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Organization: CULTURE OF PEACE WORKING GROUP of the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns, A Committee of the Conferences of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CSVGC-NY)
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Postal address of organization/institution


E-mail address of organization/institution

optu-ny@earthlink.net

Website address of organization/institution

www.csvgc-ny.org

Telephone of organization/institution

609-744-9439

PRIORITIES: All of the organization's domains of culture of peace activity

EDUCATION FOR PEACE
UNDERSTANDING, TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY
INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY

TOP PRIORITY: The organization's most important culture of peace activity

EDUCATION FOR PEACE

PARTNERSHIPS AND NETWORKS: What partnerships and networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the global movement for a culture of peace?

We are comprised of individuals from many United Nations NGO's, associated with both the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the Department of Public Information (DPI).  Among them are: Operation Peace Through Unity, International Public Policy Institute, International Relief Friendship Foundation, The Ribbons International, Children of the Earth, Elizabeth Seton Foundation, Soka Gokkai International, Legion of Goodwill, Wittenberg Center, United Religions Initiative, Tribal Link, National Services Conference of the American Ethical Union, Aquarian Age Community, World Peace Prayer Society, Universal Peace Federation.   Beyond that we are connected with the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace (www.mfp-dop.org) and the U.S. Department of Peace (www.thepeacealliance.org) campaign (our co-chair is UN Liaison to these organizations).  In addition, we have many consulting collaborative “friends” who are not official NGO members of CSVGC-NY but who support us -- such as the U.S. Peace Academy, the Global Education Association and Humanity’s Team and various distinguished UN officials.

ACTIONS: What activities have been undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence during the ten years of the Decade? If you already made a report in 2005, your information from 2005 will be included in the 2010 report.

Our group started to slowly form during the mid-point of the decade around 2005, concurrent with the formation of its overall organization, the CSVGC-NY.  Interestingly, one of our first tasks was to assist with the Mid-Decade Culture of Peace report but we were so new then that it did not occur to us to submit an entry ourselves.  Below is how we are currently described on the CSVGC-NY website (www.csvgc-ny.org).   This was revised two years ago and will be updated again -- as our mission and actions have developed considerably in an ever-expanding way since then.  We have come to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the UN Declaration and Program of Action on a Culture of Peace (A/RES/53/243) during this time as our UN work has progressed.  Perhaps a more precise description of our mission now is to simply promote this important UN document which is still under-utilized at the UN.  
     
Mission: To assist the United Nations in fulfilling it's mandate to "eliminate the scourge of war" by working in various ways to cultivate a culture of peace and pursue alternatives to violence at all levels of our existence (inner, inter-personal, national, international). We support structures that will enable nonviolence to become an organizing principle in society, where peace is regarded as a basic human right.

 
Culture of Peace Working Group members with special guests Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, David
Adams and Marcos Estrada at our January, 2010 meeting kicking off the last year of the Decade
and promoting the 10 Year World Report survey at the UN.  


Vision:  Valuing the essential unity of humanity, and convinced that the Golden Rule, i.e., love your neighbor as yourself; do unto others as you would have them do unto you, is humanity's highest calling the world over, we recognize that Love expressed as goodwill is that which leads to right human relations as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and therefore, that this is the primary prerequisite to peace and creating a Culture of Peace. Initial areas of focus include:
     1)  Advance UN Department & Ministry of Peace Resolution Project  
      2)  Participate in Week of Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns
      3)  Continue to support International Day of Peace efforts
      4)  Increase UN recognition of new 10/2 International Day of Nonviolence
      5)  Obtain official UN DPI approval for Culture of Peace Pocket Booklet (make
           available in NGO Resource Room)
      6)  Consider Ways to Participate in the Annual NGO/DPI Conference

1)  Advance UN Department & Ministry of Peace Resolution Project:  Considerable movement has been made in this endeavor, preparing the soil to plant seeds for it to happen when the time is right.  We spent 2008 refining the draft UN Resolution document, with the help of UN advisors.  In 2009 we promoted the idea and circulated this draft document in various circles throughout the world, most notably at the 2009 “Peace Alliance” U.S. Department of Peace biennial lobbying conference in Washington, DC plus at the biennial Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace Summit in Costa Rica.  We will soon begin next phase by visiting missions to engage in dialogues about “peace infrastructures.”  

2)  Participate in Week of Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns:
• In 2007 we presented a workshop during the week of spirituality on the peace of martial arts.
• In 2008 we had a more formal panel presentation to discuss “Is Peace a Human Right.”  Featured were: Philippines Ambassador, culture of peace specialist,  UNESCO culture specialist & Global Alliance representative.
• In 2009 we conducted a questionnaire on “Global Peace Through Reconciliation” which, among other things, asked various questions related to culture of peace and the concept of peace infrastructures.  Its purpose was not only to assess level of civil society knowledge of these things but to educate and inform.  We found most respondents supported ministries and departments of peace and passing a UN Resolution encouraging them.    

3)  Continue to support International Day of Peace efforts:  The Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace selects the date of its biennial international Summits to coincide with the International Day of Peace.  In 2007 it took place in Japan and 2009 in Costa Rica.  We orchestrated a moment of silence during the 2009 Summit program (which was being broadcast globally) at the designated time when all around the world was to focus on peace.  

4)  Increase UN recognition of new 10/2 International Day of Nonviolence: In 2009 we organized a presentation featuring a "non-violence" expert through the UN Values Caucus in recognition of this special new day on the UN calendar.  

5)  Obtain official UN DPI approval for Culture of Peace pocket booklet:  We helped facilitate production of these handy little blue booklets (containing the actual UN culture of peace Resolution) that were made through the generosity of  Soka Gakkai.International … who graciously makes supplies available to us for various distributions.  

6)  Consider ways to participate in the Annual NGO/DPI Conference:  We presented a Midday Workshop at the 60th annual DPI/NHO Conference in September, 2007 on “A Solution to the Challenge of Climate Change:  Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace.”   We submitted a proposal for last year’s Mexico conference (which was not approved but we believe no effort is ever lost).  We plan to try again this year to promote the culture of peace in this way.  
 
7)  Other:  In 2006 we organized a presentation on the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace through the UN Values Caucus.


 
Culture of Peace Working Group meeting at UN Plaza with the draft UN "Peace Infrastructures" Resolution
we had diligently worked on

PROGRESS: Has your organization seen progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain of action and in your constituency during the second half of the Decade?

Yes indeed -- we have made amazing progress since the mid-decade!  We have gradually evolved from a just a few NGO’s who merely resonated with the concept of “culture of peace” -- yet did not know much about it or what to “do” with it  --  into to a group of passionate, dedicated “doers” consciously striving to operate from a spiritual base.  Our list serve has grown from just a few to over 70!  We have accomplished a variety of significant actions around the UN during the second half of the Decade too.  The most dramatic example pertains to our work promoting this very Culture of Peace World Report effort at the UN!!  We were able to get the Department of Public Information to read notice about it for the last two months at its weekly Briefings.  This allowed us to develop a connection with DPI that had not existed before.   Functioning within the concurrently evolving CSVGC-NY protocols, we have all come a long way in this time.

OBSTACLES: Has your organization faced any obstacles to implementing the culture of peace and nonviolence? If so, what were they?

1)  Lack of awareness and appreciation about the UN Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace within the UN system and beyond.  

2)  The humungous UN protocols and vast bureaucracy one must go through in order to accomplish even the slightest thing.  
3)  Lack of funding to cover necessary expenses of our work, which have become quite costly and burdensome as our profile has enlarged.  Bearing costs out-of-pocket is limiting plus can be a deterrent in recruiting volunteers to help.

PLANS: What new engagements are planned by your organization in the short, medium and long term to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence?

The 2010 goal is to anchor CoP @ the UN in the following ways:  
1)  Begin next phase of the draft UN Resolution project which is to visit missions to establish connection and begin dialogues on peace infrastructures.  
2)   Propose a Fall Department of Public Information Briefing about the CoP Decade & World Report
3)  Designate 8 CoP “Programme of Action” Focalizers to monitor UN developments in these areas
4)  Submit CoP Midday Workshop Proposal for 2010 Department of Public Information Conference
5)  Working Group participation in 2010 UN Week of Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns
6)  Make contact with UN Peacebuilding Commission
7)  SEEK FUNDING to cover our increasing expense -- apply for grants  (ideas on possible resources and funding sources are most welcome!!)

GLOBAL MOVEMENT: How do you think the culture of peace and nonviolence could be strengthened and supported at the world level??

Passage in the UN General Assembly of the draft UN Resolution calling for building governmental “peace infrastructures of peace” (ie. ministries or departments of peace) to strengthen the culture of peace.  As recommended in the draft Resolution:

1)  Urge the Secretary-General to actively encourage all UN Member States to build the culture of peace architecture nationally – and in collaboration with the community of nations – by creating structures across national governments to direct policies and programmes in peace-building, and that these structures be in the form of Ministries or Departments of Peace, to support fulfillment of the vision in the UN Declaration and Programme of Action for a Culture of Peace (1999).

2)  Invite the Secretary-General to create a link within the UN system to facilitate coordination with the national Ministries and Departments of Peace, in collaborative efforts to promote the culture of peace.  Such link would evaluate how all adopted UN actions contribute to the culture of peace by having “Culture of Peace Impact Assessments.”

3)  Request that the Secretary-General refer to the UN Advisory Committee on Administration and Budgetary Questions the idea of setting up a Voluntary Fund to allocate resources for addressing these essential peace-building activities that protect through prevention; to begin the “economic conversion” shift from military to civilian production, so as to “beat our swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks.”  

4)  Reaffirm the United Nations pledge, as representatives of the governments of the world, to join “we the peoples” in building a peaceful, in the spirit of the UN Charter; advancing the culture of peace with each nation, each culture, each religion and each human being.
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Organization: CULTURE OF PEACE WORKING GROUP of the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns, A Committee of the Conferences of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CSVGC-NY)

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