global citizenship

2nd PyeongChang Youth Peace Challenge [registration deadline]

Dear Friends,

Greetings of peace from PyeongChang on the Korean peninsula!

We are pleased to announce that youths interested in promoting and building peace are warmly invited to “The 2nd PyeongChang Youth Peace Challenge (YPC)”.

The YPC 2022 is the peace and global citizenship education program in the form of essays and group debates for youths. It is organized in the context of the UN Decade of Action to deliver the SDGs by 2030 and the UN Declaration on the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the UN in 2020 in accordance with the PyeongChang Peace Spirit born out of the historical PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games. 

THEME

How to implement the proposals contained in the Our Common Agenda report of the UN Secretary-General (Sep. 2021) from the peace perspective as a youth in your country and/or internationally. https://www.un.org/en/un75/common-agenda   

Pre-register online by 20th December 2021 at https://forms.gle/FsvHYpoK97HsdGwF7. Orientation for early applicants at 4-6 PM on Tuesday, 21 December 2021.

Submission of the essay is due by 15 January 2022. More detailed guidelines about the essay and group debate will be sent to registered applicants by email.

For any inquiries about YPC 2022 please contact us through PyeongChangYPC2022@gmail.com. More details about the PyeongChang Peace Forum (PPF) are available at http://ppf.or.kr/en/. Summary Report (English) of the PPF 2021 is available at http://ppf.or.kr/en/board/board_view.asp?BoardID=Notice&LangType=ENG&searchtext=&page=1&SNO=615. We look forward to welcoming your participation.

In peace and solidarity,  

PyeongChang YPC 2022 Organizing Team 

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, please visit ngocdps.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Children’s Rights-NY, please visit childrightsny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Intergenerational Solidarity, please email the vice chair at susanneseperson@gmail.com.

Geneva Peace Week 2021 “From seeds to systems of peace: Weathering today’s challenges”

Dear Colleagues,

It is our great pleasure to invite you to the eighth edition of Geneva Peace Week that will take place online from 1 to 5 November 2021. The Week is jointly organized by the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. The theme of this year’s Geneva Peace Week is: “From seeds to systems of peace: Weathering today’s challenges.”

Geneva Peace Week 2021 (GPW21) aims to galvanize leadership, build trust and contribute to transforming international cooperation. Over five days, Geneva Peace Week will be the umbrella for 30 Online Workshops and a Digital Series (podcasts and videos), brought together by over 100 partner organizations.

Topics for discussions will include:

  • Creating a climate for collaboration: Ways forward for environment, climate change, and peace
  • Moving beyond securitization: What risks (and new horizons) for peacebuilding?
  • Harnessing the digital sphere for peace
  • Confronting inequalities and advancing inclusion, peace, and SDG16

The full programme of Geneva Peace Week is available at genevapeaceweek.ch and attendees must register to participate. We would also like to invite you to three main sessions which will take place in-person (Maison de la Paix) and online:

  • The Opening Ceremony on 1 November at 4:00 p.m.
  • The Kofi Annan Geneva Peace Address on 4 November at 6:00 p.m.
  • The Closing Ceremony on 5 November at 1:30 p.m.

Geneva Peace Week provides a common framework for peace-related workshops for which the respective organizers retain full ownership. Please note that Geneva Peace Week events do not necessarily reflect the views of UNOG, the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform or the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. We encourage you to share information widely and look forward to welcoming you and your colleagues to Geneva Peace Week 2021.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, please visit ngocdps.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit congocsd.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org.

International Day of Non-Violence

The International Day of Non-Violence is observed on 2 October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence.

According to General Assembly resolution A/RES/61/271 of 15 June 2007, which established the commemoration, the International Day is an occasion to “disseminate the message of non-violence, including through education and public awareness”. The resolution reaffirms “the universal relevance of the principle of non-violence” and the desire “to secure a culture of peace, tolerance, understanding and non-violence”.

Introducing the resolution in the General Assembly on behalf of 140 co-sponsors, India’s Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr. Anand Sharma, said that the wide and diverse sponsorship of the resolution was a reflection of the universal respect for Mahatma Gandhi and of the enduring relevance of his philosophy. Quoting the late leader’s own words, he said: “Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.”

To learn more about how and why the UN commemorates this observance, including definitions and principles of non-violence, please visit un.org/en/observances/non-violence-day.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, please visit ngocdps.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bknotts@uua.org or bobbinassar@gmail.com. For more information on the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations, please visit rngos.wordpress.com. 

Past, Present and Future: Conflict and Cooperation in U.S. – China Relations

The U.S. and China

Past, Present and Future: Conflict and Cooperation in U.S.-China Relations

The prophetic historian Howard Zinn taught that if we don’t know our history, we can’t be free.  Without that knowledge, he warned, whenever a president comes on TV and says that we are in danger from here or there, we lack the framework needed to critically judge its truth.  Today the near unanimous Washington, media, and even scholarly and expert consensus is that China poses a dire threat to democracy and freedom around the world, and that our freedom requires defend them by challenging and containing China militarily, economically, technologically, diplomatically, and politically.  Provocative military operations near Taiwan or in the South China Sea carry the danger of an accident or miscalculation escalating to war, even a nuclear war.  Demonization of China also drives anti-Asian racism and violence across the United States, which must immediately be ended.

Understanding Chinese history and the history of U.S.-China relations provides us what we need to advocate for mutually beneficial policies and diplomacy, bringing the world back from the brink and opening the way for collaborations to address the existential threat of nuclear weapons, the climate emergency, and pandemics. Professors Mark Seldon and Zhiqun Zhu are uniquely qualified to share the essential histories of China and of U.S.–Chinese cooperation and competition.

Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZModOmorz4rHtwRKZ9w0MwVaDenIP6Hy8GI

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, please visit ngocdps.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. 

Reclaiming and Transforming Multilateralism: Towards a Peoples’ Multilateralism

Alongside the High-Level Political Forum 2021, ActionAid’s Youth Working Group will launch its popular education and advocacy series called “Reclaiming and Transforming Multilateralism: Towards a Peoples’ Multilateralism.” The report was authored by Diyana Yahaya, edited by Nancy Kachingwe, and commissioned by Katherine Robinson.

This series of primers are intended to raise awareness and increase participation amongst the youth movements and young human rights defenders, including young womxn and feminist activists, on the importance of multilateral spaces in safeguarding and expanding their rights, advancing social justice, defending democratic space, and fostering cooperation and solidarity between states as well as between peoples’. With a focus on global multilateral spaces and institutions, it explores the current state of multilateralism, attacks on and the corporate capture of multilateral spaces; and how we can reclaim and transform multilateralism in a way that puts human rights, environmental, social, and gender justice at its center.

Join this panel of feminists from across the Global South in reimagining a just future. Register here!

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Intergenerational Solidarity, please email the vice chair at susanne.seperson@gmail.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women-NY, please visit ngocsw.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women-Vienna, please visit ngocswvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women-Geneva, please visit ngocsw-geneva.ch. 

Global Citizenship: Foundations for an Interconnected World

CGC 2030 Side Event

Join the NGO Major Group’s Cluster for Global Citizenship to explore how our interconnectivity impacts the United Nations and the UN Sustainable Development goals.

Register here!

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Major Group, please visit ngomg.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org.

20th YMCA World Council: “Ignite”

On 3 July 2022, the 20th YMCA World Council will begin. For the first time ever, it’s going to be a hybrid event. We will meet in person in Aarhus, Denmark, and online. We continue to monitor the COVID situation, and try and do the right thing. The priority is for as many as possible to meet, one way or the other, at another vital moment for the global YMCA Movement. Why?

Because our world and our YMCA has been turned on its head by this pandemic, and we need to reconnect: we’ve missed each other. We’re ready to respond to new learning, new imperatives, new roles, and new methods in supporting young people and their communities.

Which is why the World Council theme in 2022 is simply ‘IGNITE.’ It’s a moment to provide the spark and light the flame to take us forward. Specifically, we’ll be igniting our vision, our collaboration, and our solutions. The World Council itself is the global YMCA Movement’s highest decision-making body, bringing together all 120 National YMCA Movements. More than that, it’s the biggest and most important shared space we have.

What do we hope to achieve? At least four things:

First, agreeing and adopting a new Movement-wide strategy, as we look towards a 2030 horizon. Imagine: wherever we are in the world, we all agree on a common vision, mission and goals. Our ‘North Star.’

Second, showcasing ‘solutions’, and specifically ‘youth-led solutions, sharing what we’ve done in identifying, supporting and seed-funding young people’s responses to their own challenges in their own communities, in areas like climate, jobs and mental health and working together – ‘collaborating’ in ‘co-labs’ across the generations – to develop and launch new youth solutions in line with Vision 2030.

Third, strengthening our governance as we elect new officers.

And fourth, just enjoying ‘family’ and fun, as we celebrate and enjoy who we are and where we’re from. Imagine: the ‘great global good’ of the YMCA at play. We really do refuel at World Council….before we ‘IGNITE.’

In person, we’ll do all this in Aarhus, Denmark’s second city. A green and beautiful place, an old city with a young population, a port city with a view on the world, and the stunning conference facilities of the city’s world-famous Concert Hall. We’ll keep you posted about all the practical details. Register from 1st November here.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on CoNGO–the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations, visit www.ngocongo.org. For specific information about how CoNGO and its substantive committees (also known as NGO Committees) work on matters related to the subject of the event on this page, visit NGO Committees. 

The Union of Humanity: Bridging Medicine, Music, Technology & Global NGO for Pandemic Recovery {CoNGO President Speaks at this Event}

Join here: https://stufunitedfund.my.webex.com/stufunitedfund.my/j.php?MTID=me2355e3ac7a7db8d2358b2fa2408254b

STUF United Fund (a member of CoNGO), along with The Permanent Mission of Belize to the United Nations and Helping Overcome Obstacles Peru (HOOP), will present a side event on Tuesday July 6th, during the United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.  STUF United Fund is honored to have CoNGO President Dr. Liberato C. Bautista join as one of the speakers.

The UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) is an essential platform hosted by the United Nations to follow up and review the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals.  The side event is entitled “The Union of Humanity: Bridging Medicine, Music, Technology, and Global NGO Partnership for Pandemic Recovery.”  It will be held in a hybrid format of virtual and in-person conference.  The event includes speeches and Q&A from 6pm to 8pm and live musical performance from 8pm to 8:30pm.

Speakers include:

  • Ms. Han Wu, Co-Artistic Director of the CMS of Lincoln Center (video speech)
  • Rev. Liberato C. Bautista, President of CoNGO (The Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations) “Global NGO Partnership for Pandemic Recovery”
  • Dr. Shang Ju Li, MD, MPH, Senior Director of Monitoring and Evaluation, Americares; Co-Founder, Helping Overcome Obstacles Peru (HOOP) USA and Peru “Challenges and Strategies: Pandemic Recovery from the Perspective of Local NGO”
  • Dr. Alex Chen, MD, PhD, Visiting Professor at Imperial College London, Faculty of Medicine “Global Burden of Disease (GBD), Non-Communicable Disease (NCD), and Digital Solutions”
  • Mr. Michel Lu, Ph.D in Far-East Research from Université Paris VII, retired diplomat “International Medical and Health Cooperation: Challenges and Opportunities”

Online Webex Meeting Number: 182-627-7918, password: hlpf (lower case of HLPF)

Please RSVP to join the in-person meeting at Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Music Center at 129 W 67th St, New York, NY 10023: eventbrite.com/e/stuf-2021-un-high-level-political-forum-side-event-tickets-161241492645

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee for Rare Diseases, please visit rarediseasesinternational.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. 

Global Governance Innovation Network Launch

The Stimson Center, ACUNS, Plataforma CIPÓ, and Leiden University are pleased to announce the launch of a new Global Governance Innovation Network (GGIN). At this ACUNS Annual meeting plenary session, participants will be informed about how they can engage GGIN activities and advance its core mission of bringing together scholars and policymakers to examine and offer solutions to major global governance problems.

The Stimson Center’s Global Governance, Justice and Security program is pleased to announce its participation at the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) Annual Meeting 2021, Toward a Fit for Future UN System (24-26 June).

Please register: stimson.org/event/global-governance-innovation-network-launch

Welcome Remarks & GGIN Overview

  • Lise Howard, President, ACUNS, and Professor of Government and Foreign Service, Georgetown University
  • Richard Ponzio, Senior Fellow and Director, Global Governance, Justice & Security Program, Stimson Center

Featured Speakers

  • Ibrahim Gambari, Chief of Staff to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari; Founding Chairman, Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy, and Development; and former UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and Foreign Minister of Nigeria
  • Marie McAuliffe, Head, Migration Research Division, International Organization for Migration
  • Thomas G. Weiss, Presidential Professor, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, and former President and Executive-Director of ACUNS
  • Joris Larik, Assistant Professor of Comparative, EU, and International Law, Leiden University and Senior Advisor, the Stimson Center

Moderated by

  • Adriana Erthal Abdenur, Co-Founder and Executive-Director, Plataforma CIPÓ

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, please visit ngocdps.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org.

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