Category Archives: Europe

Madrid: World Forum Against Violence and for Peace Education

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . .

Excerpts from the websites of United Cities and Local Governments and Madrid – Capital de Paz

The World Forum Against Violence and for Peace Education will take place in Madrid on 19-21 April 2017. The World Forum in Madrid, will gather mayors and international leaders to a meeting point that will enable an exchange of experiences, strategies, campaigns and policies. The World Forum will also strive to issue an effective peace agenda from a local perspective.

OBJECTIVES

– Analysis of the causes of violence

– Identification and and exchange of experiences.

– Proposal of specific actions in the fields of mediation and conflict resolution

– Suggestion of peace building policies, programmes and projects.

– Approval of the “Commitment to peace against urban violence”

FORUM OFFICE

Address: Ayuntamiento de Madrid – Palacio de Cibeles – c/ Montalbán nº 1 – 28014
Email: r.institucionales@madrid.es
Phone number: 0034-915881488

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(Click here for a Spanish version of this article)

Question related to this article:

 

How can culture of peace be developed at the municipal level?

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ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Madrid City Council –coordinator-

Paris City Council

Barcelona City Council

United Cities and Local Governments ‐CGLU

UCCI (Union of IberoAmerican Capitals)

United Nations Agencies

AIPAZ ( Spanish Association of Investigation for Peace)

COMMISSION OF CONTRIBUTING ENTITIES

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation

Mayors for Peace

Educating Cities

FEMP (Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces)

ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives)

SEGIB (Secretaría General Iberoamericana)

House of America

House of Asia

House of Africa

(Thanks to the Global Campaign for Peace Education for making us aware of this article).

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Europe

200 legal scholars back right to boycott Israel

.DISARMAMENT & SECURITY. .

An article by Ali Abunimah from the Electronic Intifada

More than 200 European legal scholars have signed a statement affirming that the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian freedom, justice and equality represents “a lawful exercise of freedom of expression.”

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) is welcoming the statement as “a major blow to Israel’s repressive legal war” against the movement.

“This momentous statement by European jurists not only vindicates BDS human rights defenders who have insisted that BDS is protected free speech,” said the BNC’s Europe campaigns coordinator Riya Hassan. “It will undoubtedly add a crucial layer of legal protection for European BDS networks and citizens in their efforts to end European complicity in Israel’s regime of oppression, especially in military trade and research, banking and corporate involvement in Israel’s violations of international law.”

The BNC notes that the signatories include world-renowned legal figures, including South African jurist John Dugard, who serves as a judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague; José Antonio Martín Pallín, an emeritus justice of Spain’s supreme court; British human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield; Lauri Hannikainen, member of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance and Géraud de la Pradelle, who led the civic inquiry into the involvement of France in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

While the jurists do not take a position for or against BDS, they say that “states that outlaw BDS are undermining this basic human right and threatening the credibility of human rights by exempting a particular state from the advocacy of peaceful measures designed to achieve its compliance with international law.”

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Question related to this article:

Presenting the Palestinian side of the Middle East, Is it important for a culture of peace?

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They point to France, the United Kingdom, Canada and various US states, where legislatures and executives “have adopted laws and taken executive action to suppress, outlaw and in some instances, criminalize the advocacy of BDS.”

By contrast, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, the European Union and even the US State Department have all recently affirmed that advocating for BDS is a protected right.

“States and organizations that view BDS as a lawful exercise of freedom of expression are correct,” the legal scholars say. “Whether one approves of the aims or methods of BDS is not the issue. The issue is whether in order to protect Israel an exception is to be made to the freedom of expression that occupies a central and pivotal place among fundamental human rights.”

“The right of citizens to advocate for BDS is part and parcel of the fundamental freedoms protected by the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights,” signatory Robert Kolb, a professor of international law at the University of Geneva and a former legal adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Swiss foreign ministry, said in a statement from the BNC.

“No government ever attempted to outlaw or criminalize the anti-apartheid movement for advocating boycott, disinvestment or sanctions to compel South Africa to abandon its racist policies,” Dugard said. “BDS should be seen as a similar movement and treated accordingly.”

The legal scholars join hundreds of European human rights organizations and civil society groups that have called on governments to end repression of Palestine solidarity activism.

Speaking on behalf of the BNC, Ingrid Jaradat welcomed the statement as “a defining moment in the struggle against Israel’s patently repressive legal war on the BDS movement for Palestinian rights.”

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Europe

A Visit to Russia for “Life Extension” of the Planet

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article by Brian Terrell in World Without War (abbreviated)

[In October] I was in Moscow, Russia, as part of a small delegation representing Voices for Creative Nonviolence from the United States and United Kingdom. Over the next 10 days in Moscow and St. Petersburg, we saw nothing of the massive preparations for war there that are being reported in the Western media. We saw no sign of and no one we spoke to knew anything about the widely reported evacuation of 40 million Russians in a civil defense drill. “Is Putin preparing for WW3?” asked one U.K. tabloid on October 14: “Following a breakdown in communication between the USA and Russia, the Kremlin organized the huge emergency practice drill – either as a show of force or something more sinister.” This drill turned out to be an annual review that firefighters, hospital workers and police routinely conduct to evaluate their capacities to manage potential natural and manmade disasters.

russia

Over the past years I have visited many of the world’s major cities and Moscow and St. Petersburg are the least militarized of any I’ve seen. Visiting the White House in Washington, DC, for example, one cannot miss seeing uniformed Secret Service agents with automatic weapons patrolling the fence line and the silhouettes of snipers on the roof. In contrast, even at Red Square and the Kremlin, the seat of the Russian government, only a few lightly armed police officers are visible. They seemed mainly occupied with giving directions to tourists.

Traveling on the cheap, lodging in hostels, eating in cafeterias and taking public transportation is a great way to visit any region and it gave us opportunities to meet people we would not otherwise have met. We followed up on contacts made by friends who had visited Russia earlier and we found ourselves in a number of Russian homes. We did take in some of the sights, museums, cathedrals, a boat ride on the Neva, etc., but we also visited a homeless shelter and offices of human rights groups and attended a Quaker meeting. On one occasion we were invited to address students in a language school in a formal setting, but most of our encounters were small and personal and we did more listening than talking.

I am not sure that the term “Citizen Diplomacy” can be accurately applied to what we did and experienced in Russia. Certainly the four of us, me from Iowa, Erica Brock from New York, David Smith-Ferri from California and Susan Clarkson from England, hoped that by meeting Russian citizens we could help foster better relations between our nations. On the other hand, as much as the term suggests that we were acting even informally to defend or explain our governments’ actions, interests and policies, we were not diplomats. We did not go to Russia with the intention of putting a human face on or in any way justifying our countries’ policies toward Russia. There is a sense, though, that the only genuine diplomatic efforts being made between the U.S. and NATO countries at this time are citizen initiatives like our own little delegation. What the U.S. State Department calls “diplomacy” is actually aggression by another name and it is questionable whether the U.S. is capable of true diplomacy while it surrounds Russia with military bases and “missile defense” systems and carries out massive military maneuvers near its borders.

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Question(s) related to this article:

Solidarity across national borders, What are some good examples?

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I am conscious of the need to be humble and not to overstate or claim any expertise. Our visit was less than two weeks long and we saw little of a vast country. Our hosts reminded us continually that the lifestyles and views of Russians outside their country’s largest cities might be different from theirs. Still, there is so little knowledge of what is going on in Russia today that we need to speak the little we have to offer.

While we heard a wide variety of views on many crucial issues, there seems to be a consensus among those we met about the impossibility of a war between Russia and U.S./NATO. The war that many of our politicians and pundits see clearly on the horizon as inevitable is not only unlikely, it is unthinkable, to the Russian people we talked with. None of them thinks that our countries’ leaders would be so crazy as to allow the tensions between them to bring us to a nuclear war.

In the United States, Presidents Bush and Obama are often credited for “fighting the war over there so we don’t have to fight it here.” In St. Petersburg we visited the Piskaya Memorial Park, where hundreds of thousands of the one million victims of the German’s siege of Leningrad are buried in mass graves. In World War II, more than 22 million Russians were killed, most of these civilians. Russians, more than Americans, know that the next world war will not be fought on a faraway battlefield.

Russian students laughed at the joke, “If the Russians are not trying to provoke a war, why did they put their country in the middle of all these U.S. military bases?” But I ruefully told them that due to our nation’s professed exceptionalism, many Americans would not see the humor in it. Rather, a double standard is considered normal. When Russia responds to military maneuvers by the U.S. and its NATO allies on its borders by increasing its defense readiness inside its borders, this is perceived as a dangerous sign of aggression. This summer in Poland, for example, thousands of U.S. troops participated in NATO military maneuvers, “Operation Anakonda” (even spelled with a “k,” an anaconda is a snake that kills its victim by surrounding and squeezing it to death) and when Russia responded by augmenting its own troops inside Russia, this response was regarded a threat. The hyped up proposition that Russia might be conducting civil defense drills raises suspicion that Russia is preparing to launch World War III. Yet, a practice run, dropping mock nuclear bombs in Nevada, is not viewed in the West “as a show of force or something more sinister,” but only as an indication of a “commitment to ensure all weapon systems are safe, secure, and effective.”

The life extension of our planet needs to be a universal goal. To speak of, let alone pour a nation’s wealth into a program of “life extension programs for weapon systems” is nothing short of madness. Our Russian friends’ confidence in our collective sanity and the steadiness of our leadership, especially in the wake of the recent election, is a great challenge. I am grateful to new friends for the warmth and generosity of their welcome and I hope to visit Russia again before long. As important and satisfying as these “citizen diplomatic” encounters are, however, we must honor these friendships through active resistance to the arrogance and exceptionalism that might lead the U.S. to a war that could destroy us all.

Europe, FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

The International Society Culture of Peace: Solidarity concerts in Athens and Mytilini / Lesbos

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

Information taken from the website of The international Society Culture of Peace

Together with Greek refugee initiatives, trade unions and peace groups, the international Society Culture of Peace, based in Germany, is organizing solidarity concerts in Athens and Lesbos to support refugee relief efforts and peace initiatives.

zierock

Here are the programmes in Athens and Lesbos.



Programme Athens



Tuesday, 1st November 2016, 21.00h, City Plaza Hotel,
St. Acharnon 78 and Katrivanou, Athens, 104 34
Solidarity and Peace-Concert with the Afghan singers Shekib Mosadeq and
Masoud Hasanzada from Kabul/Germany. Greek music from MikisTheodorakis-Ensemble
with participation of the Peace delegation from Syria.



Wednesday, 2nd November 2016, Visits and concerts in other refugee camps in Athens
3nd November, Departure to Lesbos



Programme in Mytilene/Lesbos:



Friday, 4th November 2016, Visit of the refugee camps around Mytilene.
19.30h, Hotel Lesvion, Mytilene, “Refugee crisis or Political Crisis ?”,
Public discussion about causes of flight. With the peace delegation from
Syria, Heike Hänsel, (Member of German Parliament), Leo Gabriel
(Journalist, Austria), Members of the local community and Siniparxi in Mytilene.
Moderation by Henning Zierock (Society Culture of Peace),
Music by the Afghan singers Shekib Mosadeq, Masoud Hasanzada.
Songs from Mikis Theodorakis



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Question for this article:

The refugee crisis, Who is responsible?

How can there be a political solution to the war in Syria?

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Press meeting:
Saturday, 5th November 2016, 11.00h in the Hotel Lesvion, Mytilene
14.00h Manifestation, Sappho Square, “Overcoming the causes of flight –
We must win peace not war!” with international speakers and music.
Center of Mytilene, “Message from the Sea” , by boat.



Sunday 6th November 2016 visit of historical places around Mytilene
12.00h, Monument of Liberty. March to the Port of Mytilene in
commemoration of the dead refugees in the Aegean Sea. Appeal from Lesbos
for a “Culture of Peace and new relation-ship between the peoples”



Contact: Henning Zierock, Gesellschaft Kultur des Friedens, Tel. 0049 172 7406310
email: info@kulturdesfriedens.de, www.kulturdesfriedens.de



Monday, 7th November, 18.00h at the Press Center ESIEA (organized by
www.peaceinsyria.org ) with participation of leading members of the
 Syrian Civil Society,Contakt: Leo Gabriel, email:lgabriel@gmx.net



Panel discussion
”TOWARDS PEACE THROUGH A NEW CONSTITUTION IN SYRIA ?”
Given the humanitarian disaster in and around Syria and the failure of
the international community of States to produce a sustainable peace
some prominent members of the Syrian civil society got together in
Austria and elaborated the ground for a future constitutional process in
Syria.


In the context of a tour of concerts for the refugees in Greece
organized by the German based NGO Cultures of Peace the international
initiative www.peaceinsyria.org will present the results of this
conference in order to promote in Greece a Constitutional Assembly for
Syria in the upcoming months.


Speakers: Mouna Ghanem from Damascus, Madjoleen Hassan from Latakia,
Sheruan Hassan from Rojava, Evangelis Pissias from Greece and Leo
Gabriel from Austria.



Music by the Afghan singers Shekib Mosadeq, Masoud Hasanzada.
Songs from Mikis Theodorakis
Date and time: Monday, 7th November 2016 at 18.00h
Place: ESIEA (Trade Union of Journalists); Akadimias Str. No 20 (Metro
Syntagma) Athens

(Thank you to Henning Zierock for sending this to CPNN)

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Europe

Swiss ban new nuclear reactors

. .. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT .. .

A blog by Craig Morris in Energy Transition – The German Energiewende

Another setback for the “nuclear renaissance”: Switzerland voted on Friday to focus more on renewables and efficiency. For the first time ever, new nuclear plants are officially off the table—though admittedly, none were planned. The Swiss just “adopted the Energiewende,” writes the Neue Züricher Zeitung. Is no one paying attention? Craig Morris has the details.

swiss
The sun sets on the Leibstadt nuclear power plant, as seen from Dörflingen, Switzerland (Photo by Hansueli Krapf, edited, CC BY-SA 3.0)
(Click on image to enlarge)

Now here’s a news item you probably haven’t heard, at least judging from what I can gather on the internet: Switzerland’s new Energy Act (Energiegesetz, PDF) of 30 September 2016. You would think that, given its scope and Switzerland’s central role in Europe’s power sector, the following contents would have warranted a mention at, say, Reuters, CNN, Bloomberg, and Co.:

* The generation of non-hydro renewable power is to grow from 1.7 TWh last year (PDF in German and French) to 4.4 TWh by 2020 and 11.4 TWh by 2035 (nearly tenfold).

* “Per capita energy consumption” is to shrink by 16 percent from 2000 to 2020 and by 43 percent by 2035. “Per capita” is an important caveat in a small country whose population can easily grow quickly. (Switzerland’s is up around 10 percent over the past decade, like even smaller Norway’s.) Unfortunately, the law does not specify the most important aspect here: final or primary energy?

* Power consumption is to drop by 3 percent by 2020 and 13 percent by 2035.

* The law also, confusingly, speaks of “expanding” hydropower to 37.4 TWh by 2035 – even though it came in at 39.5 TWh last year. (If any readers know how to dissect this, please drop us a comment below.)

* It amends the 2003 Nuclear Energy Act (here’s the old one) to ban permits for new nuclear reactors. It also bans the reprocessing and export of spent fuel rods for reprocessing (except for research purposes with the consent of the Bundesrat). And “changes may not be made to existing nuclear plants.”

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Question for this article:

Are we making progress in renewable energy?

Is there a future for nuclear energy?

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There’s a lot more in the law, much of which deals with the policy mechanisms (level of feed-in tariffs, etc.). But what’s above is a real breakthrough. So why has it gone unreported in English?

One reason may be that a referendum could change everything, as the Swiss press explains (in German). But the report also suggests there is little support for such a referendum in industry, so the referendum may not even take place; in other words, the Swiss business world is happier with renewables and efficiency than with old-school energy production, consumption, and waste.

Another referendum will be held on 27 November 2016: the one for a closure of the existing reactors (in German). It does not necessarily stand a good chance of passing; parliamentarians overwhelmingly reject it (it’s an idea of the Swiss Greens). On the other hand, a recent survey of the public revealed support for a total phaseout by 2029 (basically, a limited service life of 45 years per reactor). This idea may have as much as 58 percent public support (in German)—possibly another example of politicians out of touch with the people. The first reactor to be shut down would then go offline in 2019. Leibstadt, the youngest, would be the last to go in 2029.

Opponents of the phaseout referendum will reportedly not try to reject the idea of a nuclear phaseout outright. Instead, they will try to win over the “silent majority” of undecided voters in the middle of the political spectrum by simply arguing that setting a specific date or service life for all reactors makes no sense. This clever tactic is likely to succeed, but a quick comparison with the historic debate in Germany over a nuclear phaseout suggests something less savory for nuclear supporters. Remember that slippery slope? By the time you resort to the tactic of “setting a date for a phaseout makes no sense,” you have reached the bottom of it. There is no way back up the slope for nuclear at that point.

Oddly, the Swiss press outlets all report that the new law is part of the government’s “Energy Strategy 2050” even though “2050” is never even mentioned in the new Act. This law is in fact just a starting point. By the end of this year, we will probably know what direction the country is headed.

One wonders when the international media will catch on. Maybe never—or did you know that Switzerland implemented a nuclear phaseout (by 2034) in the wake of Fukushima back in 2011?

Craig Morris (@PPchef) is the lead author of German Energy Transition. He is co-author of Energy Democracy, the first history of Germany’s Energiewende, and is currently Senior Fellow at the IASS.

Europe, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

UK: Stop the War Conference

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

Excerpts from the website of the Stop the War Coalition

Last weekend’s Stop the War conference was a big success. It attracted around 700 people who came together to discuss the wars which have raged for 15 years across Asia and the Middle East. It contained people who were involved in Stop the War from the very beginning, as well as young people from very diverse backgrounds. Speakers included trade union representatives, international guests, campaigners over drones and nuclear weapons and of course the Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn.

stopwar
Photo credit: Justin Tallis/reportdigital.co.uk
(Click on image to enlarge)

At the conference on 8 October, the following Anti-War Charter was adopted:

After fifteen years of catastrophe it is time to end Britain’s involvement in wars of aggression. While the electoral choices look bleak in the US, we have the opportunity to send an anti-war message around the world by committing to a sharp change in direction, including an end to new interventions and a withdrawal of troops from the Middle East, Central Asia and beyond.

1)  An end to foreign policy based on Washington’s global ambitions or on a junior imperial role for Britain.

2)  Recognition of the illegality of wars for regime change and the rights of peoples to self-determination and to oppose foreign occupations.

3)  No war by executive decision of the cabinet.

4)  Action to be taken against those found to have misled parliament and the people in the run up to the Iraq War by the Chilcot report, and a recognition that the series of foreign wars have made the world a more dangerous place.

5)  Withdrawal of all British troops, including special forces from Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries.

6)  Opposition to all military interventions and an effort to end the war in Syria rather than escalate.

7)  An independent investigation into Britain’s involvement in extraordinary rendition during the War on Terror.

8)  An end to military support and arms sales to countries involved in foreign military aggression or domestic repression, including Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

9)  An immediate initiative to de-escalate tension with Russia, including the withdrawal of all British troops from Eastern Europe and the Baltic, and opposition to the Eastward expansion of NATO.

10)  Freedom for Palestine and an end to illegal settlements and the siege of Gaza.

After fifteen years of catastrophe it is time to end Britain’s involvement in wars of aggression. While the electoral choices look bleak in the US, we have the opportunity to send an anti-war message around the world by committing to a sharp change in direction, including an end to new interventions and a withdrawal of troops from the Middle East, Central Asia and beyond.

Question related to this article:
DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Europe

Berlin: World Congress of International Peace Bureau: Opening Speech

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

Speech by Ingeborg Breines to International Peace Bureau

Excellencies, peace activists, honorable women and men, friends. Good evening and thank you for being here – and thank you to Arja Saijonmaa and the Berlin Metropol Orchestra for the wonderful music and song. We are lucky, and will hear more to them later.

More than thousand people have registered for this congress and we know that thousands more would have loved to come. We also know that several thousands are with us in the struggle for a world without war, the struggle to make WAR a thing of the past, something unheard of, something obsolete that humanity only in its infancy could think of.

IPB

So we are here to sharpen our non-violent tools, to deepen our understanding and strengthen our cooperation and friendship, so as to be that peace force for a transformative shift presenting alternatives to the insane, dangerous and naïve thinking that inequality, injustice, insecurity and marginalization can be solved by military means. We must develop together the strategies to stop this basically imperialistic thinking that if you want peace, you have to prepare for war. This old fashioned patriarchal way of insisting on the importance of having strong muscles and being militarily strong, is just a sign of moral and creative weakness. If we want peace, and most women and most men do, then we have to prepare for peace and use our financial and intellectual resources accordingly.

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Question related to this article:

How can the peace movement become stronger and more effective?

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Excessive military expenditures not only represent a theft from those who are hungry and suffer, but are also an ineffective means of obtaining human security and a culture of peace. Substantial reductions in military costs would eliminate the crushing poverty whereby nearly one third of humanity lives in insufferable conditions, a majority being women, children and young people. We need to move the money from the military sector and instead tackle the real security issues such as the threat to the very survival of the planet and humanity, be it by climate change, nuclear weapons or excessive inequality. We suggest that all countries reduce their military spending by 10% per year over the 15 years of the UN Sustainable Development Agenda. Although it will not change any power imbalance, it would go a very long way in meeting the needs and aspirations of people. Since one year military spending equals about 615 years of the UN annual budget, such a reduction in military costs would also strengthen the United Nations’ efforts and possibilities to “ save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”.

Rich and poor states alike seem to be pressured into arms races, spending more on armament than they need and can afford. To continue a process of militarization, often outside democratic control, that mainly serves the arms producers and dealers and even brings corruption is a dangerous path that will not bring hope to young people in desperation but may lead into extremism.

There is no way to justify war, killing and suffering. In IPB’s own words, we have to choose between warfare or welfare. We have only this one very unique and beautiful planet. The global climate change warrants urgent remedial actions and an holistic approach which again requires changing attitudes and rethinking of unsustainable and destructive production and consumption patterns.

The path of confrontational policies and accompanying militarization that we are on, is not leading us ahead. So let us create “an active disgust for war” to use Bertha von Suttner’s wording and create the world we want based on the vision and the principles of a culture of peace so well described by UNESCO.

Finally, allow me to share with you an encouragement that former president Gorbachev gave to the peace movement at one of the Nobel Summits in Rome. He said that he would never have dared take the steps he did to end the cold war if it had not been for the urging of the strong peace movement.

Friends, we have work to do.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Europe

Poland: Women force historic U-turn on proposed abortion ban

. HUMAN RIGHTS .

An article from Amnesty International

The decision by Polish MP’s to reject a proposed amendment to their already restrictive abortion laws is a huge victory for women and girls, said Amnesty International.

“Women in Poland made history today [October 8]. This is a huge victory for the millions of women and girls who mobilized, showed their fury, and successfully blocked a law which would have taken away their rights and endangered their health,” said Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Europe.

Poland
“More hell for women!”
Click on image to enlarge

“Through standing up for their rights they have forced Poland’s normally intransigent government to reconsider further restrictions to an abortion law that is already one of the most restrictive in Europe.”

“We salute all the inspirational women and girls who stood in the rain, raised their voices and went on strike on Monday to stand up for their rights.’

“A woman who needs an abortion is not a criminal and decisions about her body and her health should never be placed in the hands of politicians.”

After yesterday’s hastily organised session, which most civil society organisations were unable to attend, the Parliamentary Committee rejected the bill and the Parliament’s plenary rejected it this morning as well.

Question related to this article:
Europe, HUMAN RIGHTS

UK: Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group sign Pledge to Peace

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article from Rochdale online

Representatives of Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group joined other groups from throughout Greater Manchester at the Civic Centre in Oldham on Monday (26 September) to sign the ‘Pledge to Peace’ (also known as the ‘Bruxelles Declaration’), a European project to promote the development of a culture of peace.

Rochdale
Rae Street from Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group (standing), Elaine Dutton Mayoress of Rochdale (sitting), Councillor Derek Heffernan Mayor of Oldham (sitting), Di Heffernan Mayoress of Oldham (sitting), Councillor Ray Dutton Mayor of Rochdale (sitting), Philip Gilligan Chair of Greater Manchester and District Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (standing), Steve Roman from Manchester Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (sitting) and Linda Walker from Glossop Peace Group

Rae Street and Philip Gilligan were guests of the Mayor of Oldham, Councillor Derek Heffernan who became the first mayor in Greater Manchester to sign the Pledge on behalf of his council. He, like Rochdale’s mayor, Ray Dutton, who also attended the event, is a member of Mayors for Peace which campaigns for the total abolition of nuclear weapons.

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said: “We are delighted that both Rochdale and Oldham now have a Mayor for Peace.

“Mayors for Peace is a crucial organisation with more than 7000 city leaders worldwide. Their programme launched by the Mayor of Hiroshima in 1982 promotes much needed solidarity among cities to campaign for a world freed from the threat of nuclear annihilation.”

For more information about Pledge to Peace, please see http://www.pledgetopeace.eu

For more information about Mayors for Peace, please see http://www.mayorsforpeace.org

Questions for this article:
DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Europe

Greece: Union pushes for access to education for all refugee children

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article from Education International (reprinted according to provisions of Creative Commons)

Confronted with a dramatic increase of refugees from neighbouring countries in conflict, the Greek Federation of Secondary State School Teachers is calling for solidarity to see that all children receive an education.

The Greek Federation of Secondary State School Teachers (OLME) President and General Secretary are urging the Greek Government to seek special funding to cover the costs of creating proper reception and accommodation centres for refugees. These centres are to provide food, health care, translation and legal services in decent living conditions. The OLME also asked the Government to ensure access to education for all children who will remain in Greece, adding that the necessary infrastructure and proper conditions should be provided for their smooth transition.

Greece
Photo © UN

A lost generation

The union’s call comes as a recent UNICEF report, ‘Education Under Fire,’ exposed the harsh reality facing refugees, in particular children. It stated that, due to the wars in the Middle East and North Africa, 13 million children have been left without access to education. In addition, 9,000 schools in the Middle East are not operating and about 700,000 refugee children do not attend school because the existing school facilities cannot accommodate the increased number of additional schoolchildren.

Since the Balkan states closed their borders in March, thousands of refugee children in Greece have had little or no access to education. Rights organisations have warned of a “lost generation” of refugee children missing out on education.

OLME: Call for solidarity and dialogue

“We invite the local teacher unions and the teachers to lead the way once again,” said the OLME leadership in its 18 September statement. “We invite them to show their solidarity to refugees and immigrants in a concrete manner by organising or joining actions that aim to provide all kinds of material and moral support to refugees. At the same time, we invite them to lead discussions within the school community aiming to make young people aware of the issues pertaining to refugees and immigrants. Racist perceptions and discrimination against refugees and immigrants have no place within the education system nor within the Greek society.”

In response, local teacher unions, schools, and students have undertaken various initiatives showing their solidarity towards refugees.

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(Click here for a French version of this article or here for a Spanish version)

Question for this article

The refugee crisis, Who is responsible?

(Article continued from left column)

Financial assistance

The OLME Executive Board has allocated funding to local teacher unions directly experiencing a higher influx of refugees; this funding is to be used to secure humanitarian aid. OLME intends to support mobilisations along with the people’s movement, to support every effort stemming either from schools or the wider social context to consolidate a society of freedom, equality and respect for human rights.

“Funding is key to the implementation of the above-mentioned educational plan,” said the OLME leadership. To date, €7 million has been used for the construction of host centres, training of teachers and teacher trainers, and the production of school textbooks. Moreover, €2.8 million is to be provided by the International Organisation for Migration to pay for children’s transportation to and from reception classes and school cleaning until December 2016.

Long-term plans

In addition, the Greek Ministry of Education hasdeveloped an induction programme for refugee children within the Greek formal educational system, addressing educational and pedagogical considerations. Of the 27,000 refugee children stranded in Greece, at least 18,000 are thought to be of school age. For the past seven months, children in camps have only had access to casual volunteer-run classes. The Ministry estimates that, towards end-September, the first reception classes will begin and other ‘regular’ classes will gradually follow, with thousands of refugee and migrant children being enrolled in Greek schools.

Meanwhile, teachers appointed to refugee reception classes and host centres for the education of refugees are receiving special training. Since the number of Greek teachers qualified to teach the children’s native languages is not sufficient, the Ministry has invited NGOs to contribute human resources.

The OLME is adamant, however, that this initial stage of reception classes should be followed by the integration of all refugee children within the mainstream school community.

EI refugee conference

Education International will be holding a conference, on the theme “Education of refugee children – Fast track to equal opportunities and integration” from 21-22 November in Stockholm, Sweden. This event will be a unique opportunity to showcase education unions’ work worldwide to ensure that refugee and migrant children get a proper education. It will also highlight unions’ efforts to ensure that refugee and migrant teachers receive good training and work and living conditions. And it will reaffirm that education is a human right of which nobody should be deprived, regardless of their circumstances.

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

Europe, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY