war

International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace

The International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace was established on 12 December, 2018 through resolution A/RES/73/127 and was first observed on April 24, 2019.

Preserving the values of multilateralism and international cooperation, which underpin the UN Charter and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, is fundamental to promote and support the three pillars of the UN – peace and security, development and human rights.

The international norms and rules-based system that have steered nations through seven decades must rise to meet the mounting challenges of protectionism and isolationism. Global issues such as climate change, geopolitical tensions, humanitarian and migratory crises are cross-cutting, implicating the values and interests of nations and necessitate collective attention and action. Technological advancement has also impacted the political and socio-economic landscape and inter-state relations.

As emphasized in the resolution, the International Day is a reaffirmation of the UN Charter and its principles of resolving disputes among countries through peaceful means. It acknowledges the use of multilateral decision-making and diplomacy in achieving peaceful resolutions to conflicts among nations.

To learn more about how we commemorate this observance and read the UN Secretary-General’s comments on it, click here: un.org/en/observances/Multilateralism-for-Peace-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 Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bobbinassar@gmail.com or bknotts@uua.org. 

Language and Migration: Experience and Memory

Language is a vital, but under-explored, factor in the lives of migrants, immigrants and refugees. It has a direct impact on the experiences and choices of individuals displaced by war, terror, or natural disasters and the decisions made by agents who provide (or fail to provide) relief, services, and status. Distilled through memory, it shapes the fictions, poems, memoirs, films and song lyrics in which migrants render loss and displacement, integration and discovery, the translation of history and culture, and the trials of identity.

This interdisciplinary symposium will convene humanists and social scientists, field-workers and policy-makers, artists and writers, to think together about migrants as resourceful users, interpreters, and creators of language.

The symposium will take place online between Monday, April 19 and Saturday May 1, 2021. Amid the disappointment of not being able to hold the symposium in person, we’ve managed to find two advantages to the virtual format: to enable participation by those without the means or time to attend, and to achieve a more satisfying exchange among humanists, social scientists, and people who work in the fields of education, language policy and language justice. We encourage you to attend as many sessions of the symposium as you can, which are spread out over two weeks to avoid zoom fatigue.

Special events: Our symposium will feature two keynote speakers: Prof. Sarah Dryden-Peterson of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, who will open our symposium with a lecture on Monday April 19; and Prof. Viet Thanh Nguyen, Aerol Arnold Professor of English, University of Southern California, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Sympathizer, who will give the closing lecture on Saturday May 1. On Friday evening, April 30, we are delighted to host a reading by Jhumpa Lahiri, Yiyun Li and Aleksandar Hemon, three distinguished members of Princeton’s Creative Writing faculty.

Access the full detailed program here: https://migration.princeton.edu/symposium/program

Learn more here: https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GNf33xbFR1O9wdsn38Hk6Q

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Migration, please visit ngo-migration.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN.

Hybrid Commemoration of the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda

Dear NGO representatives,

The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Rwanda and the United Nations Office at Geneva will mark the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda during a hybrid ceremony to be held on Wednesday, 7 April 2021 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The ceremony will include the message of Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, read by Ms. Tatiana Valovaya, Director‑General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, followed by her own remarks and the statements of Ms. Ghada Waly, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna and Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, of H.E. Mrs. Marie Chantal Rwakazina, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Rwanda to the United Nations Office and other international organizations at Geneva, of Mrs. Nadia Galinier, survivor of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and of Mr. Cesar Murangira, President of the Association of Genocide survivors IBUKA, Memory and Justice (Swiss section). This year’s ceremony will also include a poem read by Ms. Sarah Burckhardt. Interpretation will be provided in English and French.      

You are cordially invited to this important event through this link. You can also watch live at webtv.un.org.

Provisional Program:

  • Introduction by the Master of Ceremonies, Ms. Alessandra Vellucci Director, United Nations Information Service
  • Lighting of candles
  • Observance of a minute of silence
  • Message of Mr. António Guterres Secretary-General of the United Nations, read by Ms. Tatiana Valovaya, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, followed by the Director-General’s remarks
  • Remarks by Ms. Ghada Waly Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna and Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
  • Remarks by Mr. César Murangira President of the Association of Genocide survivors IBUKA, Memory and Justice (Swiss section)
  • Testimony by Mrs. Nadia Galinier Survivor of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda
  • Reading of a poem by Ms. Sarah Burckhardt
  • Remarks by H.E. Mrs. Marie Chantal Rwakazina Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Rwanda to the United Nations Office and other international organizations at Geneva

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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.

The Iran Deal or No Deal

The Iran Nuclear Deal or No Deal

Grassroots organizations from across the country are joining together to present the most recent developments surrounding the JCPOA and what they may mean for the future of Iran and the rest of the Middle East. For those who care about preventing a future war as well as addressing the humanitarian role the U.S. has in Iran, Yemen, and elsewhere, this is the event to join.

Register here: https://secure.everyaction.com/aFVE5ygCQEOMyNrNBjpx_Q2

Featuring:

  • Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
  • Barbara Slavin, Director of the Future of Iran Initiative and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council
  • Kelsey Davenport, Director of Nonproliferation Policy at Arms Control Association
  • Peter Beinart, Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York

Moderated by: Jamal Abdi, President of the National Iranian American Council

Note: You are welcome to watch a recording of a previous event (https://fb.watch/3aRHLDJRGL/), which provides a great overview of the topic, but will not be necessary to get the full experience out of this larger event.

This event is co-sponsored by: 

Brooklyn for Peace; CODEPINK; Coloradans for Middle East Diplomacy & Peace; Demand Progress; Friends Committee on National Legislation Colorado Advocacy Team; Friends Committee on National Legislation New York City Advocacy Team; Friends Committee on National Legislation New York State Advocacy Team; Genesee Valley Citizens for Peace; Historians for Peace and Democracy; J Street Colorado; J Street NYC; Jewish Voice for Peace – Denver/Boulder Chapter; Long Island Activists; Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives; Manhattan Project for a Nuclear Free World; Massachusetts Peace Action; National Iranian American Council; New Jersey Peace Action; New York Progressive Action Network; NYPAN Greene; No War Westchester; North Country Peace Group; PEAC Institute; Peace Action; Peace Action Bay Ridge; Peace Action New York State; Peace & Social Justice Committee of the 15th St. Monthly Meeting, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers); Rethinking Foreign Policy, Inc.; Peace Corps Iran Association; Progressive Democrats of Sussex County (Delaware); Progressive East End Reformers; Rocky Mountain Peace & Justice Center; South Country Peace Group; Suffolk Progressives; Syracuse Peace Council; Upper Hudson Peace Action; WESPAC; Win Without War; Women’s Action for New Directions; and Women’s March.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information 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. 

Civilian Safety in Armed Conflict: Strategies and approaches for direct prevention of violence

Civilian Safety in Armed Conflict: Strategies and approaches for direct prevention of violence

In this first of two webinars exploring existing efforts to improve the safety of civilians during armed conflict, we at PHAP will be discussing “primary” prevention programs, which focus on advocacy, armed actor behavior change, and direct engagement with armed actors, either by the humanitarian organization or by facilitating this engagement by communities. We will hear from civil society organizations and UN agencies about their approaches to primary prevention – what the main considerations are and in which situations they are effective. We will also discuss what other organizations can learn from their approach and the implications this has for the humanitarian community as a whole.

The event will be held virtually, and participants will need to connect via Zoom. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in Spanish, English, and French. Register here!

Background:

In armed conflict, the humanitarian community continues to witness highly disturbing situations where the safety of civilians is ignored or not addressed, or where civilians are purposely targeted by parties to a conflict. While protection services continue to provide much-needed support to vulnerable and marginalized groups and individuals and respond to protection concerns with remedial service provision, limited progress has been made on contributing to civilians’ safety in armed conflict. As Hugo Slim expressed it in the recent Oxford Lecture Series on Protection: “When you look at protection’s track record through wars, protection is at its weakest here, in this challenge in protecting people from physical harm and unlawful devastating attacks on their persons and homes.”

In the last few years, there has been a push by both humanitarian agencies and donors to examine how we can prevent and protect civilians from physical harm during conflict. Key questions remain: what does prevention mean and look like within our protection of civilians programming? Where does civilian safety “fit” within the humanitarian architecture?

There are, however, several existing approaches to mitigate and reduce risk in armed conflict for the civilian population, including how to prevent violence from happening in the first place and how to strengthen civilian self-protection strategies through community-based initiatives. This two-part webinar series aims to provide an overview of the range of strategies currently undertaken by national and international civil society organizations, UN agencies, and donors, providing examples of good practice, and discuss how such efforts can be advanced and systematized in the wider humanitarian community.

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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 Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. 

Civilian Safety in Armed Conflict: Community-based protection, early warning, and conflict preparedness

Civilian Safety in Armed Conflict: Community-based protection, early warning, and conflict preparedness

In this webinar, the second of a two-part series exploring existing efforts to improve the safety of civilians during armed conflict, we at PHAP will be discussing “secondary” prevention programs, in particular those focusing on strengthening communities in conflict-affected areas to reduce the risk of harm and mitigate the effects of armed conflict on civilian populations. We will hear from NGOs active in situations of armed conflict around the word about how they approach building capacity for prevention in communities – what the main considerations are and in which situations they are effective. We will also discuss what other organizations can learn from their approach and the implications this has for the humanitarian community as a whole.

Register here!

Background:

In armed conflict, the humanitarian community continues to witness highly disturbing situations where the safety of civilians is ignored or not addressed, or where civilians are purposely targeted by parties to a conflict. While protection services continue to provide much-needed support to vulnerable and marginalized groups and individuals and respond to protection concerns with remedial service provision, limited progress has been made on contributing to civilians’ safety in armed conflict. As Hugo Slim expressed it in the recent Oxford Lecture Series on Protection: “When you look at protection’s track record through wars, protection is at its weakest here, in this challenge in protecting people from physical harm and unlawful devastating attacks on their persons and homes.”

In the last few years, there has been a push by both humanitarian agencies and donors to examine how we can prevent and protect civilians from physical harm during conflict. Key questions remain: what does prevention mean and look like within our protection of civilians programming? Where does civilian safety “fit” within the humanitarian architecture?

There are, however, several existing approaches to mitigate and reduce risk in armed conflict for the civilian population, including how to prevent violence from happening in the first place and how to strengthen civilian self-protection strategies through community-based initiatives. This two-part webinar series aims to provide an overview of the range of strategies currently undertaken by national and international civil society organizations, UN agencies, and donors, providing examples of good practice, and discuss how such efforts can be advanced and systematized in the wider humanitarian community.

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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 Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Migration, please visit ngo-migration.org.

An NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security Discussion: Spending to Increase Nuclear Danger

Join the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security as we discuss how in the midst of an economic and public health crisis, the US is set to spend hundreds of billions on new nuclear weapons which could never be used, add nothing to national security, and actually increase the risk of nuclear war. Funding for these extremely dangerous weapons systems will come up soon in Congress. The NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security presents three leaders to clarify the key issues and discuss possible plans of action.

Register here!

Speakers:

Bruce Knotts has directed the Unitarian Universalist Office at the United Nations since 2008. Before that, he served as a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State with notable service during the Nairobi Embassy bombing 1998, Embassy Khartoum, Sudan, Regional Refugee Coordinator for West Africa and Deputy Chief of Mission in The Gambia. His final tour was in the Bureau of International Organization at the Department of State.

Dr. John Burroughs is Senior Analyst for the New York City-based Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy. He has represented LCNP in Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty meetings and negotiations on the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons. His articles and op-eds have appeared in publications including Fordham International Law Journal, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Arms Control Today, Newsweek, and Newsday.

Jackie Cabasso has been Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation, based in Oakland, California, since 1984. In 1995 she was a “founding mother” of the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons, and she continues to serve on its Coordinating Committee. Since 2007 she has served as an Executive Advisor to Mayors for Peace. In the U.S., she is a National Co-convener of United for Peace and Justice. Jackie was the 2008 recipient of the International Peace Bureau’s Sean MacBride Peace Award.

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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 Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Peace (Vienna), email its Chair,  Helga Kerschbaum at helga.kerschbaum@aon.at

Language and Migration: Experience and Memory

Language and Migration: Experience and Memory Symposium

This interdisciplinary symposium will convene humanists and social scientists, field-workers and policy-makers, artists and writers, to think together about migrants as resourceful users, interpreters, and creators of language.

Language is a vital, but underexplored, factor in the lives of migrants, immigrants and refugees. It has a direct impact on the experiences and choices of individuals displaced by war, terror, or natural disasters and the decisions made by agents who provide (or fail to provide) relief, services, and status. Distilled through memory, it shapes the fictions, poems, memoirs, films and song lyrics in which migrants render loss and displacement, integration and discovery, the translation of history and culture, and the trials of identity.

The symposium will take place online between Monday, April 19 and Saturday May 1, 2021.

Special events: Our symposium will feature two keynote speakers: Prof. Sarah Dryden-Peterson of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, who will open our exchange with a lecture on Monday April 19; and Prof. Viet Thanh Nguyen, Aerol Arnold Professor of English, University of Southern California, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Sympathizer, who will close the proceedings with a lecture on Saturday, May 1. On Friday evening, April 30, we are delighted to host a reading by Jhumpa Lahiri, Yiyun Li and Aleksandar Hemon, three distinguished members of Princeton’s Creative Writing faculty.

The symposium program can be found here.

Registration information can be found here. There will be one zoom link for the entire conference. (Panelists and chairs will also receive a special link for their sessions.)

Our primary sponsors are the Migration Lab of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, and the Study Group for Language and the United Nations. We’d like to acknowledge additional support from the Center for Applied Linguistics, the Esperantic Studies Foundation, the Centre for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems, and Birkbeck, University of London. At Princeton, generous support has also come from the Lewis Center, the Humanities Council, the Department of English, the Department of Comparative Literature, The Department of African-American Studies, and the University Center for Human Values.

Please direct questions to Sam Evans at same@princeton.edu

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CoNGO Notes: CoNGO is currently in the process of constituting an NGO Committee on Language and Languages and is calling for endorsement of the creation of this important committee. For information on this new committee, visit here. For more information on the NGO Committee on Migration, please visit ngo-migration.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN.

Peace Agenda 2045: Abolish Nuclear Weapons and War

We cordially invite you to attend Peace Agenda 2045: Abolish War and Nuclear Weapons, a plenary session of the PyeongChang Peace Forum 2021.

Experts from around the world will discuss concrete approaches and effective campaigns to abolish war and eliminate nuclear weapons, key objectives of the United Nations, with the aim of achieving these no later than 2045, the 100th anniversary of the UN. Click here to register for the session.

Speakers:

  • Hon Ms Maria Fernanda Espinosa (Ecuador), President of the 73rd UN General Assembly. Member of the World Future Council. Former Ecuador Foreign Minister and Defence Minister.
  • Hon Gareth Evans (Australia). Chair, Asia Pacific Leadership Network on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament. Former Foreign Minister.
  • Hon Mr Saber Chowdhury MP (Bangladesh), Honorary President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. PNND Co-President
  • Hon Ms Jaejung Lee MP, (Korea). PNND Member.
  • Mr Roberto Zamora (Costa Rica), Board Member of International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms.
  • Ms Leah Bolger (USA). President of World Beyond War. Former Naval Commander and former President of Veterans for Peace.
  • Ms Vanda Proskova (Czech Republic), Vice-Chair of PagueVision Institute for Sustainable Security. Co-convenor of Youth Fusion.

Background and Objectives
Armed conflict and nuclear weapons violate peoples’ Right to Life, consume trillions of dollars every year, impact significantly on the climate and impede sustainable development. The United Nations was established in 1945 with the primary goal to ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’. The UN Charter prohibits the threat or use of force in international relations and provides a range of mechanisms for resolving conflicts and achieving security without recourse to war. In addition, the very first resolution of the UN General Assembly, adopted by consensus, establishes the goal of the elimination of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. This session will explore how these objectives of the UN can be achieved, at least by 2045 the 100th anniversary of the UN.

Event flyer:
Click here for the event flyer

Session organizers
Basel Peace Office, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, Pax Christi Korea, World Beyond War, World Future Council and Youth Fusion

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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. 

[Virtual Tribute] 75th memorial of Hiroshima bombing in the context of BLM

From Tulsa to Hiroshima: The Urgency of Denuclearization to the Necessity of Abolition in America

MIDHEAVEN has partnered with Hiroshima City, Heart of Peace Hiroshima, Hopitow (Hopi Nation),
and others to produce a global virtual tribute with live performances & discussions exploring revolutionary love, radical freedom and listening.

Context: On August 6th, 1945, America detonated a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Today, in the midst of America’s racial crisis there is an opportunity to excavate the root cause of the ideals that have defined America’s actions from its founding: nuclear war is only possible and permissible in a society where the rot of slavery remains. In this historic memorial, Japanese and Black/Brown/Indigenous Peoples share an understanding and agenda as radical change agents for peace.

Access & participate in the tribute here and/or here on August 6

Agenda

CHAPTER 1: HISTORY OF ANTI-PEACE (8:00am – 10:00am EST)
+ Tulsa bombing
+ Hiroshima bombing
+ War’s destruction
+ Reflections via art of the era
+ A people’s history of the United States

CHAPTER 2: REALITY OF WAR (10:00am – 12:00pm EST)
+ Statistics and infographics: people struggling with war
+ Testimony from survivors & scientific/military community
+ War’s negative effects on the environment & our lives

CHAPTER 3: IMAGINATION OF PEACE
(12:00pm – 2:00pm EST)
+ A world with peace as a priority
+ Artistic dreams of utopia: a path forward
+ Statistics and infographics: who & what stops progress

CHAPTER 4: WAR ECONOMY (2:00pm – 4:00pm EST)
+ The investment in war
+ What economic disparity does to the population and the long term effects
+ Testimony from everyday people on the economic effects of war & the aftermath

CHAPTER 5: THE PEACE ECONOMY (4:00pm – 6:00pm EST)
+ Historical view of a way forward
+ Current views
+ Statistics and infographics: actions to take now

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CoNGO Notes: For information on the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security, please visit ngocdps.wordpress.com. For information on the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns-NY, visit csvgc-ny.org.  For information on the NGO Committee on Peace-Vienna, 

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