Mayors for Peace – action priorities

. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION .

Communiqué de Press from the 9th Executive Conference of Mayors for Peace

In November 2015, 33 years after Mayors for Peace was established, the number of member cities has exceeded 6,900 from 161 countries and regions and continues to grow. Mayors for Peace has now grown into an influential global network that can impact international public opinion calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

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Photo from Sinotables

The 9th Executive Conference of Mayors for Peace was held on November 12 and 13, 2015 in Ypres, Belgium. The participating mayors and representatives from the executive cities shared their respective activities towards nuclear abolition and regarding other challenges that their regions face.

They also discussed how to address such pressing issues as poverty, refugees, and climate change as well as how to contribute to nuclear abolition, and resolved to take concrete action with determination, in accordance to Article 3 of the Mayors for Peace Covenant.

Based on its deliberations, this Executive Conference adopted the following seven action priorities:

The Hiroshima Secretariat will take over the 2020 Vision Campaign to further promote it in cooperation with the executive and lead cities on the foundation built up by the city of Ypres, aiming at nuclear abolition by 2020.

Intensified activities for Mayors for Peace based on the 2020 Vision were identified as follows:

1) Strategic projects to promote the start of negotiations for a nuclear weapons convention

i) Citizen outreach by member cities

– Raise awareness of the humanitarian consequences and risks posed by nuclear weapons

– Strengthen efforts to promote petition drives

(Communiqué continued in the right column)

Questions for this article:

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

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ii) Actions targeting national governments and policymakers

– Call on policymakers to visit the A-bombed cities

– Actions utilizing signatures and request letters

iii) Cooperative action with the United Nations

2) Concentrated activities to strengthen the Mayors for Peace management system

i) Expand membership

– We will strengthen recruitment efforts to reach 10,000 members by 2020.

ii) Conveying the A-bomb experience to future generations through youth exchanges

– We will promote youth exchanges among member cities, share the memories of the atomic bombings with the future generations, and strengthen the network of the executive cities. iii) Invite interns from member cities to the Hiroshima Secretariat

– To cultivate human resources that could help enhance Mayors for Peace activities, we will build up our intern program and strengthen the network of executive cities.

We will continue to facilitate such activities as distributing and cultivating seeds and seedlings of A-bombed trees, sharing the Flame of Peace, holding A-bomb poster exhibitions, screening animated films, providing A-bomb survivor testimonies through Skype, and promoting Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Study Courses.

We will remove the words “by 2015” included in Objective 3 of the 2020 Vision, and continue to call on national governments to work for nuclear abolition.

Along with our activities based on the 2020 Vision to eliminate nuclear weapons, we will address such pressing issues as poverty, refugees, and climate change, in accordance with Article 3 of the Mayors for Peace Covenant.

The next General Conference will be held in Nagasaki in August 2017. To reflect requests and proposals from member cities in the conference content, the Secretariat will conduct a survey of member cities in 2016 and will consider possible content based on the results.

We will send the Resolution adopted by the Executive Conference to the nuclear-weapon states and the United Nations, among others, as a consensus of Mayors for Peace, to urge them to accelerate the momentum for a legal ban of nuclear weapons.

We will send this Final Communiqué and the Resolution to all member cities.

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, global

African women organize to reclaim agriculture against corporate takeover

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY .

An interview with Mphatheleini Makaulele by Simone Adler and Beverly Bell, for Other Worlds Are Possible

Everybody originated with indigenous ways of living and the way of Mother Earth.

The real role of women is in the seed. It is the women who harvest, select, store, and plant seeds. Our seeds come from our mothers and our grandmothers. To us, the seed is the symbol of the continuity of life. Seed is not just about the crops. Seed is about the soil, about the water, and about the forest.

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Women organizing as Dzomo la Mupo. Photo courtesy of Mphathe Makaulele.

When we plant our seeds, we don’t just plant them anytime or anywhere. We listen to our elders, who teach us about the ecological calendar. The seed follows this natural ecological flow. When it bears another seed, that one is planted and the cycle continues.

If you cut the cycle of the seed, you cut the cycle of life. We do not understand how something [like genetically modified and chemically treated seeds] can be called seeds if they cannot continue the cycle of life.

In South Africa, we know there is a freedom of plants to germinate and grow. People are now awakened to the word GMO, and many people are trying to bring forward the issue of food sovereignty.

Here in Limpopo Province, in the indigenous region of Vhavenda, we are organized as the Dzomo la Mupo, the Voice of the Earth. I founded it in 2008. The meaning of mupo is the natural creation of the universe, giving space to every being on the Earth. We have led several campaigns to protect our environment, including campaigns against the Australian mining company Coal of Africa, court cases against development on sacred sites, and registering sacred forests as protected areas under the South African Heritage Resources Agency.

The African Biodiversity Network (ABN), [a regional network of individuals and organizations across twelve countries], is also looking at the issues facing Africa, women, and traditional agricultural practice. The ABN works toward deepening these values and is becoming a big voice in Africa and across the world. The ABN is a home for reviving African values of biodiversity, indigenous practices that bring us health, and traditional farming systems.

I live in an environment of mountains, dense forest, and fertile soil. Our mothers, they selected seed from the previous harvest, which they would plant. We had a way of growing seasonal food and of storing seed from season to season.

Mining is wrongly threatening our water, soil, mountains, and seed and food sovereignty. The government is allowing mining in our soil and the dense, thick mountains, including in tropical areas with good soil and pure water. We need to dialogue about the alternatives to save the forest, rivers, plants, everything in mupo, the Earth.

Commercial farming has dominated traditional farming and food sovereignty, too. It looks only at money as the end product. The seeds depend on chemicals and don’t grow following the ecological, natural flow. Chemical seeds and fertilizers make the soil dry like a crust, like plywood. Our soil is damaged and dry. Our natural seeds that germinated on their own no longer grow in that soil. And this problem is causing the loss of natural foods and traditional farming systems, making our food sovereignty vanish.

(Interview continued in right column)

Questions for this article:

Can the women of Africa lead the continent to peace?

(Interview continued from left column)

When the soil is damaged, when the forest no longer has trees to pick fruit from, it affects women first. In Africa, most women are not employed. Our income is the soil where I can grow food, the forest with trees where I can harvest wild, organic fruits, the stream and river where I can fetch clean, pure water. Globally, women who are not employed or educated are experiencing the problem of where to get food and eat the way we have been for generations.

Now, people are depending only on markets [for the food we eat] because their fields are no longer producing natural food, and they have to buy everything, including seeds, resulting in hunger and poverty. People no longer touch the soil for their food; they find the same frozen and packed food in the same shelf in every season.

Not only is this causing a loss of seed and food sovereignty globally, but we women of indigenous ways know that health is affected by the food we eat. We need variety in food. But going to the store year-round and not finding our natural [and seasonal] foods affects our family’s health.

When children and family members are sick, this impacts women first. Women can no longer find the herbs in the forest to cure their sickness because the trees are being cut down and the soil can no longer let the seeds and plants germinate for us to pick the wild greens.

Still, traditional farming is practiced in rural areas, such as -Mahayani in Vhavenda, where there are elder women who have the ancestral knowledge of growing food.

The alternative is to bring back the role of the woman. Young women and girls have to reconnect to the soil and fields of our grandmothers, the forest near our homes, and the indigenous local seeds. Every woman needs to reconnect to the soil. Women also have to teach young girls and young women about seed and food sovereignty and the importance of soil because they’re the ones who will remain to pass that on.

Women are the alternative. We need to revive our technical methods [of farming] through permaculture or agroecology. Even though the soil has been damaged by chemical fertilizers and chemical seeds, there is opportunity to rebuild, harvest, compost, and work the soil to become alive again.

The women of Dzomo la Mupo are bringing food sovereignty to their families. In our home gardens, called muse, and our fields called tsimu, we teach children that food comes from soil, not the market shelves.

Women listen to the ecological calendar and know the seasons for planting, when to select [certain] seeds, and which will produce food. This is the knowledge of women all over the world. Children no longer know about the ecological calendar. What is the future for if we give that up? If we don’t talk about this as women, who will understand?

Women have to fight against the complete destruction of the nearby fields, mountains, and rivers so we can again eat the wild fruit and seasonal food. We are the ones who should defend the remaining indigenous forests from vanishing. Women need to fill the role of talking about [and acting on] the threats to a healthy future generation.

Note: Mphatheleini Makaulele is an award-winning indigenous leader, farmer, and activist, and Director of Dzomo la Mupo, a community organization in rural South Africa. She is also part of the African Biodiversity Network.

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

Africa, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

Retreat of the Pan-African Network of the Wise

. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION .

An article by Mussie Hailu, African Continental Coordinator of United Religions Initiative (URI)

Dear Colleagues,

Greetings of peace and blessing from URI-Africa.

This is to inform you that URI Africa took part at the retreat of the Pan-African Network of the Wise (PanWise) under the theme of “SILENCING GUNS BY 2020.”

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The retreat was organized by the African Union (AU), in collaboration with the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD). The meeting brought together the AU Panel of the Wise, AU Special Envoys and High-Level Representatives, the Council of Elders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Mediation Reference Group and the Panel of Elders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the Committee of Elders of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). The Intergovernmental Authority for Development’s (IGAD) Mediation Contact Group as well as the secretariats of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the East African Community (EAC), Union of Maghreb States (UMA) and the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CENSAD) participated in the Retreat.

In line with the mandate and spirit of PanWise, African national mediators, individual mediators and institutions engaged in mediation activities at national and sub-national levels (such as national ombudsmen, local councils of elders, pastoralist mediators, from groups including the African Insider Mediators Platform – AIMP, and women and youth representatives, among others) also participated in the retreat.

The Retreat was organized in accordance with the decision of the Assembly of the Union of 26 May 2013 to establish the Pan-African Network of the Wise (PanWise), which is a continental network of individuals, mechanisms and institutions committed to conflict prevention and mediation. Such engagements are encouraged to promote the functional inclusion of “bottom-up approaches” to mediation in continental and regional mediation efforts, create opportunity for collaboration on joint activities, cement partnerships, and expand the ownership of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) to the African people.

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Questions for this article:

Can the African Union help bring a culture of peace to Africa?

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The Retreat was aimed at:

1. Examining current challenges and emerging threats to peace in Africa, including reflecting on the opportunities for the promotion of a culture of peace in line with the Charter for the African Renaissance and the African Union’s Agenda 2063;

2. Building a shared understanding of the synergistic potential of peacebuilding and mediation actors at different levels (local, regional and continental) and reflect on the capacities, needs and contributions of actors at these levels. These include ombudsman, but also, where relevant, elders, religious leaders, traditional authorities, insider mediators, local capacities for peace, community based organizations, civil society organizations, the education (academics and researchers) and artistic community, the media, the private sector;

3. Reflecting on practical strategies to maximize the role and potential of education, indigenous knowledge and culture, artistic creation, performing arts’ performance arts and communication as key activities towards a sustainable culture of peace;

4. Discussing the wide variety of customary and contemporary mediation approaches and the implications that differences in approach have for effective mediation practices.

5. Discussing in concrete terms the involvement of national actors in the PanWise, including a Process of Accreditation, Code of Conduct, Reporting Obligations and standardizing Capacities applicable to these national and local actors and the role of PanWise in supporting, nurturing and developing National Infrastructures for Peace;

6. Developing a plan of action for joint initiatives and activities with the Luanda Biennale for a Culture of Peace in Africa/Pan-African Forum for a Culture of Peace in Africa, such as the development of National Programmes for a Culture of Peace.

May Peace Prevail on Earth.

In peace and gratitude,

Africa, DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION

ASEAN urged to formulate policies on women, children in conflict situations

. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION .

An article from InterAksyon

ASEAN should formulate policies on women and children in conflict and post-conflict situations, said participants to the ASEAN institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR) symposium on the topic. Policies should include action plans on women in relation to peace and security in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1325, said participants to last week’s symposium in Tagaytay organized by Philippine Permanent Mission to ASEAN Ambassador Elizabeth Buensuceso.

ASEAN

In her message to the participants, Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman emphasized the need to work together to formulate a responsive framework for peace to be eventually supported by policies and programs to which every ASEAN Member State will adhere.

“Women and children are the most vulnerable and most affected when fighting erupts. But they must not be viewed as the weak sectors, because they are not. Children and women are the potential strongest tools of nations in peace-building, peace-making and peace-keeping,” Soliman said.

Ambassador Buensuceso, for her part, echoed Soliman’s call, suggesting that the main recommendations of the conference be forwarded to the various ASEAN mechanisms and fora for possible inclusion in their work programs and plans of action.

Participants also urged ASEAN to support the development of preventive measures to conflict, such as the advancement of a culture of peace and the promotion of moderation in the region. They said that this can be implemented through activities and initiatives in education, culture, human rights, and political-security, among others, under the various ASEAN-led mechanisms.

The two-day symposium discussed the following: surfacing the plight of women and children in conflict situations; the abuses women and children are exposed to, such as sexual violence, threats to their lives, identity and property, and others; women and children as active participants in conflict resolution and the peace process; and programs and mechanisms to ensure protection and promotion of the rights and welfare of women and children are protected during armed conflict and/or in post-conflict situations.

Speakers included Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Evan P. Garcia, AIPR Governing Council Chair and Malaysia’s Ambassador to ASEAN Hasnudin Hamzah, Ambassador Buensuceso, Ambassador of Norway to ASEAN Stig Ingemar Traavik, Switzerland Ambassador to ASEAN Yvonne Baumann, Dr. Kuntoro Mangkusubroto of Indonesia, and UN Women (Myanmar) Head Dr. Jean D’ Cunha.

Other speakers from Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand and the Philippines presented actual experiences and case studies.

ASEAN Deputy Secretary-General for Socio-Culutural Community Vongthep Arthakaivalvatee also attended the symposium.

Representatives from all ASEAN Member States, including members of the AIPR Governing Council, the ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), and the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC), participated in the symposium.

The AIPR was established to serve as the ASEAN institution for activities and research projects on peace, conflict management, and conflict resolution. The AIPR Governing Council oversees the overall functions and policy direction of the AIPR. It consists of senior representatives from all 10 ASEAN Member States, the Secretary General of ASEAN, and an Executive Director to be appointed by the members.

Questions for this article:

Regional organizations: do they promote a culture of peace?

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, East Asia

USA: Wilmington Peace Plan

. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION .

Excerpt from the website of Pacem in Terris, Wilmington, Deleware

Pacem in Terris and other non-profits in the Wilmington area (Wilmington Peacekeepers, One Village Alliance, DE Coalition Against Gun Violence, etc.) want to develop a strategic vision, plan and resource document that will bring peace to Wilmington. The plan will deal with the actions needed to transform a culture of violence to a culture of peace. The plan would include input from civic groups, city and state governments and agencies, churches, students, the elderly, and general public.


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Video of March for a Culture of Peace

Building on the very successful September 2014 March for a Culture of Peace (and Rally and Call to Action) that we organized (45 co-sponsors, 400+ participants), and subsequent public forum events every month since then, we see the need and opportunity for a Wilmington Peace Plan that presents a clear vision of our desired goal, and the means for achieving it. The strategic plan would include needed actions by city and state legislators, divisions of the city, county and state government, neighborhoods, families, churches, schools, businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals.

The accompanying resource document would be printed as well as available on the web and via smartphone app. It would include organizations throughout our region that are engaged in what we call “building a culture of peace”, and include resources and information on a wide variety of topics– from anti-bullying strategies, civic engagement, domestic violence prevention, school to prison changes, financial literacy, management and violence, gun violence reduction,, gangs and violent street groups, safe havens for youth, juvenile justice system, mental health providers, mentoring, restorative justice, support groups for ex-offenders, service organizations, street level outreach, dating violence, workplace violence prevention and other topics.

Together, the Wilmington Peace strategic plan and Wilmington Peace Resources document will present a clear vision of a possible and attractive peace-filled future; the actions and means for getting there, and the resources needed to achieve the vision and implement the plan.

Click here for Tom Davis’ recap of the December 2014 event and click here for a video of the event. Also, on December 28th, Wilmington Friends Meetinghouse had a Memorial to the Lost. Click here for the video.

Questions for this article:
DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, North America

Obama’s speech on gun control: the ‘fierce urgency of now.’

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

Some excerpts from President Obama’s speech on gun safety reform

“In Dr. King’s words, we need to feel the ‘fierce urgency of now.’ Because people are dying. And the constant excuses for inaction no longer do, no longer suffice. That’s why we’re here today. Not to debate the last mass shooting, but to do something to try to prevent the next one.”


Obama
Photo from Video of Obama speech

“How did we get here? How did we get to the place where people think requiring a comprehensive background check means taking away people’s guns? Each time this comes up, we are fed the excuse that commonsense reforms like background checks might not have stopped the last massacre, or the one before that, or the one before that, so why bother trying. I reject that thinking.”

“So let me outline what we’re going to be doing. Number one, anybody in the business of selling firearms must get a license and conduct background checks, or be subject to criminal prosecutions … We’re also expanding background checks to cover violent criminals who try to buy some of the most dangerous firearms by hiding behind trusts and corporations and various cutouts … And these steps will actually lead to a smoother process for law-abiding gun owners, a smoother process for responsible gun dealers, a stronger process for protecting the public from dangerous people.”

“All of us should be able to work together to find a balance that declares the rest of our rights are also important — Second Amendment rights are important, but there are other rights that we care about as well. And we have to be able to balance them. Because our right to worship freely and safely — that right was denied to Christians in Charleston, South Carolina. And that was denied Jews in Kansas City. And that was denied Muslims in Chapel Hill, and Sikhs in Oak Creek. They had rights, too.

Our right to peaceful assembly — that right was robbed from moviegoers in Aurora and Lafayette. Our unalienable right to life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — those rights were stripped from college students in Blacksburg and Santa Barbara, and from high schoolers at Columbine, and from first-graders in Newtown. First-graders. And from every family who never imagined that their loved one would be taken from our lives by a bullet from a gun.”

Question for this article:

Will Obama’s initiative help reduce gun violence?

See below for comment form.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, North America

Sierra Leone News: Minister urge delegates to develop a culture of peace

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article by Edna Smalle in Awoko

The Minister of Youth Affairs, Hon. Alimamy Kamara on Friday urged youth delegates at the official opening of the first youth conference of Mano River Union (MRU) to develop a culture of peace.

Sierra Leone

The Minister of Youth Affairs, Hon. Alimamy Kamara on Friday urged youth delegates at the official opening of the first youth conference of Mano River Union (MRU) to develop a culture of peace.

While he was giving the keynote address at Kona Lodge in Freetown, on the theme “Youth Empowerment toward Sustainable Sub regional Peace and Security, the minister said there was the need for young people to congregate and discuss peace and security in the MRU. He said that young people have a stake in society and therefore should be at the forefront of enhancing social, economic and political development, noting that societal situation has provided difficult conditions for the youths.

Talking about the challenges youths are facing, he said the use of drugs and harmful substances, teenage pregnancy, migration and early marriage, among others, are all issues affecting the young.

He encouraged them to be honest to each other and to wake up and transform their communities to meet international standards. He emphasized that if they want their country to move forward they should consolidate security issues, practicalize agriculture, trade and peace, among others.

In her official statement on behalf of the MRU, the Deputy Secretary General of the union, Linda Koroma said the development of the young people is challenging as most of them have little or no technical and productive skills to address not only their livelihood but also their contribution to national and sub-regional development. She said the purpose of the meeting therefore was to create a platform where the youths can identify the challenges they are facing and how to address them.

Members of the delegation suggested among others that children be trained to be less dependent so that they can make something meaningful out of their lives; provide jobs that will enable youths get rid of poverty; and that the MRU should develop communication plan for youths.

The delegates include youth representatives from Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Cote d’ Voire.

(Thank you to the Peace Education News for informing us about this article.)

Question related to this article:

Africa, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

UC System [California] Divests From Private Prisons Under Pressure From Students

….. HUMAN RIGHTS …..

An article from Care2 (reproduced as a non-commercial service)

On December 18, the University of California system quietly dropped a big bomb: It will be selling off its $30 million worth of investments in private prison corporations by the 31st of the month, thanks to considerable pressure from student groups. The move is a huge step for organizations concerned about inequalities in the justice system and the conditions at for-profit prisons, which definitely generate funds for shareholders, but don’t provide adequate living conditions for their detainees. The Afrikan Black Coalition is largely responsible for the divestment, as the group was the one to put forward a resolution demanding the sale, and representatives of the ABC met with UC officials to discuss disposing of the investments in an orderly fashion — typically divestment begins quietly before official announcements, to avoid creating instability in stock prices.

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Photo credit: Richard Masoner

The University of California system has opted to divest holdings in controversial or harmful corporations before, as for example in 2006, when it dropped firms with investments in South Sudan, and earlier this year, when it pulled out of $200 million in oil and tar sands investments. As an economic tool, divestment sends an extremely powerful message, especially when it comes from huge institutional investors like statewide university systems. Mass sell-offs like this one can be used as grounds for other organizers to pressure different institutions to make similar moves, and they also set a model for other institutional investors considering ethical financial practices. In this instance, Columbia University set the bar by dropping for-profit prison investments over the summer [See CPNN article of June 27 this year]. Choosing to be selective not just about stock performance but social impacts is also part of the UC’s investment model.

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Question for this article

Question: Divestment, is it an effective tool to combat the violation of human rights?

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Dropping these investments will be a blip in the system’s massive portfolio of stock, but advocates say it’s the right thing to do. The prison system is plagued with racial and economic inequalities that contribute to a disproportionate number of incarcerated people of color and low-income people, with considerable overlap between these two groups. Between issues like racial profiling, fewer resources for judicial defense, and prejudices within the legal system, people are unjustly incarcerated simply for the crime of not being white. For-profit companies like Corrections Corporation of America have taken advantage of the growing privatization of the prison industry to generate $1.7 billion in revenue in 2011 alone. Geo Group, Inc. also generates substantial profits for shareholders annually through its networks of jails, prisons and immigration detention facilities. UC will be selling off all its shares in both.

These companies function not as public enterprises, but as corporations with the goal of cutting costs wherever possible. Many have substandard physical plants, insufficient staff, inadequate prison health care and food, high rates of physical and sexual assault, and other systemic problems. Even “three hots and a cot” isn’t guaranteed behind their walls, and in 2012, the Supreme Court actually limited the ability to sue private prisons for civil rights violations. This leaves prisoners with even fewer resources to advocate for their rights and safety behind bars. While groups like the ACLU advocate and litigate for prisoners stuck on the inside, one of the best ways to strike at the heart of the private prison system is to make it less profitable with steps like dumping shares and making it a toxic investment for potential institutional investors.

This move is a strong indicator that the UC system remains committed to regularly evaluating investments and determining whether it wants to continue sinking funds into endeavors that violate ethical guidelines. It also illustrates that organized and highly active student groups can make a big difference not just on campus, but in the world in general. With protest movements like Black Lives Matter getting more active and noisy in recent years, it’s clear that the next generation of youth is growing up with a mission to make the world a better place, and the courage to lobby those most in a position to do so.

[Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article.]

HUMAN RIGHTS, North America

Global arms industry: West still dominant despite decline; sales surge in rest of the world, says SIPRI

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

A press release by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

(Stockholm, 14 December 2015) Sales of arms and military services by the largest arms-producing companies—the SIPRI Top 100—totalled $401 billion in 2014 according to new international arms industry data launched today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

sipri

For the fourth consecutive year, sales of arms and military services by the SIPRI Top 100—the largest arms-producing companies by arms sales—have decreased. However, with a reduction of 1.5 per cent in real terms between 2013 and 2014, the global decline in SIPRI Top 100 total arms sales remains moderate. Falls in 2014 are due to lower arms sales for companies based in North America and Western Europe, as Top 100 companies located in other regions of the world have collectively increased their arms sales.

Companies based in the United States continue to dominate the Top 100, with a 54.4 per cent share of the total. US companies’ arms sales decreased by 4.1 per cent between 2013 and 2014, which is similar to the rate of decline seen in 2012–13. One company bucking the downward trend is Lockheed Martin, which has occupied the first position in the Top 100 since 2009. Its arms sales grew by 3.9 per cent in 2014 to $37.5 billion. Lockheed Martin’s lead over the second ranked company Boeing, which had total arms sales of $28.3 billion, increased by $4.4 billion in 2014.

‘With the acquisition of helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. in 2015, the gap between Lockheed Martin and other companies ranked in the Top 10 will widen even further next year,’ says Aude Fleurant, Director of SIPRI’s Arms and Military Expenditure Programme.

Western European companies’ arms sales decreased by 7.4 per cent in 2014. Only German (+9.4 per cent) and Swiss (+11.2 per cent) companies show overall growth in their arms sales in real terms. The rise in German arms sales was due to a significant growth in turnover for German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp (+29.5 per cent), while Switzerland’s Pilatus Aircraft benefited from growing demand for its trainer aircraft, boosting Swiss sales. The companies representing the seven remaining Western European countries in the Top 100 all show an overall decline in their sales.

Despite difficult national economic conditions, the Russian arms industry’s sales continued to rise in 2014. The number of Russian companies ranked in the Top 100 went up from 9 to 11, amounting to a share of 10.2 per cent of total Top 100 arms sales in 2014. The two completely new entrants are High Precision Systems (39th) and RTI (91st), while the newly established United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation (UIMC) has entered the list in 24th position, replacing Sozvezdie, which merged with a number of other companies to form UIMC. The Russian company showing the most significant growth in arms sales is Uralvagonzavod, with an increase of 72.5 per cent in its arms sales. Almaz-Antey, with a near 23 per cent increase in arms sales, is now in 11th position.

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

Question for this article:

Does military spending lead to economic decline and collapse?

(Article continued from the left column)

‘Russian companies are riding the wave of increasing national military spending and exports. There are now 11 Russian companies in the Top 100 and their combined revenue growth over 2013–14 was 48.4 per cent,’ says SIPRI Senior Researcher Siemon Wezeman.

In contrast, arms sales of Ukrainian companies have substantially declined. UkrOboronProm has fallen from 58th position in 2013 to 90th in 2014, with a drop in sales of 50.2 per cent. Motor Sich, the other Ukrainian company that was ranked in the 2013 Top 100, has left the list altogether. ‘The noticeable decline in sales for Ukrainian companies was largely due to disruption caused by the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the loss of the Russian market, and the fall in the value of the local currency,’ says Siemon Wezeman.

Emerging producers continue to strengthen their presence in the Top 100
In 2013, SIPRI introduced an ‘emerging producers’ category to better track the evolution of companies based in countries that have stated goals of military industrialization. For 2014, this category covers Brazil, India, South Korea and Turkey. The combined arms sales of companies located in these countries represents 3.7 per cent of SIPRI Top 100 total arms sales. Their revenues rose by 5.1 per cent between 2013 and 2014.

There are two Turkish arms-producing companies ranked in the Top 100: ASELSAN, which increased its sales by 5.6 per cent in 2014, but has moved down in the ranking from 66th to 73rd; and Turkish Aerospace Industry (TAI), which has entered the Top 100 at rank 89, with a growth in arms sales of 15.1 per cent. ‘Turkey is seeking more self-sufficiency for its arms supplies and this, coupled with an aggressive export drive, has contributed to the rapid growth in revenue for ASELSAN and TAI,’ says Pieter Wezeman, a Senior Researcher at SIPRI.

South Korean companies have also raised their profile in the Top 100 in 2014. ‘Fifteen companies from Asia (not including China) have made it into the Top 100,’ according to Siemon Wezeman. ‘Many of them showed quite stable levels of sales but South Korean companies increased their total sales in 2014 by 10.5 per cent compared to 2013.’ The latest South Korean entrant to the Top 100 is Hyundai Rotem, a military vehicle manufacturer.

The SIPRI Arms Industry Database was created in 1989. It contains financial and employment data on arms-producing companies worldwide. Since 1990, SIPRI has published data on the arms sales and employment of the 100 largest of these arms-producing companies in the SIPRI Yearbook.

Arms sales are defined by SIPRI as sales of military goods and services to military customers, including sales for domestic procurement and sales for export. Changes are calculated in real terms and country comparisons are only for the same companies over different years.

This is the first of three major data set pre-launches in the lead-up to the publication of the next edition of the SIPRI Yearbook. In the first half of 2016, SIPRI will release its international arms transfers data (details of all international sales, transfers and gifts of major weapons in 2015) as well as its world military expenditure data (comprehensive information on global, regional and national trends in military spending). All data will feature in the SIPRI flagship publication SIPRI Yearbook 2016 to be published in late 2016.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global

Industrie d’armement mondiale : l’Occident toujours dominant malgré une diminution ; les ventes flambent dans le reste du monde, selon le SIPRI

.DESARMAMENT & SECURITE.

Un communiqué de presse du Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

(Stockholm, 14 décembre 2015) — Le montant des ventes d’armes et de services à caractère militaire par les plus grandes frmes productrices — le Top 100 du SIPRI — s’élève à 401 milliards de dollars en 2014, selon les nouvelles données sur l’industrie d’armement mondiale présentées aujourd’hui par le Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

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Pour la quatrième année consécutive, les ventes d’armes et de services à caractère militaire répertoriées par le Top 100 du SIPRI — les plus grandes firmes productrices d’armement de par leurs ventes d’armes — ont diminué. Cependant, avec une diminution de 1,5 % en termes réels entre 2013 et 2014, la baisse globale des ventes d’armes du Top 100 reste modérée. La baisse enregistrée en 2014 est due à une diminution des ventes d’armes par les sociétés basées en Amérique du Nord et en Europe occidentale, tandis que les autres compagnies du Top 100, situées dans les autres régions du monde, ont collectivement augmenté leurs ventes d’armes.

Les compagnies basées aux États-Unis continuent de dominer le Top 100, avec une part de 54,4 % du total. Les ventes d’armes des firmes américaines ont diminué de 4,1 % entre 2013 et 2014, un taux similaire à celui de 2012-13. Une entreprise contredit cette tendance, Lockheed Martin, qui occupe la première place du Top 100 depuis 2009. Ses ventes d’armes ont augmenté de 3,9 % en 2014 avec un montant total de 37,5 milliards de dollars. Lockheed Martin devance Boeing, en seconde position, dont le montant total des ventes d’armes s’élève à 28,3 milliards de dollars, augmentant de 4,4 milliards de dollars en 2014.

« Avec l’acquisition en 2015 du fabricant d’hélicoptères, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., l’écart entre Lockheed Martin et les autres firmes du Top 10 va se creuser davantage l’année prochaine », indique Aude Fleurant, directrice du Programme Armes et Dépenses militaires du SIPRI.

Les ventes d’armes des compagnies basées en Europe occidentale ont diminué de 7,4 % en 2014. Seules les firmes allemandes (+9,4 %) et suisses (+11,2 %) affichent une augmentation globale de leurs ventes d’armes en termes réels. La hausse des ventes d’armes allemandes est due à une croissance significative du chiffre d’affaires de l’entreprise de construction navale ThyssenKrupp (29,5 %), tandis que le suisse Pilatus Aircraft a bénéficié d’une demande croissante pour ses avions d’entraînement, stimulant les ventes suisses. Les sociétés représentant les sept autres pays d’Europe occidentale restants du Top 100, connaissent toutes une baisse globale de leurs ventes.

Malgré des conditions économiques nationales difficiles, les ventes de l’industrie d’armement russe continuent d’augmenter en 2014. Le nombre de firmes russes figurant dans le Top 100 est passé de 9 à 11, représentant une part de 10,2 % du total des ventes d’armes du Top 100 en 2014. Les deux nouveaux entrants sont High Precision Systems (39ème) et RTI (91ème), tandis que United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation (UIMC), nouvellement créée, fait son entrée à la 24ème position, remplaçant Sozvezdie qui a fusionné avec un certain nombre d’entreprises pour former UIMC. La firme russe qui enregistre la croissance la plus importante des ventes d’armes est Uralvagonzavod, avec une augmentation de 72,5 % de ses ventes. Almaz-Antey, avec une augmentation de près de 23 % de ses ventes d’armes, figure désormais à la 11ème position.

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Question for this article:

Does military spending lead to economic decline and collapse?

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« Les compagnies russes surfent sur l’augmentation des exportations et des dépenses militaires nationales. Il y a désormais 11 entreprises russes dans le Top 100 et leurs chiffres d’affaires combinés sur 2013-14 ont augmenté de 48,4 % », affirme Siemon Wezeman, chercheur en chef du SIPRI.

En revanche, les ventes d’armes des sociétés ukrainiennes ont sensiblement diminué. UkrOboronProm a chuté de la 58ème place en 2013 à la 90ème en 2014, avec une baisse des ventes de 50,2 %. Motor Sich, une autre firme ukrainienne qui figurait dans le Top 100 de 2013, est carrément sortie de la liste. « La baisse sensible des ventes des compagnies ukrainiennes est largement due au bouleversement causé par le conflit dans l’Est de l’Ukraine, la perte du marché russe et la chute de la devise », explique Siemon Wezeman.

En 2013, le SIPRI a introduit la catégorie « producteurs émergents » afin de mieux suivre l’évolution des entreprises basées dans les pays qui ont fait part de leur objectif d’industrialisation militaire. Pour 2014, cette catégorie couvre le Brésil, l’Inde, la Corée du Sud et la Turquie. Les ventes d’armes combinées des firmes basées dans ces pays représentent 3,7 % du total des ventes du Top 100 du SIPRI. Leurs revenues ont augmenté de 5,1 % entre 2013 et 2014.

Deux sociétés turques productrices d’armement sont classées dans le Top 100 : ASELSAN, qui a augmenté ses ventes de 5,6 % en 2014, mais qui a chuté de la 66ème à la 73ème place ; et Turkish Aerospace Industry (TAI), qui fait son entrée dans le Top 100 au 89ème rang, avec une croissance des ventes d’armes de 15,1 %. « La Turquie est à la recherche de davantage d’autosuffisance dans ses approvisionnements en armes et ceci, couplé à une stratégie d’exportation agressive, a contribué à la croissance rapide des chiffres d’affaires de ASELSAN et TAI », déclare Pieter Wezeman, chercheur en chef au SIPRI.

Les firmes sud-coréennes ont également gagné en position dans le Top 100 en 2014. « Quinzes entreprises d’Asie (hors Chine) ont fait leur entrée dans le Top 100 » selon Siemon Wezeman. « Beaucoup d’entre elles ont montré des niveaux assez stables des ventes, mais les sociétés sudcoréennes ont augmenté leur total des ventes de 10,5 % en 2014 par rapport à 2013 ». Le dernier sudcoréen entrant dans le Top 100 est Hyundai Rotem, un fabricant de véhicules militaires.

La base de données du SIPRI sur l’industrie d’armement a été créée en 1989. Elle contient des données financières et sur l’emploi des 100 plus grandes firmes productrices d’armement au niveau mondial. Depuis 1990, le SIPRI publie des données sur les ventes d’armes et l’emploi de ces 100 plus grandes entreprises productrices d’armements dans le SIPRI Yearbook.

Les ventes d’armes sont définies par le SIPRI comme comprenant les ventes de biens et services à caractère militaire à des clients du secteur militaire, incluant aussi bien les ventes sur le marché intérieur qu’à l’export.

Il s’agit de la première d’une série de trois comuniqués rendant public des données avant la publication du SIPRI Yearbook 2015. Dans le premier semestre de 2016, le SIPRI communiquera ses données sur les transferts internationaux d’armement (détails de toutes les ventes internationales, les transferts et les dons des principales armes en 2015), ainsi que ses données sur les dépenses militaires mondiales (informations complètes sur les tendances nationales, régionales et mondiales des dépenses militaires). L’ensemble des données sera présenté dans la publication phare du SIPRI, le SIPRI Yearbook 2016, qui sera publié fin 2016.

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