to enlarge>

Speaking ahead of International Human Rights Day on December 10, Zeid warned that “if the growing erosion of the carefully constructed system of human rights and rule of law continues to gather momentum, ultimately everyone will suffer.”

The failure of global leaders to deal with complex social issues like the massive wealth gap, discrimination, and climate change have led to growing numbers of people to turn to “the siren voices exploiting fears, sowing disinformation and division, and making alluring promises they cannot fulfill,” he said, in a nod to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

“Discrimination, yawning economic disparities, and the ruthless desire to gain or maintain power at any cost are the principal drivers of current political and human rights crises,” he said.

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Question related to this article:

What is the state of human rights in the world today?

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Zeid’s warning came just before far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders—who is widely expected to win the upcoming March election for Prime Minister—was convicted of inciting discrimination for saying the Netherlands would be better off with fewer Moroccans.

During a municipal election campaign in the Hague in March 2014, Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom, asked a crowd of people attending a rally if they wanted “more or fewer Moroccans in this city and in the Netherlands.” The crowd chanted back, “Fewer! Fewer!” Wilders, smiling at the reaction, responded, “We’re going to take care of that.”

Friday’s verdict indicated that Wilders had planned the comments as a stunt, with the judges finding evidence that his team had coached the crowd how to respond, and saying that it was intended to be insulting to Moroccans.

Although Wilders was convicted of inciting discrimination, he was acquitted of hate speech charges, and the panel rejected prosecutors’ requests to fine or jail him. As the BBC reports, the verdict will have little impact on Wilders’ political aspirations.

Zeid has previously named Wilders, among other high-profile politicians such as Trump and the U.K.’s Nigel Farage, as demagogues whose rhetoric is poised to bring about “colossal violence” against minorities. He has also said Trump was “dangerous” for the international community. Under Zeid’s leadership, the U.N. human rights office is readying to condemn Trump if he puts any of his xenophobic or discriminatory policies into effect.

On Thursday, Zeid urged all people to “push back the violence and hatred which threaten our world.”

“Human rights are for everyone, and everyone will be affected if we do not fight to preserve them,” he said. “They took decades of tireless effort by countless committed individuals to establish, but—as we have seen all too clearly in recent months—they are fragile. If we do not defend them, we will lose them.”

global, HUMAN RIGHTS, United Nations,

UN Adopts Cuban Resolutions on Peace and Rejection of Mercenaries

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An article from Prensa Latina

The Third Committee of the UN General Assembly has adopted today [November 18] by large majority two draft resolutions submitted by Cuba, which advocate for the right to peace and reject the use of mercenaries.

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The text of the Declaration on the Right to Peace was supported by 116 countries, 34 rejected it and 19 abstained, following a vote requested by the United States, despite Cuba’s call to adopt it by consensus, considering the importance of the issue for humanity.

As usually occurs here, given the marked difference in positions between the North and the South, the document has been supported by the nations of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia. Australia, Canada, the United States, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the members of the European Union were opposed.

The initiative states that all people should enjoy the right to peace, in order to guarantee human rights and development, without exclusion.

It also calls on the States to respect, implement and promote equality, justice and non-discrimination; and defend tolerance, dialogue, cooperation and solidarity.

Several countries co-sponsored the text submitted by Cuba, among them Belarus, Bolivia, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Syria, South Africa, Venezuela and Vietnam.

Cuba’s project has been already adopted at the Human Rights Council in Geneva in July, when the international community was called for the first time to declare the existence of the right to peace on a planet scourged by wars, conflicts and crises, which cause suffering to tens of millions of human beings.

The Cuban delegation defended in the vote the right of all inhabitants of the planet to live without the impact of the scourge of war.

[The other] draft resolution introduced by Cuba, with the co-sponsorship of Angola, Belarus, Bolivia, China, Chile, Ecuador, India, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Syria, Uruguay, Venezuela and other States, obtained 117 votes for, 51 against and 5 abstentions.

Cuba has presented a similar initiative every year at the Third Committee.

Both projects will be submitted next month to the decision of the UN General Assembly, in the context of its 71st Session.

(Click here for an article in Spanish)

Question(s) related to this article:

What is the United Nations doing for a culture of peace?

[Editor’s note: Here is information about the anti-mercenary resolution, drawn from the UN website: In other action, the Committee approved a draft resolution on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right to self-determination, by 117 votes in favour to 50 against, with 6 abstentions. Among other things, it would have the General Assembly call upon States to take legislative measures to ensure that territories under their control were not used for — and their nationals did not take part in — the recruitment, assembly, financing, training, protection or transit of mercenaries. Slovakia’s representative, speaking for the European Union, explained that the bloc had voted against the draft because it would add private security firms to the mandate of the Human Rights Council’s Working Group on those issues.]

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, global, United Nations,

UN votes to outlaw nuclear weapons in 2017

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

The United Nations today [October 14] adopted a landmark resolution to launch negotiations in 2017 on a treaty outlawing nuclear weapons. This historic decision heralds an end to two decades of paralysis in multilateral nuclear disarmament efforts.

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At a meeting of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, which deals with disarmament and international security matters, 123 nations voted in favour of the resolution, with 38 against and 16 abstaining.

The resolution will set up a UN conference beginning in March next year, open to all member states, to negotiate a “legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”. The negotiations will continue in June and July.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a civil society coalition active in 100 countries, hailed the adoption of the resolution as a major step forward, marking a fundamental shift in the way that the world tackles this paramount threat.

“For seven decades, the UN has warned of the dangers of nuclear weapons, and people globally have campaigned for their abolition. Today the majority of states finally resolved to outlaw these weapons,” said Beatrice Fihn, executive director of ICAN.

Despite arm-twisting by a number of nuclear-armed states, the resolution was adopted in a landslide. A total of 57 nations were co-sponsors, with Austria, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, Nigeria and South Africa taking the lead in drafting the resolution.

The UN vote came just hours after the European Parliament adopted its own resolution on this subject – 415 in favour and 124 against, with 74 abstentions – inviting European Union member states to “participate constructively” in next year’s negotiations.

Nuclear weapons remain the only weapons of mass destruction not yet outlawed in a comprehensive and universal manner, despite their well-documented catastrophic humanitarian and environmental impacts.

“A treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons would strengthen the global norm against the use and possession of these weapons, closing major loopholes in the existing international legal regime and spurring long-overdue action on disarmament,” said Fihn.

“Today’s vote demonstrates very clearly that a majority of the world’s nations consider the prohibition of nuclear weapons to be necessary, feasible and urgent. They view it as the most viable option for achieving real progress on disarmament,” she said.

Biological weapons, chemical weapons, anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions are all explicitly prohibited under international law. But only partial prohibitions currently exist for nuclear weapons.

Nuclear disarmament has been high on the UN agenda since the organization’s formation in 1945. Efforts to advance this goal have stalled in recent years, with nuclear-armed nations investing heavily in the modernization of their nuclear forces.

Twenty years have passed since a multilateral nuclear disarmament instrument was last negotiated: the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which has yet to enter into legal force due to the opposition of a handful of nations.

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Question related to this article:

Can we abolish all nuclear weapons?

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Today’s resolution, known as L.41, acts upon the key recommendation of a UN working group on nuclear disarmament that met in Geneva this year to assess the merits of various proposals for achieving a nuclear-weapon-free world.

It also follows three major intergovernmental conferences examining the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons, held in Norway, Mexico and Austria in 2013 and 2014. These gatherings helped reframe the nuclear weapons debate to focus on the harm that such weapons inflict on people.

The conferences also enabled non-nuclear-armed nations to play a more assertive role in the disarmament arena. By the third and final conference, which took place in Vienna in December 2014, most governments had signalled their desire to outlaw nuclear weapons.

Following the Vienna conference, ICAN was instrumental in garnering support for a 127-nation diplomatic pledge, known as the humanitarian pledge, committing governments to cooperate in efforts “to stigmatize, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons”.

Throughout this process, victims and survivors of nuclear weapon detonations, including nuclear testing, have contributed actively. Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing and an ICAN supporter, has been a leading proponent of a ban.

“This is a truly historic moment for the entire world,” she said following today’s vote. “For those of us who survived the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is a very joyous occasion. We have been waiting so long for this day to come.”

“Nuclear weapons are absolutely abhorrent. All nations should participate in the negotiations next year to outlaw them. I hope to be there myself to remind delegates of the unspeakable suffering that nuclear weapons cause. It is all of our responsibility to make sure that such suffering never happens again.”

There are still more than 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world today, mostly in the arsenals of just two nations: the United States and Russia. Seven other nations possess nuclear weapons: Britain, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea.

Most of the nine nuclear-armed nations voted against the UN resolution. Many of their allies, including those in Europe that host nuclear weapons on their territory as part of a NATO arrangement, also failed to support the resolution.

But the nations of Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia and the Pacific voted overwhelmingly in favour of the resolution, and are likely to be key players at the negotiating conference in New York next year.

On Monday, 15 Nobel Peace Prize winners urged nations to support the negotiations and to bring them “to a timely and successful conclusion so that we can proceed rapidly toward the final elimination of this existential threat to humanity”.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has also appealed to governments to support this process, stating on 12 October that the international community has a “unique opportunity” to achieve a ban on the “most destructive weapon ever invented”.

“This treaty won’t eliminate nuclear weapons overnight,” concluded Fihn. “But it will establish a powerful new international legal standard, stigmatizing nuclear weapons and compelling nations to take urgent action on disarmament.”

In particular, the treaty will place great pressure on nations that claim protection from an ally’s nuclear weapons to end this practice, which in turn will create pressure for disarmament action by the nuclear-armed nations.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global, United Nations,

Pangolins, elephants win big protections at United Nations wildlife gathering

.. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ..

An article from Humane Society International

There’s mostly good news, but also some disappointing outcomes, coming from Johannesburg and the meeting of delegates from 183 nations at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). In a marker of continuing momentum for our anti-ivory-trade campaign, the parties have approved a resolution recommending the closure of domestic ivory markets that contribute to poaching and the illegal ivory trade. This is the first time that a United Nations body has agreed on the urgency of shutting down ivory markets worldwide, and the resolution comes in the midst of a dramatic rise in poaching and the illegal wildlife trade. Legal markets have served as a convenient cover to launder illicit ivory and to perpetuate market demand, and there is no excuse to permit these markets.

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The parties rejected a proposal to allow limited international trade in rhinoceros horn. Bob Koons

Sign the pledge: Don’t Buy Wild!

The delegates have also recommended that all eight species of pangolins, the world’s most trafficked mammals, should be given the highest protection under Appendix I. Pangolins are covered by keratin scales, and these and other body parts are used in medicines and tonics in some Asian and African countries. The United States imports tens of thousands of pangolin products every year, which find their way into markets around the country, including in Oregon where The HSUS is working to pass a measure protecting 12 types of animals affected by the global poaching epidemic, including elephants, sea turtles, and pangolins. HSI led the fight at CITES for the pangolin proposal.

The parties to CITES also rejected a proposal from Swaziland to allow limited international trade in rhinoceros horn, which could have had potentially disastrous consequences for the remaining global rhino populations. The proposal would have legitimated rhino horn as a commodity, increasing demand in consumer countries, complicating enforcement, and opening a loophole through which horns from poached rhinos could be laundered into the legal trade. This proposal would have also undermined the commendable efforts undertaken by consumer countries to reduce demand for rhino horn, as exemplified by HSI’s demand reduction education campaign, waged in cooperation with the government of Vietnam.

Three other big wins today were the recommendations to list silky sharks, thresher sharks, and devil rays on Appendix II of CITES, which would provide protections for these species from overexploitation for international trade. These two species of shark are in decline due to finning and overfishing, and devil rays are being increasingly targeted for their gill plates, which are virtually indiscernible from manta ray gill plates, a species already protected under CITES.

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Question for this article:

What is the relation between the environment and peace?

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Besides these victories, we have helped secure greater protections for Barbary macaques, African grey parrots, and 56 species of reptiles. African grey parrots are one of the most widely traded birds for the exotic pet trade. Although many are bred in captivity, up to an estimated 18,000 greys are removed from the wild each year, mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As a result, wild populations have declined by as much as 49 percent in the past 47 years. CITES has recommended an Appendix I listing for this species, which will stop international commercial trade in these wild birds. Fifty-six species of reptiles that are traded in the exotic pet trade were recommended for new or increased CITES protection, including Central America’s arboreal alligator lizards, African pygmy chameleons, Vietnam’s psychedelic rock gecko, Tanzania’s turquoise dwarf gecko, Madagascar’s Masobe gecko, the Borneo earless monitor lizard, and the crocodile lizard of Vietnam and China.

Our CITES team also fought back against a proposal from Canada to reduce protection for the peregrine falcon. The proposal sought to permit commercial trade in the wild birds who are very popular for the falconry trade throughout the Middle East.

But while the delegates at CITES agreed to close domestic ivory markets, they failed to recommend that the African elephant receive the highest level of international protection under Appendix I. The proposal, which would have prohibited all international commercial trade in African elephant body parts, failed to garner enough votes. We are especially disappointed that the United States opposed this upgrading, a stance somewhat inconsistent with its prior good works and its declarations on elephant protection.

In a second disappointing outcome, the parties did not agree to list all African lions on Appendix I. There might be fewer than 20,000 of these lions left in the world. The marginal action they did take will prohibit countries like South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania from selling parts of wild lions, but it won’t prevent trophy hunters from killing lions and shipping them back to the hunter’s home country. Fortunately, for 2016, the United States suspended imports of all lion trophies. The CITES decision also won’t stop the international commercial trade in lion bones from cruel lion farming operations, such as those in South Africa, which offer canned lion hunting, cub petting, and lion walks.

The United States is a top destination for wildlife products, and our work here is aligned with global conservation priorities. We have helped shepherd passage of groundbreaking laws in several states to help combat the illegal wildlife trade, as well as push for strong federal rules. But this is a problem that also requires nations throughout the world to take action. That’s why CITES is such an important gathering, and it’s why our HSI team members are fighting for animal friendly measures and fighting off threats that would imperil animals in even more dramatic ways. Become a Wildlife Defender.

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

global, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, United Nations,

United Nations: Inauguration of the Parliamentary Multi Track Initiative Council for the SDG’s and the Culture of Peace

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article from Cotidianul (abridged)

At the UN headquarters in New York on September 14, the conference entitled “Inauguration of the Parliamentary Multi Track Initiative Council for the SDG’s and the Culture of Peace” was organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Global Ethics. Emil Constantinescu [former President of Romania] was the chairman of the conference and gave the opening speech entitled “Global Peace Initiative from the Levant, the foundation for a new culture of peace,” his press office announced in a statement.

Romanian

The presidium of the conference included Ambassador Ion Jinga, Permanent Representative of Romania to the United Nations, Ambassador Katalin Bogyay, Permanent Representative of Hungary to the United Nations, Lily Valchanova Liaison Officer UNESCO, Garry Jacobs, president of the World Academy of Art and Science and the World University Consortium, and S. Bekerman, secretary general of the Interparliamentary Coalition for Global Ethics.

Participants in Sessions 1 and 2, led by President Constantinescu included Giandomenico Picco, former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and adviser to the Oxford Research Group, Master Jun Hong Lu, president and director of the Oriental Media Buddhist Association, Rabbi Elie Abadie, Director of the Jacob E. Safra Institute of Sephardic Studies at Yeshiva University, Imam Agha Jafri, founder of the American Muslim Congress, Wafik Moustafa, president of the Conservative Arab Network, Dr. Lahoucine Khabid, president of the Atlas Center for Diplomatic Studies, ZH Khurram, secretary general of the International Youth Forum, Dr. Boris Pincus, President of Religions in Dialogue, and Rabbi Yaakov D. Cohen, founder of the Institute for Noahide Code. . .

Speech given by Emil Constantinescu:

Global Peace Initiative from the Levant, the foundation for a new culture of peace

At its annual conference in 2011 in Berlin, the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy launched a project for a new type of relations between nations and states based on understanding instead of military pressure or economic conditions. . . It seems that this kind of relationship that gives peace a chance in the globalized world can find inspiration in the ancient world of the Levant. This is not only because the Levant was the cradle of cultural diplomacy, but also because many civilizations including the Egyptian, Jewish, Assyrian, Babylonian, Phoenician, Greek, Arabic empires Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires were created in the Levant where they expanded exchanges of goods and ideas. South-East Europe has long been in contact with North Africa and the Middle East, and the people who live here have a long and extensive experience in intercultural dialogue.

In 2012, the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Global Ethics took up the initiative and expanded it globally. In 2013, at the end of the conference organized in Bucharest with a wide range of religious, academic and parliamentary representatives, a joint project was set up for the initiative. Considering that the Global Peace Initiative from the Levant could serve as a benchmark and model to achieve peace in all areas of conflict around the globe, on 24 and 25 June 2013, the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Global Ethics organized a conference at United Nations headquarters in New York dedicated to promoting this initiative. The Romanian Parliament endorsed it with a message of support.

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Question for this article

Religion: a barrier or a way to peace?, What makes it one or the other?

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In March 2014, the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Global Ethics organized a new conference in New York together with the Foundation for the Culture of Peace, headed by Federico Mayor.

It is planned to present the Global Peace Initiative from the Levant to the Congress of the United States, the British Parliament, the Knesset of Israel and to many other parliaments, including those of Japan and Palestine. . . .

This project, dedicated to promoting a culture of peace, invites the participation of researchers and scholars in the humanities, theologians, writers, artists, architects, musicians to build a space of knowledge and understanding through co-operation and mutual respect. A culture of peace is based on a new type of relations, not only between states, but especially between peoples who share common values that were born long before the current nation-states.

The time has come for cultural diplomacy and recognition of the old legacy of the Levant, an alternative reading of the history of this region, especially prior to the wars and conflicts of the present millennium. It offers a new approach, emphasizing what we have in common and what can unite us: principles, values ​​and skills practiced in the past, that can now be harnessed to ensure not only the stability of this region as a whole, but also building a model of cooperation and trust for all countries. It does not mean that we should deny our past, but to assume it in its tragic dimension. . .

For quite some time international organizations such as UN, UNESCO and civil society have been trying to create a political culture of security through negotiation and cooperation. To promote peace and understanding in the world they have been looking for the lowest common denominator around which we can agree. It is a welcome step and especially in the face of the many immediate threats.

My belief is that we should propose much more. If we want to achieve true peace and understanding between people we should not focus on the lowest common denominator, but to refer to the highest common denominator – faith.

Modern and postmodern societies of the 20th century have promoted equal rights and freedoms regardless of racial and ethnic differences and equal opportunities for women. But all this tends to divide society rather than unifying it. A peace based on a common ideal would be ideal, although it is a difficult task, not a peace imposed under the pressure of fear, but a peace springing from the depths of consciousness of millions of people. The treasure of the philosophical, literary, artistic millenary history of the Levant can help inspire a spiritual revolution with a profound knowledge of the human being who has been torn for millennia in the struggle between the aspiration to love one’s neighbor and the tendency to use power to oppress them or to oppress others in their own interest. We can turn this vast pedagogy of suffering into a pedagogy of reconciliation.

Twenty years ago, millions of people in Eastern Europe with empty hands, were ready to fight and die for freedom and democracy against the greatest war machine in history. In a new millennium, we can rediscover faith. Not to use it one against another, as has been done throughout the long history of mankind, but to understand our purpose on Earth. Peace is the name of God, whether we are Christian, Muslim, Jewish or faiithful to Asian religions. Only human arrogance has made us forget the Lord’s message, whatever name we give it to him in the language or our faith.

If the Levant, the cradle of the great monotheistic religions, will carry out a political and visionary project adapted the great challenges of today, it will contribute not only to a new identity of the area, but also hdlp to create a different concept of the future world called into a new humanism.”.

global, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY, United Nations,

United Nations: World needs ‘Culture of Peace’

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An article from Bangla News 24 (reprinted for non-commercial use)

A day-long High Level Forum on a Culture of Peace was held at the Trusteeship Council Chamber at the UN Headquarters on Thursday (September 1). The High Level Forum provides an opportunity for the member states and stakeholders to have an exchange of views on ways to build and promote the Culture of Peace which is very much called for in present world.

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Mogens Lykketoft, President of the 70th Session of the General Assembly, chaired the opening segment while Ambassador Edmuond Mulet, Chef de Cabinet of the Executive Office of the UN Secretary General read out message on behalf of the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Ouided Bouchamaoui, Founder of The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, Nobel Peace Prize 2015 Laureate, made the Key Note Address. The keynote speaker highlighted the role of civil society which can play and should play to make our world a better place ensuring peace and justice for all.

It was concluded by the outstanding musical performances by FJ Music Duo.

Forty country representatives made statement in the program among Permanent Representative and Ambassador of Bangladesh Masud Bin Momen on behalf of the Bangladesh Delegation.

The statements of the President General Assembly and of the UNSG re-asserted and re-affirmed the commitment of the totality of the Member States for building the culture of peace and the international community’s determination to work more diligently for its realization.

President General Assembly, as well as, most of the delegations acknowledged the role of Bangladesh in promoting the issue of cultural of peace at the United Nations and beyond.

The Bangladesh representative said a culture of peace is an aspiration of all humanity, the essence of the UN Charter, and also an imperative in the current global context. Promoting and inculcating a mindset of a culture of peace is at the core of peaceful and mutually respectful co-existence and dialogue among different civilizations, religions, faiths and beliefs around the globe.

The afternoon session was comprised of two Panel discussions.

The title of the Panel-1 “Enhancing synergy between Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and eight action areas of the UN Programme of Action on Culture of Peace” which was Chaired by Anwarul K. Chowdhury, Former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations. Masud Bin Momen, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, intervened in the Panel-1 as a Panelist. He said, a critical linkage between peace and development has been underscored in sustainable development goals for promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development provided access to justice for all and build effective accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Panel-2 discussion was on “The Role of Youth in advancing the Culture of Peace in the context of the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution on Youth, Peace and Security”. This Panel was chaired by Katalin Annamaria Bogyay, Permanent Representative of Hungary to the United Nations.

Question(s) related to this article:
FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, global, United Nations,

Forging a peaceful future: four years of UNICEF’s Learning for Peace Programme

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

An article from UNICEF

UNICEF and partners are a step closer to building peace, Eran Nagan, of the Government of the Netherlands said at a high-level event on education and peacebuilding in New York.

Mr. Nagan, First Secretary of Economic Affairs, Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations, joined some 80 UN staff, researchers, civil society, private sector representatives and members of the public to celebrate the final event of the Learning for Peace programme on Thursday, 30 June at UNICEF House. The UNICEF programme, launched in 2012 with the support of the Government of the Netherlands, helped promote peace through education in 14 conflict-affected countries: Burundi, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Liberia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, State of Palestine, Uganda, and Yemen.

UNICEF
Panelists (L-R) Patrick Fine, FHI 360 CEO; Angela Kearney UNICEF Pakistan Representative; Yasmin Haque, UNICEF Deputy Director of Emergency Programmes; Henk-Jan Brinkman UN Peacebuilding Support Office Chief of Policy Planning and Application.
Click on image to enlarge

“The teaching of tolerance, respect for the other, promoting social cohesion is a necessity of any society because it is by inserting these essential values in our youth that we forge peaceful societies for the future,” Mr. Nagan said in his key note address, praising the programme for its achievements over the last four and a half years. Learning for Peace worked with governments, education systems, and communities to design education interventions that addressed underlying causes and dynamics of conflict. The programme also included a significant research component to fill the gap in knowledge and evidence on social services for peacebuilding.

Research from UNICEF and FHI 360 found evidence that education inequities reinforce social divisions that lead to conflict – the likelihood of violent conflict doubles in countries with high education inequality between ethnic and religious groups. Conversely, conflict widens educational inequalities. Although less pronounced, the study also provides evidence that gender-based education inequality makes violent conflict more likely, and vice versa.

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Question for this article:

Peace education at the United Nations, how does it work?

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“I think it has direct implications for how we set priorities and what kinds of actions we take in humanitarian response, and it also has immediate implications for policies and programmes,” Patrick Fine, FHI 360 CEO, said of the research findings.

Mr. Fine, along with Angela Kearney, UNICEF Pakistan Representative; Yasmin Haque, Deputy Director, Office of Emergency Programmes, UNICEF; and Henk-Jan Brinkman, Chief of Policy, Planning and Application, UN Peacebuilding Support Office were part of a panel to share experiences, achievements and lessons learned of the Learning For Peace programme.

Ms. Kearney shared stories of innovation in education from Pakistan, where findings from the programme’s conflict analysis informed education sector plans in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan. In South Sudan, where 70 per cent of children have never stepped inside a school, Ms. Haque said that Learning for Peace helped develop a new, inclusive education system and forged new partnerships amongst education stakeholders and development partner organizations with peacebuilding expertise.

Josephine Bourne, Associate Director of Education at UNICEF, moderated the event and stressed that the lessons-learned on conflict-sensitive and peacebuilding-oriented education programming that began through the Learning for Peace programme would continue in future projects.

“While the programme is finishing, the work does not. There’s a very strong commitment to conflict assessment and really understanding the situation of children and their access to resources and other inequalities.” Ms. Bourne said. The inequality piece is front and center, not just for education, but everything UNICEF is doing”.

At the event, UNICEF also discussed plans to employ conflict assessment, study gender-based violence, and have children participate in determining the issues that drive conflict and necessary interventions. FHI 360 is also leading an education equity research initiative in conjunction with UNICEF and other partners including USAID, Save the Children and World Vision.

For more information on the programme please visit: learningforpeace.unicef.org.

(Thank you to the Global Campaign for Peace Education for bringing this article to our attention.)

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, global, United Nations,

UN: International Day of Peace, 21 September

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

From the website of The United Nations

Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on 21 September. The General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples. The Day’s theme for 2016 is “The Sustainable Development Goals: Building Blocks for Peace.”


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Video on peace and sustainable development goals

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals were unanimously adopted by the 193 Member States of the United Nations at an historic summit of the world’s leaders in New York in September 2015. The new ambitious 2030 agenda calls on countries to begin efforts to achieve these goals over the next 15 years. It aims to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all.

The Sustainable Development Goals are integral to achieving peace in our time, as development and peace are interdependent and mutually reinforcing.

“The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are our shared vision of humanity and a social contract between the world’s leaders and the people,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “They are a to-do list for people and planet, and a blueprint for success.”

Sustainability addresses the fundamental needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Modern challenges of poverty, hunger, diminishing natural resources, water scarcity, social inequality, environmental degradation, diseases, corruption, racism and xenophobia, among others, pose challenges for peace and create fertile grounds for conflict. Sustainable development contributes decisively to dissipation and elimination of these causes of conflict and provides the foundation for a lasting peace. Peace, meanwhile, reinforces the conditions for sustainable development and liberates the resources needed for societies to develop and prosper.

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

Question for this article:

How are you celebrating peace day?

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Every single one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals is a building block in the global architecture of peace. It is critical that we mobilise means of implementation, including financial resources, technology development and transfer, and capacity-building, as well as the role of partnerships. Everyone has a stake and everyone has a contribution to make.

On 16 September 2016, from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., the Secretary-General will celebrate the Day in the Peace Garden at United Nations Headquarters by ringing the Peace Bell and observing a minute of silence. Women Nobel Peace Prize laureates and the United Nations Messengers of Peace will be invited to participate in the ceremony. The United Nations Education Outreach Section will hold a global student videoconference on the same day, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., also at United Nations Headquarters.

Check out videos by youth from around the globe on how the Goals can help build peace!

“Sustainable Development Goals: Improve Life All Around The Globe” is a“> hip hop music video that was produced by FlocabularyExternal link in partnership with the Education Outreach Section of the Outreach Division of the United Nations Department of Public Information. It aims to teach young people throughout the world about the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals and how they can help build peace.

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

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global, United Nations,

UN talks recommend negotiations of nuclear weapons ban treaty

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article from The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)

In a dramatic final day [August 19], the groundbreaking UN talks on nuclear disarmament concluded by making a clear recommendation to start negotiations on a treaty banning nuclear weapons.

nuclear
Photo: Xanthe Hall
Click on photo to enlarge

Known as the “Open-Ended Working Group” (OEWG), the talks have taken place in February, May and August of this year and have outlined a number of elements that should be included in a new legally binding instrument which prohibits nuclear weapons. The majority support for the ban treaty was clearly underlined by joint statements delivered by Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Southeast Asia and the Pacific as well as statements from several European states.

Resistance continued to come throughout the working group from a small group of states who continued to argue that nuclear weapons are essential to their national security. Despite threatening to block a report which contained a recommendation for a ban treaty, these governments did not have the leverage to thwart the successful outcome of the group.

After long deliberations, it seemed that States were going to agree to a compromised report which reflected the views of both sides of the ban treaty issue. However, after this agreement had seemingly been secured behind closed doors, Australia made a last-second turnaround and announced that it was objecting to the draft of the report and called for a vote. In spite of the opposition from Australia and several other pro-nuclear weapon states, the majority was able to carry the day. On that basis, the working group was able to recommend the start of negotiations on a new legal instrument prohibiting nuclear weapons.

This breakthrough is result of the new global discourse on nuclear weapons. Bringing together governments, academia and civil society, a series of three conferences have uncovered new evidence about the devastating humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons and the risks of their use, whether accidental or intentional. The momentum generated by the “humanitarian initiative” has now culminated with the international community on the verge of negotiating a nuclear weapons ban.

Nuclear weapons remain the only weapons of mass destruction not yet prohibited under international law, despite their inhumane and indiscriminate nature. A ban would not only make it illegal for nations to use or possess nuclear weapons; it would also help pave the way to their complete elimination. Nations committed to reaching the goal of abolition have shown that they are ready to start negotiations next year.

It is now up to the October meeting of the UN General Assembly First Committee to bring forward this process by issuing a mandate to start the negotiating process.

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global, United Nations,

UN: Former child soldiers should be treated humanely “not as menaces”

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article and radio broadcast from United Nations Radio

Former child soldiers need to be treated humanely and “not as menaces” to society, an advocate for children’s rights has said. Kabba Williams was one of those forcefully recruited in Sierra Leone by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, at the age of 7.

child
Children surrender their weapons during a ceremony formalizing their release from the SSDA Cobra Faction armed group, in Pibor, South Sudan (February 2015). File Photo: UNICEF/NYHQ2015-0201/Rich

Rescued and reintegrated into his community with the support of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and partners in 1994, he later earned a degree in literature and linguistics at Njala University. Mr Williams is currently writing a book and a portion of the proceeds will help finance rehabilitation programmes for other former child soldiers.

Deganit Perez asked him how the experience had changed him and what hope there was for people facing similar situations.

[Note: Click here to find the link for the radio broadcast.

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

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global, United Nations,