Mexico City- " We need to profoundly and fundamentally redefine the issue of security from a definition of national security to a definition of Human Security."- Jacqueline Cabasso- Legal Foundation
Today- I started out remembering two other stories that I didn't share from yesterday- stories that hit me as soon as I woke.
- one- the selection of Mexico City as the site of this conference was very strategic and symbolic because it was the site of a very important treaty to keep the region free of nuclear weapons which was drafted and ultimately signed by 33 countries in 1967 in the Latin American region- the Treaty of Tiatelolco.
The other thought has proved to be the large lesson of the conference today- that is a call to the world community to look at their antiquated and cold war definition of security and move to a modern humanity centered definition of security.
We have now listened to three great Round Tables- each providing experts from the field from around the world who have challenged us in the many many issues related to disarmament.
One of the most important discussions addressed the different definitions of arms based on north /south and east/west interests. In the continent of Africa- the issue of arms is not felt to be an issue of nuclear weapons as it is daily an a issue of small arm conflict in every aspect of society.
Alfredo Lubang of the Philippines expanded the "definition of armed violence" to refer to the Arms of Violence that women face in domestic and gender violence. Violence in every form is an issue of power and is a societal/ culture of violence issue. The solutions have to stem from civil society and lead to making demands of their governments. He described a wonderful story where children were given a week of peace education and education about the harmful consequences of violence. At the end of the week the children made voluntary contributions to start "cycles of peace". Children eagerly brought in their toy guns, toy sword and even video games that had war in them!
Startingly statistics show that of the 740,000 victims of armed violence around the world each year- 490,000 occur outside of war zones! Urban areas have high rates of gun and domestic violence. The economic costs of death, and survival of 250,000 disabled each year is staggering and devastating to society.
Christiane Agbotan Johnson - from Senegal has been conducting a great deal of research on armed violence and presented some really important questions that have been asked in communities discussing disarmament.
-Why do you want to remove the small arms?
-Who has the arms?
-Where do you have them?
-How do we remove the tools of armed violence?
-What are the root causes of armed violence?
After conducting this research Christiane concluded that it is crucial to have women and youth as a part of the action to remove the tools of armed violence. Additionally she said that all human resources need to be partners in working toward achieving this mission.
-Local leaders must do the on the ground work and include women and youth as significant players
-National leaders need create and implement policies and provide security
-International partners are needed for funding and international advocacy.
There has to be synergy and cooperation between all stakeholders for these solutions to work. She presented an 18 month program in Senegal which resulted in voluntary release of arms by many people.
This afternoon Soroptimist International and the International Association of Applied Psychology presentented a workshop titled " Abolishing tools of War and Creating Projects for peace. The workshop included 4 speakers from different organizations who each shared some of the work they have done to promote peace including advocating against tools of war.
Kate Moore of SI and Landmine Action Group presented a variety of international and local projects from demining landmine fields, providing landmine victims assistance, supporting women survivors of war and our current project, Project SIerra which assists girls and young women in Sierra Leone recover from war and gain self sufficiency. David Kovatch addressed a wonderful project for college students which encouraged them to develop peace campaigns. Marina and Sarah Walker from WAGGGS talked about a large variety of peace teaching projects conducted by girl guides and girl scouts around the world and their current focus on the Millenium Development Goals in relationship to developing strong and capable girls and young women. Maty Filena shared riveting stories and projects in Mexico with Journeys for Peace that used creative arts to promote peace and expose the scourge of war. Many important lessons were learned and the packed audience also provided practical ideas for promotion of peace. The session ended with sharing a wonderful light hearted and pointed poem, a solemn peace ceremony with flags, and the singing of an original song in both Spanish and English titled :Lets Stand Up for Peace. The session left no doubt in anyone's mind that CITIZENS CAN be part of the SOLUTION- AND THEY MUST!
The last message of the day followed a very thought provoking Round Table called HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPRESENTS GLOBAL SECURITY. We were presented with the challenge of the massive types of endeavors that would really transform our world if the world could change its definition of security.
At the very end of the session a simple and profound request was made to the audience- one that will haunt me for a very long time- " Be lovers of lost causes."
It seems to me that every important cause that NGOs undertake are largely felt to be lost causes. It is easy to think of great saints like Mother Theresa, and Nelson Mandela and two of my personal earthly angels Zainab Salbi and Bingh Ribecki- and how each of their contributions to seemingly "lost causes" has transformed the world.....of many. The famous are not the only heros and I tend to agree with SG Ban Ki-moon that the power of the people for good is a force that is unimaginable!
Dawn Marie Lemonds
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Annual UN Conference for NGOs- Soroptimist International
Mexico City- Today over 800 delegates from around the world attended the annual Department of Public Information / Non Governmental Conference (DPI/NGO )in Mexico City . This is the 62nd conference of its kind-and is the one conference held annually for the UN and Civil Society. This is and the second time that this conference has been held in a site other than the UN headquarters in New York City. Soroptimist International has a delegation of 4 people with President Hanne Jensbo from Denmark, SI Programme Director Dawn Marie Lemonds from USA, Kate Moore from UK and Dr. Summer Lockerbie from USA. The title of this conference this year is Disarm Now! for peace and development.
The 4 SI delegates converged excitedly to the gorgeous historic opening site callled Ex Convent of St. Hipolito. We were thrilled to sit in the 5 th row and have a perfect view of the opening ceremonies- which included presentations from a combination of UN luminaries such as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Under Secretary Kiyo Akasaka, Host Country officials including Patricia Espinoza Cantellano-Mexico Minister of Foreign Affairs and two Nobel Peace prize laureates- Miguel Marin Bosch and Jody Williams!
This conference is the first totally bilingual DPI/NGO Conference ever held and all workshops, round tables, key notes and Break out sessions included speeches and interpretation in both Spanish and English! People who are interested in following the main speeches and events of this conference are encouraged to go to the conference website-www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/conference.
Highlights from the first day included encouraging and challenging words from SG Ban Ki-moon:
-I turn to the charter of the United Nations which starts out with the words- "We the people....." You - the NGOs are the real heros and the driving force in our world community......you are the reason that many important issues have been brought to the UN including the current issue of disarmament......
-The world is overarmed and underfunded...Military funding is over a trillion dollars a year and is rising everyday....arms are the number one cause of civilian death and most of these deaths happen in non-military zones.
-We must act....we must continue to speak out against nuclear weapons. The are immoral and should not be afforded any military value.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon articulated a 5 point plan to work toward a world free of nuclear weapons. He has launched a new acronym WMD - which stands for We Must Disarm ( not weapons of mass destruction.) He talked about the 4 F's that are now challenging our world and stretching the capacity of every nation to protect its population: Food, Fuel, Finance and Flu. He made a compelling point that many of these issues could be satisfactorily dealt with if the money allocated to miltary endeavors could be spent on humanity and human issues.
He urged civil society and NGOs to be at the forefront-"the mightiest force of change is in the power of the people..."
At risk of missing so many other important messages, the speech of Nobel Laurete Jody Williams electrified the audience. Jody Williams described herself as a child of the 50's who was taught to "duck and cover" under the desk and that would protect her from a nuclear war. She was so terrified as a child with these scare tactics that she said her greatest desire was to have a personal bomb shelter.....she then realized that this didn't make sense because if she was protected and everyone else died- what was there worth living for? Jody said that she didn't want any other child to have to face the fear of nuclear war...yet....it is a very real fear.
She offered up some very practical suggestions for the audience of people from many countries-
1. Write President Obama and press him to match his words in his campaign speech with actions toward eliminating nuclear weapons.....equally we should write Gordon Brown in UK and ask him to not continue supporting Trident
2. Press for your government to have a summit to discuss nuclear disarmament and support a UN Convention
3. Work together- don't spend so much time defining turf- and trying to get credit for your organization- Make a concentrated and coordinated effort to insist on changes in your governments and for the world.
This conference allows people to come together from around the world representing many diverse NGO entities . Each of the NGOs have a passion to promotion of peace, humanity and disarmament. The opportuntity to stand in line next to a woman from Somalia and hear her story and then listen to a passionate presentation from a one armed woman from El Salvador whose father and husband were both killed before her eyes is unexplicable. Daily we attend Round Tables, Break Out Sessions and workshops. Sessions are complex and simple-like the topic. They challenge our brains and our hearts.
The day ended with a wonderful hosted reception held in another historic building with great Mexican treats and gorgeous chamber music. We enjoyed this wonderful evening with our two new friends Marina Walker of Canada and Sarah Walker of UK- young women volunteers with World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts who are working at the Cabana in Cuernavaca- about two hours away. They are going to be in our workshop that we will be presenting tomorrow at the Conference.
I listened to all of the issues of war, civil unrest, the effects of war and tools of war on civil society. We learned once again that women bear an additional cost -the cost of violence, lack of financial resources, the added responsibility of taking care of the family and so many more costs bourne simply for being female. It was made clear that disarmament and all of the other related issues is a gender issue. Women must be involved in the identification of the problems and be active partners in being part of the solutions.
We ended the day- exhausted and gratified to be part of this amazing "think tank" and look forward to the two days to come.
Dawn Marie Lemonds
The 4 SI delegates converged excitedly to the gorgeous historic opening site callled Ex Convent of St. Hipolito. We were thrilled to sit in the 5 th row and have a perfect view of the opening ceremonies- which included presentations from a combination of UN luminaries such as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Under Secretary Kiyo Akasaka, Host Country officials including Patricia Espinoza Cantellano-Mexico Minister of Foreign Affairs and two Nobel Peace prize laureates- Miguel Marin Bosch and Jody Williams!
This conference is the first totally bilingual DPI/NGO Conference ever held and all workshops, round tables, key notes and Break out sessions included speeches and interpretation in both Spanish and English! People who are interested in following the main speeches and events of this conference are encouraged to go to the conference website-www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/conference.
Highlights from the first day included encouraging and challenging words from SG Ban Ki-moon:
-I turn to the charter of the United Nations which starts out with the words- "We the people....." You - the NGOs are the real heros and the driving force in our world community......you are the reason that many important issues have been brought to the UN including the current issue of disarmament......
-The world is overarmed and underfunded...Military funding is over a trillion dollars a year and is rising everyday....arms are the number one cause of civilian death and most of these deaths happen in non-military zones.
-We must act....we must continue to speak out against nuclear weapons. The are immoral and should not be afforded any military value.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon articulated a 5 point plan to work toward a world free of nuclear weapons. He has launched a new acronym WMD - which stands for We Must Disarm ( not weapons of mass destruction.) He talked about the 4 F's that are now challenging our world and stretching the capacity of every nation to protect its population: Food, Fuel, Finance and Flu. He made a compelling point that many of these issues could be satisfactorily dealt with if the money allocated to miltary endeavors could be spent on humanity and human issues.
He urged civil society and NGOs to be at the forefront-"the mightiest force of change is in the power of the people..."
At risk of missing so many other important messages, the speech of Nobel Laurete Jody Williams electrified the audience. Jody Williams described herself as a child of the 50's who was taught to "duck and cover" under the desk and that would protect her from a nuclear war. She was so terrified as a child with these scare tactics that she said her greatest desire was to have a personal bomb shelter.....she then realized that this didn't make sense because if she was protected and everyone else died- what was there worth living for? Jody said that she didn't want any other child to have to face the fear of nuclear war...yet....it is a very real fear.
She offered up some very practical suggestions for the audience of people from many countries-
1. Write President Obama and press him to match his words in his campaign speech with actions toward eliminating nuclear weapons.....equally we should write Gordon Brown in UK and ask him to not continue supporting Trident
2. Press for your government to have a summit to discuss nuclear disarmament and support a UN Convention
3. Work together- don't spend so much time defining turf- and trying to get credit for your organization- Make a concentrated and coordinated effort to insist on changes in your governments and for the world.
This conference allows people to come together from around the world representing many diverse NGO entities . Each of the NGOs have a passion to promotion of peace, humanity and disarmament. The opportuntity to stand in line next to a woman from Somalia and hear her story and then listen to a passionate presentation from a one armed woman from El Salvador whose father and husband were both killed before her eyes is unexplicable. Daily we attend Round Tables, Break Out Sessions and workshops. Sessions are complex and simple-like the topic. They challenge our brains and our hearts.
The day ended with a wonderful hosted reception held in another historic building with great Mexican treats and gorgeous chamber music. We enjoyed this wonderful evening with our two new friends Marina Walker of Canada and Sarah Walker of UK- young women volunteers with World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts who are working at the Cabana in Cuernavaca- about two hours away. They are going to be in our workshop that we will be presenting tomorrow at the Conference.
I listened to all of the issues of war, civil unrest, the effects of war and tools of war on civil society. We learned once again that women bear an additional cost -the cost of violence, lack of financial resources, the added responsibility of taking care of the family and so many more costs bourne simply for being female. It was made clear that disarmament and all of the other related issues is a gender issue. Women must be involved in the identification of the problems and be active partners in being part of the solutions.
We ended the day- exhausted and gratified to be part of this amazing "think tank" and look forward to the two days to come.
Dawn Marie Lemonds
Soroptimist International Delegation at DPI/NGO Mexico City
September 9-Mexico City- 4 Soroptimists arrive in Mexico City for the Annual DPI/NGO Conference- an event that Ban Ki-moon, Secretariat refers to as " the secretariat of the people". The theme this year of the conference is :Disarm Now! for Peace and Development. Up to date information will be posted daily on the website www.org/ngosection/conference. Each year the conference features a different topic and is the one event of the year designed to bring leaders of Civil Society from the NGO community and leaders from the UN together to address the topic. It is exciting to know that this event acknowledges that many of the changes in the world are made because civil society puts persistent demand on their governments to take notice and change their practices. Two important UN events will follow on the heals of this conference in New York- one on September 24 with the security council and the other in May 2010 discussing Non proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
It was especially gratifying to have SG Ban Ki-moon present one of the opening addresses .....A few quotes from his speech include:
-NGOs are the real heros and the driving force of this world community
this is an opportunity to learn from each other
- the world is overarmed
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