Many to Many
“Many to Many” under the aegis of Operation Peace Through Unity is a communicating link between “we, the peoples” of all nations, races, creeds and ideologies offering in the spirit of the preamble of the United Nations Charter an instrument for the furthering of better relationships based on deepening mutual understanding and the aspiration to promote unity and cooperation beyond all differences.
Issue Number 130 March 2015
I. SEEDS - Editorial
II. UPROOTING TERRORISM – countering violent extremism through prevention
III. ‘OUR WORLD AT A TURNING POINT’
IV. PEACE AND PLANET
V. CHIEFS OF DEFENCE CONFERENCE – 27 MARCH 2015
VI. THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF IRAQ AND SYRIA - destroyed by human ignorance – rebuilt by human hope
VII. UNITED NATIONS ECOSOC YOUTH FORUM – 2-3 February 2015
VIII. ‘TURNING SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES’
IX. WATER FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD
X. ‘GENDER EQUALITY DEMANDS A CONCERTED PUSH’
XI. ‘CHANGE IS COMING. CHANGE HAS TO COME.’
XII. GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
XIII. 2016 – THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF PULSES .
XIV. THE GREAT INVOCATION
Anthony & Gita Brooke, co-founders Te Rangi, 4 Allison Street, Wanganui 5001, New Zealand PHONE/FAX: 64-6-345-5714
Website: www.peacethroughunity.info Email
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I. Seeds
The word ‘climate’ is becoming a concept more generally understood by us all. There is increasing acknowledgement that the many challenges we face could be interlinked and pointing to basic causes they have in common. We are realising that people, neighbourhoods and the planet are enfolded in an atmosphere which contains the sum total of exhausts from the physical, emotional and mental states of health and well-being of us and all other planetary lives. So, although our ‘climate’ deliberations can tend to get trapped in hot disputes and attempts to apportion blame elsewhere, we are nevertheless, one way or another, contributing to the general debate regarding our common future. We are in fact becoming increasingly well informed regarding the general states of affairs, and what can, and what urgently needs, to be done.
Today the icy resolves of the past to resist any changes to the status quo are slowly melting in the growing determination to explore healthier and more sustainable ways of life and living. The new millennium is bringing a profound change of season which will, inexorably, release all life from a state of frozen standstill. Spring gales are uncovering all hidden and rigid thought forms, all self-destructive habits and general insensitivities of the past, and warming the soil for new sowing. This is indeed an opportune time for considering and choosing what seeds to sow for future generations to harvest.
In December 2014 the UN General Assembly adopted its first resolution on Evaluation and designated 2015 as the International Year of Evaluation. At the High-level Event of the Evaluation Week (March 2015), UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged that evaluation is neither easy nor popular, but: “it is essential”; we have a shared responsibility to ‘strengthen this important function’, because: “evaluation everywhere, and at every level, will play a key role in implementing the new development agenda”. The new Report published by the UN Evaluation Group (UNEG)’s, entitled “Evaluation Changes Lives – Realizing Evaluation’s Potential to Inform the Global Sustainable Development Goals’, focuses on topics such as gender equality, improving public accountability, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and protecting civilians in conflict zones (http://www.unevaluation.org/ )
Former Assistant Secretary-General, Sir Richard Jolly, recently pointed to what he saw as a significant difference between the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which established consensus on what the development goals for the 21st century should be, and the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which expand and reframe the agendas and policies for the next 15 years: “The SDGs are universal, which is a major advance’, Sir Richard explained, and “instead of the North speaking to the South, we’re now really recognizing that all countries need to take action for all peoples’. Another fundamental development is, he said, that the SDGs are integrating sustainability and climate change. Based on public responses to the thorough and comprehensive worldwide consultation 17 key sustainable development goals have been formulated which encapsulate our collective vision of how to heal and build a better world for all: “End Poverty; end hunger; well-being; quality education for all; gender equality; water and sanitation for all; affordable and sustainable energy; decent work for all; technology to benefit all; reduce inequality; safe cities and communities; responsible consumption by all; stop climate change; protect the oceans; take care of the earth; live in peace; and build mechanisms and partnerships to reach the goals”. (http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=50165#.VRtBNcIfq71)
Thus the soil has been prepared for sowing and the seeds chosen. Let us then sow, nurture and shelter these seeds into full maturity so as to feed and inspire future generations. Let the good, true and beautiful infuse and uplift all life on this planet.
II. Uprooting Terrorism:
Countering Violent Extremism through Prevention
In the beginning of this year the Department of Political Affairs (DPA) had an in- depth look into the possible causes for the rise of extremist groups a decade after the 11 September attacks. Director of the UN Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF) and the UN Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) within DPA, Jehangir Khan, is inviting the international community to rethink the approach of confronting violent extremism through ‘counter’ measures alone, suggesting this as being too narrow. However, a shift towards a more integrated policy of preventing violent extremism is emerging, with emphasis on preventing, said Mr Khan.
Opening the Summit for Countering Violent Extremism in Washington DC 19 February, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that a UN Plan of Action on Preventing Violent Extremism would be presented to the UNGA later in the year.
At this meeting, hosted by the United States Government, Ban Ki-moon urged that “all countries – along with regional and international organisations – as well as political, religious, academic and civil society leaders – should join hands to forge a multi-faceted response that respects international human rights and humanitarian law”. https://un_dpa.creatavist.com/uprooting_terrorism
Warning that ‘counter-terrorism strategies that lack basic elements of due process and respect for the rule of law are often the most effective recruiting agents for extremism’, he reminded the meeting of the most powerful weapons at our disposal, namely ‘human rights, accountable institutions, the equitable delivery of services, and political participation’ .
The UNGA resolution, adopted by consensus in 2006 (resolution 60/288), outlines four ‘pillars’ for the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy:
1. addressing the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism;
2. measures to prevent and combat terrorism;
3. measures to build states’ capacity to prevent and combat terrorism, and to strengthen the role of the United Nations system in that regard,
4. measures to ensure respect for human rights for all and the rule of law as the fundamental basis for the fight against terrorism.
“Missiles may kill terrorists. But good governance kills terrorism”.
Ban Ki-moon
III. Our World at a Turning Point
In recent statements the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Zeid Ra’ad Al-Huseein, has been urging Member States to ‘uphold the human rights principles underlying their communities in their fight against radicalism’. There is a real danger, he said that opinion-leaders and decision-makers could lose their grasp of the values that States built 70 years ago and enshrined in the UN Charter to ward off the horror of war. Strong international treaties were and have since then been written and agreed upon, to be established in binding law as the legal principles of human rights. These are, said the Human Rights Commissioner, “a distillation of all human experience, all the warnings and screams of our combined human history”.
In the fight against terror the values of democracy and human rights must be upheld, not undermined, said Mr. Zeid, and “Counter-terrorist operations that are non-specific, disproportionate, brutal and inadequately supervised, violate the very norms that we seek to defend”. Furthermore “they also risk handing the terrorists a propaganda tool – thus making our societies neither free nor safe”. At this turning point in history the world is provided with an unprecedented opportunity to face and overcome all past unresolved challenges, and “member states must enforce human rights amid rising tide of extremism’.
In his Opening Address to the High Level Segment of the UNHR Council, the Human Rights Commissioner warned that, although we are justifiably condemning the cruelty, the merciless conduct and moral bankruptcy of violent extremism, we must ensure that we are ‘completely principled and cunning in our collective attempt to defang them’ so that we do not – unwittingly - advance their interests.
Yet human rights are disregarded and violated with ‘alarming regularity’ throughout all nations. And, said Mr Zeid, the overwhelming majority of victims of human rights abuses around the world have two characteristics in common: deprivation and discrimination – whether it is based on race or ethnicity, gender, beliefs, sexual orientation, caste or class. All these are not spontaneously generated but resulting from ‘policy choices, ‘which limit freedom and participation, create obstacles to the fair sharing of resources and opportunities.’
Crying out for profound and inspiring leadership:
People throughout our troubled world are ‘crying out for profound and inspiring leadership equal to the challenges we face’, said Mr Zeid. We, all of us, must work and dedicate ourselves to end discrimination, deprivation and seemingly inexhaustible litany of conflicts and crises that generate such terrible, and needless, suffering:
“Together, if we succeed in turning the corner, in improving our global condition, we can then say the screams of history and of the millions upon millions of victims, have been heard, - finally. Let us make it so”
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15628&LangID=E&utm_source=emailcampaign270&utm_medium=phpList&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=Transforming+Planetary+Consciousness+Aries+2015
The High Commissioner’s Annual Report can be read at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15642&LangID=E
“It is the people who sustain government, create prosperity, heal and educate others and pay for governmental and other services with their labour.
It is their struggles that have created and sustain States.
Governments exist to serve the people – ”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Zeid Ra’ad Al-Huseein
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewYork/Stories/Pages/ZeidPresentsAnnualReport.aspx#sthash.vtErqx8B.IMGyFbA7.dpuf
IV. Peace and Planet
Mobilization for a Nuclear-Free, Peaceful, Just, and Sustainable World
2015 marks the 45th anniversary of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which outlines the agreement obligating all States parties to undertake negotiations for the elimination of all nuclear weapons.
From 27 April to 22 May this year representatives from all 189 NPT members, including the U.S., Russia, the U.K., France and China, will meet at the UN, New York, to review once again the obligations and requirements of the Treaty to free the world of all nuclear weapons.
A Global Wave 2015:
The ‘Global Wave’ initiative plans to involve people everywhere throughout the world and will include parliamentarians, mayors, religious leaders, youth, environmentalists, human rights activists, sports clubs, and other members of the global community. Global Wave will start in New York 26 April, proceeding westward through each time zone every hour and include many unique and symbolic Wave events. Whether these events will be large or small, they will all demonstrate a united resolve to build a fair, democratic, ecologically sustainable, and peaceful future for all.
On the eve of the NPT Review Conference, the International Peace & Planet will be holding its Conference in New York City on the theme: Nuclear-Free, Peaceful, Just, and Sustainable World. For more information on this event and details on how to cooperate see ( http://www.peaceandplanet.org/ )
The Global Wave petition can be signed at http://www.peaceandplanet.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/3-20-Print-Petition.pdf
On 8 December 2014, a statement was published entitled ‘Nuclear Disarmament: Time for Abolition – A Contribution of the Holy See”. This document contains the thoughts of H.H. Pope Francis which, in the words of Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute, ‘skilfully sets a moral compass that all the world’s nations should follow’. The full text of this statement can be read here: http://gsinstitute.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/95/Holy_See_Statement.pdf?1427144795
“Nuclear deterrence and the threat of mutually assured destruction cannot be the basis for an ethics of fraternity and peaceful coexistence”
Pope Francis
V. Chiefs of Defense Conference
27 March 2015
This first-ever United Nations Chiefs of Defence Conference took place in New York and brought together senior defence and military officials from more than 100 member nations to discuss the role of peacekeeping in an increasingly dangerous and, as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described it, “complex global security landscape”.
Today there are more than 130,000 military, police and civilian staff from around the world serving in the UN’s 16 peacekeeping operations – the largest number in history.
This is our largest deployment in history, and ‘it must be matched by a stronger international partnership for peacekeeping’.
The UN Secretary-General appealed to the military officials and pointed to two elements, which he believed were essential for success:
- ‘When the Security Council calls on us to deploy peacekeepers, the UN needs to be ready. This means more diverse and more quickly available contributions from Member States. It also includes additional ‘boots on the ground’ from developed countries with more technologically advanced militaries.’ And
- ‘We need unity and backing. Effective performance demands broad consensus on why where and how peacekeepers carry out their mandates.
Referring to the harrowing effects of the terrorizing campaigns by ISIL/Da’esh spreading through the world community he urged all political leaders around the world to look at the root causes and breeding grounds for any kind of extremism and terrorism. In many cases, failed leadership, corruption, injustice, inequality will drive people to desperate decisions of hopelessness.
We have to eliminate this kind of situation, said the UN Secretary-General and told the meeting: “that is why the United Nations counterterrorism is going to submit to the General Assembly in September a comprehensive plan of action to counter this violent extremism and terrorism”.