Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies

Greetings Peaceworkers!
Our Peace Registry google group has new features that allow you to
post your organization’s website address, your favorite quote, your
nickname, or your photo. Please visit and update your profile:
http://groups.google.com/group/peace_registry/members?hl=en

If you know of others who would be interested in joining the group,
encourage them to join the Peace Registry by filling out the
nomination form at the website of the Peace Alliance Foundation:
http://www.peacealliancefound.org/content/view/134/113/
Best regards,
Theresa McGallicher
Peace Registry Manager

Psykisk helse og humanitært arbeid - banebrytende konferanse i Oslo 26. og 27. april
http://www.copewithcrisis.no/

Det er første gang psykisk helse og humanitært arbeid er tema for en konferanse i Norge. Humanitære organisasjoner, forskningsmiljøer og lokale samarbeidspartnere har innsett at psykiske lidelser og traumer er svært utbredt i mange innsatsområder og vanskelig å håndtere. Hjelperne føler seg mange ganger hjelpeløse stilt overfor psykisk lidelse. I mange tilfeller må de håndtere egne traumer før de kan hjelpe andre, ofte i områder der slike problemer også er sterkt tabubelagt.

Der Film erzählt die Geschichte von Lilia, einer ‘anständigen’ Frau und vorbildlichen Mutter, die sich eines Tages aus Sorge um ihre Tochter in das Nachtleben von Tunis begibt. Sie gerät in den Club „Satin Rouge“, der sie abschreckt, aber gleichzeitig auch in seinen Bann zieht. (more…)

Dear Friend!

Thanks for making us aware of this article, dear Rick!
Evelin

This is the articles conclusion:

The Internet age is an age of transparency, when more people than ever can
see right into your business and judge you by your deeds, not words. TXU
could not manage its reputation by just hiring a P.R. firm and issuing a
statement ­ because, thanks to the Internet, too many little people could
talk back or shape TXU’s image on a global basis through the Web, for
free.

“The reputations of companies are going to be less determined by the
quality of their P.R. people and more by their actual actions ­ and that
empowers more of an honest debate on the merits,” said Mr. Krupp, adding,
“It’s just harder to keep bad environmental news secret and expect the
public to sit on its hands in the Internet era.”

Message to young activists: If you do your homework, have your facts right
and the merits on your side, and then build a constituency for your ideals
through the Internet, you, too, can be at the table of the biggest deal in
history. Or as Mr. Krupp puts it: the TXU example shows that truth plus
passion plus the Internet “can create an irresistible tide for change.”

Announcing the First International Education for Peace Conference—2007: Strategies for Building a Civilization of Peace at Granville Island in Vancouver, B.C., Canada (14-17 November 2007)

Conference Mission:

The primary goal of the conference is to contribute to the worldwide efforts to create a civilization of peace. Essential to this undertaking is life-long peace education at home, in schools, and in the community, with its focus on the integral role of all members of society—children, youth, and adults—and with the equal participation of women and men in the administration of human affairs. Through the sharing of advanced research findings and proven effective strategies for creating peace at all levels of human society and interactions, the conference offers the participants the opportunity to explore ways of creating environments—families, schools, and communities—built on the foundations of a culture of peace, a culture of healing, and a culture of excellence: the three requisites of a civilization of peace.

Guest speakers include:

Prof. Zvi Beckerman, School of Education, Melton Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Dr. Claire McGlynn, School of Education, Queen’s University, Belfast, Ireland
Prof. Gavriel Salomon, Co-Director of the Center for Research on Peace Education University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
Dr. Rosemarie Stallworth-Clarke, President, AERA Peace Education SIG
Prof. Dan Rae, Georgia Southern University, Co-Chairperson, Annual National Youth-At-Risk Conference, Savannah, Georgia, USA
Prof. Alan Smith, UNESCO Chair, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland
Prof. H.B. Danesh, Founder and President, EFP-International, Vancouver, Canada
Dr. Roshan Danesh, Adjunct Professor, EPU, Austria and President, EFP-Canada
Frank Borowicz QC, Chairman & Chief Elected Officer, Vancouver Board of Trade
See the Conference Flyer in the attachments.Registration. Full Conference information can be found at: http://www.efpinternational.org/conference2007/

Register now to participate in this important inaugural event! Please circulate to your co-workers, networks, and others who might be interested in participating.

Call for Proposals:

Individuals, groups and institutions are invited to submit proposals for papers, workshops, displays, and artistic presentations that fall within the scope of the conference program.

Proposals should include the information listed below (from A - I) and be e-mailed to conference@efpinternational.org as a word file by June 1, 2007. Authors will be notified within 4 weeks of the deadline of acceptance and will be required to register for the conference by June 15, 2007.

Proposals should include the information listed below and be e-mailed to as a word file.

A. TITLE OF PRESENTATION (12 words maximum)

B. AREA OF FOCUS OF PRESENTATION (Choose one area)

- Peace education and cultural diversity - Peace education and the business community

- Peace education, leadership, and governance - Peace education in the family

- Peace education and the media - Peace education and philanthropy

- Peace education in religious communities - Peace education and the environment

- Peace education and the arts - Peace education in schools

C. ABSTRACT (50 word maximum; appropriate for inclusion in conference program booklet)

D. DESCRIPTION (300 word maximum); providing sufficient information concerning the proposal for the reviewers to evaluate its suitability for this year’s conference.

E. NAME OF PRESENTER(S)

F. CONTACT INFORMATION - Name address, telephone fax and email of contact person (one of the presenters)

G. MINI-BIOGRAPHY - of presenters (30 word maximum per person)

H. FORMAT (Choose one)

Paper, workshop, display, or artistic presentations

I. PRESENTATION/AV REQUIREMENTS – Please provide details of the equipment that you will need for your presentation. We cannot guarantee the availability of all equipment. Each request will be reviewed and presenters will be notified prior to the conference of availability.

J. PAPER SUBMISSION FOR PUBLICATION IN ONLINE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS PUBLICATION—Deadline for submission of paper (20-30 pages double-spaced) to conference committee due September 1, 2007.

Questions can be directed to:
Stacey Makortoff
Conference Committee
Tel: +1-604-639-7910
E-mail: conference@efpinternational.org
Conference Web: www.efpinternational.org/conference2007
Web: www.efpinternational.org

Faces of Terrorism: Cross Disciplinary Explorations.
A major international conference for academics, practitioners, policy makers and researchers to facilitate cross-disciplinary exploration.

Professor David Canter &
The Centre for Investigative Psychology &
The International Association of Investigative Psychology

Maritime Museum,
Liverpool, UK
25th & 26th April 2007

In March 2006 the Global Peace Initiative of Women organized a gathering of Iraqi and American women in New York City called “Creating Our Common Future” Beginning the Dialogue Between Iraqi and American Women. This meeting brought together Iraqi women with their American counterparts to discuss ways in which women in the US could support the efforts of women in Iraq in bringing more peace and stability to their region. It also provided an opportunity to learn about the situation in Iraq from the women on the ground. Outcomes of the discussions included requests to continue and initiate more dialogues, business enterprise, art and media programs and include young people in these efforts. A full report of this meeting is available on our website at www.gpiw.org

Since last year, the violence in Iraq has escalated ten-fold and every day more lives are lost. Everyone in our 25 member Iraqi delegation has lost someone: a sister, a brother, uncles, nephews, and cousins to these killing. As one Iraqi woman said in December, “Our country is now destroyed.”

As many of them courageously try to remain in touch with us by email despite their fear, we feel it is important to share with you some of their thoughts and stories so that we might better understand their daily realities and jointly seek ways to assist them. At the same time we realize that until there is security it is impossible for our network of women to even assemble and find ways of taming the situation.

One delegate wrote that they are waiting for the voices of moderation to emerge. They are forever grateful for our well wishes and messages for improvement and peace in Iraq, but they seem like far away dreams. People are losing hope. The stories of the atrocious daily killings have led many to believe they were deceived by the promises of freedom and democracy. “The spirit of forgiveness seems to be far away from Iraqi people after what has happened to them by the American army and the militias.”

We also wanted to share are a story verbatim that came from our young delegate who was not granted a visa but had so much wanted to come to the Iraq meeting. She wrote recently, “Last Saturday we went to the market in Al-Mansor district and on our way going back home with my father driving his car and when we stopped for the traffic light (there was a traffic jam)…We heard fire shooting by a gun which was very close to us and there was car just behind us that hit our car many times at first we did not understand what was happening but when we turned back to see what’s going on!!!! We saw a young man standing beside the driver of the car that hit our car holding gun without covering his face in fact they were two and they shoot the poor driver without fear from the policemen or guards which were there away from them maybe three meters doing nothing. They are just watching because they are afraid of being killed and the killers ran away leaving the man, oh my God. I remember his face and his eyes looking at me with blood shedding on his neck and he fell down and his car still hit our car. There was another man sitting besides him when he saw that he just tried to trace the killers but they also wanted to shoot him because I saw him fell on the ground. During this time we tried to run away because they started shooting in mess and they came back to check the man being finally dead because he was still alive! Can you believe that? Every time I remember that I felt how crazy we got seeing such a horrible scene like that. They have no sense because it is like a movie scene.

We have received reports from other Iraqi women about the increasing brain drain in the country that many of the wealthy and educated Iraqis have already left and many more from the middle class are doing the same. People are fleeing merely to save their lives, leaving behind their homes and property. It can take nearly two weeks to get a flight out of Baghdad. Iraqis without the economic means to leave, even the most educated, must find work at the most menial of jobs to survive. Schools and universities are almost out of operation in Baghdad. One woman sadly told us, “My little sister and brother stay at home without education. They have no future and it is a big problem. Students in nursery schools, schools and colleges sit in their homes because they were threatened by Shiite Al-Mahdi Army or the Ansar Al-Sunni Army or by terrorists and these groups distribute leaflets saying you must stay in your home or you will be killed.”

The situation for Iraqi refugees is also miserable and it is taking a toll on the future for the younger generation. For instance, many Iraqi families, who have fled to Jordan, have invested all their wealth to relocate and are unable to enroll their children in schools because the laws stipulate they must be a resident for at least two years before they are eligible.

We were informed anesthesia is no longer available at the major hospital Al-Yarmook - “Every operation is done without it whether it is simple or deep injury.” Doctors wearing their uniforms or stethoscopes can be targeted and killed by militias at any time. Patients are sometimes kidnapped from their hospital bed and sold to a terrorist group for a few hundred dollars to again later be ransomed for more. Our source said her brother who is a doctor often returns home at night crying, “he does not know what to do and because he cannot save his patients because there is no medicine at all, only very simple things.”

In February 2006 we met with two of our Iraqi delegates who were in Washington, DC and New York for meetings. They are both working with widows and orphans in Baghdad whose numbers increase daily. Their stories were difficult to hear, one in particular. After kindly inquiring about our wellbeing, she told us that just recently her daughter and son-in-law and their two children were kidnapped and held for ransom in their home. As our delegate tried desperately to get her daughter and the family released, she went to her highest contacts in Baghdad, including ministers of parliament. They said, “We can do nothing.” One of the ministers shrugged his hands and said his own niece had been kidnapped only the week before and killed. After 24-hours and payment of thousands of dollars along with their car and other property in ransom, her daughter and the two young children were released. We were told that the kidnapper was not Iraqi, but spoke Arabic and his accomplices were teenage Iraqi boys. Sadly, the husband was kept for a week, tortured and finally killed. Overcome by tremendous grief, the entire family left Iraqi to begin a new life, but without a loving husband and father for the children. “Baghdad has become a land without laws. There is complete chaos and lawlessness. Everyone is doing whatever they want and there is no one to answer to. ” She said that no one knows who is an enemy, who is a protector. Militias affiliated with the too many political parties vying for control cruise the streets in armed vehicles. It is said they have even killed off political rivalry. What can we do they asked us? We could not answer.

Regardless of these obstacles the women continue on with their efforts to improve the situation. Most are determined to stay in Iraq. “It is my home, where else can I go?” One delegate, who is a minister, nearly lost her life to assassins some months ago. She attended a conference in Cyprus hosted by the Daedalos Institute on the topic of Iraqi Displaced Persons. There is interest and support for this issue from the international community now that it is estimated that nearly 2 million Iraqis have fled the country, with another 1.8 million persons who are internally displaced. UNHCR estimates that 40,000 to 50,000 Iraqis are leaving their homes monthly. Most have fled to neighboring Jordan and Syria, many with minimal resources. Access to schools and healthcare has been a primary concern for the Iraqi refugees.

We recently met with Aseel Albana, who attended the Iraqi - US Women’s Summit in New York last March. She was inspired by the meeting to establish an organization called “Iraqi Voice for Peace”. The organization acts as a platform to allow ’silent’ Iraqi perspectives to be heard. They recently organized a live videoconference on Capital Hill between twelve members of Congress and six members of the Iraqi Parliament. They spoke for two hours on the needs and wishes of many of the Iraqi people. Some of the topics of discussion included restoring Iraq’s old army, the need for the US to set a timeline for withdrawal of troops, the urgent steps needed to restore internal security, control of the natural resources by a central government and the rebuilding of the shattered economy.

As follow up to our meeting in March, we continue to try to maintain contact with our delegates. It is difficult given their circumstances. We are exploring holding a second conference in the region that would bring together more women committed to peacebuilding, not only from Iraq but the neighboring nations as well. This could include Syria, Jordan, Iran, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, and Lebanon, Israel and Palestine. Further possibilities include a five-day gathering of young people from throughout Iraq from all sectors and religious backgrounds. GPIW believes that peace lies within the hands of this future generation. Our young delegate from Trinidad and Tobago told us, “You can bend a young tree, but once it is too old it will not bend.

We will continue to keep you updated and thank you for your membership and support.We will continue to keep you updated and thank you for your membership and support.

Fra: IPCRI News & Views
Dear Friends
I am searching for research and/or experts in the field who have
studied how societies that have been at war reconcile their
educational programs in post conflict settings.

I know that studies have been done on education in Germany and France post WW II. I understand that there are new programs in South Africa today and in Northern Ireland.

I was wondering if some of you might be able to give specific
references to studies and research that has been done on these issues.

Thanks

Gershon Baskin
gershon@ipcri.org

2ND Annual Conference of Muslim Peacebuilding, Justice, and Interfaith Dialogue (MPJID)
Organized by:
Islamic Society of North American (ISNA) & Salam Institute for Peace and Justice

Co-Sponsored by:

American University’s Center for Global Peace
Conference Registration: $30.00 (after April 1st)
Early Bird Special: $20.00 (before April 1st)

To register online please visit: http://www.ildc.net

Salam Institute and ISNA will be holding the Second Annual Conference of MPJID on May 5 – 6, 2007 at American University, in Washington, D.C., Butler Board Room to enhance the capacity of Muslim peacebuilding scholars and practitioners.

This conference creates an opportunity for scholars and practitioners to discuss and clarify main concepts and approaches to peacebuilding, conflict resolution, human rights, democratization and development rooted in the Islamic tradition; to contribute to effective policy development in the Muslim world in the fields of governance, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding; and too provide a platform for Muslim peacebuilding practitioners to share their experiences with the wider community of Muslim and non-Muslim scholars and practitioners in order to contribute to theory building and practice of conflict resolution in the Muslim world.

Conference Themes Include:
Islamic Approaches to Mediation and Conflict Resolution
Islamic Approaches to Peace and Interfaith Dialogue
Successes, Lessons Learned, and Challenges facing Muslims and Muslim Organizations Working for Peace and Justice
Peace through Development: Experiences from Muslim Communities and the Muslim world
Working for Peace through Advocacy and Multi-Track Diplomacy
Islam, Human Rights and Peacebuilding
Women in Islam and Peacebuilding
Intra-Muslim Dialogue and Peacebuilding

Paper presentations on these panels and short workshops related to these themes are welcomed; suggestions for other panel topics also welcomed.

Deadline for the submission of abstracts is April 1st, 2007: Please send your proposals or abstracts to mpjid@salaminstitute.org or nadia@isna.net
–
Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Ph.D.
International Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR)
School of International Service (SIS)
American University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20016
Tel. 202 885 1656; Fax. 202 885 1661/2494
abunimer@american.edu
http://www.upf.com/SPRING2003/ABU-NIMER.HTM
http://www.american.edu/sis/peacebuilding
http://american.edu/cgp/jpd2/Index.htm
www.aupeace.org/faculty/abu-nimer

The Social Forum Movement is coming to the U.S.
in 2007. Specifically, there will be a US Social Forum in Atlanta
June 27-July 1. (See www.ussf2007.org)

A group of democracy activists are self-organizing a “Democracy Tent.”
We anticipate this to be a space for information tabling,
programming, strategy discussions, etc.

We will be renting a 40×80 foot tent. We estimate having space for
10-12 tables of sponsoring organizations plus seating for at least 50
folks. We estimate total costs to be $2500-3000. We have a basic
reservation in place, and can adjust number of tables, chairs, PA
system, etc etc as needed. (Note: Depending on how things proceed and feedback from USSF folks, we might even want to get another tent).

Dean Meyerson of the Green Institute has already paid the initial
deposit and reserved us a tent.

We are asking each sponsoring group to contribute $250, and that if
any group asks for a reduced amount we will consider it on a
case-by-case basis. If we have any extra money after total expenses,
the money will be donated to the USSF general fund.

So far, the following groups have agreed to sponsor.

Liberty Tree $250
Democracy Unlimited $250
Green Institute $250
POCLAD $250
Common Ground $250
Sierra Club $250
Alliance for Democracy $250

We are also contacting:

Corporate Ethics International
Black Radical Congress
Democratizing Education Network
SpeakOut!
Center for Media & Democracy
NLG
Free Press
Hip Hop Caucus
Fairvote
WILPF
Ruckus Society
Project South

If a group you work with would like to participate, or if there is
another group you think we should approach, please let me know.

And make plans to attend the USSF!

In solidarity,
David Cobb
707-476-8502