| Posted: Mar. 31 2005,05:55 |
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PROGRESS: Has your organization seen
progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain of
action and in your constituency during the first half of the Decade? |
The interest for peace and nonviolence among the people in our organisation is growing. .
In
our Dutch society in general however we hardly see any progress.
In the Newspapers one doesn't read much on this subject.
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OBSTACLES: What are the most important obstacles that have prevented progress?
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Unacquaintance, people don't know about this.
Unwillingness, people don't think it is useful to work in any way for the decade to overcome violence.
Partly this attitude became more visible after september 11, 2001. Fear for terrorsime has increased.
The might ( power) of the economy works against the decade of non violence and peace.
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ACTIONS: What actions have been
undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence during the first half of the Decade?
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Several
times we have worked on this theme ( the culture of nonviolence
and peace) at our conferences, twice a year. On one of the conferences
we made a blooklet together, with practical advises how to promote
peace and nonviolence in your congregation .
We publish about these activiies in our church papers.
We
take part in a lobbyproject with the government and discuss how
militairy force ( "peacekeeping") and peacegroups can learn from
each other.
With the Franciscaner peace group we organize each
first saturday of january a " silent wake " in front of the
Ministry of Defence.
We have a "twinning" contact with Mennonites in Honduras and are building up a contact with Mennonites in West Papua, Indonesia.
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ADVICE: What advice would you like to
give to the Secretary-General and the General Assembly to promote a
culture of peace and nonviolence during the second half of the Decade? |
1. We advise the U.N. to insist on setting up National Committees, like proposed in the Nobelprize winners action plan.
2. We advise the U.N. to make room for a Nonviolent Peaceforce within the restructuring of the U.N. Peacebuilding function.
3. We advise UNESCO to visibly give priority to the Decennium, especially concerning educational activities.
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PARTNERSHIPS: What partnerships and
networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the
global movement for a culture of peace? |
We
work national , in the Netherlands, where we do some activities
ourselves and participate in the "National Platform voor een
cultuur van vrede en geweldloosheid ".
International. We have some
contacts in Honduras and in West Papua. We try to learn from each other
by meeting each other and publishing about this meetings in our
churchpapers.
We also participate in IFOR and in Church and
Peace, where our representatives together with the other members of
these organisations search for possibilities to promote the culture of
peace and nonviolence. When we as Mennonites meet each other in Europe
or in the world we give attention to aspects of peace and nonviolence.
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PLANS: What new engagements are
planned by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence in the second half of the Decade (2005-2010)? |
We agree with the plans of the Platform voor een Cultuur van Vrede en Geweldloosheid
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Postal address of organization
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Doopsgezinde Vredesgroep
Singel 454
1017 AW Amsterdam
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E-mail address of organization
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dvg@doopsgezind.nl
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Website address of organization
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http://www.dvg.doopsgezind.nl/
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Highest priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Education for a culture of peace
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Second priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Understanding, tolerance, solidarity
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Highest priority country of action (or international)
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National we emphasize the need to learn how to create a culture of peace
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Second priority country of action (or international)
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National
as well as global we seek to connect with local Mennonites in a mutual
strive to learn from eachother how to work for peace,
understanding, tolerance and solidarity
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