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Tag: peace

  • When Two Elephants Fight: How the Global South Uses Non-Alignment To Avoid Great Power Rivalries

    When Two Elephants Fight: How the Global South Uses Non-Alignment To Avoid Great Power Rivalries

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    A return of non-alignment was evident at the March 2022 UN General Assembly special session on Ukraine. Fifty-two governments from the global south did not support western sanctions against Russia. CREDIT: Manuel Elias/UN
    • Opinion
    • Inter Press Service

    Feb 17 (IPS) – An African proverb notes that “when two elephants fight, it is the grass underneath that suffers”. Many states in the global south are, therefore, seeking to avoid getting caught in the middle of any future battles between the US and China. Instead, they are calling for a renewal of the concept of non-alignment. This was an approach employed in the 1950s by newly independent countries to balance between the two ideological power blocs of east and west during the era of the Cold War 

    The new non-alignment stance is based on a perceived need to maintain southern sovereignty, pursue socio-economic development, and benefit from powerful external partners without having to choose sides. It also comes from historical grievances during the era of slavery, colonialism and Cold War interventionism.

    These grievances include unilateral American military interventions in Grenada (1983), Panama (1989) and Iraq (2003) as well as support by the US and France for autocracies in countries like Egypt, Morocco, Chad and Saudi Arabia, when it suits their interests.

    Many southern governments are particularly irked by America’s Manichaean division of the world into “good” democracies and “bad” autocracies. More recently, countries in the global south have highlighted north-south trade disputes and western hoarding of COVID-19 vaccines as reinforcing the unequal international system of “global apartheid”.

    A return of non-alignment was evident at the March 2022 UN General Assembly special session on Ukraine. Fifty-two governments from the global south did not support western sanctions against Russia. This, despite Russia’s clear violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, which southern states have historically condemned.

    A month later, 82 southern states refused to back western efforts to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council.

    These included powerful southern states such as India, Indonesia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.

    The origins of non-alignment

    In 1955, a conference was held in the Indonesian city of Bandung to regain the sovereignty of Africa and Asia from western imperial rule. The summit also sought to foster global peace, promote economic and cultural cooperation, and end racial domination. Governments attending were urged to abstain from collective defence arrangements with great powers.

    Six years later, in 1961, the 120-strong Non-Aligned Movement emerged. Members were required to shun military alliances such as NATO and the Warsaw Pact, as well as bilateral security treaties with great powers.

    Non-alignment advocated “positive” – not passive – neutrality. States were encouraged to contribute actively to strengthening and reforming institutions such as the UN and the World Bank.

    India’s patrician prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, is widely regarded to have been the intellectual “father of non-alignment”. He regarded the concept as an insurance policy against world domination by either superpower bloc or China. He also advocated nuclear disarmament.

    Indonesia’s military strongman, Suharto, championed non-alignment through “regional resilience”. South-east Asian states were urged to seek autonomy and prevent external powers from intervening in the region.

    Egypt’s charismatic prophet of Arab unity, Gamal Abdel Nasser, strongly backed the use of force in conducting wars of liberation in Algeria and southern Africa, buying arms and receiving aid from both east and west.
    For his part, Ghana’s prophet of African unity, Kwame Nkrumah, promoted the idea of an African High Command as a common army to ward off external intervention and support Africa’s liberation.

    The Non-Aligned Movement, however, suffered from the problems of trying to maintain cohesion among a large, diverse group. Many countries were clearly aligned to one or other power bloc.

    By the early 1980s, the group had switched its focus from east-west geo-politics to north–south geo-economics. The Non-Aligned Movement started advocating a “new international economic order”. This envisaged technology and resources being transferred from the rich north to the global south in order to promote industrialisation.

    The north, however, simply refused to support these efforts.

    Latin America and south-east Asia

    Most of the recent thinking and debates on non-alignment have occurred in Latin America and south-east Asia.

    Most Latin American countries have refused to align with any major power. They have also ignored Washington’s warnings to avoid doing business with China. Many have embraced Chinese infrastructure, 5G technology and digital connectivity.

    Bolivia, Cuba, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Many of the region’s states declined western requests to impose sanctions on Moscow. The return of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as president of Brazil – the largest and wealthiest country in the region – heralds the “second coming” (following his first presidency between 2003 and 2011) of a champion of global south solidarity.

    For its part, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has shown that non-alignment has as much to do with geography as strategy. Singapore sanctioned Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. Indonesia condemned the intervention but rejected sanctions. Myanmar backed the invasion while Laos and Vietnam refused to condemn Moscow’s aggression.

    Many ASEAN states have historically championed “declaratory non-alignment”. They have used the concept largely rhetorically while, in reality, practising a promiscuous “multi-alignment”. Singapore and the Philippines forged close military ties with the US; Myanmar with India; Vietnam with Russia, India, and the US; and Malaysia with Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.

    This is also a region in which states simultaneously embrace and fear Chinese economic assistance and military cooperation. This, while seeking to avoid any external powers dominating the region or forming exclusionary military alliances.

    Strong African voices are largely absent from these non-alignment debates, and are urgently needed.

    Pursuing non-alignment in Africa

    Africa is the world’s most insecure continent, hosting 84% of UN peacekeepers. This points to a need for a cohesive southern bloc that can produce a self-sustaining security system – Pax Africana – while promoting socio-economic development.

    Uganda aims to champion this approach when it takes over the three-year rotating chair of the Non-Aligned Movement in December 2023. Strengthening the organisation into a more cohesive bloc, while fostering unity within the global south, is a major goal of its tenure.

    Uganda has strong potential allies. For example, South Africa has championed “strategic non-alignment” in the Ukraine conflict, advocating a UN-negotiated solution, while refusing to sanction its BRICS ally, Russia. It has also relentlessly courted its largest bilateral trading partner, China, whose Belt and Road Initiative and BRICS bank are building infrastructure across the global south.

    Beijing is Africa’s largest trading partner at US$254 billion, and builds a third of the continent’s infrastructure.

    If a new non-alignment is to be achieved in Africa, the foreign military bases of the US, France and China – and the Russian military presence – must, however, be dismantled.

    At the same time the continent should continue to support the UN-led rules-based international order, condemning unilateral interventions in both Ukraine and Iraq. Pax Africana would best be served by:

    • building local security capacity in close cooperation with the UN;
    • promoting effective regional integration; and
    • fencing off the continent from meddling external powers, while continuing to welcome trade and investment from both east and west.The Conversation

    Adekeye Adebajo, Professor and Senior research fellow, Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

    © Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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  • Ukraine Crisis and No First Use of Nuclear Weapons

    Ukraine Crisis and No First Use of Nuclear Weapons

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    • Opinion by Daisaku Ikeda (tokyo, japan)
    • Inter Press Service

    TOKYO, Japan, Jan 18 (IPS) – The Ukraine crisis that erupted in February last year continues with no prospect for cessation. The intensified hostilities have inflicted great suffering in population centers and destroyed infrastructure facilities, compelling large numbers of civilians, including many children and women, to live in a state of constant peril.

    The history of the twentieth century, which witnessed the horrors caused by two global conflicts, should have brought home the lesson that nothing is more cruel or miserable than war.

    During World War II, when I was in my teens, I experienced the firebombing of Tokyo. To this day, I remember with great vividness getting separated from family members as we fled desperately through a sea of flames, and not learning that they were safe until the following day.

    How many people have lost their lives or livelihoods in the ongoing crisis, how many have found their own and their family’s ways of life suddenly and irrevocably altered?

    Many other countries have also been seriously impacted in the form of constrained food supplies, spiking energy prices and disrupted financial markets.

    It is crucial that we find a breakthrough in order to prevent any further worsening of the conditions facing people worldwide, to say nothing of the Ukrainian people who are compelled to live with inadequate and uncertain supplies of electricity amidst a deepening winter and intensifying military conflict.

    I therefore call for the urgent holding of a meeting, under UN auspices, among the foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine and other key countries in order to reach agreement on a cessation of hostilities. I also urge that earnest discussions be undertaken toward a summit that would bring together the heads of all concerned states in order to find a path to the restoration of peace.

    Together with calling for the earliest possible resolution to the Ukraine crisis, I wish to stress the crucial importance of implementing measures to prevent the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, both in the current crisis and all future conflicts.

    Nuclear rhetoric has ratcheted up, and the risk that these weapons might actually be used stands today at its highest level since the end of the Cold War. Even if no party seeks nuclear war, the reality is that, with nuclear arsenals in a continuing state of high alert, there is a considerably heightened risk of unintentional nuclear weapon use as a result of data error, unforeseen accident or confusion provoked by a cyberattack.

    Along with reducing tensions with the goal of resolving the Ukraine crisis, I feel it is of paramount importance that the nuclear-weapon states initiate action to reduce nuclear risks as a means of ensuring that situations do not arise—either now or in the future—in which the possibility of nuclear weapons use looms. It was with this in mind that in July last year I issued a statement to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in which I urged the five nuclear-weapon states to make prompt and unambiguous pledges that they would never be the first to launch a nuclear strike—the principle of “No First Use.”

    Regrettably, the August NPT Review Conference was unable to reach consensus on a final document. But this in no way means that the nuclear disarmament obligations set out in Article VI of the treaty no longer pertain. As the various drafts of the final document indicate, there was widespread support for nuclear risk reduction measures such as the adoption of No First Use policies and extending negative security assurances, by which nuclear-weapon states pledge never to use nuclear weapons against states that do not possess them.

    The pledge of No First Use is a measure that nuclear-weapon states can take even while maintaining for the present their current nuclear arsenals; nor does it mean that the threat of the some 13,000 nuclear warheads existing in the world today would quickly dissipate. However, what I would like to stress is that should this policy take root among nuclear-armed states, it will create an opening for removing the climate of mutual fear. This, in turn, can enable the world to change course—away from nuclear buildup premised on deterrence and toward nuclear disarmament to avert catastrophe.

    Looking back, the global state of affairs during the Cold War era was characterized by a series of seemingly insoluble crises that rattled the world, spreading shockwaves of insecurity and dread. And yet humankind managed to find exit strategies and pull through.

    One example of this is the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) held between the United States and the Soviet Union. Intention to hold these was announced on the day of the 1968 signing ceremony for the NPT, which had been negotiated in response to the bitter lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The SALT negotiations were the first steps taken by the US and the USSR to put the brakes on the nuclear arms race based on their nuclear disarmament obligations under Article VI of the NPT.

    For those involved in these talks, to impose constraints on the nuclear policies that had been developed as the exclusive prerogative of the state could not have been easy. Nonetheless, this was a decision indispensable to the survival not only of the citizens of their respective nations, but of all humankind.

    Having experienced first-hand the terror of teetering on the brink of nuclear war, the people of that time brought forth historic powers of imagination and creativity. Now is the time for all countries and peoples to come together to once again unleash those creative powers and bring into being a new chapter in human history.

    The author is Peace builder and Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda, who is President of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI). https://www.daisakuikeda.org/ Read full statement here full statement

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  • Taking Humanitarianism Hostage the Case of Afghanistan & Multilateral Organisations

    Taking Humanitarianism Hostage the Case of Afghanistan & Multilateral Organisations

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    • Opinion by Chloe Bryer – Azza Karam – Ruth Messinger – Negina Yari (new york)
    • Inter Press Service

    NEW YORK, Jan 12 (IPS) – Can you imagine what it would be like if women were simply not allowed to step outside of their homes, let alone to work for a living? When women choose to do so, and they can afford it, then it is a matter of choice. When women mostly cannot, as is the case in Afghanistan now, not only is half the population imprisoned, but children go hungry, and communities sink deeper into poverty.

    World Bank data (as incomplete as it is), indicates that the average number of female-headed households (i.e. households where women are the primary – if not the only – breadwinners), is around 25%.

    What that means is, that on average, a quarter of all households around the world depend on women earning an income. Children, families, communities, and nations –depend on women’s work, to the tune of a quarter of their labour force.

    Economists are still pointing to the obvious challenges of counting female labour, which often lies disproportionately on the frontiers of the formal economy, such that women continue to serve as reserve armies of labour and frontline workers during industrialization.

    Economists who work to document these specificities, also point out that as soon as these frontiers expand or change, women are expelled or relegated to the shadows of the informal economy and piece-rate labour, identifying this as an all too frequent failure to recognize the importance of the kind of work many women engage in, which both keeps an economy running, and enables its expansion and growth.

    The Covid-19 Pandemic should have resulted in a clear realisation that all hands are necessary on deck, with so many women actually needed as first responders–the backbone of the public health crisis – everywhere in the world.

    As economies take a nosedive and the realities of recession hit many of us, all economies need to be kept running, if not to expand and grow.

    And beyond these very real challenges to counting women’s work – and making that work count – there is another very critical reality: culture. Lest we think only of the vagaries of women who take over “men’s jobs” (whatever that means in today’s world), we need to stop being blind to the fact that women are needed to serve other women.

    In fact, in many parts of the world, including the supposedly liberal and ‘egalitarian’ Western world, many women still prefer to receive life-saving direct services from other women – in public health, in sanitation, in all levels of education, in nutritional spaces, and many, many others.

    Now let us pause a moment and consider humanitarian disaster zones, where women and girls often need to be cared for – and this can only be done by and through other women.

    Then let us envision a reality one step further – let’s call it a socially conservative country, which is facing humanitarian disaster, and is heavily dependent on international organisations (governmental and non- governmental) for the necessary humanitarian support.

    How is it conceivable that in such a context, women can be excluded from serving? And yet this is precisely what the Taliban have decreed on December 24, when it barred women from working in national and international NGOs. And this is after they banned women from higher education.

    Many international NGOs halted their work in Afghanistan, explaining that they cannot work without their women staff – as a matter of principle, but also as a question of practical necessity. Yet, the United Nations – the premier multilateral entity – continues to see how they could compromise with the Taliban rule, for the sake of ‘the greater good – real humanitarian needs’.

    Thank goodness they are letting the UN continue to work with their women employees, runs one way of thinking. We will not fail to deliver humanitarian needs, runs another UN way of thinking.

    Of course, humanitarian needs are essential to human survival – and thus, should never be held hostage. But why is the United Nations being accountable for humanitarian needs only?

    Meanwhile, the Taliban claim that these edicts about womens’ work and education are a matter of religious propriety, a claim which, as of this moment, is not strongly challenged by another multilateral entity – the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), encompassing 56 governments and members of the United Nations.

    While individual governments have spoken out, this multilateral entity has remained relatively silent on the Islamic justice of such a decree. Is it because this multilateral religious entity sees no need to speak to humanitarian needs?

    Or is it because it sees no value to hard economic realities where women’s agency plays a central role? Or perhaps it is because there is no unanimity on the Islamic justification behind such decrees?

    In light of this hostage-taking of humanitarian relief efforts, a group of women of faith leaders, have come together to ask some simple questions of the two multilateral entities involved. They have sent a letter with over 150 international NGO sign ons.

    Multilateralism is supposed to be the guarantor of all human rights and dignity, for all people, at all times. But as governmental regimes weaken, so do traditional multilateral entities heavily reliant on those governments. Time for community based transnational networks based on intergenerational, multicultural, gender sensitive leaders.

    Rev Dr Chloe Bryer is Executive Director, Interfaith Center of New York; Prof Azza Karam is Secretary General, Religions for Peace; Ruth Messinger is Social Justice Consultant, Jewish Theological Seminary; and Negina Yari is Country Director, Afghans4Tomorrow

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  • NRA Wishes ‘All Guns, Ammo’ For Peace On Earth Day; Critics Explode

    NRA Wishes ‘All Guns, Ammo’ For Peace On Earth Day; Critics Explode

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    “What is WRONG WITH YOU?” asks one stunned foe on Twitter.

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  • Making the UN Charter a Reality: Towards a New Approach to Development Cooperation?

    Making the UN Charter a Reality: Towards a New Approach to Development Cooperation?

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    Credit: UN Photo/Amanda Voisard
    • Opinion by A.H. Monjurul Kabir (new york)
    • Inter Press Service

    NEW YORK, Nov 10 (IPS) – We are living in a world where both our bilateral and multilateral achievements, consensuses on human rights and social justice, and our resolve to public good are being tested like never before.

    Now, more than ever, we need to bring to life the values and principles of the UN Charter in every corner of the world. Due to the powers vested in its Charter and its unique international character, the UN can act on the issues confronting humanity, including:

    • Maintain international peace and security
    • Protect human rights
    • Deliver humanitarian aid
    • Promote sustainable development
    • Uphold international law

    Given my own personal trajectory in human rights advocacy and development cooperation, let me focus on aspects of sustainable development and consider whether we need to change and adopt any new approach to it to end extreme poverty, reduce inequalities, and rescue the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from exclusionary practices.

    Development or Sustainable Development must be inclusive: In fact, inclusion at the heart of Development Cooperation. Inclusive development is the concept that every person, regardless of their identity, is instrumental in transforming their societies.

    Development processes that are inclusive yield better outcomes for the communities that embark upon them. The UN was created to promote the rights and inclusion of marginalized and underrepresented populations in the development process and leads the UN’s response to addressing the needs and demands of those in in adversity and youth.

    Therefore, the UN implements activities that combat stigma and discrimination, promote empowerment and inclusion of marginalized or underrepresented groups, and improve the lives of populations in high-risk situations.

    It is important that we also adopt this in institutional and management settings: For example, UN Asia Network for Diversity and Inclusion (UN-ANDI) recently conducted its first survey on Racism and Racial Discrimination in five languages.

    The survey was intended to capture data reflecting the Asian perspective in the UN system. It is planning to issue a report on the survey’s findings to support and address many critical issues of racism and racial discrimination. There are other networks who are addressing different elements of intersectionality including but not limited to, gender, disability, ethnicity, identity etc.

    So, the world and its challenges have become much more intersectional, which calls for a robust and intersectional approach to development cooperation.

    Intersectional Approach: An intersectionality lens allows us to see how social policy may affect people differently, depending on their specific set of ‘locations,’ and what unintended consequences particular policies may have on their individual lives.

    By listening to the most marginalized and/or disadvantaged groups of a community, development organizations can help combat oppression at all levels of society and rebuild communities from the ground up.

    Take the example of Persons with Disabilities. They are not a homogenous group, and this should be reflected in our policy advocacy and communications by considering intersectionality—the intersection of disability together with other factors, such as gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, refugee, migrant or asylum seeker status.

    For example, a person with disability also has a gender identity, may come from an Indigenous group and be young, old, a migrant or live in poverty.

    At the UN System, it is time to adopt an intersectional approach in our development cooperation, policy advocacy, programming, operational support, planning and budgeting. An intersectional approach considers the historical, social, and political context and recognizes the unique experience of the individual based on the intersection of all relevant grounds.

    This approach allows the experience of discrimination, based on the confluence of grounds involved, to be acknowledged and remedied. Using an intersectionality lens to approach our development practice means moving beyond the use of singular categories to understand people and groups and embracing the notion of inseparable and interconnected sets of social ‘locations’ that change through time, vary across places, and act together to shape an individual’s life experience and actions.

    This would go a long way to contribute to the SDGs’ Leave No One Behind principle (LNOB). The new approach calls for invigorating existing practices, making them more innovative, effective, and efficient.

    Innovation: We need to think of innovative approaches and instruments to attract and channel new resources to finance our developmental aspirations, as outlined in the 2030 SDGs now more than ever.

    Reliable and well-administered development financial institutions with a well-defined mandate and sound governance framework will continue to be an important vehicle to accelerate inclusive economic and social development.

    They can create new channels to crowd-in the private sector. Moreover, they can play a catalytical role by generating new knowledge, convening stakeholders, and providing technical assistance to build capacity in the private and public sectors. Mutual collaboration between and across public and private sector is critical to harness the full potential of innovation and innovative approaches.

    Let us not forget new media’s growing impact on both inclusive participation leveraging innovative practices.

    New Media: New media, including mobile and social media, could help demystify international institutions and encourage participation. The new media is also critical to widen the breadth of accessibility for persons with disabilities or those who live in rural and/or remote, hard to reach areas.

    Alongside this, there could be more regular interactions by the leadership of intergovernmental organisations with multi-stakeholders including civil society, organisations of persons with disabilities, and the media, and the creation of accessible databases of statistical and other information and knowledge on their work.

    Notwithstanding the Ukraine war, work at the UN continues. The world body can and should continue to play a constructive role in both development cooperation, crisis management, peace building, and post-conflict stabilization. It should continue to focus on crises from Afghanistan to Mali and Ukraine itself.

    However, it must explore new and innovative and intersectional ways to support inclusive development, climate justice and resilience, peacekeeping, and other global and regional key priorities.

    Otherwise, the SDGs will not be even near to their desired destination in 2030 or beyond.

    Dr. A.H. Monjurul Kabir, currently Global Policy and UN System Coordination Adviser and Team Leader for Gender Equality, Disability Inclusion, and Intersectionality at UN Women HQ in New York, is a political scientist and senior policy and legal analyst on global issues and Asia-Pacific trends.

    For policy and academic purposes, he can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on twitter at mkabir2011

    This article is from a blog based on a speech delivered by the author, in his personal capacity, at an event commemorating the UN’s 77th anniversary organized by UN-ANDI– a New York-based global network of like-minded Asian staff members of the UN system who strive to promote a more diverse and inclusive culture and mindset within the UN.

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  • Lessons from Rome. Weaving Peace Is a Polyphonic Dialogue

    Lessons from Rome. Weaving Peace Is a Polyphonic Dialogue

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    Colosseum at the Prayer with the Pope and the representatives of the workd’s religions. Credit: Elena L. Pasquini
    • by Elena Pasquini (rome)
    • Inter Press Service

    ROME, Nov 07 (IPS) – Arms are raised, stretched out towards the sky, holding white cards with the word “peace” written in different languages. A girl, a refugee from Syria, reads the Rome’s “Appeal for peace”: “With firm conviction, we say: no more war! Let’s stop all conflicts […] Let dialogue be resumed to nullify the threat of nuclear weapons.” Pope Francis singed it in front of the people gathered at the Colosseum, holding the word “peace” in their hands, as representatives of the world’s religions did as well. Shortly before, members of those different religions gathered for prayer to invoke peace in their different traditions—a prayer that is “a cry” inside the ancient amphitheater.

    “This year our prayer has become a heartfelt plea, because today peace has been gravely violated, assaulted and trampled upon, and this in Europe, on the very continent that in the last century endured the horrors of the two world wars – and we are experiencing a third. Sadly, since then, wars have continued to cause bloodshed and to impoverish the earth. Yet the situation that we are presently experiencing is particularly dramatic…”, the Pontiff warned. “We are not neutral, but allied for peace, and for that reason we invoke the ius pacis as the right of all to settle conflicts without violence,” he added.

    The same “raised hands” marched for peace on Saturday in Rome when around 100.000 people from different organizations called for a ceasefire in Ukraine and in all the other armed conflicts.

    The prayer with the Pope was the last act of a three-day interreligious dialogue, held at the end of October in the Italian capital and introduced by the presidents of the French and Italian republics, Emmanuel Macron and Sergio Mattarella. The first convocation was in Assisi, in 1986, willed by John Paul II. Since then, it has been promoted by the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Christian community whose fundamentals are prayer, serving the poor and marginalized, and peace. For the role it has played in mediating conflicts, it has been named the “UN of Trastevere” after the city center neighborhood where it is headquartered and where the peace agreement in Mozambique was signed thirty years ago.

    Flags at the rally for peace in Rome on Saturday. Credit: Elena L. Pasquini

    Leaders and believers of various religions and secular humanists have woven relationships, prayed, and confronted each other. They hand over a map drawn by many voices, too many to account for in the space of an article. “The cry for peace” meeting is also an invitation to “do”. It offers a map of concrete steps, things done and to do, best practices, imagination, with a key word: dialogue. “And dialogue does not make all reasons equal at all, it does not avoid the question of responsibility and never mistakes the aggressor with the attacked. Indeed, precisely because it knows them well, it can look for ways to stop the geometric and implacable logic of war, which is if other solution are not found”, explained Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference.

    World scenarios are made even more worrying by the risk of nuclear escalation in the Ukrainian war—a war on the doorstep of that part of Europe that has cultivated peace inside, but that has let armed conflict flourish elsewhere. “The lack of this commitment let the war reach its borders, indeed—in some ways—penetrate within it, even in its deepest fibers,” said Agostino Giovagnoli, historian of the Community of Sant’Egidio. “Today war threatens Europe also because it threatens the alternative imagination which is at the basis of the European architecture. War, in fact, is banal: it does not consist only of a fight on the ground but it is also a form of ‘single thought,’” he added.

    This “single thought” has changed the European attitude, according to Nico Piro, special correspondent and war journalist of the RAI, the Italian national public broadcasting company. “After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Europe as in Italy, a political monobloc in favor of has emerged from right to left. It is standing out what I named ‘PUB’ , a Bellicist-Single-Thought … projects a stigma on anyone who asks for peace, on anyone who has a doubt or raises a criticism of the idea that fueling the war serves to end it ,” he said. “What has peace become then? No longer a tool to stop and prevent armed conflicts but a by-product of war.”

    Yet, among the many voices that met in Rome, one word resounds, whispered and then said: kairos. The “critical moment” is now. The war in Ukraine is the “wake-up call” that must be grasped, that cannot be missed, widening our view from Europe to those never-ending conflicts all over the world. Among the many lessons from Sant’Egidio’s dialogue, two should be learned to grasp that kairos: working together daily to build peace in every single life and returning to working together as a community of states, relaunching the multilateral message.

    Sant’Egidio’s interreligious dialogue “The cry for peace”. Credit: Elena L. Pasquini

    “Whoever saves a single life saves the whole world,” the Talmud says. Or “an entire world” as Riccardo di Segni, chief rabbi of Rome, suggested, since every human being has the potential to create “a new, unique world.” Thus, peace means recognizing the value of each single life, in sharp contrast to the logic of war, in which “the life of the enemy is no longer life. It’s not the same. war, dehumanizes everyone a priori in the name of life,” according to Mario Marazziti, member of the Sant’Egidio community. This also happens here, in Europe, where those fleeing wars, hunger, and persecution are allowed to die at sea, “dehumanized,” reduced to numbers.

    Unique are the lives to be saved, but also unique are the lives of those who save and of those who build peace by “taking care.”

    Gégoire Ahongbonon has a chain in his hand. He puts it around his neck and shows the heavy metal rings to the audience. There was a man chained with that same metal, naked, tied to a tree, like many others. His only fault was a psychiatric disorder. Ahongbonon saved over 70,000 people, “sentenced to death” because they were ill. He is the founder of the Association Saint Camille de Lellis that works in five countries of sub-Saharan Africa. He asked a tough question: “Are we different from them? Are we different from this person, we? What did they do wrong? They were born like all of us.”

    Saving those lives is already making peace, eradicating the roots of violence and discrimination and planting those of peace, as Mjid Noorjehan Adbul is doing in Mozambique. She is the clinical head of the network of centers for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, opened by Sant’Egidio’s DREAM program, a program of excellence operating in 10 countries. She, a Muslim, is surprised when people ask her why she works with Catholics: “We all have the same goal,” she replies. For twenty years, she has been working to ensure health care for those who cannot afford it. In fact, she was the first one to use antiretroviral therapy in her country. “There is no peace without care,” she said, quoting Pope Francis – “care” for eradicating “the culture of waste, of indifference, of confrontation.” Ex-patients, like those “women who have experienced the stigma firsthand and put themselves at the service of other ill people,” are now helping to build a new health culture – she explained.

    Saving lives, restoring hope, choosing the paths of dialogue, and designing an architecture of peaceful coexistence should also be the aim of politics. The multilateral message, legacy of the twentieth century’s “unitary tensions,” however, needs new impetus.

    “Those who work for peace are realistic, not naive!” Cardinal Zuppi said. Realistic as it was Pope Bendetto XV that called for an end to the “useless slaughter” that was the First World War. He had a very clear vision of the need for a multilateral architecture, a league among nations that could guarantee lasting peace. A realistic way to design the future still seems to be the one built on a permanent, global agorà that creates space for dialogue. “No multilateralism, no survival,” argued Jeffery Sachs, a speaker at one of the fourteen forums that shaped the meeting agenda. However, the United Nations – the organization founded on the ruins of the Second World War to make the “no more war” reality – risks to be “delegitimized”. That’s something to be avoided, according to Zuppi. “… We are aware that the United Nations is a community of nations. Its every failure represents a weakening of international determination and makes us all losers,” warned Shayk Muhammad bin Abdul Karim al Issa, general secretary of the Muslim World League.

    Today, however, multilateralism needs to adapt: “We need a multilateralism that is just and inclusive, with equitable representation and voice for developing countries”, said Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, Undersecretary for Africa in the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affaris and Peace operations. “At heart of is the need to engage earlier and proactively, and not to wait react to a crisis after it has escalated”, she added. A multilateralism that does not act only after a conflict breaks out, but that is able to prevent it and to build peace also by supporting “the resilience of local communities”.

    The Kairos, the right moment, is now even if there is war in Ukraine and elsewhere because peace must be built even when war is raging. “How to live now?” wonder those who have seen the destruction and the ferocity of an armed conflict, like Olga Makar, who took care of Sant’Egidio school of peace in Ukraine. “This is the question every Ukrainian asks him or herself. In those first days of war, when I felt my life was broken, I found an answer: our houses are destroyed, our cities are in ruins, but our love, our solidarity, our ability to help others, our dreams cannot be destroyed”.

    Words that echo in those of Pope Francis: “Let us not be infected by the perverse rationale of war; let us not fall into the trap of hatred for the enemy. Let us once more put peace at the heart of our vision for the future, as the primary goal of our personal, social and political activity at every level. Let us defuse conflicts by the weapon of dialogue”.

    IPS UN Bureau


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    © Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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  • The Women Who Fight Against the Ayatollahs from the Kurdish Mountains

    The Women Who Fight Against the Ayatollahs from the Kurdish Mountains

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    PJAK copresident Zilan Vejin and a fellow fighter somewhere in the Kurdish mountains. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS
    • by Karlos Zurutuza (iran-iraq border)
    • Inter Press Service

    IRAN-IRAQ BORDER, Nov 04 (IPS) – Iran-Iraq border -It usually takes hours of driving in a 4X4 before heading out on foot through a dense forest. There, protected under a sea of beech trees from the view of the drones, it is the guerrillas of the PJAK (Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan) who find us.

    We are somewhere in the mountains across the border between Iran and Iraq. We cannot give our coordinates, nor can we photograph the guerrilla fighters or any spatial references that may give clues about their location. That’s the deal.

    The PJAK is an organization made up mainly of Kurdish men and women from Iran fighting for the democratization of the country through the lines of “democratic confederalism,” a libertarian-left, culturally progressive ideology and political system defined by Abdullah Öcalan. He is the co-founder and leader of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) in prison since 1999 and sentenced to life by the Turkish state.

    Two women in their thirties invite us to take a seat around a table inside a humble mountain hut. One of them is Zilan Vejin, the co-president of PJAK. We ask her about the most pressing issue: the chain of protests in Iran that are challenging the Shia theocracy in power since 1979.

    It was last September 16 when Mahsa Amini , a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, was beaten to death by the Iranian “morality police” for wearing the Islamic headscarf incorrectly. Since then, thousands of men and women have taken to the streets chanting “Women, Life, Freedom”, a slogan that, Vejin recalls, was coined by her movement during a 2013 meeting.

    “The problem of women’s freedom is an issue whose importance was identified, analyzed and defined by our leadership 40 years ago. Today, all the peoples of Iran are facing it,” the guerrilla fighter tells IPS.

    Several international organizations such as Amnesty International have denounced the difficulties of ethnic minorities -such as Kurds, Baluch or Arabs- in accessing education, employment or housing.

    In addition to socioeconomic discrimination, all women regardless of their ethnicity have seemingly become the target of the theocratic government.

    In its latest report on the country, Human Rights Watch denounced the marginalization of half the population in matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and child custody. The lack of options for women in situations such as domestic violence or child marriage is also noted by the NGO.

    Could this civil uprising put an end to all this? The PJAK co-leader is optimistic.

    “This revolt is very different from all those that have occurred in the 43 years that the ayatollahs have spent in power. It started in Kurdistan led by women, and from there it spread throughout the country because it brings together people of all nationalities within Iran,” claims the senior guerrilla fighter.

    The hijab, she stresses, is “the excuse for a revolt that calls for freedom and democracy. People don’t just want reforms without seeking to change the current policies, the system and the administration”.

    On whether the armed struggle can be one of the means to achieve it, Vejin sticks to the right to “legitimate defense”.

    “The armed struggle is only a part of our strength that also includes civil, social and democratic actions. Of course, if the State commits massacres, we will not remain idle,” says the Kurdish woman.

    The moment when Zilan Vejin was elected as PJAK co-leader during a meeting of the party´s leadership (Courtesy PJAK)
    The moment when Zilan Vejin was elected as PJAK co-leader during a meeting of the party´s leadership (Courtesy PJAK)

    On the Iranian board

    PJAK militia women are not the only Kurdish women in Iran ready to take up arms. There are women fighting alongside men in the ranks of the PDKI (Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan), while the PAK (Kurdistan Freedom Party) even has an all-female contingent.

    The latter’s ultimate goal is the creation of an independent Kurdish state that includes the four parts into which it is currently divided (Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria).

    Hana Hussein Yazdanpana, the spokesperson for the PAK women’s contingent, spoke to IPS by telephone from an unspecified location in the mountains. Apparently, their bases in the valley have become a recurring target for Iranian missiles.

    PAK fighters carry the body of a fellow fighter after the last Iranian bombing of their bases in Iraq´s Kurdistan Region (Courtesy PAK)
    PAK fighters carry the body of a fellow fighter after the last Iranian bombing of their bases in Iraq´s Kurdistan Region (Courtesy PAK)

    “The last one happened on September 28: we lost ten of ours and 21 were injured. Iran has threatened us with doing it again if we don’t stop supporting the protests and giving shelter to those fleeing the country,” explained Yazdanpana.

    According to her, the PAK has 3,000 Peshmerga (“Those who face death,” in Kurdish) fighters. One-third are women who received training from the American and German contingents, among others, included in the international coalition against the Islamic State.

    They have also fought Tehran-backed Shiite militias operating on Iraqi soil. As to whether they will take advantage of that experience to fight against the ayatollahs, Yazdanpana was blunt.

    “The fight must be peaceful. The protest will only be successful if the free world openly supports the people and takes action against the Islamic Republic.”

    Other than in the Kurdish mountains, the guerrillas can also be found on the Internet. On its website, the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan defines itself as “a social democratic party that advocates for a free and democratic federal Iran.”

    Komala guerrilla fighters somewhere in the mountains between Iran and Iraq (Courtesy Komala)
    Komala guerrilla fighters somewhere in the mountains between Iran and Iraq (Courtesy Komala)

    With its bases in the southeastern corner of the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq -very close to the border with Iran- Komala claims to be the first Kurdish organization to ever set up a battalion of women fighters, back in 1982.

    “When Komala was founded in 1969 one of its main pillars, besides socialism and Kurdish self-determination, was gender equality,” Zagros Khosravi, a member of its central committee, told IPS over the phone.

    He pointed to a contingent of “a few hundred fighters deployed in the mountains,” but insisted that their main strength lies in the “thousands” that can be mobilized inside Iran. “Many of them have been trained in civil resistance tactics,” noted the guerrilla.

    One of the most recent milestones, he added, was the creation, together with the PDKI, of a cooperation node between Kurdish-Iranian political parties. “You can see the result in the high level of participation of the Kurdish nation in these protests,” he added.

    From the Kurdish Peace Institute, Kamal Chomani, a Kurdish affairs analyst, told IPS over the phone that coordination between the Kurdish-Iranian organizations will be “key” if a potential escalation of violence against the protests leads to an open armed conflict with the regime.

    The differences between the different Kurdish-Iranian organizations, he added, respond to the diversity of the Kurdish political arc as a whole.

    “Whereas in Syria and Turkey the majority of Kurds subscribe to a leftist, progressive and communalist ideology, in Iran and Iraq we come across a nationalist and traditionalist variable in which tribal keys are also crucial,” explained Chomani.

    As to how these actors are deployed on the troubled Iranian chessboard, the expert foresees this scenario:

    “The PJAK is the one with the most experience in guerrilla warfare due to its links with the PKK and they have great organizational capacity. The PDKI, and especially Komala, have strong roots in Iran because they have been very active politically and militarily since the 1970s, and that will allow them to mobilize fighters within the country.”

    Meanwhile, Iranian women continue to take to the streets. According to data from the HRANA news agency -managed by human rights activists-an estimated 300 have been killed since the protests began. The number of detainees now exceeds 13,000.

    © Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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  • Iranian Women Fight in the Streets, But Also from Home

    Iranian Women Fight in the Streets, But Also from Home

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    Ammunition used by the Iranian secfurioty forces in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province during anti-regime protests. Credit: courtesy
    • by Arina Moradi (copenhagen)
    • Inter Press Service

    COPENHAGEN, Oct 25 (IPS) – It’s been over a month since Bayan, a 30-year-old Persian language teacher, last left her home in the Kurdish city of Piranshahr, 730 northwest of Tehran. Her parents believe they must protect her from what might happen to a protester in Iran.

    “I told them that I am ready to die now in this fight rather than languish to death in this country,” this woman tells IPS over the phone. Like the rest of those interviewed from the Danish capital and who live inside Iran, she doesn’t want to disclose her identity for fear of reprisals. Her family, she adds, are afraid of detention, torture and especially the possibility of being subject to sexual violence by security forces inside detention centres.

    After the tragic death of Mahsa Amini -the 22-year-old Iranian Kurd died in police custody after she was detained in Tehran for “inappropriate attire”-, thousands of young women and men have been chanting “Women, Life, Freedom” in the Iranian streets since mid-September. However, there are many more Iranian women nobody has seen so far among the protesters. Like Bayan, many yearn for freedom without being able to leave their family homes.

    It’s doubtless easier for the men. Despite the brutal anti-riot forces’ crackdown, Soran, Bayan’s younger brother, says he has joined almost every protest in the city. His parents have been warning him of the possible consequences too, but they can’t stop him from leaving the house.

    “I tried to convince my parents to let my sister join me, but they wouldn’t allow it. So we found a safer way to participate,” the 24-year-old Kurd tells IPS. They have worked together on a list of contacts of many journalists outside of the country.

    “My brother goes out to join the protests and also gather news. I contact the journalists from the list to let them know what´s going on here: I send them videos, pictures and the name of those we think have been arrested by security forces,” explains Bayan. “I hope what I do helps somehow.”

    Ammunition used by the Iranian secfurioty forces in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province during anti-regime protests. Credit: courtesy

    According to the state news agency IRNA, more than 1000 people including journalists have been arrested across Iran, but the actual number is estimated to be much higher.

    There has been no official data on the number of detainees in Iran’s recent protests, In its October 18 report, The United Nations warned about “mass arrests of protesters,” including the detention of at least 90 civil rights activists, human rights defenders, lawyers, artists, and journalists.

    Iranian journalist Niloofar Hamedi is among those captured. On September 16, Hamedi gained access to Kasra Hospital in Tehran, where Mahsa Amini was being treated following her detention by the morality police. Hamedi would later publish a photo of Amini’s parents hugging and crying in the hospital. The picture quickly spread along with Hamedi’s reporting on Amini’s death, something which eventually spiralled into nationwide protests

    In the country’s capital Tehran, Neda, a 38-year-old mother of two also does her bit. Since the very beginning, she has sheltered dozens of protesters who were chased by security forces and needed a place to hide.

    “It first happened on the second night of the protests in Tehran. A group of six young women and men were slamming the door asking for help as police were chasing them in the streets. It was before midnight. I opened the door as fast as possible and closed it even faster. The kids woke up and we were all in a panic. I got so emotional that I cried and hugged one of the girls. Some of them cried too. I can’t forget their young innocent faces,” the Iranian woman tells IPS over a phone conversation.

    Since that night, Neda is always ready whenever there is a protest in their neighbourhood. She delivers food, water, medicines or whatever is needed by the protesters who hide from the anti-riot forces.

    “One night, there was a young boy who was shot in his right leg. I called a friend of mine who is a doctor to treat him at my place. We couldn’t risk taking him to the hospital for security reasons.”

    Neda says all she wants is to see the end of the Islamic Republic’s power. “I wish to see my kids growing up in a country where there is respect for women, freedom, and equality. I just want to see the fall of this regime with my own eyes.”

    However, she finds it difficult to convince her husband to let her leave the house and join the protesters in the streets.

    “Everybody expects a mother of two to stay home with the kids. I feel like I am on fire. I stay at home while these young people risk their lives being in the streets. Sometimes I feel so powerless and guilty,” she admits.

    Women in Saqqez, Kurdistan province, holding hands amid anti-regime protests in October 12, 2022. Credit: Courtesy

    Behind the slogan

    As of October 15, at least 215 people including 27 children have been killed in the protests in Iran, Norway-based group Iran Human Rights reported.

    “The reckless state violence which has even targeted children and prisoners, along with the false narratives presented by Islamic Republic officials, make it more crucial than ever for the international community to establish an independent mechanism under the supervision of the UN to investigate and hold the perpetrators of such gross human rights violations accountable,” the organization’s director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said in the report.

    On October 17, Amnesty International also called on the UN Human Rights Council to hold a special session on Iran “as a matter of urgency” and urged the Council to establish “an independent mechanism with investigative, reporting and accountability functions to address the most serious crimes under international law and other gross human rights violations committed in Iran.”

    Iranian authorities have blamed the west for instigating the unrest. “Who would believe that the death of a girl is so important to Westerners?” the country’s foreign minister, Hussein Amir Abdollahian, said on October 15.

    Despite the growing crackdown by Iranian security forces, protests keep spreading all across the country thanks to people like 41-year-old Hana. She lives with her husband and their two kids in Bukan, 478 kilometres west of Tehran, in Azerbaijan province. This city of around 200,000 has seen waves of protests and public strikes in the past month. However, she could not join the protesters in the streets.

    “I stayed home to take care of the children and my husband went out to protest. He believes that kids need me more than they need him in case of detention, injuries or even death due to the security forces’ brutal crackdown on the protesters,” Hana tells IPS over the phone.

    She owns a women’s clothing shop and she has joined all the strikes to show objection to the state. The security forces have broken her shop’s windows and many others in the city as a tactic to force them to end the strike.

    “I didn’t give up. It’s the least I could do to contribute to the uprising,” says the Iranian woman. “Women, life, and freedom,” she insists, is much more than a slogan.

    “It’s a lifetime goal for most Iranian women who have been suffering all kinds of pressure from their families, from society and, above all, from the state and its anti-women laws.”

    © Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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  • Psoriatic Disease: Making Peace With Your Body

    Psoriatic Disease: Making Peace With Your Body

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    By Tami Seretti, as told to Keri Wiginton

    For me, one of the hardest things about psoriasis is that people can see it. And sometimes they have really odd reactions to it. When my disease is active, some people tell me I need to use a certain soap or shampoo, as if I don’t bathe. Psoriatic disease of the joints is the exact opposite. You can’t see it. People will tell me it doesn’t look like there’s anything wrong with me.

    They’ll ask, “Why is this so hard for you?”

    I’ve felt like I was at war with myself. I’ve had my thumb joints replaced because of psoriatic disease. I’ve lost my hair. I basically went bald, which is not the best thing for a woman.

    I’ve spent a lot of time hiding. But I finally got to a point where I decided I was done.

    I was done feeling ugly.

    I was done feeling dirty all the time.

    And once I accepted my condition — and met others going through the same thing — I felt like I needed to talk about it.

    I have a lot more self-esteem now that it seems like the whole world knows.

    No Longer Hiding

    I used to avoid sleeveless shirts because I’d get psoriasis under my arms. I’d have to cancel plans at the last minute because I wouldn’t be able to wear clothes. I have inverse psoriasis. That means I get it in my skin folds and groin. And who wants to say, “I can’t wear underwear because it cuts into the broken skin in my legs.”

    But I finally came out and said, “This is me. This is what I have. This is what I live with. If you want to know about it, I can tell you. If you don’t, that’s fine. Just don’t insult me.”

    My friends said my past actions made a lot of sense when I finally opened up about my condition. That was such a relief. I started to feel better about myself. Plus, I started to feel better physically. I didn’t have as much itching and burning because I didn’t have as much stress.

    I’d held that in for so long, not realizing I was being my own worst enemy by hiding.

    Finding the New Me

    I used to go to the gym two or three times a week for hours. Nothing was going to stop me from my workouts. I just pushed through my joint pain. Then I would end up in the bed for 3 days. But one day, a few years ago, I said “This is crazy. I need to find a new hobby and stop hurting myself.”

    That’s when I became a “One to One” mentor for the National Psoriasis Foundation. It’s a program that pairs people like me — someone who’s lived with psoriasis for years — with someone who’s just been diagnosed. It’s my new passion. I want to make sure that the next person’s road isn’t quite as hard as mine was.

    I get a lot of comfort from helping others. When I found out I had psoriasis, no one I knew openly talked about it. I felt so alone. Now, I have a community to belong to.

    Don’t get me wrong. My husband is a fantastic cheerleader. But to sit with somebody who actually has it, who actually knows what I’m talking about, is the most amazing feeling in the world.

    It Gets Better

    You may think that your diagnosis is the end, but it’s actually the beginning. Now you know what’s causing your symptoms. You’ll find a medicine that works, and you’ll feel better. You’ll have a life again. You might not have the life you used to have, but you can have one that’s meaningful and productive.

    Nobody believes me when I tell them that, but it really is true. I used to be a wallflower, always standing in the back. Now I meet with my state representatives or I go to Capitol Hill to talk about what it’s like to have psoriasis. I do all of these things that I never thought I’d be able to do.

    And there’s a major difference in my symptoms pre- and post-diagnosis. My scalp used to be thick with scales. I would get psoriasis so bad in my ears that I couldn’t hear. I went to the emergency room once because I couldn’t put any weight on my ankles. 

    It took me a while to find a treatment that worked. But now I take a medication that has me about 85% clear with no new joint pain. I’m calling that a win. Some of my psoriasis is still visible, like on my scalp and ears. But now I look in the mirror and I’m not embarrassed. That’s a big thing for me.

    Mentally, I feel the best I have in 20 years.

    Tami Seretti, 53, was diagnosed with psoriasis when she was 27 and psoriatic arthritis at 38. She is active with the National Psoriasis Foundation. She also advocates for Clara Health’s Breakthrough Crew and the Arthritis Foundation. She lives with her husband, mom, three cats, and a dog in Center Township, PA.

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  • International ‘Water for All’ Conference Held at the Peace Palace

    International ‘Water for All’ Conference Held at the Peace Palace

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    Press Release
    –

    Jun 3, 2022


    THE HAGUE, Netherlands, June 3, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    From Rabbis to Sufis, from Swamis to Sikhs – practicing spiritual leaders from around the world gathered in The Hague, Netherlands, to draw global attention to the need to preserve the sanctity of holy water sources, to protect water bodies from pollution and ensure clean water provision for all in the world, leaving nobody behind. The Living Peace Projects Foundation organised the ‘Water for All’ conference in the Peace Palace. 

    Participants from the business community, among others, entered an interactive dialogue with the spiritual leaders present about the dire need for awareness and cooperation for action. Erik de Baedts, the Director of the Peace Palace, The Hague, received the first copy of the educational “Water Springs”, a special book that the spiritual leaders have worked on together. 

    Youth Participation

    Youth representatives also took part in the interactive dialogue. Prubleen Kaur Bhogal from Birmingham, UK, aged 16, stated, “Sacred Water is a tangible connection to my Gurus.” Mila Mohan, aged 13, said, “This book has to be in every library.” Syeda Samar Chisty from Ajmer Sharif, aged 5, added, “If you save water, water will save you.” 

    The ‘Water for All’ Ceremony

    The highlight of the conference was the ‘Water for All’ ceremony, wherein, water from 18 sacred sources was brought and merged together, representing the oneness of spirituality, creation and humanity. Afterwards, the merged water was used to create exquisite glass water jewel pendants to wear as a symbol of solidarity with the mission. The proceeds of these Living Jewels will benefit the water projects of Living Peace Projects. The conference closed with a call to action and commitment from the spiritual leaders.

    The very first ‘Water for All’ ceremony of Living Peace Projects took place in Assisi, Italy, in June 2018, which was immediately preceded by a visit to Greenland to bear witness to the melting of the ancient glaciers, sacred to the native population. Other events have included a trip to the Kumbh Mela in February 2019, and Palpung Sherabling Monastery in February 2020.

    About Living Peace Projects

    Living Peace Projects is a non-profit initiative founded in 2018 in the Netherlands by Brigitte van Baren and the late former Dutch Minister and IMF leader Prof. Dr. Johannes Witteveen. The primary aims of the initiative are to preserve and protect holy water sources while ensuring that clean water is provided for all, leaving nobody behind. Each ‘Living Cycles’ water house can harvest and purify rainwater for use as clean drinking water and sanitary facilities; the energy required for this is generated using solar technology. The foundation is assisted in its mission by an Advisory Board of nine spiritual leaders from various traditions and beliefs. Amongst them are leaders from the Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Sufi, Sikh, Jewish and tribal traditions. See www.livingpeaceprojects.org for further information. 

    Source: Living Peace Projects

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  • Together at Peace Presents the Memory Mile 2022 and the ‘Up’ Collection

    Together at Peace Presents the Memory Mile 2022 and the ‘Up’ Collection

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    Press Release
    –

    Mar 30, 2022


    HINSDALE, Ill., March 30, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Together at Peace invites everyone who has lost a loved one to spend the week of April 24-May 1 walking one mile or more anywhere in the world in memory of loved ones who have passed away while raising money for the four inspiring charities that are registered for the event. The partnered charities are Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana, St. Mary’s Grief Support Essentia Health, Life Lessons Scholarship Program and Simply from the Heart.

    Part of this special event is the “UP” collection curated by Cathy Ponakala from Virgil Catherine Gallery in Hinsdale, IL. The emerging artists featured are internationally collected: Guy Stanley Philoche, Gregg Emery, Larry Stewart and Ramona Nordal. 100% of the proceeds from the sale of these pieces will benefit the partnered charities. 

    Once registered, participants will be invited to attend a “Peace Party” open house in Hinsdale on May 1 to celebrate the end of the walk. A zoom link will be made available for those who are not able to attend. Bring a picture of loved ones, enjoy uplifting reflection stations, feel hope and support in gathering with others to share memories.

    Together at Peace’s mission is to inspire healing and hope after loved ones pass away, through events, charitable giving and support. Registration is free. 

    REGISTER TODAY AT TOGETHERATPEACE.COM

    Source: Together at Peace

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  • Muslim American Women’s Org Condemns Violence & Extremism in Wake of Texas Synagogue Shooting

    Muslim American Women’s Org Condemns Violence & Extremism in Wake of Texas Synagogue Shooting

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    The American Muslim & Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council (AMMWEC) says the Beth Israel Synagogue Attack Is a Wake-Up Call for Addressing Antisemitism and Extremism.

    Press Release
    –

    Jan 20, 2022


    WASHINGTON, January 20, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    AMMWEC President & Co-Founder Anila Ali issued the following statement on the Colleyville synagogue attack:

    “We are relieved that the crisis at the synagogue ended with all hostages safe, and we are devastated that once again a Jewish house of worship has been attacked. Jews everywhere deserve to live in safety – and Muslim community leaders must step up to help ensure these attacks stop.

    “We appreciate Jewish community leaders who have urged that the synagogue attack should not spark a counter-reaction of Islamophobia. The answer to hate is never hate.

    “At the same time, silence is complicity – and we cannot stay silent about a climate of antisemitism tolerated by some Muslim leaders. Just as the Tree of Life Synagogue attack forced American society to confront far-right antisemitism, the Congregation Beth Israel attack requires an honest reckoning with demonization promoted by Islamist extremists.”

    “We sadly do not need to look far for examples. Just weeks ago, Zahra Billoo, a leader of CAIR, used a speech at a Muslim community event to attack mainstream American Jews, saying:”

    “We need to pay attention to the Zionist synagogues. We need to pay attention to the Hillel chapters on our campuses just because they’re your friend today doesn’t mean that they have your back when it comes to human rights. So, oppose the vehement fascists, but oppose the polite Zionists too. They are not your friends… I’m not going to sugarcoat that they are your enemies. There are organizations and infrastructures out there that are working to harm you. Make no mistake of it: they would sell you down the line if they could. And they very often do behind your back. I mean the Zionist organizations. I mean the foreign policy organizations who say they’re not Zionists but want a two-state solution.”

    Ali added:

    “Labeling mainstream Jews as ‘enemies’ exacerbates inter-communal strife and creates the conditions for violence. Muslim leaders must insist upon zero tolerance for antisemitism otherwise, we betray our moral and religious duties. The Jewish people are wonderful allies of Muslims. Shalom and Salaam!”

    The American Muslim & Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council (AMMWEC) is a non-profit women’s rights organization empowering Muslim women to confront bigotry in all its forms, celebrate our faith’s beautiful heritage, and build strong bonds with fellow Americans of all backgrounds. As maternal pillars of the community, AMMWEC’s leaders uphold Islam’s core values of tolerance and personal responsibility.

    PRESS INQUIRIES:

    ANILA ALI

    ANILA@AMMWEC.ORG

    CELL: (202) 600-5186

    Source: American Muslim & Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council (AMMWEC)

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  • Helping the City Rebound After Recent Gun Violence

    Helping the City Rebound After Recent Gun Violence

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    Volunteers respond to a spate of deadly shootings by promoting peace and unity.

    Press Release
    –


    updated: Aug 23, 2019


    KANSAS CITY, Mo., August 23, 2019 (Newswire.com)
    –
    In the aftermath of recent fatal shootings in Kansas City, volunteers from the local Church of Scientology took to the streets to deliver a message of peace.

    This came in the form of a booklet called The Way to Happiness, a common-sense guide to better living written by humanitarian and Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, which delivers a universal message to people of all faiths, cultures, and creeds. “Its principles bring hope at times like this,” said Bennette Seaman, Public Affairs Director of the Kansas City Church of Scientology who organized the activity. “It resonates with people of all walks of life and gives them a tool to take back their communities and reduce crime.”

    In inner cities throughout the country, gang interventionists use The Way to Happiness to reduce violence and bring peace to the streets.

    The book is used in the Twin Cities by MAD DADs, a coalition of African-American men and parents who are fed up with gang violence and illegal drugs, led by peace activist V.J. Smith.

    Denver’s Rev. Leon Kelly swears by the power of the booklet, which he uses in “Flipping the Script,” a program to help bring parolees back into society and keep them out of jail.

    And in Los Angeles, the booklet is credited by the cofounders of the monthly Peace Rides, Rev. Tony Muhammad and Rev. Alfreddie Johnson, with lowering the crime rate and brokering peace between the Bloods and the Crips, South Central L.A.’s notorious gangs.

    “We want to spread a message of peace in KC,” said Seaman. “We want to get many community groups working together to saturate the city with this positive message.”

    As part of their outreach to reduce crime and contribute to the neighborhood, Church volunteers will participate in the Urban Core cleanup day 24 August and they urge the community to come out in force to pull together at this time.

    contact:
    ​MediaRelations@ChurchofScientology.net
    (323) 960-3500

    Source: Church of Scientology International

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  • In Support of Truth, Right Conduct, Peace, Love and Nonviolence

    In Support of Truth, Right Conduct, Peace, Love and Nonviolence

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    Volunteers from The Way to Happiness Association of Toronto joined the Walk For Values 2019

    Press Release
    –


    updated: Jun 5, 2019


    TORONTO, June 5, 2019 (Newswire.com)
    –
    The Way to Happiness volunteers from the Church of Scientology Toronto joined peace-loving people from throughout the city who gathered at Nathan Phillips Square and walked together to show their support for the Walk for Values campaign. The walk was organized by the Sathya Sai School of Canada.

    Walk for Values began in Toronto in 2003 and is now celebrated in 30 cities across Canada and the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong, India and Malaysia. Its purpose is to raise awareness and respect for five human values: Truth, Right Conduct, Peace, Love and Nonviolence. 

    These values are shared by The Way to Happiness Association of Toronto, whose members live by the common-sense precepts of The Way to Happiness by author, humanitarian and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, which begins with these words: 

    True joy and happiness are valuable.

    If one does not survive, no joy and no happiness are obtainable.

    Trying to survive in a chaotic, dishonest and generally immoral society is difficult.

    ​Any individual or group seeks to obtain from life what pleasure and freedom from pain that they can.

    Your own survival can be threatened by the bad actions of others around you.

    I am sure you can think of instances of this actually happening. Such wrongs reduce one’s survival and impair one’s happiness.

    You are important to other people. You are listened to. You can influence others.

    The happiness or unhappiness of others you could name is important to you.

    Without too much trouble, using this book, you can help them survive and lead happier lives.

    While no one can guarantee that anyone else can be happy, their chances of survival and happiness can be improved. And with theirs, yours will be.

    Walk organizers ask each participant to pledge to practice one or more of the five values — truth, right conduct, peace, love and nonviolence — in their daily lives to become better Canadians and global citizens. 

    The Church of Scientology and its members are proud to share the tools for happier living contained in The Way to Happiness. Some 117 million copies have been distributed in 186 nations.

    Watch The Way to Happiness book on film on the Scientology Network.

    Source: ScientologyNews.org

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  • Over 600 Muslim and Jewish Women Gather to Rise Up Against Hate

    Over 600 Muslim and Jewish Women Gather to Rise Up Against Hate

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    More than 600 Muslim and Jewish women gathered to learn from the nation’s leading scholars and activists on ways to combat bigotry and hate

    Press Release
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    updated: Nov 10, 2017


    MADISON, N.J., November 10, 2017 (Newswire.com)
    –
    The Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom held its 4th Annual Conference this past weekend at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. The theme of this conference was “Rising up Against Hate.” More than 600 Muslim and Jewish women gathered to learn from the nation’s leading scholars and activists on ways to combat bigotry and hate.

    Notable religious scholars like former president of the Islamic Society of North America Dr. Ingrid Matson was one of four keynotes for the event. Matson spoke about her heroes Hajar and Saffiyah and said: “Love doesn’t mean the absence of conflict, it means that despite that conflict, we will work together.” Author of the New York Times best-selling novel The Red Tent and Jewish Keynote Anita Diamant said: “Friendship is as essential as bread and as crucial as chocolate.”

    We have over a thousand women still on a waiting list and are expanding by the minute. We are not just a group anymore, we are a movement!

    Sheryl Olitzky, Executive Director

    A surprise appearance by Senator Corey Booker had the audience up on their feet, empowered by the courage to wage peace.

    “America is not a nation of tolerance but a nation of love,” said Booker.

    With several dozen breakout sessions, there was something for everyone. Workshop themes ranged from the action-packed self-defense moves by founding President of the Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment (WISE) Rana Abdelhamid to the introspective text studies of Director of Multifaith Studies and Initiatives Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer and Scholar of Islamic Studies Homayra Ziad of the Institute of Islamic, Christian and Jewish studies.

    Facilitator Sarah Aptilon of Kansas City conducted a workshop titled “Encountering ‘Us vs. Them’: How to Talk to a Bigot” on how to address those within or outside of our own communities whom we consider to be closed-minded in some way — the server who makes an offhand racist joke, the argumentative friend, the stranger whose comments you overhear at the gym, the relative who makes offensive remarks at the holidays.

    Aptilon says, “I was inspired by the experiences that participants shared. They described what had and hadn’t worked for them. Our discussion confirmed that arguing and presenting facts isn’t usually effective, while listening deeply, asking questions and sharing personal stories can work in subtle but powerful ways.”

    Professor and co-founder of the Sisterhood Atiya Aftab, Esq., conducted a workshop on “What You Wanted to Know About Judaism and Islam and Were Afraid to Ask” with Rabbi Shira Stern.  

    Women from over 26 different states and the District of Columbia attended this year’s event with many of them taking to social media to memorialize the event with photos and videos. Manika Patel of Austin, Texas, wrote, “What an amazing weekend I had at the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom 4th annual conference in Morristown, NJ this weekend. Making new lifelong friends from all across the US, listening to some amazing and inspiring speakers, I can’t wait to see what wonderful things you ladies are going to do in the Sisterhood for 2018.” 

    Board President Donna Cephas spoke about the power of each of our Sisters to reach many others, to create deep interfaith relationships and to initiate change through waging peace. “Our movement now includes young women leading their own Teenage Chapters.”

    The day-long event culminated in a panel discussion moderated by American comedian and host of SiriusXM Progress The Dean Obeidallah Show, the only daily national radio show hosted by a Muslim American. Panelists included author of the recently released Adnan’s Story Rabia Chaudry, founder of Ms. magazine Letty Cottin Pograbin, founding President of the Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment (WISE) Rana Abdelhamid and the Executive Director of the Sisterhood Sheryl Olitzky.

    When asked what was her hope for the future of the organization, Olitzky said: “when we are no longer needed.”  

    If membership growth is any indication, they are a long way from reaching that goal. The tripling of Sisterhood Chapters and their online communities reflect a burning need to continue this work.

    “We have over a thousand women still on a waiting list and are expanding by the minute. We are not just a group anymore, we are a movement!” says Olitzky.

    Media Contact:​
    ​Sheryl Olitzky​
    Phone: 609-306-1221​
    ​Email: sheryl@sosspeace.org

    Source: Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom

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  • Democratic Reforms Underway in Sudan With Eyes Set on Washington, According to CMPImedia

    Democratic Reforms Underway in Sudan With Eyes Set on Washington, According to CMPImedia

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    Testing the outcome of a three-year-long national dialogue among 107 political parties and movements in the East African country of Sudan has begun with possible shocks to the political system

    Press Release
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    updated: May 15, 2017


    New York, NY, May 15, 2017 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Ongoing political reforms in the East African country of Sudan are set to shift the political landscape of the region in historic proportions, even as analysts caution that the country could slide into a one-party rule with potential consequences of groupthink and absence of opposition.

    In separate interviews with visiting American journalists in Khartoum, the Vice President, Engr. Ibrahim M. Hamid, and Foreign Affairs Minister, Prof. Ibrahim Ghandour, outlined measures to change the political environment in a country eager to warm up its relationship with Washington after 20 years of economic sanctions set to end in July.

    “I think this is the largest inclusivity in the history of Sudan and largest government formation in the country.”

    Prof. Ibrahim Ghandour, Foreign Affairs Minister

    Apparently acknowledging the historic nature of this reform, Hamid remarked that the ruling party approved a two-term limit for office holders as part of the change to rewrite the political future of a region notorious for seat-tight leaders where political figures are forced out of office either by death or uprising. It is believed that the political reforms taking place in a region that witnessed the Arab Spring could be a strategic move to broaden the political space for more participation and transparency.

    Engr. Hamid maintained that, going forward, at least 50% of its leadership must be composed of new leaders at all times, thereby paving the way for youths and women to join the political process. “Now we have 60% new leaders and at least 30% are women. Even in the parliament, 30% are women in the central government in Khartoum and in all 18 States of the country,” he stated.

    Foreign Minister Ghandour described the current political experiment in Sudan as unprecedented and the most ambitious participatory government in the region. “One of the ways that have been used properly is inclusion, and this is why the national dialogue came into existence almost 3 years ago by the decision of the president in 2014 involving 107 political parties and movements talking to each other for almost two years and agreeing on recommendations that ceded 900 accommodations of issues of concern from politics to economy to governance to foreign policy,” the top diplomat stated.

    He spoke of the nexus between a country’s domestic policy and foreign policy, stressing that the Bashir administration in Khartoum was determined to forge peace within the country and also with South Sudan government in what he phrased as the “price of peace.”

    In the words of Sudan’s top diplomat “… for the price of peace, it has been too high to have part of the country to be lost and part of the people created a new country, and we continue talking to the rebels, including the people of Darfur,” as exemplified in the Abuja, Doha, and Addis Ababa rounds of talks.

    Ghandour, who displayed apparent mastery of his job, spoke of the strategic importance of Sudan in the restoration of peace and security in the region and emphasized the shared bond among countries in the horn of Africa.

    Source: CMPImedia

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  • Spreading the Way to Happiness to the People of Honduras

    Spreading the Way to Happiness to the People of Honduras

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    Retired army veteran Jason Martin recently visited La Ceiba, Honduras, where he distributed copies of The Way to Happiness to those in need.

    Press Release
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    Sep 29, 2016


    La Ceiba, Honduras, September 29, 2016 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Retired army veteran Jason Martin traveled from Nashville, Tennessee, to Honduras to complete construction of a house for missionaries, doctors and advisers. But as valuable as this project was, his trip soon turned into something even more meaningful.

    The World Bank lists Honduras as one of the poorest, most vulnerable countries in the world, with 63 percent living in poverty. Unable to eke out a living, many resort to crime.

    The Honduras murder rate rivals the worst on Earth, driven by street gangs who move U.S.-bound cocaine through the country from South America. In fact, less than 200 miles from La Ceiba, the city of San Pedro Sula was dubbed “murder capital of the world” in 2014 and is still among the worst cities on the list today.

    “I decided I wanted to share The Way to Happiness with those living in poverty-stricken circumstances,” says Martin.

    Familiar with the booklet from his studies at the Church of Scientology Nashville, he picked up copies as a way to help the La Ceiba community.

    The Way to Happiness is a commonsense moral code, written in 1981 by humanitarian and Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. As described on The Way to Happiness website, “This code of conduct can be followed by anyone, of any race, color or creed and works to restore the bonds that unite humankind.”

    Its precepts include practical know-how on reducing crime and improving conditions in life.

    Martin distributed the booklets, but ran into many who could not read. So he took things a step further by setting up a small group where precepts were read aloud. The group then discussed them, so all could achieve full understanding of what they contain.

    In the three decades since the booklet was authored it has sparked a global movement, with 115 million copies of the booklet passed hand to hand in 186 nations.

    For more information visit The Way to Happiness website.

    Source: Church of Scientology International

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