Global Campaign for Peace Education Issue #38
Global Campaign for Peace Education Issue #38
Greetings!
Greetings! This year we have seen some encouraging developments, most recently in the US mid-term elections results, which clearly showed a shift in US public sentiment towards the war in Iraq. Let us hope things have started to take a step in the right direction.
Needeless to say, there is much work left to do in this world. May we continue to move forward in our endeavours to make this world a better place. In the mean time, for those of you for whom this is a special holiday season, we extend our best wishes to you and for peace in the world!
In Peace, Maiko Morishita
Peace Education Newsletter Editor
Peace Boat US - A Project of the Hague Appeal for Peace
In This Issue
TOP NEWS
Kofi & Nane Annan
NGOs Bid Farewell after 10 Years!
HIGHLIGHTS
GCPE's Amada Benevides de Perez Addresses the Third Committee at the United Nations
PEACE NEWS
COURSES & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
EVENTS & CONFERENCES
RESOURCES, MATERIALS, PUBLICATIONS
Peace Boat US & Hague Appeal for Peace
HIGHLIGHTS
GCPE's Amada Benevides de Perez Addresses the Third Committee at the United Nations
Amada Benevides de Perez (Colombia) of the Global Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE) addressed the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) at the United Nations in November.
The rise of racism, xenophobia and intolerance represented the most serious threat to democratic progress and the creation of multicultural societies, an independent expert told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural). Speakers addressed the situation in the Occupied Palestinian territories and the use of mercenaries.
Amada Benevides, Chairperson of the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the rights of peoples to self- determination, provided an overview of the Group's activities. She noted that the Working Group's mandate had been broadened to consider the activities of private military and security companies and to highlight the consequences of their actions on the enjoyment of human rights. She drew attention to the involvement of mercenaries in an attempted coup d'etat in Equatorial Guinea and in violence in Papua New Guinea. She noted that employees of private security companies had been involved in human rights violations at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and that the Working Group was not aware that any of those individuals had been prosecuted for their crimes. She also pointed out that refugee camps in West Africa had become recruitment centres for those involved in conflict in Cote d'Ivoire. Those examples illustrated the complex phenomenon of mercenary activity and the activities of private military and security companies.
For more information visit
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs /2006/gashc3867.doc.htm
During her stay in New York, Amada also held a lecture at Columbia University's Teachers College and spoke on the activities of her NGO, "Schools of Peace Foundation." Amada is based in Bogota, Colombia.
PEACE NEWS
Special Appeal for the Women and Children of Afghanistan, By Betty Reardon
I spoke recently with an Afghan educator who runs women's programs there. She spoke of the horrendous decline in security and the special risks for women community activists and those who work to educate women that is growing worse each day with the resurgence of the Taliban. Their very lives are threatened.
Children as well are at risk. Small boys have been made to serve as suicide bombers under threat to the lives of their parents.
It is important that we speak out to our governments about this situation and demand that NATO and the United States take all possible steps to defend the lives and well being of the women and children of Afghanistan. Please contact your foreign ministries and government representatives about this responsibility undertaken with the military action to overthrow the Taliban.
COURSES & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
2006 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, December 14-15, New York
The 2006 workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict representing the Eighth Annual Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies Meeting will be held at Columbia University Teachers College on December 14-15 in New York. The program includes a public event as well as a closed workshop.
Public Event - Everybody Is Warmly Invited to Come!
Thursday, December 14, 2006, 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Columbia University, Teachers College, Milbank Chapel
Refreshments, a chance to mingle and meet
Closed Workshop - Pre- registration Required
Thursday and Friday, December 14-15, 2006
(Thursday 10:00 am - 5:30 pm, Friday 10:00 am - 5:30 pm)
Columbia University, Teachers College, 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027, Rm179 Grace Dodge
For more information on the workshop visit:
http://www.humiliationstudies.or g/whoweare/annualmeeting08.php
EVENTS & CONFERENCES
Inter-American Summit on Conflict Resolution Education, March 14-17, Ohio
Global Issues Resource Center, Office of Community Continuing Education at Cuyahoga Community College and The Organization of American States will host a four-day Inter-American Summit on Conflict Resolution Education in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. This event will bring together government representatives from among the 50 states and 34 countries of the Americas and their non-governmental organization partners who have legislation or policies in place to deliver conflict resolution education at the K-12 level and in colleges of teacher education.
This first-ever Summit offers a dynamic opportunity to develop a hemispheric infrastructure throughout the Americas to advance the work in the fields of conflict resolution education and peace education. The Summit will bring together policymakers and educators representing regions across the United States and select member countries of the OAS representing North, Central, South America and the Caribbean. These national and international educators will exchange program best practices, evaluation methodology, creation of policy implementation structures, and consideration of obstacles to success. This event offers a needed opportunity for college students, college faculty, university scholars, K-12 educators, public health officials, prevention specialists, and state, local, and national policy makers in the Americas to convene in one location to learn more about the most current work being undertaken.
March 14th and 15th, 2007: the event is open nationally and internationally to anyone who wishes to attend. Presenters will share examples of best practices within their states and nations, implementation models, and evaluation results.
March 16th and 17th, 2007: featuring closed policy meetings engaging teams of state and federal government agencies and their NGOs/University Partners. Teams may work on self-selected threads - evaluation, creation of policy, and best practices in creating the structures for K-12 and Higher Education policy implementation.
A compilation of the work in the states and countries will be published for distribution to all attendees and other interested policymakers in the United States, the Americas and the Caribbean.
For more information visit:
http://www.global- issues.org/about/Inter-American_Summit.php
EUROCLIO Annual Conference and Professional Training and Development Course /Human Rights Education: Lessons from History, March 20-25, Bled, SLOVENIA
Each year EUROCLIO, in cooperation with one of its European member associations, organizes a major professional training and development course on key themes for history educators. The 2007 event will be organized by The Association of History Teachers of Slovenia with the support of The Ministry of Education and Sport of Slovenia, and is on the theme of Human Rights Education.
Deadline for workshop proposals and offers is January 1, 2007.
For more information visit:
http://www.euroclio.eu/mambo/index. php? option=com_content&task=category§ionid=4&id= 10&Itemid=14
RESOURCES, MATERIALS, PUBLICATIONS
Making Enemies: Humiliation and International Conflict, by Evelin Lindner
Book Description (Amazon.com)
When the statue of Saddam Hussein fell and Iraqis danced on the body, hitting it with their shoes, there was joy. Moments later, when an American soldier climbed the statue to place an American flag on the face, there was a national gasp, a moment of humiliation for the Iraqis. Americans had claimed to be liberating them, but the placing of the American flag was a sign of conquest. The flag was quickly removed and replaced with an Iraqi flag, but those tense moments were a brief example of the power and potentially far-reaching, volatile effects of humiliating acts, even when unintentional.
In this fascinating book, Dr. Lindner examines and explains, across history and nations, how this little- understood, often-overlooked emotion sparks outrage, uprisings, conflict and war.
With the insights of a seasoned psychologist and peace scholar, the analytical skill of a linguist who speaks seven languages, and the scholarship of a Columbia University professor, Lindner explains which words and actions can humiliate, how the victim perceives those words and actions, what the consequences have been, and how individuals and organizations can work to avoid instances in the future. From acts of humiliation in Nazi Germany to intentional humiliations such as those at Abu Ghraib, from events during the bloodbaths in Rwanda and Somalia, to precursors to the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, Lindner offers vivid examples to explain how humiliation can be at the core of international conflict.
For more information visit:
http://www.humiliationstudies.org/whowe are/evelin04.php
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, By Jimmy Carter
Book Description (Amazon.com)
Following his #1 New York Times bestseller, Our Endangered Values, the former president, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, offers an assessment of what must be done to bring permanent peace to Israel with dignity and justice to Palestine. President Carter, who was able to negotiate peace between Israel and Egypt, has remained deeply involved in Middle East affairs since leaving the White House. He has stayed in touch with the major players from all sides in the conflict and has made numerous trips to the Holy Land, most recently as an observer in the Palestinian elections of 2005 and 2006.
In this book President Carter shares his intimate knowledge of the history of the Middle East and his personal experiences with the principal actors, and he addresses sensitive political issues many American officials avoid. Pulling no punches, Carter prescribes steps that must be taken for the two states to share the Holy Land without a system of apartheid or the constant fear of terrorism.
The general parameters of a long-term, two-state agreement are well known, the president writes. There will be no substantive and permanent peace for any peoples in this troubled region as long as Israel is violating key U.N. resolutions, official American policy, and the international "road map" for peace by occupying Arab lands and oppressing the Palestinians. Except for mutually agreeable negotiated modifications, Israel's official pre-1967 borders must be honored. As were all previous administrations since the founding of Israel, U.S. government leaders must be in the forefront of achieving this long-delayed goal of a just agreement that both sides can honor.
Palestine Peace Not Apartheid is a challenging, provocative, and courageous book.
Peace Boat US & Hague Appeal for Peace
Founded in 1999, the Hague Appeal for Peace Global Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE), is an international organized network which promotes peace education among schools, families and communities to transform the culture of violence into a culture of peace. The Hague Appeal for Peace Board of Directors voted to transfer the responsibilities for the coordination of the GCPE to Peace Boat US which has moved into the Hague Appeal for Peace's office in New York City.
Peace education is a holistic, participatory process that includes teaching for and about human rights, nonviolent responses to conflict, social and economic justice, gender equity, environmental sustainability, international law, disarmament, traditional peace practices and human security. The methodology of peace education encourages reflection, critical thinking, cooperation, and responsible action. It promotes multiculturalism, and is based on values of dignity, equality and respect. Peace education is intended to prepare students for democratic participation in schools and society.
The Global Campaign for Peace Education has two goals:
1. To see peace education integrated into all curricula, community and family education worldwide to become a part of life;
2. To promote the education of all teachers to teach for peace.
The Worldwide Activities Brief e- newsletter highlights how and where the GCPE network is active and growing. Submissions are encouraged! Please contribute how you are working for peace education including dates, locations, a brief description, and a website and or contact information and send it to maiko@peaceboat-us.org.
The papers of the Hague Appeal for Peace have been archived at Swarthmore College Peace Collection and can be found at http://ww w.swarthmore.edu/Library
For more information on Peace Boat US visit http://peaceboat- us.org/. The website for Peace Boat US is under construction. Please e-mail info@peaceboat-us.org for more information.
