Resolution 1325: The Role of Women in Peacebuilding
Madrid, Spain | February 2, 2010
GAPW was pleased and honored to be part of a seminar, organized by the Swiss Government and the Fundacion Cultura de Paz in Madrid, titled Resolution 1325: The Role of Women in Peacebuilding. Manuela Mesa, the director of CEIPAZ and a member of the GAPW executive committee, convened this important seminar.
Sarah Masters, Gloria Guzman Orellana, Carmen Magallon, Carmela Buhler
Among the many extraordinary women presenters (pictured) were Sarah Masters, Women’s Network Coordinator for IANSA and a representative on the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security; Carmela Buhler, the new Gender Advisor for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Switzerland; Gloria Guzman Orellana from the Instituto de Estudios sobre Desarrollo y Cooperacion Internacional in El Salvador; and Carmen Magallon from the Fundacion SIP de Zaragoza.
Click here for the full seminar program.
Among the many helpful resources made available to seminar participants was the extraordinary “1325 Mujeres Tejiendo La Paz” edited by Manuela Mesa. This book will serve as a guide to our own collaborative publication on ‘Women’s Participation in Peace Processes’ to be released later this year.
Click here for more information about the book.
Welcome Jenneth Macan Markar
Please welcome Jenneth Macan Markar to the Global Action to Prevent War team. She joins us as the new International Coordinator and we are very pleased to have her. Jenneth is originally from Colombo, Sri Lanka. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Colombo and a Master’s in International Affaris from 
Columbia University here in New York.
Jenneth has worked with several human rights and peace building organizations on legal projects focused on constitution-making and the need to protect and foster human rights. Examples of her projects include Security Sector Reform, Constitutionalism, and North and South initiatives. She has also worked as a legal researcher, an environmental television program producer and writer.
“I am delighted to have joined the Global Action to Prevent War team as the International Coordinator. I am from Sri Lanka and, have previously worked in the area of human rights, law, development and diplomacy. I have been a staunch advocate for the increased involvement of women in government and in all aspects of community leadership, both in peacetime and in situations of armed conflict. I look forward to carrying out this work here at Global Action and working together to create positive change.”
Peacekeeping and Civilian Protection: Perspectives from Latin America
Brasilia, Brazil | September 29, 2009
This workshop was the second held by GAPW in 2009 (the other was in Jakarta in June) and is part of a series of workshops designed to highlight and asses regional perspectives on a wide variety of civilian protection and peacekeeping reform issues. The next in this series will take place in February 2010 in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
During the day-long session, participants discussed Brazil’s rising influence at the UN, its upcoming responsibilities at the Security Council, its potential to take greater leadership on important civilian protection policies, and the region’s potential role in facilitating UN peacekeeping operations and the development of rapid-response peacekeeping tools. Government and NGO speakers also assessed Brazil’s role in MINUSTAH (current UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti) as a case study in defining regional security responsibilities, and also explored the feasibility of new UN-based peacekeeping capacities such as a UN Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS).
To download the Brazil Outcome Report, please click here.
To download the Brazil Outcome Appendix (with program and participant list), please click here.
As the Brazil Program file is quite large, a smaller text-only document without photos is available here.
CEDAW Turns 30!
Ending Trafficking in Women a Major Focus
As part of the NGO Working Group for Women’s Peace and Security, Global Action strongly promotes an increased role for women in resolving armed conflict and peace building as well as the empowerment of woman who are systematically subjected to extreme sexual violence and various forms of discrimination.
On December 3rd, the 30th year anniversary event for the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) took place in the ECOSOC chambers. The event highlighted the way in which the convention has been used to implement women’s human rights and achieve gender equality throughout the world, but especially in those countries which have ratified the convention. CEDAW was adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly. It outlines criteria for what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda to promote national action to end such discrimination. Through acceptance of the convention, States commit themselves to develop and implement concrete national action plans. Among other things, the UN event demonstrated how CEDAW has effectively leveraged more progressive decisions (and public responses) in law and policy around the world.
To download the rest of this report, please click here.
How Can Religious Congregations and Theological Schools Respond to the Challenges of Human Security?
Under the direction of Dr. Sharon Welch, Global Action co-sponsored a weekend-long investigation of what our religious congregations and their future leaders need to understand about diverse and compelling threats to human security facing the global community, from the declining health of our climate and the insecurity of our food and water supplies to the unregulated arms trade and the inability of governments and international organizations to effectively protect civilians from
John Burroughs
systemic abuse.
A special Saturday evening event featured presentations by Susan Thistlethwaite, former president of Chicago Theological Seminary, Bob Johansen, director of graduate studies at the Kroc Institute of Notre Dame University, and Sharon Welch who is Provost of Meadville-Lombard Theological School in Chicago. We were also honored to have with us Ruthann Knechel Johansen, president of Bethany Theological Seminary in Indiana.
In addition to the formal conference, GAPW held an organizational meeting ably moderated by Saul Mendlovitz, at which time executive committee members (Saul and Sharon) and longtime supporters of GAPW were able to weigh in on matters ranging from program priorities to governance and budget. We are so very grateful to the other participants in this conversation: John Burroughs of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, Jennifer Nordstrom of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Hiro Sakurai who is president-elect of the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Lester Ruiz of the Association of Theological Schools and Bob Johansen of the Kroc Institute.
This weekend event enlisted diverse participants towards the creation of new forms of pedagogy and practice that can reinforce linkages between theological conviction, community engagement and sound policy on a range of compelling global concerns. A primary example of this integration is the ‘peace certificate’ program being developed by both Sharon and Susan. In addition to supporting this work, we will continue to assess models and programs that can be integrated into the formation process of diverse religious traditions to ensure that congregational leadership and membership can respond effectively and knowledgeably to the critical human security issues that the international community will face.
Click here for more information about the conference.
A Change of Direction for Disarmament NGOs
Global Action to Prevent War warmly welcomes the decision by the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security to select Hiro Sakurai as president. Hiro has been a leader of long experience not only in the UN disarmament field, but also
Allison Pytlak
with religious NGOs. He has been a model of ‘tithing’ to groups beyond the limits of his organizational mandate, a model that we could all do more to emulate.
As demonstrated again at a recent ‘brown bag’ event on ‘Human Development and Disarmament’ organized by Allison Pytlak of Religions for Peace and participated in by GAPW, there remains a great need for disarmament groups to invest energies and capacities beyond conflict and weapons, helping to expand civil society and policy attention to climate health, ensure the full participation of women in peace processes, eliminate the presence of children as combatants in armed conflict, promote food security for increasingly vulnerable populations, and much more.
As we say often, a world without war must also, somehow, become a world with no more excuses for war.
Eduarda Hamann (Quaker UN Office) and Cathey Falvo (PSR/NYC) joined with GAPW to make explicit linkages between disarmament and the promotion of human rights as well as between armed violence and a lack of government attention to poverty and health. There was a general sense in the room that, to be successful in our disarmament work, we need to embrace a security strategy that is
expansive in its issue concerns as well as representative of the security needs and aspirations of diverse global regions.
Issues of capacity also were raised, as they often do in these settings. We all recognized that human security is a mansion with many rooms housing many issues – from environmental degradation to gender violence as well as diverse lenses of culture and ethnicity, and numerous skills essential to our work – intellectual, organizational, inspirational, legal and more. The more we can tap these resources and make common connections, the more likely that our work will thrive.
Click here to see the poster for the 8 December Brown Bag Lunch.
Click here to find out more about the NGO committee and future brown bag events.
Climate Change and Violent Conflict
People around the globe are preparing to participate in the UN Climate Change Conference to be held later this month in Copenhagen. While it remains unclear if diplomats will be able to successfully negotiate strong protocols to supplement and fortify Kyoto, expectations for this meeting are high. The future of the planet and the long-term credibility of the UN system are both at stake during these critically important days. We need movement from policymakers that mirrors our growing sense of urgency
as ice caps melt, species face extinction, and human populations experience water shortages, crop failures, rising sea levels and other threats.
There have been many meetings of scholars, religious and civil society leaders, environmental activists and policymakers in the months leading up to Copenhagen. One such meeting, at which Global Action to Prevent War was a grateful participant, was organized by Juergen Scheffran of Hamburg University in Germany. The conference, “Climate Change, Social Stress and Violent Conflict,” attracted researchers and policymakers from many parts of the world to examine the relationship between environmental degradation and human conflict – a relationship that is still a bit short of definitive scientific proof but which has become an increasingly important ‘lens’ through which to view human security needs and aspirations.
As an organization committed to conflict prevention and to highlighting and addressing important ‘triggers’ of armed conflict, GAPW has created helpful working partnerships with a number of organizations that are providing conceptual guidance and practical tools to help promote climate health, overcome resource disparities and encourage more carbon-free lifestyles. As Copenhagen approaches, we would like to both highlight and thank some of the important persons and activities that inspire our focused work in this area: Lois Barber and Earth Action, Wendy Brawer and Green Map System, Jim Sniffen and the UN Environment Program, Alex Carlin and the ‘100 Miles of Mirrors’ project, Janani Vivekananda and International Alert, Jennifer Nordstrom and The Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, and many others.
Now in its tenth year of advocacy and service, GAPW’s signature ‘brand’ is a tree – of wisdom, of strength, of life. With our partners, we will continue to highlight important climate-conflict relationships and add our voice to those civil society groups demanding ‘good faith’ negotiations towards resolving massive, looming threats to human and ecological security.
Click here for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s November 28, 2009 speech on climate change to the Small Island Development States.
64th First Committee of the General Assembly
Global Action was pleased to be part of the monitoring team for the First Committee of the UN General Assembly and honors the work of Ray Acheson and Reaching Critical Will in keeping all of us organized and on task. The First Committee Monitor is an indispensable 
resource for diplomats and NGO representatives seeking to keep track of (and impact) discussions on a wide range of disarmament issues – from nuclear non-proliferation to the global arms trade.
By clicking on their names, you will be taken to reflections by two of our young professionals – Cristina Ayo and Ruben Reike – who joined with Lori Sims, Kavitha Suthanthiraraj and others as part of the First Committee monitoring team this year. As you will read, both Cristina and Ruben found First Committee deliberations to be alternately bewildering, frustrating and hopeful. Cristina and Ruben’s reactions to that entire process are interesting reading.
Their reflections on a process to which few ever have direct access are fresh and valuable additions to the sometimes limited lenses through which those of us who have been part of the UN community for a while tend to view disarmament negotiations. We have sometimes neglected to seize on progress that is still possible and failed to take full measure of the progress that has been made. In part due to the Obama presidency and in part due to the leadership of Uruguay Ambassador Jose Luis Cancela, we all witnessed a renewed sense of purpose and urgency in the First Committee this year amidst vestiges of the usual political bickering and less-than-helpful resolutions. Click here to read Ambassador Cancela’s remarks and evaluation of the 64th First Committee.
NGOs and the United Nations
As part of our highly valuable relationship with the UN office of the Friedrich Ebert 
Stiftung, we were invited to participate in a panel with UN officials to assess (based in part on the Cardoso Report; click here for the report and related documents) the relationship between the UN and the thousands of affiliated NGOs that seek to influence disarmament and development policies.
Organized by Volker Lehmann of FES as part of their Fall Academy, panelists were provided a series of provocative questions:
- How has the relationship between NGOs and the UN evolved over time?
- Is there indeed a “Third UN”, in which NGOs, think tanks, etc. play a key role?
- What is the difference in UN-NGO relationships in the field and at headquarters here in NYC?
- Where/how can NGOs most productively play a role that helps the embattled
organization? - Where/how can the UN most productively play a role for NGOs?
Global Action’s intervention highlighted several points:
- The need for NGOs to become more adept at solving problems and helping diplomats make progress on key issues more than pushing organizational agendas and settling for the goals of ‘awareness raising’ and ‘information sharing.’
- The need for NGOs to understand that the civil society which the UN seeks to engage is much broader and more diverse than the NGO communities gathered in New York, Geneva, Vienna and other UN sites. NGOs must also be conscious of the need to engage and promote those broader civil society interests.
- The need for NGOs to worry less about their own ‘branding’ and more about developing sustainable collaborations both within and across issues that can share and build capacity for what are often very long term policy engagements.
- The need for NGOs to have succession strategies that can progressively invest culturally diverse young people in organizational and policy leadership.
- The need for NGOs to push for policies to help ensure the viability and legitimacy of the UN and its constitutive bodies.
Finally, Global Action commended the UN panelists — Thierno Kane, Phyllis Lee and Elisa Peter — for their sincere and successful efforts to link civil society in diverse global regions with the programs and activities of the United Nations. These efforts have helped many groups do their jobs more effectively, especially in the development field.
Click here for Robert Zuber’s speech “The Abolition of War and Other Windmills,” given at Rutgers University on November 12, 2009.
Future Cities 2009: Local democracy in action for a greener, more peaceful world
Madison, WI | November 5-8, 2009
Global Action to Prevent War, in collaboration with Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, Liberty Tree Foundation, Western States Legal Foundation and Mayors for Peace, co-convened the Future Cities 2009 conference held in Madison, WI. The conference aimed to strengthen and support local efforts aimed at shifting to greener, renewable energy sources, eliminating nuclear weapons and encouraging more participatory local governments. Michael Shuman delivered the keynote address “Local Democracy in Action for a Greener, More Peaceful World,” and several panels and workshops reinforced the connection between sustainable living and lasting peace. Iwao Nakanishi, a survivor (hibakusha) of the Hiroshima bombing, spoke of the lasting devastation of nuclear war and Mayor David Cieslewicz of Madison welcomed all of the participants, offering them a glimpse of local action in Madison that encourages greener, more peaceful living. Lori Sims, of Global Action, and John Burroughs, of Lawyers
Iwao Nakanishi - Hiroshima survivor (hibakusha)
Committee on Nuclear Policy, held a workshop “Global Law and Nuclear Weapons: Future Paths,” discussing a future where a ban on nuclear weapons and dramatically reduced military force is possible. The workshop was based, in part, on the Global Action to Prevent War Program Statement. Several other workshops also focused on nuclear weapons and the effects of nuclear radiation, including “Political Economy of Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Power” and “Building a Regional Anti-Nuke Movement.” The panel “Future Worlds: Choices on Security, Energy and Development” united all of the themes of the conference, as panelists discussed the global and local challenges we face. A conference report is forthcoming.
To view the Future Cities 2009 website and program, click here.
To download the Global Action to Prevent War Program Statement as a pdf, click here.