Uploaded
to the Civil Society World Report website
www.decade-culture-of-peace.org
Thanks
to everyone who cooperated in this exercise, especially the following for their
contributions and feedback: Robert Stewart, Renée Vaugeois, Dr
1) PROGRESS.
Has your organization seen progress toward a culture of peace and non-violence
in your domain of action and in your constituency during the first half of the
Decade (2001-2005)? If you have developed any indicators to measure progress,
please describe them here. Please write one or two paragraphs.
YES! In Canada one of the most
significant civil society initiative to foster effectively a culture of peace
and non-violence in a concerted manner has been the launching last November 2004
of the Canadian
Culture of Peace Program (CCOPP). This happened at McMaster
University in Hamilton, Ontario,
concluding nine days of peace conferencing.
The well-reputed author,
(The Human Right to Peace), parliamentarian
and diplomat, retired senator Douglas
Roche, O.C. leads CCOPP as its Honorary
Chairman. Mr.
Roche was once Canada's Ambassador for Disarmament and elected Chairman of the
United Nations Disarmament Committee. The CCOPP interim executive director is
Robert Stewart, an active
Rotarian as well as a leading peace advocate in Canada. Robert is the founder
and director of the Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace (CCTP), which operates
primarily as a virtual centre at www.peace.ca
. It is no doubt a very important
online civil society focal point for peace as well as being, in Canada, the
principal instigator and organizer of national and provincial peace education
conferences. CCTP has also initiated
several e-mail list-servers and online forums to provide tools for
communication, networking, dialogue and information dissemination promoting a
culture of peace and non-violence. This pro-active result oriented dynamic has
been the catalyst for the formation of the, rather more grounded, Canadian
Culture of Peace Program, CCOPP. The freshly released CCOPP
Stakeholder Network Design
states: “The CCOPP intends to translate the
UN’s conceptual framework into an active organization that realizes the goals
of the UN initiative. This program
will be multileveled, involving national, provincial, and local bodies, and
develop international links in aid of its mission.
The program will operate through a variety of different organizational
types (educational institutions, businesses, youth groups, churches, etc.).
The CCOPP may operate through new, self-organizing bodies or within
existing organizations.”
Peace is as much a process as a goal or concept. The visit-counter of the website reports over 1,000,000 visitors since its inception in 1998, and is currently averaging over 50,000 visitors per month, from around the world. These numbers, including visits from other countries, lead us to believe in progress, if only in terms of interest for (or of desire to be informed about) the culture of peace in Canada. As CCOPP gears up we are noticing, from provinces across the country, an increase in active engagement of individuals of different backgrounds and cultural origins, from the stay-at-home mother to the university academic, from activists to scholastics, as well as the religiously inspired. Gradually the CCOPP structure is taking form. The organisation will develop or adopt more reliable indicators of progress of the culture of peace, such as systematic collection and collation of relevant data from stakeholders or through public opinion polls, which should enable, in the second half of the International Decade, better gauging of effective progress in the advancement of a culture of peace and non-violence in Canada. In the context of this current mid-decade report CCOPP has taken on the task of national coordinator for Canadian civil society feedback (Contact: Ms Renée Vaugeois rjvarney@telus.net); the collation of this data will be invaluable for the eventual elaboration of a realistic, hopefully none-the-less ambitious and visionary, plan of action, coordinated at a national level while also empowering at community and provincial levels, to foster more effectively a culture peace in Canada during the second half (2006-2010) of the International Decade.
2) OBSTACLES.
What are the most important obstacles that have prevented progress? Please write
one or two paragraphs.
The newly-formed CCOPP is hopeful that its stakeholders
can synergistically become empowered to make a concerted meaningful difference
in the
relatively, rather frustratingly, little progress perceived so far as elaborated
in the quotation below from the CCTP
report of March 14, 2005 submitted separately by its director:
“…The vast majority of
politicians and officials in the Canadian Government have little or no knowledge
of the Culture of Peace and Non-violence Program. Little, if any, new
resources (financial, informational or human) have been provided to build a
Culture of Peace and Non-violence. This is ample evidence that the
Government of Canada has not rushed in to participate. Furthermore, the
Canadian Commission for UNESCO does not see its role as one of
leadership. … In short, despite what some may say, we are underachieving
our potential to build a Culture of Peace and Non-violence in Canada, and in the
world. …”
The CCOPP is a very ambitious project
aspiring to foster the culture of peace across the provincial, linguistic, and
multi-cultural divides throughout the geographic expanse of Canada. It is the
result of the relentless pursuit for a peaceful human society, nationally and
globally, by a relatively few courageous and visionary individuals operating so
far with little material resources and having to juggle their CCOPP engagement
with other occupations. The challenge is to maintain momentum on ‘volunteer’
time. Many in the culture of peace community are speaking of resource fatigue
having to continually do more with less.
Unfortunately it is relatively easier to justify and raise
funds to repair and rebuild after destruction from violent conflicts, and even
to spend on violent methods of conflict resolution, than to have resources
committed to build peace and prevent violence.
It is imperative that the Canadian Culture of Peace Program mobilizes soonest the required operational resources from government, corporate and private sectors to facilitate effective implementation of the program. Peoples, nations, must in effect truly give the culture of peace a chance, recognising that it is vital for a sustainable future for all, and governments must take the lead by committing the necessary resources for fostering peace; national peace commissions must formed and ministers of peace appointed as per our Proposals 1 and 2 made below at section 6) ADVICE.
3) ACTIONS.
What actions have been undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of
peace and non-violence during the first half of the Decade (2001-2005)? Please
include any actions taken to celebrate the International Day of Peace which
occurs every year on September 21. We would also appreciate a photograph that
illustrates your actions, preferably sent by e-mail, if not by post. Your report
may be from one to ten pages in length.
The CCOPP has been in existence for
barely five months to date. However, it has been capitalizing on the network of
contacts developed by the CCTP, as well as new expressions of interest, linking
people all over the country to generate a fresh impetus for the culture of
peace, as more and more stakeholders take stock of the relative lack of progress
midway through this International Decade for the Culture of Peace and
Non-violence for the children of the world 2001-2010.
Since last November 2004, meetings with
participants from various provinces have been held as well as with potential
institutional collaborators, like the University of Alberta in Edmonton, the
University of Calgary, McMaster University in Hamilton and Mount Saint Vincent
University in Halifax.
The CCOPP Stakeholder Network Design has
been elaborated, as mentioned above, through a collaborative, mostly online,
effort of a CCOPP Working Group from across the country.
As far as we can ascertain this particular stakeholder network design is a
unique and innovative method of linking those involved in activities related to
a culture of peace, in Canada and abroad, to provide the support structure for
effective cooperation. Needless to say we all have lessons to learn from one
another and too often local or small groups operate in relative isolation and
may be more prone to discouragement from the frustration of slow progress. CCOPP
therefore intends to be instrumental in ensuring that both the resources and
moral support are available to those active in the advancement of the culture of
peace.
CCOPP is actively coordinating Canadian
civil society input into the Decade’s World Report and will be collating the
data to elaborate its own plan of action for the second half of the Decade.
Also
various online groups and e-mail lists have been set up, as well as online polls
conducted thus providing tools for communication,
networking, dialogue and information dissemination promoting a culture of peace
and non-violence. Several issues are attended to in this way linking
people from all over the country, thus facilitating synergies to address
creatively various topics of interest or concern, for example the CCOPP
Stakeholder Network Design, celebration of peace week, bullying and youth
violence, resource raising, media and free flow of information to promote a
culture of peace, interreligious dialogue, and even the drafting of this report.
Apart from meetings of standard format,
CCOPP actively applies to the extent possible “Open Space Technology” (OST)
protocol, basically seeking to encourage synergistic, even visionary, dynamic by
allowing those interested to participate freely while creating optimal
conditions and opportunities for all to make their contribution. CCOPP practices
a council-type of governance, with definable/pro-active leadership, valuing
highly the following qualities:
4) PRIORITY DOMAINS OF ACTION.
Your first and second priority action among the following:
1 - Education for a culture of peace
2 –
Free flow of information and knowledge/ Understanding, tolerance, and solidarity
Equality of women
Democratic participation
Sustainable development
Human rights
International peace and security
5) GEOGRAPHICAL
PRIORITY. If your action is national, the primary and secondary country of
your action. If regional, please indicate the region concerned. If
international, please indicate "international."
Canada
& “international”
Four other
questions are optional and not required for the report, but your response would
be helpful.
6) ADVICE.
What advice would you like to give to the Secretary-General and the General
Assembly to promote a culture of peace and non-violence during the second half
of the Decade (2006-2010).
The Canadian Culture of Peace
Program (CCOPP) proposes that the UN Secretary General recommend to the General
Assembly:
1 - To call on all the member
states to renew their commitment to the Culture of Peace and Non-violence
Declaration and Program of Action and to encourage them strongly, as a sure sign
of that engagement, to appoint in their respective government a Minister of
Peace to work collaboratively to advance effectively the culture of peace with a
National Peace Commission, a non-governmental organisation composed of
representatives of all significant stakeholders to be set up by and answering to
national parliament to coordinate the national culture of peace program in
liaison with UNESCO and other pertinent UN agencies for the International Decade
for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World,
2001-2010.
2 – To request the UNESCO
Director General to take all appropriate measures to initiate and coordinate
meetings as required of the government ministers of peace and national peace
commission executives in order to advance effectively a concerted international
culture of peace program of action.
3 - To decide that the World
Peace Forum 2006, to be hosted by the City of Vancouver, B.C., Canada from 23rd
to 28th June 2006 will be the major international event to generate
new impetus for effective application of the Culture of Peace Program in the
second half (2006-2010) of the Decade and that subsequently regional peace
forums will be organized leading to a second World Peace Forum in 2010, all to
be coordinated by UNESCO and the respective host countries.
4 – To ask the member states
to encourage and facilitate participation of representatives of all
stakeholders, actively fostering a culture of peace, in the national, regional
and global events promoting the culture of peace.
7) PARTNERSHIPS
AND NETWORKS. The UN Programme of Action calls for the strengthening of
"partnerships between and among the various actors for a global movement
for a culture of peace." Please describe here the partnerships and networks
in which your organization participates.
National Canadian network of
stakeholders, fostering a culture of peace, being developed by the Canadian
Culture of Peace
Program and other
such networks with compatible mission in the country, e.g. UNESCO National
Commission, Council of Canadians, service clubs such as Rotary and Lions,
religious and lay organisations such as Inter-community service for Franciscan
Animation and the Secular Franciscan Order, the World Peace Forum Society,
parents associations, YW and YMCA’s, as well as educational institutions such
as universities, colleges and schools.
8) REFERENCE. Who told you about
this site? (Please provide this information for our own networking, and your
answer will not be put on line).
9) PLANS.
What new engagements are planned by your organization to promote a culture of
peace in the second half of the Decade (2006-2010)?
Develop the CCOPP Stakeholder Network and further organize
regular provincial, national and other peace conferences as well as CCOPP
stakeholder network assemblies and peace leadership or other relevant training
or information sessions.
The following action
areas are being developed or have been initiated: CCOPP Marketing Strategy (how
to ‘sell’ the Culture of Peace and Non-violence Program), Culture of Peace
News Network – Canada and Media Literacy/Culture of Peace campaign, the CCOPP
Interreligious Dialogue, the CCOPP and Government Relationship Building
Dialogue, the CCOPP and Business (Corporate) Relationship Building Dialogue, the
Canada and United States Culture of Peace and Non-violence Relationship Building
Dialogue, the Canada and United Nations Relationship Building Dialogue.
More online forums will be set up for all of the remaining U.N. Culture of Peace
and Non-violence Action Areas (i.e. Equality Between Men and Women;
Understanding, Tolerance and Community; Democratic Participation; Sustainable
Economic and Social Development; Respect for All Human Rights; International
Peace and Security) as well as online forums for the ten remaining
Provincial/Territorial Culture of Peace Programs.
CCOPP Core Group members are actively liasing with, or are
involved in, major upcoming events such as
Global
Conference on the Prevention of Armed Conflict, July 19-21 2005 in New York,
Earth Charter + 5,
November 7-9, 2005
Amsterdam, World
Peace Forum 2006, 23 –28 June, Vancouver B.C., and the International Peace Research Association's 21st Biennial
Conference, University of Calgary, June 26-30, 2006.
HOW TO FILL
OUT THE QUESTIONNAIRE
You may enter
information in English, French or Spanish, directly on this website by the
following sequence:
1) fill out the registration
page,
being sure to fill in the name of your organization
2) await confirmation by e-mail (same day)
3) log in when you receive confirmation
4) go to the country or international domain that you signed up for
5) click on the button "add a report"
6) fill out the form and click on the button "submit"
7) the person who submits information on an organization will always be able to
come back and edit it at a later date by clicking on the "edit" button
For further
information, please e-mail:
decade@decade-culture-of-peace.org