| Posted: April 06 2005,11:38 |
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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? |
There
has been a clear progress towards the development of a culture of peace
both in Norway and in the regions/countries in which we have worked in
this decade, with the exception of the North Caucasus region, including
Chechnya and North Ossetia and Ingushetia, where violence is still the
predominant paradigm. In the countries of the former Yugoslavia, there
has been a marked reduction of violence and increase in peace
indicators, in some countries more than others. Unfortunately, we do
not have scientifically sound information on the indicators which could
be used, but are able to say that there has been a marked increase in
demand for the learning and relationship building events which we are
involved in, both from organisations and from individuals. In both
Georgia and the Ukraine, countries which we have worked in, there have
been non violent, democratic revolutions, which are a sound indicator
of the development of cultures of peace.
Positive indicators in
Norway include the acceptance of terms such as "peacebuilding" by the
Foreign Ministry, Development Ministry and State Development Agency
(NORAD). Several of the larger non governmental development and
humanitarian agencies have also taken "peacebuilding" into their
rhetoric and planning.
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OBSTACLES: What are the most important obstacles that have prevented progress?
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1.
Lack of sufficient understanding amoung resource and decision managers
within the governing establishments of the richer countries of western
europe, including Norway, of the scale of investment required to make
significant contributions to the development of a culture of peace
2.
Lack of will on the part of the Norwegian political and bureaucratic
establishment to take the concept of a Culture of Peace on board in
their strategic planning, thereby losing the synergistic potential and
coherence which the Programme of Action envisages. It is not enough to
work with peacebuilding in a disconnected and uncoordinated way, such
as is done by the Norwegian political and bureaucratic establishment
3.
Lack of funding for peace and peacebuilding work in Norway, where there
are virtually no private funds available, and almost all funding comes
from public funds controlled by bureaucrats and politicians.
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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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CCM
is a non profit organisation dedication to the promotion of peace and
the non violent management of conflicts. All of our work is designed to
contribute towards the development of a culture of peace. Our prime
modality is the learning and relationship building event, where one of
the key planned outcomes is democratic empowerment. Since the
commencement of the decade, we have arranged tens of such events in
many different sectors of society both in Norway and abroad.
We
do not prioritise demonstrations, and do not wait for any particular
day to celebrate peace. We try to do this every day, working
strategically with the many people of peace who attend our events.
Currently,
we are in the middle of a survey of how the Norwegian society is
working on the further development of its (relatively highly developed)
culture of peace. Using the principles of appreciative enquiry, we have
tried to identify all actors in Norway who are working on projects or
other activities which could be classified under one or more of the 8
main heads of the Culture of Peace programme of action. The results of
the survey are being posted on our culture of peace website at www.ccm.no,
and we welcome visitors who wish to learn more about how people and
organsations are working with the maintenance and development of the
Norwegian Culture of Peace.
From
a training of trainers session for trainee trainers from refugee
organisations in the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, N and S Ossetia,
Dagestan and Chechnya). It illustrates a session on using drama in
training. The participants have made a ship, which is about to be
wrecked!
This
is from a workshop with the theatre group from African Youth in Norway,
where we are working on making a version of Romeo and Juliet which has
a happy ending because the conflicts in the story are handled in a
constructive way based on traditional African methods of conflict
management.
This
picture is a class photograph from the Summer School 2005, showing only
some of the 40 post graduate students registered for the distance
learning Peace Studies Programme at the University of Kwa Zulu Natal,
Durban, South Africa. Graham Dyson, Director of CCM Norway, is a
doctoral student in the programme, and his topic is the UN CoP
initiative. He also held a short workshop on Human Rights and Basic
Needs for the Summer School participants.
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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? |
We
were happy to see that the SG has proposed the establishment of a
permanent Commission for Peace as part of his proposals for renewal of
the UN organisation. Given UNESCO's wide scope of responsibilities and
lack of resources to facilitate a focused and effective implementation
of the Culture of Peace Programme of Action, and UNESCO's failure to
work on the establishment of indicators to measure culture of peace
implementation progress, we strongly urge the SG and GA to remove the
responsibility for implementation of the PoA from UNESCO and give it to
the new Commission for Peace. Of particular importance is the
development of a proper measuring instrument for CoP implementation:
the SG/GA should commission, after a competitive process, the
development of such a set of indicators from a competent organisation
while waiting for a decision on the permanent Commission for Peace.
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PARTNERSHIPS: What partnerships and
networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the
global movement for a culture of peace? |
The Norwegian Forum for Mediation and Conflict Work (www.mekon.no)
The European Platform for Conflict Prevention and Transformation
The Global Partnership for the Provention of Armed Conflict (www.gppac.net)
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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
will continue with our Culture of Peace project and with our learning
and relationship building events. We are also working on a project
aimed at introducing peer group mediation into the South African school
system in order to try to contribute to the strategies to combat SA's
appalling culture of violence.
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Postal address of organization
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Postboks 150, 1431 AAS, Norway
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E-mail address of organization
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info@ccm.no
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Website address of organization
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www.ccm.no
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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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Democratic Participation
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Highest priority country of action (or international)
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International
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Second priority country of action (or international)
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Eastern Europe
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