FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

Taken from Deutsche Welle (translated by CPNN)

The following is a chronology of the highlights of the peace process begun three years ago and culminating in March. The countdown starts from the expected date for the final signing.

Juan Manuel Santos shakes hands with Timochenko in Havana during the peace dialogus. Photo by Reuters

The Government of Colombia and the FARC negotiated in Havana, Cuba an accord to end the armed conflict after more than half a century that has cost the lives of 220,000 people, has left about 7 million victims, 62% of its territory affected by landmines and incalculable damage to the environment due to massive clearing for coca cultivation, illegal mining and attacks on the national pipeline.

Five points are on the table: agrarian reform, abandoning arms, political participation of the ex-insurgents, drug trafficking and reparation for victims. Additional agreements concern implementation, verification and countersignature of the accords.

2 0 1 6

March 23: Expected date for final signing of the peace process

January 13: The negotiating teams of the Government of Colombia and the FARC began the last stage of the peace talks, which will work in permanent session to accelerate the process and meet deadlines.

2 0 1 5

December 15: Agreement about victims including a comprehensive system for reparation, justice, truth and guarantees of non-repetition. This step was, according to President Juan Manuel Santos, “the most important advance in the negotiating agenda.”

November 22: The Colombian government announced pardon of 30 FARC prisoners in different jails for the crime of rebellion.

November 10: “Timoshenko”, spokesman of the FARC, announced that on September 30 he ordered all structures of the guerrillas to suspend arms purchases in order to reduce the intensity of the armed conflict.

October 28: President Santos said the government and the FARC can reach an agreement to start a bilateral ceasefire before January 1, 2016, to which the FARC suggest to start before Christmas.

October 23: The High Commissioner for Peace of Colombia, Sergio Jaramillo said the FARC promised to deliver remains of people who died when they were in their possession for which they have the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC ).

October 17: The government and the FARC announced an agreement to jointly seek more than 25,000 people who have been reported missing by various sources as a result of the armed conflict.

(article continued on the right side of the page)

(click here for the Spanish version of this article.)

What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

See the CPNN bulletin for September 1, 2015, concerning the Colombia Peace Process.

(article continued from the left side of the page)

October 10: FARC spokesman Timoshenko stated that the FARC must suspend recruitment in order to facilitate the peace process.

September 23: President Santos met in Havana with the FARC leader, Rodrigo Londoño, alias “Timoshenko”. They made an historic handshake and agreed that peace will be signed no later than March 23, 2016, after presentation of the basic agreement on justice.

September 15: The government presented to Congress a legislative bill to facilitate rapid implementation of peace agreements.

July 10: The negotiators announced a plan to reduce the intensity of the conflict and accelerate the achievement of agreements that allow reaching a bilateral and definitive cease-fire.

June 4: The parties agreed to the creation of a Truth Commission that will be launched when peace is signed.

March 7: The government and the FARC announced an agreement for joint humanitarian de-mining.

2014

December 17: The FARC announced an indefinite cease unilateral ceasefire starting on December 20.

August 16: A first group of twelve victims of armed conflict met with the negotiators, followed by another four groups totalling 60 people.

June 7: The government and the FARC announced that five delegations of victims would attending hearings with negotiators in Cuba over the coming months.

May 16: The Government and FARC reached an agreement on drug trafficking and illegal crops, the third item on the agenda.

2 0 1 3

May 26: The government and the FARC announced the first agreement of the negotiating agenda at the point of land and rural development.

August 20: The FARC acknowledged for the first time their “share of responsibility” for the casualties caused by the armed conflict.

November 6: The parties announced the second agreement of the five items on the agenda, political participation of the guerrillas.

2 0 1 2

October 17: Government negotiators and the FARC established in Oslo that the roundtable would begin in Havana the following month.

August 26: Start of negotiations for the final signing of the peace process. Government delegates and the FARC decided that Havana would be the host for negotiations towards a “General Agreement ending the conflict and building a stable and lasting peace” with the support of Cuba and Norway as guarantors.

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article by Suzy Scarton, Jornal do Comércio

From 19 to 23 January next year, Porto Alegre will host the 2016 Thematic Social Forum (TSF) which aims to address challenges and perspectives under the theme “another world is possible .” In addition to taking stock of the actions taken in the last decade and a half the event also celebrates the 15th anniversary of the first World Social Forum that was held in Porto Alegre in 2001. The opening march will be held on January 19, at 15h, from Glênio Peres.

Jonathan Heckler/JC

Topics of the meeting include the crisis of capitalism, domestic and international political context, youth participation, culture of peace, racism, Latin American integration, activism and how to combat xenophobia and homophobia. Mayor Jose Fortunati reaffirmed the importance of the event to consolidate ideas that can change the world. “Just changing the current system is enough to allow us to move forward,” he said yesterday to the social and trade union leaders who are organizing the event. He reiterated that the city will contribute to the organizational and structural support.

The activities will be carried out mainly in the old Gasometer factory, at the City Council, in the Park of Redenção, at the Legislative Assembly and in the plaza Zumbi dos Palmares. The Deputy Municipal Secretary for Local Government, Carlos Siegle added that while the guidelines have changed in the space of 15 years, “we need to reflect for a profound debate on the role of the citizen.”

Registration to participate in the forum is now open and can be made on the site www.forumsocialportoalegre.org.br.

The first forum in 2001 was considered a novelty in the international arena by its coordination capacity in the anti-capitalist struggle as well as for its radical policy proposals regarding social, economic and environmental issues. Among the guests this year will be former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva , former Uruguayan President Pepe Mujica, the writer and sociologist Manuel Castells Spanish, the Brazilian activist against violence to women Maria da Penha and the Pakistani activist and Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai.

(Click here for the original version in Portuguese.

Question related to this article.

World Social Forums, Advancing the Global Movement for a Culture of Peace?

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article by Emilio Godoy, Inter Press News Service (reprinted with permission) (abridged)

. . . The link between open data and projects that have an influence on local communities and the environment was one of the issues at the Open Government Partnership Global Summit held Oct. 27-29 in Mexico City. Taking part in the summit were representatives of governments and civil society and academics from the 65 countries participating in the Partnership, created in 2011 under the aegis of the United Nations. Of that total, 15 countries are from Latin America.

Alicia Bárcena, executive secretary of ECLAC, and other heads of international agencies discuss the need for greater transparency on the part of governments, during the Open Government Partnership Global Summit in Mexico City. Credit: ECLAC

During the summit’s forums and workshops, the delegates of organised civil society called for a strengthening of open data policies and faster progress towards compliance with Principle 10, which cannot happen unless there is movement towards total information openness.

It is common practice in the region for communities to be uninformed about the very existence of mining, oil, energy and other kinds of projects even when carried out in their immediate vicinity, as they are neither previously consulted nor given access to information. Permits and concessions are off their radar.

Countries in the region ratified the declaration on the application of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration, signed during the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012.

According to information shared by participants during the open government summit in Mexico, the question of the environment is limited to instructions to disseminate public consultations in the environmental impact assessment process in the Second Plan of Action on open data 2013-2015.

Currently, Mexico is collecting proposals to design a third, more ambitious, plan.

One of its key focuses is “natural resource governance”, which encompasses climate change, fossil fuels, mining, ecosystems, the right to a healthy environment, and water resources for human consumption.

For its part, Peru has been discussing since May a “strategy on openness and reuse of open government data” for the period 2015-2019, which would include environmental questions.

In August, Argentina presented the first part of its “second plan for open government 2015–2017”, which also fails to include major environmental considerations.

“The problem is severe; it is not enough to just be transparent,” said Carlos Monge, the representative in Peru of the U.S.-based non-governmental Natural Resource Governance Institute. “There is a question of timing. When do citizens need that information? After the fact?

“That’s a mistake. We need to think about how to make information available before decisions are reached, as well as information about the impact of those decisions,” he told IPS.

(Article continued in the right column)

Free flow of information, How is it important for a culture of peace?

(Article continued from the left column)

Monge complained that since 2014 countries like Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru have reformed their legislation to lower environmental standards, with the aim of drawing investment in the mining and oil industries, due to the drop in global demand for raw materials, one of the pillars of their economies.

The “Global Atlas of Environmental Justice” lists 480 environmental conflicts in 16 Latin American and Caribbean nations, related to activities like mining, fossil fuels, waste and water management, access to land and infrastructure development.

The initiative forms part of the European project “Environmental Justice Organizations, Liabilities and Trade” and is coordinated by the University of Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology and drawn up by experts from 23 universities and environmental justice organisations from 18 countries.

The majority of the disputes, the atlas says, are concentrated in Colombia (101), Brazil (64), Ecuador (50), Peru (38), Argentina (37) and Mexico (36).

When they are in the dark about infrastructure or mining or oil industry projects in their local surroundings, communities suffer what U.S. Professor Rob Nixon calls “slow violence” from environmental problems arising from the exploitation of natural resources, which generates conflicts and further impoverishes local populations.

Alicia Bárcena, executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), complained during the summit that local communities are not previously informed about extractive industry projects and said the region is not yet ready to meet open data requirements.

“It’s important for them to have information on concessions, contracts, impacts, revenue, consultations, so they are aware beforehand of the effects,” she told IPS.

The countries of this region agreed in November 2014 on the negotiation of a treaty on Principle 10, in a process facilitated by ECLAC, which is about to open a regional natural resource governance centre.

Tomás Severino, director of the Mexican NGO Cultura Ecológica. who is taking part in Mexico’s open data initiatives and in the Principle 10 regional negotiating process, stressed the need to modify laws to bring them into line with these schemes.

“We need participation and consultation mechanisms,” he said.

Monge cited two processes that he said should be given institutional structures. “Zoning and consultation imply the generation of a lot of information. If they want to carry out a project, the information on money, water and territory should be made transparent,” he said.

The first refers to zoning of residential, industrial or ecological areas, by the municipal authorities, and the second involves asking local populations whether or not they want a project to go ahead.

“Consultation is one of the most effective instruments. Principle 10 addresses it before a project is carried out,” Bárcena said.

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article.)

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

by Professor Alicia Cabezudo, Vice President of International Peace Bureau

 “The process of educating for peace must begin many years of listening to each other” – David Adams, Round Table on Community Education and Education for Peace.

On 1 and 2 October the “National Encounter for Peace Education” was held in Bogota to develop a strategy of information, reflection and building public awareness of the issues of peace in the present context. More than 600 people attended the event that started with a theatrical performance “Memoria, Manos a la Obra” [roughly: “Remembering – Hands on!”] which portrayed the challenge of transforming a country that has been many decades in armed conflict from the perspective of those [especially women] who have experienced it most intensely.

Scene from video of National Meeting for Education for Peace

The two-day meeting discussed the current context of peace, in the framework of the dialogue and agreements in Havana, the demands of educators, students, sectors and social movements, as well as the need for truth and reconciliation, in the context of education for peace.

At the meeting, teachers shared their knowledge and experiences on human rights education, citizenship skills, citizenship education, ethics education in relation to education for peace and on issues linked to inclusion, reparations and social reintegration from the perspective of those who have been victims. On the second day participants analyzed the progress and needs of education for peace at the regional level, in the context of national and regional education policies for peace. The discussions will be published as Proceedings of the Congress in the coming months.

Peace as a concept; education for peace and social construction of knowledge related to the field of non-violence are some of the issues that Professor Alicia Cabezudo shares in an interview with Coexistence Foundation as a contribution to the peace process that is taking place in Colombia.

(click here for the Spanish version of this article.)

What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?