Tag Archives: United Nations

A reality… UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

Special for CPNN by Romeral Ortiz Quintilla, member of Youth Advocacy Team of UNOY

And now it is a reality. I still remember very well how two years ago, I was on my first mission to UN Headquarters in NYC as part of the Youth Advocacy Team of the United Network of Young Peacebuilders- UNOY.

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Voting of the UN Security Council of the 2250 Resolution on Youth, Peace and Security

UNOY had put as strategic objective to advocate for the development of a global framework that would recognize and guarantee the role of youth in peacebuilding and violence prevention.

What we had as an ideal goal at that time was to see the UN Security Council Members to adopt a UN Security Council Resolution on youth, peace and security.

In 2013 this was just a dream and around that time very few were the Members States who were supportive or even sensitized on this matter. But nothing could stop us: for the last two years we have been tireless; the efforts were insatiable, the dedication was strong and the commitment was pure. We made researches, wrote reports and knocked on many doors explaining how youth is contributing to peace and justice all around the world and how young women and men had to be taken into consideration ensuring participative and inclusive mechanisms and tools in building peace.

For two years, several missions were held to the UN Headquarters participating to side-events on countering violent extremism, on young women, peace and security, on the World Programme of Action for Youth-WPAY, to UN peace related documents’ review, etc.

It was crucial to be visible and to build strong partnerships with key stakeholders and supporters of our agenda: from the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth to the Peacebuilding Support Office, Search for Common Ground, World Vision but also UN agencies such as UNDP or UNFPA to name a few.

In parallel, at local, national and regional levels young people were mobilizing to raise awareness on the topic and to initiative some lobby activities in their own communities and with their own local governments.

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Question for this article

Is there a renewed movement of solidarity by the new generation?

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And then, a key player entered in the game: Jordan. We had been told we needed a champion to support our cause. That champion happened to be the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan that took very seriously the theme and brought to the UN Security Council the first ever open debate on youth, peace and security this past April, 2015. It was then followed by the first Global Forum on youth, peace and security where more than 600 participants gathered in Amman – youth representatives, donors, UN agencies, governments, academics…- and discussed on how to increase the participation and role of youth in preventing violence, transforming violence and building peace leading. Statements and commitments were translated into the Amman Youth Declaration, precursor of the UN Security Council this past December.

Indeed, the 9th December 2015 is now a date we will not easily forget, the day when the 15 members of the UN Security Council voted unanimously the UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security led by Jordan.

UNSCR Side event2
Participation of Romeral, on behalf of UNOY as panellist in the side event to the Security Council, High-level review on Resolution 1325 on young women, peace and security.

Exactly two years ago I wrote on this page that “everything seems impossible until it is done”. This is so true. Now that it is done, we count on an historic recognition calling for the acknowledgment on the role of youth in building peace and demanding for further efforts in terms of participation, protection, prevention, partnership and reintegration, the five pillars of the resolution. The first time a Security Council Resolution is fully dedicated to youth and calls on their role in peace under a holistic perspective: positive peace as the presence of all resources needed for human being to enjoy sustainable rights, equality, freedom and justice.

Now, that it is done, we will redouble our efforts, making sure that the resolution is well known, implemented and translated into programs and efforts.

Because peace is not just our goal, it is definitively our path.

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Naomi Klein: We are going backwards, COP21 is the opposite of progress

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An interview with Naomi Klein in New Internationalist Magazine (abbreviated)

Naomi Klein speaks with Frank Barat about the limits of the Paris climate talks and how climate change is an accelerator that makes pre-existing problems worse. This interview was originally published in the French publication Ballast.

Naomi Klein
People’s climate march in Prague, 29 November 2015. Friends of the Earth International under a Creative Commons Licence

. . . [what] is unfolding in Paris during the climate summit is really exposing the subjectivity of what gets declared a crisis and what does not. We are here to discuss an existential crisis for humanity and it has never received crisis treatment from elites. They give loads of wonderful speeches but they do not change laws. It is exposing the double standards in a very naked way. In the name of security, they would do almost anything, but in the name of human security, of protecting life on earth, there are loads of talk but no serious regulations of polluters and even the deal themselves they want not to be legally binding. So we are actually moving backwards. The Kyoto protocol was legally binding and now we are moving towards more volunteer, meaningless, non-regulations.

Question: Why would a climate deal be our best hope for peace?

N.K: The first part of it is simply that climate change is already driving conflict. So is the quest for fossil fuels. In terms of the Middle East, our thirst from fossil fuels is a major driver for illegal wars. Do we think Iraq would have been invaded if their major export had been asparagus [as journalist Robert Fisk once asked]? Probably not. We wanted that prize in the west, Iraq’s oil. We wanted this on the world’s market. It was certainly Dick Cheney’s agenda. This destabilized the whole region, which was not particularly stable to begin with because of earlier oil wars and coups and support for dictatorships. This is also a region that is one of the most vulnerable to climate change. Large parts of the Middle East would become unliveable on the emission trajectory that we are on. Syria has experienced the worst drought of its history in the run up to the outbreak of civil war. It is one of the factors that destabilized the country. There is no possibility for peace without very strong actions on climate. What drew me to this issue was understanding that if we are going to take climate change seriously it is going to require a redistribution of wealth, of opportunities and technologies. In this book I begin quoting Angelica Navarro who is a Bolivian trade and climate negotiator, talking about how climate change called for a Marshall Plan for planet earth. For countries that have their resources systematically plundered, like Bolivia and are on the front lines of dealing with the impact of climate change, it requires kind of a writing past wrongs, the transfer of wealth and turning the world right side up that I think are pre-conditions for a more peaceful world.

Question: How do you put to the masses of people that to change course, we have to deconstruct capitalism? I think that for most people it is too difficult a change to imagine?

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

Question for this article:

Sustainable Development Summits of States, What are the results?

Despite the vested interests of companies and governments, Can we make progress toward sustainable development?

(Interview continued from the left side of the page)

N.K: In Canada we did this exercise of trying to use climate change and the fact that it puts us on a deadline. Not only do we have to change but we have to change now and if we do not make the most of this remaining decade, it will indeed be too late. What does this mean for healthcare, education, indigenous rights, inequality, what would it look like for refugee rights to take climate change seriously? Our team hosted a meeting of 60 movement leaders and we drafted a document called The Leap. We are really hoping that it would help break through this problem. We found in Canada that the only way to break through is to do it. To get together and act. Everybody is working on such urgent issues. If you are an anti poverty activist or a refugee rights activist, you do not have any spare time. It is only when climate change does not distract from your issue and in fact brings another layer of urgency and a really powerful tool and argument and brings you new allies as well, then people have that space to go, ‘oh yeah, ok, this is actually hopeful, this is not a distraction.’

There are a couple of things we did in Canada. One, we organized a march under the banner ‘jobs, justice, climate’. It was not a theoretical exercise but really an organizing one. How do we talk to people in trade unions about climate in a way that really resonates, how do you talk to people who are just fighting for basic services, for housing, and transit, what would it mean for the Black Lives Matter movement, what are the messages that are different? It really helped. Then we drafted and launched the LEAP manifesto. Not that it is perfect, but it is a start. To me it is shocking the extent to which the anti-austerity movement and the climate movement in Europe do not seem to talk to one another. You could have [Greek Prime Minister Alexander] Tsipras suddenly talking about climate change this week, for the first time from what I can tell since he took office.

Climate change is the best argument against austerity that you are ever going to have. If you are negotiating with Germany, a government that claims to take climate change very seriously and that has some of the most ambitious energy policies in the world, why wouldn’t you talk about climate change in every meetings and say that we cannot have austerity because we have an existential crisis, we have to act. And yet Syriza, Podemos, you almost never hear them talking about climate change. I spoke at a blockcupy rally in Frankfurt a few months ago and climate change was not mentioned. When I talked about the connections, people understood instantly, it is not abstract. If you are dealing with the endless of budget crisis and this false sense of public scarcity, of course governments are going to cut their support for renewables, of course they are going to increase fares for public transit, of course they are going to privatize the rail system as they are doing in Belgium, of course they are going to say that we have to drill for oil and gas to get ourselves out of debt.

These issues are the same stories, so why is it that it seems far off, right? I do not think it is a hard argument to make. I think that people are creatures of habit. There is a lot of fear around talking about climate change. It has been so bureaucratized. A little bit like trade used to be. When we first started talking about free trade deals there was all of this talk about having a degree in international law to understand it as it was so bureaucratic. It was designed to repel public participation. But somehow people started to educate themselves and found ways to talk about it and really understood how it impacted their lives and the things that they understood. They realised they had a right to participate in this conversation. I think that why climate change people are afraid of making mistakes about the science. You have got three levels of bureaucratic language. The scientific, the policy and the UN language. It is very difficult to understand. The UN one is a nightmare. Look at the schedule for the Cop21! It is not in any language anybody could recognize. All of that is part of the reason why even though it is obvious to connect climate to austerity somehow it is not done. . . .

Governments are fighting for those paltry targets to not be legally binding. It is the opposite of progress – we are going backward. Kyoto was legally binding. This is headed towards not being binding. The target in Copenhagen was 2 degrees, which was already too high, and here we are headed towards 3. This is basic laws of physics. It is not forward.

global, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, United Nations,

UN Security Council adopts resolution on Youth, Peace and Security

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

A blog by UNOY, United Network of Young Peacebuilders

On 9 December 2015 the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace & Security. The historical document is the first of its kind to recognize the positive role young people play in building sustainable peace and to lay out the need for governments and other stakeholders to support young people in this role. It represents a landmark for the participation of young people involved in transforming conflict, peacebuilding and countering violence.

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With a larger global youth population than ever before, there is a demographic and democratic imperative to meaningfully involved youth in matters of peace and security, especially considering how conflicts impact on young people’s lives and futures.

At UNOY Peacebuilders we have been working intensively since 2012 to lay a path leading to this resolution. We have fostered dialogue between young peacebuilders and policy makers at the international level, bringing young peacebuilders to discuss with representatives at the UN in New York. At the same time, we have been working for the recognition of young people as actors of positive change with civil society partners including Search for Common Ground and World Vision, as well as key institutional partners through the Inter-Agency Working Group on Young People’s Participation in Peacebuilding.

The dominant policy discourse around youth has traditionally viewed young people as threats to global peace and security, or occasionally as vulnerable groups to be protected. In short, either as victims or perpetrators of violence. This is a harmful reduction of the role youth play in conflict and post-conflict settings and that’s why we have been calling for a third point of view – a point of view which sees youth as peacebuilders who deserved to have their efforts recognized and supported. It is this third point of view which is now being recognised by the UN Security Council.

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Question for this article

Is there a renewed movement of solidarity by the new generation?

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The new UN Security Council resolution outlines the duties of parties to armed conflicts to protect young people during conflict and in post-conflict contexts. Importantly, the resolution goes further and also calls on governments to promote youth participation in processes of peacebuilding and peacekeeping at all levels, including peace processes and dispute resolution mechanisms.  

The resolution calls on Member States to facilitate an enabling environment for youth to prevent violence, and to create policies which support youth socio-economic development and education for peace equipping youth with the ability to engage in political processes. It urges member states to support youth peace efforts in conflict and post-conflict settings, including through the the work of UN bodies involved in peacebuilding and development. The resolution also encourages all those involved in disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration to ensure that programs are designed to consider the special needs of youth in these processes.

Finally, the resolution requests the UN General-Secretary to carry out a study on the impact of conflict on young people, as well as their contributions to peace, and to report to the Security Council on the implementation of the resolution in one year’s time.

UN Security Council Resolution 2250 is a huge step forward in the right direction, recognising and supporting young people’s contributions to building peace. However, a UN Security Council resolution is not the end of the road. Young peacebuilders around the world, youth-led and youth-focused organizations must now focus their efforts on ensuring that the resolution gets translated into real policies at regional, national and local levels.

UNOY Peacebuilders welcomes the adoption of the declaration as a tool for young people’s empowerment and calls on every young peacebuilder to join us in the next steps.

Read the full text of UN SCR 2250 here and take part in the conversation through #Youth4Peace and #scr2250 on Twitter or following us on Facebook.

For more information, contact Matilda Flemming (matilda.flemming@unoy.org) or Sölvi Karlsson (solvi.karlsson@unoy.org).

global, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY, United Nations,

ICLEI Declaration to the Ministers at COP21, Paris, France

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION. .

A Declaration by ICLEI, Local Governments for Sustainability, a network of over 1,000 cities

In these days, the world anxiously follows your national and global efforts to collectively agree on an ambitious and inclusive global Paris Climate Package as the outcome of COP21.

With the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular Goal 11 on sustainable cities, all countries have a mandate and an obligation to create the necessary conditions for a peaceful and healthy planet. We expect that the Habitat III Conference next year on the new Urban Agenda will further strengthen these.

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However, it will not be possible to transform our world towards a sustainable world without a clear commitment from Parties and a pathway towards low-carbon and high-resilient societies and economies.

A failure in Paris to agree on a global framework will worsen our life scenarios. We do not see the negotiations of this agreement as one among Parties but as one with people at risk.

We worriedly take note of the fact that the Intended Nationally Determined Commitments and Contributions (INDCs), curb the global GHG emission trajectory to only 2.7-5.0 °Celsius until the end of this century, and not below 2°C, as requested by the IPCC to ensure a climate-safe future for all people.

This will gravely impact the most vulnerable citizens and populations who suffer from the impacts of climate change that they have not caused.

In overall terms, we request Parties to provide an ambitious response to address 4 basic realities:

* the legacy of a fossil-dependent era and ineffectiveness of piecemeal solutions;

* the unstoppable transformation into a development model that is based on 100% renewables and a circular economy;

* the need to develop innovative governance models in a multi-polar, multi-stakeholder, multi-level Urban World of the 21st Century;

* the need to develop a global and sufficient framework to mobilize additional financial resources for climate change mitigation, adaptation and loss-and-damage through public as well as private finance, including carbon pricing, phasing out of fossil-fuel subsidies, divestment of carbon intensive infrastructure and other assets, and revenues to be generated from regulations on international finance markets or transactions;

Acknowledging the fact that some 50% of submitted INDCs refer to local and subnational action, we urge our Ministers to be more ambitious and to:

* Emphasize the importance of taking into account human rights, gender equality, rights of indigenous peoples, and the needs of particular vulnerable groups when taking action to address climate change;

* Confirm the recognition of the crucial role of local and subnational governments as governmental stakeholders and non-state actors, as key partners in the global climate efforts;

* Develop innovative processes to enhance engagement of local and subnational governments as governmental stakeholders, building on the experiences of the ADP Workstream-2 Technical Examination Processes, and the efforts through the Lima-Paris Action Agenda (LPAA);

* Adopt long-term mitigation goals with a clear vision and target for2050, and for the end of the century, in particular goals on carbon/climate neutrality, phase-out of fossil fuels, and 100% renewables by the latest by 2050;

* Close the emission gap and accelerate the implementation of the pre-2020 mitigation commitments in particular by developed countries, so that transformation happens faster, based on the principles of differentiated responsibilities, equity, and solidarity;

* Support developing countries to achieve their mitigation INDCs, technically and financially, and adopt a finance plan that includes five year financial commitments and assessment periods to help achieve their pre-2020 and post-2020 goals;

* Agree on a global, periodic revision process, every five years, of the individual and aggregate implementation progress of the mitigation INDCs and their upscaling, with science and equity-based assessments, and with civil society participation;

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Question for this article

Sustainable Development Summits of States, What are the results?

Can cities take the lead for sustainable development?

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* Set specific goals and targets for adaptation until 2050, including a financial target to reach at least 35 billion USD via grant-based provisions for developing countries,

* Create a robust framework that addresses loss and damage from the impacts of climate change; and

* Mobilize and ensure direct access to financing authority, legislative capacity, and other tools to maximize our climate change actions based on territorial/place-based approaches and empower each level of government, together with enhanced multilevel governance and vertical integration to make its maximum potential contribution toward climate change progress.

As the world’s leading sustainability network of over 1,000 cities, towns and metropolises, and building on our Seoul Declaration and Strategy 2015-2021 adopted in April 2015, ICLEI commits to:

1. INSPIRE – EXPAND – SCALE UP LOCAL CLIMATE ACTION

Our combined sustainability actions currently reach over 20% of the global urban population.

We commit to lead ICLEI members through our GreenClimateCities Program and other initiatives, and to mobilize more local and subnational governments so as to reach 30% by 2030 and 50% by 2050 of the global urban population, as well as to explore 100% renewables scenarios by 2030 and 2050.

2. INTENSIFY – DEEPEN – INTEGRATE CLIMATE ACTION TO ALL AREAS OF SUSTAINABILITY

Our ICLEI 10 Urban Agendas help our members to make their cities and regions sustainable, low-carbon, resilient, eco-mobile, biodiverse, resource-efficient and productive, healthy and happy, with a green economy and smart infrastructure.

Building on the achievements of our Low Carbon City Agenda, we commit to engage all our members in the 10 Urban Agendas and thus comply with SDG.11 by 2030 as well as mobilize more like-minded local and subnational governments.

3. CONNECT – INCLUDE – ENGAGE WITH GOVERNMENTS AND STAKEHOLDERS

Our climate work since 1990, strengthened by the Local Government Climate Roadmap since 2007, has mobilized an unprecedented scale of political commitment and action towards a climate-friendly human development at our levels of government.

We commit to raise compliance with national, subnational, and global initiatives, including the Compact of Mayors, Compact of States and Regions, Mexico City Pact, Durban Adaptation Charter, Earth Hour City Challenge, Covenant of Mayors, working in partnership with citizens, the business sector, and other stakeholders.

We commit to support vertically integrated climate action and explore collaboration with national governments, in particular those that have included local and subnational climate action in their INDCs.

4. TRANPARENT – ACCOUNTABLE – OPEN MUNICIPAL ACTIONS AND GOVERNANCE

Our carbonn Climate Registry with publicly available commitments, emissions inventories and actions reported by more than 600 local and subnational governments, currently aggregates to 1 billion tons of GHG emission reductions until 2020.

We commit to expand the number of reporting entities to include all ICLEI members reporting in the carbonn Climate Registry, to annually aggregate these commitments and to report to the UNFCCC NAZCA.

5. RESOURCE – EMPOWER – ADVOCATE FOR TRANSFORMATIVE ACTION

Our pilot of the Transformative Actions Program (TAP) 2015 has brought forward 125 applications to demonstrate ambitious, crosscutting, and inclusive local action plans that have the potential to contribute to keeping global warming below 2°C.

We commit to continuing the TAP on an annual basis, and present the applications to the climate finance institutions and programs. In addition, we commit to providing an interactive platform to share best TAP projects from around the world, as well as providing tools and knowledge systems necessary for local and subnational governments to design and implement transformative climate actions.

This ICLEI Declaration was adopted unanimously at the Joint Meeting of ICLEI Council and ICLEI Global Executive Committee at Paris City Hall on 6 December 2015

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, global, United Nations,

Indigenous Elders Send Stern Message to UN Paris Delegates: Preventing 2°C Is Not Nearly Enough

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article from Alternet

Thousands are gathered in Paris for the United Nation’s climate talks that began on November 30 and will run through December 11, 2015. Among the world leaders in Paris, including President Barack Obama, are indigenous peoples from around the world. The SPIRET Foundation released the following statement, entitled “Indigenous Elders And Medicine Peoples Council Statement United Nations Convention on Climate Change,” to the media that provides a voice to the indigenous peoples of the North America:

indigenous
Photo Credit: VectorLifestylepic/Shutterstock.com
Click on photo to enlarge

This statement reflects the wisdom of the Spiritual People of the Earth, of the four directions, working in unity to restore peace, harmony and balance for our collective future and for all living beings. This statement is written in black and white with a foreign language that is not our own and does not convey the full depth of our concerns.

The Creator created the People of the Earth out of the Land and gave us a Way of Life. This Sacred Way of Life has been passed down generation-to-generation since the beginning of the Creation of Life. The sanctity of this Way of Life has been violated and abused by people who are living without regard for the well being of Mother Earth and our collective future.

We, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, have no choice but to follow and uphold the Natural Law, which sustains the continuity of Life. We recognize our umbilical connection to Mother Earth and understand that she is the source of life, not a resource to be exploited. We speak on behalf of all Creation today, to communicate an urgent message that man has gone too far, placing us in the state of survival.

There is no more time for discussion on preventing “Climate Change”. That opportunity has passed. “Climate Change” is here. The Air is not the same anymore. The Water is not the same anymore. The Earth is not the same anymore. The Clouds are not the same anymore. The Rain is not the same anymore. The Trees, the Plants, the Animals, Birds, Fish, Insects and all the others are not the same anymore. All that is Sacred in Life is vanishing because of our actions. The truth is we have moved beyond climate change to survival.

The COP21 Climate Summit in Paris, France is being held to contemplate strategies to prevent more than two degrees Celsius of warming. Though this is important, it is not nearly enough. To truly heal Mother Earth and ensure our survival, we must recognize that the entire natural system is one life system rather than fragmented parts. Our concern is with the acceleration of the cumulative and compounding devastation that is being wrought by the actions of people around the world. Modern living and all that it encompasses does not respect the Sacredness of Life and has ruptured the sacred seal around the Earth. This has contributed to extreme weather patterns and the melting of the Ice – the sacred cooling system of Mother Earth.

Man-made creations of vehicles, trains, railroads, airplanes, bullets, guns, weapons, spaceships, building of high rise towers, shopping malls, pipelines, roads, slaughtering of animals for recreation, the genetic alteration and pollution of our food and water sources, introduction of invasive species, drilling and digging deep into Mother Earth, and into the mountains for oil, gas, gold, silver, minerals, precious stones, coal and uranium, and all the others. Changing whole ecosystems forever by draining wetlands, changing the course of rivers, clear cutting of forests, damming rivers and flooding lands to cool nuclear reactors and natural gas plants, damming rivers for hydroelectric power, using rivers and lakes for dumping toxic chemicals and sewage, polluting the Earth and Oceans with toxic chemicals and waste and piling up and burying garbage has contaminated and polluted our Earth. All these actions and more created Climate Change.

Aboriginal Indigenous Peoples have seen first-hand the impacts these destructive actions have had on our sacred places and the natural world. We have sent out messages to the people of this world warning that “this dark time” or “this day” would come if the people did not immediately stop their destructive activities and re-align themselves in harmony and balance with the Creator’s Natural Law. Our messages of prophecy fell on deaf ears and remained unseen by eyes blinded by money, greed and power.

Today, we lack leadership. We have misplaced our trust in governmental leaders and the leaders of industry. They failed us by trying to maintain their profits, economies and their power over the people. Their lack of action to adequately and seriously work to prevent “climate change” has brought us to the state of survival, threatening the collective future of All Life. Leaders meeting in Paris have a responsibility to create real solutions and do something right for the future of all life. We strongly urge all leaders to work and consult with us, the spiritual people of the Earth, to solve the world’s problems, without war. We, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, offer our spiritual insight, wisdom and vision to the global community to help guide the actions needed to overcome the current threats to all life and shift from the path of self-destruction to the path of peace, harmony and balance with All Creation.

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Question for this article

Indigenous peoples, Are they the true guardians of nature?

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We cannot live on the Moon or Mars so people must change their behavior. We must sacrifice and move beyond our own comforts and pleasures. We must stop the damaging activities and begin working on healing the natural environment for the future of All Life. To date, the Sacred has been excluded from all discussions and decisions.

We must heal the Sacredness within ourselves, within our families, within our communities and within our Nations. We must respect, follow and uphold the Creator’s Natural Law as a foundation for all decision-making, from this point forward. This begins with a deep respect and understanding of the human life cycle. To bring sacredness back into this cycle, human beings must bring forth life in a conscious way, honoring our sacred obligation to care for that life. With the creation of life comes a responsibility to ensure the care and survival of that life throughout the lifespan of the child. When we bring forth life haphazardly and without sacredness, with no concern for how that life will be sustained, we violate our sacred responsibility and bring imbalance to Mother Earth. We must restore our balance with Creation and respect the sacredness of our sexuality, and our ability to bring new life into this world.

We must open our hearts to Love, Care and have Respect for one another and All Creation to create peace. No one can survive without clean Air, clean Water, and a clean Earth. We cannot breathe money, we cannot eat or drink money. The people of the world must recognize that man made laws have failed us and will continue to fail us, because those laws attempt to place profit and power over our sacred obligation to All Life and our shared future. Those seeking profit and power have created a business of war and destruction that now threatens the lives of billions around the world. It is time to address this spiritual illness and begin the process of healing, together.

Aboriginal Indigenous Elders and Medicine Peoples are not scientists, but we do have a connection to the source of Truth and Life, we have our “Prophecies“ and the “Signs” of disharmony. All of these sources of knowledge tell us clearly what will happen if we do not change our behavior. All of the things that are happening today are the very same things that were spoken of in the earlier days, the very things that the Creator warned would happen, if we failed to respect and follow His Natural Law. There are scientists and experts that know the scientific reality of what is going on. They know that life will vanish if we continue in the direction we are going. These scientist and experts must speak the truth to the people and not be controlled by those that provide their paychecks.

We are all responsible and we are all capable of creating a new path forward with new sources of energy that do not harm the people or the Earth. We are obligated to all take action now to protect what is left of the Sacredness of Water and Life. We can no longer wait for solutions from governmental and corporate leaders. We must all take action and responsibility to restore a healthy relationship with each other and Mother Earth. Each of us is put here in this time and this place to personally decide the future of humankind. Did you think the Creator would create unnecessary people in a time of such terrible danger? Know that you yourself are essential to this World. Believe that! Understand both the blessing and the burden of that. You yourself are desperately needed to save the soul of this World. Do you think you were put here for something less?

Water is Life

We are the People of the Earth united under the Creator’s Law, with a sacred covenant to follow and uphold and a sacred responsibility to extend Life for all future generations. We are from various Nations and we are spiritually related. We will not be divided by any terminology that defines us as “recognized” or “unrecognized”, by the Government of the United States or any other body. We are expressing deep concern for our shared future and urge everyone to awaken spiritually and take action. It is critical that we come together with good minds and prayer as a global community of all faiths, to honor the Creator and the Creator’s Gift. We must work in unity to help Mother Earth heal so that she can bring back balance and harmony for all her children.

Representatives of the Council:

Chief Arvol Looking Horse
19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred
White Buffalo Calf Pipe
Spiritual Leader The Great Sioux Nation Peoples

Bobby C. Billie
Clan Leader and Spiritual Leader
Council of the Original Miccosukee
Simanolee Nation Aboriginal

Faith Spotted Eagle
Tunkan Inajin WinBrave Heart Society
Grandmother/Headswoman & Ihanktonwan Treaty Council
Ihanktonwan Dakota from the Oceti Sakowin 7 Council Fires

Leland Grass, Dine’ Traditionalist

global, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, United Nations,

UN adopts Bangladesh-sponsored resolution on “culture of peace”

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article from bdnews24

United Nations has adopted a Bangladesh-sponsored resolution on “culture of peace”, as it has done in the previous years.

bangladesh

Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to the UN Masud Bin Momen introduced on Thursday the resolution that emphasised on the importance of a “culture of peace” to deal with growing terrorism and intolerance worldwide.

The resolution was adopted unanimously without any voting.

This resolution based on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s vision of peace has been adopted by the UN with majority support since 1999. But this was the first time the resolution was passed without any voting and supported by 93 member nations.

Permanent representatives of 20 countries spoke in support of the resolution.

Momen said the implementation of this resolution would help increase compassion in the world. “Hatred among people and wars will be reduced. Mutual respect and love will become stronger. This will establish peace in the world.”

After Bangladesh introduced the resolution on “culture of peace” in 1999, 2001-2010 was observed across the world as a “decade of culture of peace.”

President of the United Nations General Assembly Mogens Lykketoft in his inaugural address appreciated the role of the Bangladesh’s Permanent Mission to the UN and stated that the promotion of culture of peace has assumed more importance now in confronting terrorism and growing intolerance.

[Click here for the resolution.]

Question(s) related to this article:
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As the UN Celebrates Empowerment of Women, a New Survey Shows Major Frustrations

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY .

An article by Danielle Goldberg and Mavic Cabrera-Balleza for Pass Blue

Fifteen years ago, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on women, peace and security, a landmark international law that demands women’s participation in decision-making on international peace and security.

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Though seldom recognized, the fundamental roots of this resolution, known as 1325, came from women’s actual experiences in armed conflict and their struggles for peace, championed by women’s organizations and civil society groups around the world.

As governments, donors and the UN come together this month to renew their commitments to the resolution’s mandate and address constraints and obstacles that keep it from fully being carried out, it is critical that these parties continue to engage civil society organizations as equal partners. After all, we are the ones who are implementing the resolution on the ground.

In this light, the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, in partnership with Cordaid, the International Civil Society Action Network and the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, all civil society organizations working hard on this mandate, conducted a survey earlier this year among other civil society organizations to solicit their views on the implementation of 1325.

Findings from the survey fed directly into the recently published global study commissioned by the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, to highlight “good practice examples, gaps and challenges, as well as emerging trends and priorities for action on UNSCR 1325 implementation.”

What stands out in the survey, featuring 317 responses from a wide range of organizations in 71 countries, is that women’s participation at all levels of decision-making in official peace and conflict negotiations and processes is still far from sufficient. As a result, a majority of respondents identified this as a top priority in the future agenda.

The ability to hold governments and armed groups accountable for grave human-rights violations against women was viewed as a significant achievement of 1325, though many groups qualified this gain.

Despite their leadership in the implementation of the resolution, overall respondents rated 1325 as only “moderately effective” because many of those surveyed think that the transformative potential of the resolution has not been fulfilled across the world. As one civil society group specifically noted, “The resolution is yet to witness groundbreaking achievement for strengthening the status of women in Nepal.”

Among positive reflections on the effectiveness of 1325, respondents said that it has mobilized women around the world and lent credibility and structure to their work. As one group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo said, “It has given us a platform to globalize all issues related to women.”

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Question for this article:

UN Resolution 1325, does it make a difference?

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Many respondents believe that the numerous women, peace and security resolutions stemming from 1325 have changed the dominant perception of women as victims to being agents of change and peace-builders.

Nonetheless, widespread concern was messaged in the survey that shifting paradigms on the women, peace and security agenda at the global level have not affected girls and women at the local level enough. In turn, respondents affirmed the need to tailor implementation of the 1325-related resolutions to the local realities of women and girls to ensure that such programming reaches remote areas.

Respondents also made key observations and recommendations regarding the resolution’s main pillars: women’s rights to participation and representation; conflict prevention and women’s protection; justice and accountability; and peace-building and recovery.

Participants in the survey want to see a reprioritization of conflict prevention, disarmament and demilitarization at the core of the 1325 agenda. They urge governments to move beyond a narrow focus of preventing sexual and gender-based violence, for instance, and instead use 1325 to address the causes of conflict, including gender norms — patriarchal cultures, for example — that drive conflict and insecurity.

Respondents reported an increase in women’s engagement in peace-building and recovery. Many also affirmed the importance of embedding “local” solutions into a comprehensive and innovative approach to peace, security and development. As a group in Burundi noted, “Gender must be at the heart of socioeconomic development and peace consolidation.”

Attesting to the lack of sufficient funding for their work, respondents urged donors to invest in programming and establish funding mechanisms that ensure rapid, direct access to resources, particularly for local women’s groups.

The survey also identified such emerging issues as the impact of violent extremism and terrorism on women and girls; the intersection among climate change and natural disasters and violent conflict; the correlation between peace and security and health pandemics; and the effect of mass media and information and communications technologies on the lives of women and girls.

To address these cross-cutting challenges, the survey again showed the importance of conflict prevention and redefining security based on the experiences of women on the ground.

Fifteen years after the adoption of 1325, survey results have made it clear that despite all the challenges, civil society remains highly committed to achieving the transformative potential of this landmark resolution. Moreover, their practical experiences demonstrate that the best solutions remain in the hands of civil society and that the most profound barrier remains political will.

As the Security Council meets this week and activities are held worldwide to commemorate this anniversary, those who carry out the mandate of 1325 must return to its roots by fully engaging civil society and local communities directly affected by violent conflicts. Only then can the promise of 1325 truly become a reality.

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United Nations Online Volunteering – an excellent service for NGOs, government entities and others

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

From Gert Ceville-Danielsen, UNV Portfolio Manager, Latin America and the Caribbean Development Programming Section

Dear CPNN,

I know you have a tremendous international network of peace educators, NGOs, CBOs and other organisations, and I thought our Online Volunteering service could be very useful for many of them .

Best regards,
Gert

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Image from video about UN Online Volunteering

1. FOR INDIVIDUALS

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is the UN organization that promotes volunteerism to support peace and development worldwide. Volunteerism can transform the pace and nature of development, and it benefits both society at large and the individual volunteer. UNV contributes to peace and development by advocating for volunteerism globally, encouraging partners to integrate volunteerism into development programming, and mobilizing volunteers.

For information on how to become an online volunteer please visit https://onlinevolunteering.org/en/vol/faq.html. The UNV Online Volunteering service connects volunteers and development organizations to collaborate online for peace and development. On this dedicated website, development organizations post their online volunteering opportunities. Interested individuals identify opportunities that match their interests, expertise, and skills, and submit their applications directly to the organizations, which select the volunteers they would like to engage in their activities.

Please contact info@onlinevolunteering.org for any questions you may have about online volunteering.

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

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2. FOR ENTITIES, NGOS, CBOS, UN AGENCIES, GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS AND OTHER ORGANISATIONS

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is the UN organization that promotes volunteerism to support peace and development worldwide. Volunteerism can transform the pace and nature of development, and it benefits both society at large and the individual volunteer. UNV contributes to peace and development by advocating for volunteerism globally, encouraging partners to integrate volunteerism into development programming, and mobilizing volunteers.

The UNV Online Volunteering service (www.onlinevolunteering.org) is a free service that puts volunteers into contact with organizations worldwide to work together for peace and development – over the Internet.

Online volunteers can support your activities in many ways. They can research information, design websites, translate publications, provide expert advice, and much more. For an impression of the diversity of volunteer opportunities organizations can publish, you may wish to visit the opportunity database at http://www.onlinevolunteering.org/en/org/opportunity_search/
Or explore the Stories section to read about the substantive contributions online volunteers have been making to the projects of development organizations across the globe.

This is how it works:

1. Register your organization on www.onlinevolunteering.org
2. Post a volunteer opportunity
3. Receive applications from online volunteers 
4. Select the volunteers with whom you would like to collaborate 
5. Start the online collaboration

We encourage you to visit the Resources section of the Online Volunteering service website for more information on how online volunteering works.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact info@onlinevolunteering.org

We look forward to hearing from you and to receiving your organization’s application for registration.

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United Nations: Whistleblowers Need Protection

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article by Elizabeth “Liz” Hempowicz, Public Policy Associate, POGO (Project on Government Oversight

Daniel Kaye, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, recently submitted a report to the General Assembly on the protection of whistleblowers and sources. The report highlights key elements of protections for whistleblowers, and is based in part on participation by 28 States as well as individuals and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Among a host of best-practice protections featured in the report, the Special Rapporteur focuses particular attention on national security whistleblowers and sources, those whistleblowers who are often subject to criminal prosecution for exposing serious problems.

Whistleblowers
Image: Adapted from Jared Rodriquez / Truthout

Notably, the report recommended a public interest balancing test for disclosures in the national security field that could be used to claim protection from retaliation or as a defense when facing prosecution. This balancing test would promote disclosures where the public interest in the information outweighs any identifiable harm to a legitimate national security interest, and requires that the whistleblower disclose no more information than reasonably necessary to expose wrongdoing. A defense for blowing the whistle in the national security field would be a welcome one, as these whistleblowers often face prosecution under the Espionage Act, which could mean years of costly litigation for simply trying to expose practices that make us less secure. This balancing test is similar to one proposed last year by Yochai Benkler, a law professor and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and supported by the Project On Government Oversight.

The full report contains many best-practice recommendations that our Congress should consider to strengthen whistleblower protections domestically.

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

Question(s) related to this article:

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

Here is a response to the question from David Adams

Perhaps the simplest way to illustrate the essential importance of free flow of information for a culture of peace is to discuss the importance of the control of information for the culture of war.

Here are excerpts from an Washington Post investigation two years ago entitled Top Secret America: A hidden world, growing beyond control. To read the original, click here.

“* Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.

* An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.

* In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings – about 17 million square feet of space.

* Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, creating redundancy and waste. For example, 51 federal organizations and military commands, operating in 15 U.S. cities, track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks.

* Analysts who make sense of documents and conversations obtained by foreign and domestic spying share their judgment by publishing 50,000 intelligence reports each year – a volume so large that many are routinely ignored.” . . .

“Every day across the United States, 854,000 civil servants, military personnel and private contractors with top-secret security clearances are scanned into offices protected by electromagnetic locks, retinal cameras and fortified walls that eavesdropping equipment cannot penetrate. . .

Much of the information about this mission is classified. That is the reason it is so difficult to gauge the success and identify the problems of Top Secret America, including whether money is being spent wisely. The U.S. intelligence budget is vast, publicly announced last year as $75 billion, 21/2 times the size it was on Sept. 10, 2001. But the figure doesn’t include many military activities or domestic counterterrorism programs.”

As we said in the draft Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace that we sent from UNESCO to the UN General Assembly in 1998:

“98. It is vital to promote transparency in governance and economic decision-making and to look into the proliferation of secrecy justified in terms of ‘national security’, ‘financial security’, and ‘economic competitiveness’. The question is to what extent this secrecy is compatible with the access to information necessary for democratic practice and social justice and whether, in some cases, instead of contributing to long-term security, it may conceal information about processes (ecological, financial, military, etc.) which are a potential threat to everyone and which need therefore to be addressed collectively.”

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U.N. Highlights Importance of Public Spaces, Safety for Women

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article by Tharanga Yakupitiyage, Inter Press Service (reprinted by permission)

Improving access to public spaces, and making them safe for women and girls, increases equity, combats discrimination and promotes inclusion, said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during a High-Level Discussion on “Public Spaces for All.”

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The meeting coincided with World Habitat Day, which is observed annually on the first Monday of October.

It brought together top UN officials, private sector representatives, academics, and civil society members to discuss the state of the world’s towns and cities, the right to adequate shelter, and the importance of public spaces.

In Ban’s address, he remarked: “High-quality public spaces encourage people to communicate and collaborate with each other, and to participate in public life.”

“Public spaces can also provide basic services, enhance connectivity, spawn economic activity and raise property values while generating municipal revenue,” he continued.

The Executive Director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) Joan Clos echoed the UN Chief’s comments.

“These spaces shape the cultural identity of an area, are part of its unique character and provide a sense of place for local communities,” Clos stated.

Clos also warned that when public spaces are inadequate, poorly designed or privatized, a polarized city with high social tensions, crime and violence will result.

Deputy Executive Director of UN Women Lakshmi Puri particularly pointed to violence against women and girls in public spaces as a major challenge.

“If violence in the private domain is now widely recognized as a human rights violation, violence against women and girls, especially sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence, in public spaces remains a largely neglected issue, with few laws or policies in place to prevent and address it,” Puri said.

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Question related to this article:

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

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UN Women has found that women in urban areas are twice as likely as men to experience violence, especially in developing countries. Moreover, 25-100 percent of women and girls around the world have experienced some form of sexual violence in public spaces in their lifetime.

Similarly, according to Gallup data from surveys in 143 countries in 2011, men are more likely than women to say they feel safe walking alone at night in their communities.

In Australia, research conducted by the Australia Institute in 2015 found that 87% of women were verbally or physically attacked while walking down the street.

In Ecuador, a study by UN Women in 2011 found that 68% of women had experience some form of sexual harassment and sexual violence in public spaces.

Puri noted how such violence limits women and girls’ movement, participation in education, access to essential services, and negatively impacts their health and well-being.

She highlighted the role of public spaces in promoting and achieving gender equality.

“Urban spaces are the most important theaters for the working out of the gender equality and women’s empowerment project,” Puri remarked.

Ban also noted the importance of deliberate and careful collaboration with local authorities, residents, and other actors to create successful public spaces.

World leaders are set to meet and define a new housing and urban agenda under the post-2015 development framework at Third UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, or Habitat III.

The conference will address the challenges of urbanization and opportunities it offers to implement the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and its targets.

One such target is 11.7 which aims to provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, particularly for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities.

However, Puri noted that no target exists to measure safety in public spaces for women and girls in the SDGs.

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

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