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The Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments for Peace is a community of dedicated individuals, organisations and autonomous campaigns, supporting their national governments to significantly invest in the development of skills and infrastructure dedicated to the peaceful resolution of conflict.
This website provides access to this global community and gives information about new developments and planned activities.
Fourth Global Alliance Summit, Costa Rica 2009
Dear Global Alliance Community,
On behalf of the International Planning Team for the 2009 Global Alliance Summit in Costa Rica, it is with great joy and anticipation that we invite you, the international members of the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace, to take part in this precedent-setting event in the history of international peace. We are pleased to announce that the Fourth Global Summit for Ministries and Departments of Peace: Building Bridges of Peace will take place in San Jose, Costa Rica, September 13-21, 2009, hosted by the Costa Rican government and facilitated by GA Member, the Academy for Peace of Costa Rica. Read more ...
News
African Alliance for Peace 2nd Summit, May 2009
Dear Global/African Alliance member
With excitement continuing to build for the International Global Alliance Summit ,co-hosted by the Costa Rican government and the Academy for Peace Foundation, in September 2009, the South African Peace Alliance is hosting the Second African Alliance Regional Summit in May in preparation and support for it.
In keeping with the Global Alliance’s aims for its Summits, the Second African Alliance Summit in South Africa is oriented primarily to the needs of its current members and at the same time, we wish to expand the community and the number of nations represented. In order for us to accommodate the limited space available, participation in the Summit is by invitation only and via the application appearing below. In reviewing applications, preference will be given to established campaigns and new applicants who have begun a campaign to establish a Ministry or Department of Peace in their own country. Secondary consideration will be given to those who exhibit an interest in supporting the establishment of campaigns for such ministries or departments.
Below please find the invitation and registration form for the Second African Alliance for Peace Summit being held in Cape Town from the 15th to 18th May and the Post Summit Peace Through Diversity Training workshop from the 20th to the 22nd May. This summit and post summit training is open to all Global Alliance members.
The Opening Ceremony will be held on Thursday 15th May at 4pm in the Valkenburg Education Centre Auditoruim, Observatory, prior to delegate registration, followed by refreshments.
The 16th May the Summit begins, facilitated by Ezelle Theunissen, a qualified Appreciative Inquiry faciliatator. Our distinghuised guest presenters, Vasu Gounden, founder of ACCORD, Professor Geoff Harris, of Kwa-Zulu Natal University and Brett Herron, Director and founder of the SA Law School, and imminent Member of Parliament, will present workshops on specific topics relating directly on to how to strengthen our strategies for establishing Ministries and Departments of Peace in the African context.
Tuesday 19th May, invites delegates to a free tour of the South African Parliament, where the historical 1994 elections, gave Nobel Peace Laureate, ex President Nelson Mandela, the opportunity to lead South Africa through a peaceful transition of power from the previous apartheid regime. A media briefing has been planned after the tour, followed by lunch at parliament.
The afternoon will be spent touring the highly acclaimed Jewish Holocaust Museum, considered one of the top three genocide museums of its kind in the world. Delegates have been invited to attend a specially arranged tour and workshop, delivered by the Holocaust Centre's National Education Director, Marlene Silbert.
Superb multi-lingual sight seeing tours are available, taking you throughout the whole of Cape Town and the Peninsula, for as little as $12. With so much to see and experience this is an excellent opportunity for visiting delegates to gain valuable insights into the multi-cultural diversity of Cape Town. For the soccer fans, this is certainly an opportunity to interact with history in the making as Cape Town and South Africa prepare to host the first FIFA Soccer World Cup to be held on the African continent.
We look forward to hosting you in our beautiful city and deepening our relationships and committment to each other in order to establish Ministries and Departments of Peace in every African government, to bring about sustainable infrastructures that form a legacy of peace building for the future.
In the Spirit of Ubuntu and Peace
Karen Barensché
Co-founder – South African Peace Alliance
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News Alert: The U.S.A. National Peace Academy has been launched
After decades of discussion, years of planning, and months of coordination and collaboration among hundreds of local, national, and international experts and organizations focused on the inter-related issues of peace and non-violence, plans have been formalized to establish the United States’ first National Peace Academy.
The announcement was made following a three-day summit at Case Western Reserve University, attended by more than 170 scholars, academicians, business representatives, government officials, researchers, and community leaders from around the nation and from 10 other countries. The participants represented a broad spectrum of experts and practitioners, ranging from community-based and faith-based conflict resolution organizations to international authorities on human rights and peace initiatives under the auspices of the United Nations. Areas of specialized interest and practice ranged from domestic violence and spousal abuse to more global humanitarian issues, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, genocides in Darfur and Rwanda, and violence-related famines and health crises in conflict-riddled regions throughout the world.
Read more ...
U.S. “Peace Alliance” Department of Peace Campaign - February 2009
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF PEACE CAMPAIGN: The U.S campaign made significant progress in recent months on many levels.
Right after the election of President Obama, the idea of creating a Secretary of Peace was voted #2 of the top ten “Ideas for Change in America” national on-line survey. Through our efficiently oiled network, we were able to register 15,093 supporters cross-country. The top 10 were presented to the Obama administration in January (www.change.org/ideas?order=top#listSection). Our campaign has succeeded in creating an organized space into which President Obama can now step and lead. The possibilities are enormous!
The Department of Peace legislation (HR 808) was reintroduced in Congress by Representative Dennis Kucinich on February 3, with 64 initial co-sponsors. It was revised slightly & tightened up to be more strong science, with metric references and with 85% of all funding to be spent on violence reduction in the U.S. itself. We are finding this shift to be popular with the U.S. public who are worried about the U.S. economy above all else. This new legislative focus will function as an economic stimulus for the communities that need it most. The wording “Nonviolence” was omitted from its title. For text of the new legislation, see http://www.thepeacealliance.org/content/view/658/23/.
We are gearing up now for our upcoming March 20-23 national lobbying Conference to promote the legislation and inspire civic activism. The theme is “Peace Within Reach: People and Politics Partnering for Our Common Security” -- with keynotes such as Riane Eisler, Swami Beyondananda, Ocean Robbins and our own Rita Marie Johnson. We are proud to host it with the Student Peace Alliance as a youth-adult partnership. See http://www.thepeacealliance.org/content/view/605/147/.
UNITED NATIONS:
Our Week of Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns October 21’08 Workshop “Is Peace a Human Right” event was very well-received. See below write-up for details.
When Peace Partnership International ceased operation in December, Anne Creter was honored to become Alternate UN Representative for “Operation Peace Through Unity” (OPTU), a New Zealand-based NGO founded in Sweden in 1975 by Gita and Anthony Brooke. For details, visit the OPTU website @ http://www.peacethroughunity.info/. OPTU has been a major part of the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace movement. This is a perfect partnership because OPTU’s long-time UN Representative, Iris Spellings, has already been co-chairing the “Culture of Peace” Working Group at UN headquarters with Anne for a number of years now and together, co- leading the UN Resolution for Ministries & Departments of Peace Project.
The draft UN Ministry and Department of Peace Resolution was revised on December 4 to reflect
UN parlance and is now being further revised. Once the “Culture of Peace” Working Group gets internal consensus, it will be shared with a wider audience for additional participatory word-crafting. A final version will be ready for the ’09 Costa Rica Summit, so we can then begin the next step -- a focused lobbying campaign with the UN Ambassadors in 2010.
Maggi Koren has also been working at a different level to help realize the passage of this Resolution via the United Nations Association (UNA). It is a grassroots effort connecting those Americans working for peace within the UNA-USA with volunteers of The Peace Alliance and vice versa. The UNA and World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) is a wonderful international organization supported by peace builders and civil society in many of our respective countries. At the local grassroots level, the youth are very much at the forefront of the work done at the Northern California UNA-USA Chapters especially, since the Model UN was set up. Maggi is interested in connecting the High School Students (and their families) of both The Student Peace Alliance and the Model UN at a local level, and so all across the country. When they get together to share the experiences of their respective conferences and their focus of becoming “Peace Professionals” we shall have a new and thriving network.
Many countries are already involved in their respective UNAs and WFUNAs but it would be super if the GA members of mfp-dop were to make a conscious effort to connect and collaborate with them because we are obviously on the same path. When we join our local UNAs and offer support in their work and the Model UN, we shall also be at the receiving end and garner even more support to help us get this key Resolution passed by the General Assembly. In turn this shall make our work more visible in the world, create more country campaigns and more success stories -- such as Manish Thapa’s work creating The Department of Peace and Reconstruction in Nepal and the soon to be Ministry of Justice and Peace in Costa Rica which Rita Marie Johnson has long strived for. They are just two of our special heroes who show us “The Power of One.”
Respectfully submitted,
Anne Creter & Maggi Koren
U.S. “Peace Alliance” Department of Peace Campaign
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4th Global Summit for Ministries and Departments of Peace, Costa Rica, September 2009
Dear Global Alliance Community,
On behalf of the International Planning Team for the 2009 Global Alliance Summit in Costa Rica, it is with great joy and anticipation that we invite you, the international members of the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace, to take part in this precedent-setting event in the history of international peace. We are pleased to announce that the Fourth Global Summit for Ministries and Departments of Peace: Building Bridges of Peace will take place in San Jose, Costa Rica, September 13-21, 2009, hosted by the Costa Rican government and facilitated by GA Member, the Academy for Peace of Costa Rica.
As the first Summit of its kind to be officially hosted by a GA member country’s government, we are deeply inspired by this unique opportunity to work together in the name of establishing peace infrastructure in our respective countries. With the newfound acclaim and attention we will receive during the Summit through the global community and international media, the energy and momentum created by this event is sure to endow the Global Alliance with a higher level of success in all of our country campaigns.
We hope you will join us in Costa Rica to create an extraordinary Summit, where each country will have the chance to share its experiences while learning from fellow GA members, invited guests from civil society and governments, along with keynote speakers renowned around the world for their contributions to international peace. Evening events will celebrate our combined peace efforts, with opening and closing ceremonies featuring cultural performances and speeches by Costa Rican and international distinguished guests, along with an evening benefit concert featuring a superstar performance by one of today’s most popular artists!
For more information on the Summit and how you can get involved, or if you are a current GA member who has not received an invitation via email, please contact Tara Ruttenberg at summit@mfp-dop.org. We look forward to seeing you all at the 2009 Summit in Costa Rica!
1st Global Youth Summit for Ministries and Departments of Peace, Costa Rica 2009
Voice of Youth on Peace Infrastructures
Approximately half of the world population are youth. Across the globe, youth access to creating meaningful change in their lives is spread in very different measures, yet generally they are insufficiently participants to the structures and processes of their society be it local, national or global.
Their role and importance is however underlined in many contexts and discourses and are active both in violent conflict and in building peace.
We would like to bring to your attention an initiative to support a Culture of Peace through a dialogue on new models of peace infrastructure driven by youth.
We are a consortium of youth networks and organisations: Youth Working Group of the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace, Children of the Earth, UPeace US.
The 1st Global Youth Summit on Ministries and Departments of Peace will be a youth gathering in 16-17 and 22 September 2009 in San Jose, Costa Rica.
The objectives of the summit are as follows:
To strengthen cooperation between youth and youth organizations who are committed to supporting peace infrastructure from various facets of this global society (including but not limited to civil society, government, universities, the UN family, media etc).
To create an inclusive and sustainable organizational structure in cooperation with the broader Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace while holding a space for this organizational structure to be its own youth coalition based on the ongoing structural discussions generated from the youth themselves.
To explore the way peace infrastructures can contribute to realizing a Culture of Peace.
To increase the effectiveness of youth participation towards building peace infrastructure in cooperation with the movement for Ministries and Departments of Peace worldwide.
To issue and/or adopt a document with recommendations of youth and youth organizations about new models and what is necessary to build peace infrastructure.
To enhance the peacebuilding and conflict transformation capacity of youth.
To build strong partnerships amongst participating youth and youth organizations.
For more information please address your emails to the Youth Summit Coordination Team youthsummit@mfp-dop.org to Corina Simon, Kelly Shannon and Aaron Voldman.
Brief Outlook on the Ministry of Peace Campaign in Australia
FACT SHEET
Ministry for Peace Australia (MFPA) is a non-profit organisation and part of a global initiative calling on world governments to establish Ministries or Departments of Peace worldwide.
MFPA believes that Peace needs to be “marketed” and we do this by hosting Peace Forums targeting politicians, academics and professionals, Youth Peace Forums for youth from schools of all denominations, and Corporate Social Responsibility Forums where we invite corporations to join us in dialoguing on what business can do for Peace.
For the past three years we have hosted the UN International Day of Peace with a 24 hour Interfaith Peace/Prayer Vigil.
Our Board of Directors includes Professor Kevin Clements, Founder and Director of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Queensland.
Chairperson is Biannca Pace.
Advisory Board includes Dr. Stella Cornelius, AO OBE, Dr Keith Suter and The Hon Dr Arthur Chesterfield-Evans. Assoc Prof. Jake Lynch CPACS – University of Sydney
Channel Nine TV personality Catriona Rowntree is our Peace Ambassador.
MFPA is fully funded by volunteers and their donations.
History
In 1937, through the voice of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom called the Australian Government to establish a Cabinet level Ministry for Peace.
In 1982, Dr Stella Cornelius under the auspices of the United Nations Association of Australia, campaigned vigorously for a MFPA. Visionary people such as Dr Keith Suter, (who in 1984 published a book “An Australian Campaign for a Ministry for Peace – A Worldpeace Initiative”), Professor Frank Hutchison and Tonya Shand; all assisted in this initiative to assist humanity to embrace a ‘Culture of Peace.’
Internationally the Ministry for Peace would use what Franklin D. Roosevelt called the science of human relations to find what he called “Seeking Peace” to find that common ground so that war does not become inevitable. Peace is practical; war is impractical (consider Iraq.)
Vision
The world and its people are in the midst of an all systems breakdown and the only adequate response to an all systems breakdown is an all system response. We can’t look at just one area and see the whole picture. It’s reasonable to establish a Ministry for Peace for it will provide an institutional platform to the Peacebuilding Community. With this input the Prime Minister would be in a position to make more informed decisions.
The Ministry’s job would be to facilitate research and articulate best practices techniques.
For more information
visit www.ministryforpeace.org.au
Get involved
We need volunteers to assist with the 2009 programme. Call Biannca Pace on 0401 753 790 or email info@ministryforpeace.org.au
THE YEAR JUST PAST- Achievements in 2008
18 September - UN International Day of Peace – Riverview College –Interfaith Youth Celebration
21 September – UN Int’l Day of Peace-24hour Peace/Prayer Vigil- Victoria Park Sydney -Interfaith Celebration
14 October Inaugural Youth Peace Forum and the inauguration of MFPA Youth Peace Ambassadors – NSW Parliament House.
Catriona Rowntree –Channel 9’s ‘Getaway ‘our first Celebrity Peace Ambassador
29 October Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Forum ‘Corporate Ecology”
NSW Parliament House.
12 November - New committee formed to continue CSR Forum’s into 2009
Five Peace Poles donated to NSW schools
Two Peace Poles donated to Queensland schools
Peace Education Program for Youth - Proposal & meetings with Policy Advisor of the Minister for Youth & Juvenile Justice.
Youth Peace Parliament Proposal -- Draft for Peace Education prepared by Mr. Bruno Pahlke and presented to Minister West’s Policy Advisor.
THE YEAR AHEAD - Key Plans for 2009
Establish the Peace Education Program for MFPA Youth Peace Ambassadors
Organise the Inaugural Youth Peace Parliament 3-day event.
March -Partnering with Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies University of Sydney-in the
National Peace Academy Stakeholder Summit –to be held in USA
June- Corporate Social Responsibility Forum – “ Appreciative Inquiry.” – Jubilee Room, NSW Parliament House
July- Youth Peace Forum –Theatrette NSW Parliament House
July 15-24 An 8 day Residential Youth Peace Education Programme
August 25- 26-27 3day Youth Peace Parliament
Sep 17- UN Peace Day Youth Celebration Knox Grammar
Sep 21- UN Int’l Day of Peace 12 hour Peace/Prayer Vigil- Victoria Park Sydney
Sep 22- UN Peace Day Youth Celebration Chevalier College Southern Highlands
October - Forum : A Way Forward for Palestine & Israel –Jubilee Room NSW Parliament House
Partnering with United Nations Association of Australia (NSW) for Peace Dinner in June
Placing MFPA on the Agenda of the Australian Labor Party’s National Conference.
Meetings with The Australian Greens to ascertain their support of an MFPA in Government