L a t e s t   N e w s

 
DISPLAY ON NEW PAGE
IPB Annual Seminar, Copenhagen, Nov. 2008IPB's Annual seminar was held in Copenhagen on 14-16 Nov. 2008. It was generally felt to be a great success. The event was entitled,'Fredrik Bajer - a Pioneer of Modern Peacemaking. An International Seminar on disarmament, terrorism and poverty: challenges for peace and human rights movements' and was organised by the Danish Peace Council and International Peace Bureau on the occasion of the centenary commemoration of F. Bajer's Nobel Peace Prize (1908).
During the opening session of the seminar, IPB awarded its annual Sean MacBride Peace Prize to the US disarmament advocate Jacqueline Cabasso.
See Next Item for texts of two press releases (including background on Sean MacBride and the Prize itself+previous winners) and extracts from Cabasso's acceptance speech.
For first set of photos: gallery
Texts of main speeches and presentations will be posted on this website in due course.
MACBRIDE PEACE PRIZE AWARDED TO JACKIE CABASSO, US NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT ADVOCATE
The International Peace Bureau made its 2008 award, the Sean MacBride Peace Prize, to Jacqueline Cabasso, a well-known US advocate of of nuclear disarmament. The prize was awarded on Nov. 14, during the IPB's annual seminar, held in Copenhagen. Cabasso has been involved in nuclear disarmament, peace and environmental advocacy on local, national and international levels for over 25 years. She is a leading voice for nuclear weapons abolition, speaking at conferences and events across North America, Europe and Asia. She serves on the Steering Committee of United for Peace and Justice, the largest anti-war coalition in the U.S., and convenes its Nuclear Disarmament & Redefining Security working group. In 1995 she was a “founding mother” of the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons, the largest anti-nuclear network in the world, and she continues to serve on its Coordinating Committee.  Today she remains active with the World Court Project to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Cabasso is a co-author of Nuclear Disorder or Cooperative Security? U.S. Weapons of Terror, the Global Proliferation Crisis and Paths to Peace (2007) and the co‑author of Risking Peace: Why We Sat in the Road (1985), an account of the huge 1983 nonviolent protest at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory and the subsequent mass trial conducted by WSLF. For more see press releases below
P.release (1) with the background to MacBride, the Prize and previous laureates. P.release (2) with extracts from Cabasso's speech. For full text of speech >>>READ HERE
Congratulatory message for Ms Cabasso from Mr. Sergio Duarte, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs>>>HERE
Cluster Munition Treaty and Week of Action - ON NOW!
71 countries are taking part in the Global Week of Action to Ban Cluster Bombs. Find out about events and activities that are being planned to urge all governments to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions at the Oslo Signing Conference on December 3 2008, to promote awareness of the treaty.
Also read about the events to be held in Geneva on Nov 3-14, 2008 >>> READ MORE
NEW IPB CALL FOR ACTION
IPB has drawn up an important Call For Action on military spending which we are distributing very widely. We hope it will resonate with many people's worries about the current financial crisis and the on going mis-appropriation of huge amounts of money. This will be a process. The first round of organisational endorsements will be sent to the upcoming UN conference on Financing for Development. We will then do further outreach in order to reach wide communities around the world, and to stimulate actions at many levels.
Please send organisational endorsements to IPB Secretariat before the deadline of NOVEMBER 15. ...>>>MORE
Version française>>> ICI
IPB at Asia-Europe People's Forum
IPB was well represented at Asia-Europe People's Forum (AEPF), held in Beijing on Oct. 12-15. The introductory speech of the IPB President, Tomas Magnusson, given at the workshop on weapons of mass destruction, in Cluster 1, and his additional 4 suggestions for recommendations can be found here.
NATO 60th anniversary, April 2009-planning Conference - Stuttgart Oct 4-5th, 2008
60 years of NATO are enough. NATO is the main driving force being global war. NATO stands for the missile defence system, military bases around the world, nuclear weapons and military interventions and expenditure. NATO is the rival to the UN and the international law. NATO is intertwined in the European security and defence system. But NATO is not all-powerful, indeed it is under extreme pressure, right now in Afghanistan. At our conference we want to discuss together with the international peace movements and other social movements, activities for 60th anniversary, to build huge common actions. We want to spread our information to engage more initiatives in a broad coalition for this important historical moment
For full details see HERE. This action is supported by IPB

Statement agreed at Stuttgart, including initial details of the events (a camp, conference and demonstration) to take place around the weekend of 4th April 2009. IPB has signed this statement
Photos from the NATO meeting HERE
NATO Appeals in different language...> DANISH, SPANISH, German
OUT OF CONTROL

IPB Secretary-General Colin Archer comments on the links between the current financial meltdown and over funding of the military:
READ MORE
IPB Annual Seminar, COPENHAGEN, Nov 2008 - speakers list now available.
Here is the Final Programme for the IPB's annual seminar, COPENHAGEN, 14-16 November 2008, entitled:
Fredrik Bajer - a Pioneer of Modern Peace Making. An International Seminar on disarmament, terrorism and poverty: challenges for peace and human rights movements.

See the next item below: Pugwash Symposium - Copenhagen Nov 17 - on NPT + IAEA
Organised by the Danish Peace Council and the International Peace Bureau on the occasion of the centenary commemoration of the F. Bajer's Nobel Peace Prize (1908). For conference brochure click here. Please pass this information on to anyone interested.
Registration is now open - please use Registration form.
Accommodation: Please note that our recommended hotel 'Cab-Inn' has three branches in Copenhagen. Board members and others stay at the CITY branch. See: http://www.cabinn.com/english/kbh/city/city.html
Conference Office: Bent Christensen, IPB Conference, c/o Danish UNA, Kongensgade 36, 4th, DK-1264 Copenhagen K.; Tel: +45 33 46 46 96; Email: bc@net.dialog.dk
TimeTable: The Conference will start at 4pm Friday 14 Nov and end on Saturday 15 Nov at 6pm.
The Counicil will start at 9:30am and end at 4pm Sunday16 Nov.
Please note that Cab-Inn Hotel is full for the period Nov 13-16. An alternative hotel is the 'Hotel Absalon': http://absalonhotel.dk/sider/home_76.aspx
Full list of hotels at:
http://www.hotels-in-denmark.dk/copenhagen-hotels-denmark.asp
Find details of youth hostels: >>>HERE
For detailed map of local area >>>HERE
PUGWASH SYMPOSIUM - Copenhagen Nov 17 - on NPT + IAEA
For details of the Pugwash meeting to be held the day after council meeting >>>READ HERE
Alexandria seminar 2007 - Books or Bombs? - booklet now available
Sept 8, 2008. The summary report of the IPB-Institute for Peace Studies seminar, held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt, in Nov 2007, is now available on request from the IPB secretariat. The hard copy will be sent in the coming days to all IPB member organisations.
For copies of the Arabic version of the Booklet, (ready by the end of October), please write to: ips@bibalex.org

IPB Books on Disarmament for Development: new stocks!
August 25, 2008. IPB Secretariat is pleased to announce the arrival of substantial stocks of the two main book publications which promote our Disarmament for Development campaign. Copies can now be ordered from the IPB office in Geneva. They can also be downloaded from HERE. Certain foreign language editions are also available. Please note revised prices.
  • Warfare or Welfare ? Disarmament for Development in the 21st century: A human security approach
  • Whose Priorities? A Guide for campaigners on military and social spending . . . >READ MORE
IPB Annual Seminar in Copenhagen (November 2008) - Brochure
IPB will hold its 2008 Seminar in Copenhagen (Denmark) on November 14-16. This meeting - which commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to IPB's first President, Fredrik Bajer, will address a range of contemporary peace challenges. You will find the detailed programme HERE.
IPB Member Organisation in Georgia, the Human Rights Centre
(HRIDC) in Tiblisi, has sent us the following (4) important messages regarding the current crisis including information about the 'Sorry Campaign', they launched earlier about Abkhazia.
See www.apsni.org. ... >
READ MORE

New IPB Paper : Military Spending and Finance for Development
IPB Intern Nicola Winter has just completed a 38pp paper looking the relationship between these two important areas:
In recent years a new field of what has become known as 'innovative finance for development' has emerged, in an attempt to find ways to fund the global economic and human development goals adopted by UN members states. The UN Secretary-General has set up a special task force dedicated to innovative financing to further the goals outlined in the 2000 UN Millennium Development Declaration and the commitments made in the 2002 Monterrey Consensus. Many different plans have been made, goals set, and organizations set up, but despite all of this work, especially on finding innovative sources for financing development, the largest, most obvious source of potential financial resources continues to be ignored: military spending. ...> READ MORE

Military Intervention, Aid and Governance in Afghanistan - IPB Study
By IPB Intern Kenneth Mostad. July 2008. The study looks at possible alternatives for the development and security situation in the country, giving weight to the issues that cannot be resolved by the military, as well as problems that are arguably worsened by the foreign military presence. It argues that the military presence has often had a negative effect on aid projects. Effective development programmes have also been undermined by persistent corruption, both among Afghans and foreigners. ... > READ MORE

G8 : It's Time for Action on Militarism and Nuclear Weapons !
Geneva, July 2, 2008. The G8 leaders are confronted with a rising tide of global crises that they will have trouble resolving without looking at some fundamental questions. Two related questions in particular stand out: military spending and nuclear weapons.
... > READ MORE
New IPB paper : McCain V. Obama -
A short comparison of policies

With the US presidential campaign heating up it is often hard to keep track of all the proposed policies, actions or statements from the two front running candidates. Therefore IPB has put together a short guide to the policies of McCain and Obama to help our readers better understand their stances on various issues. ... > READ MORE
Plans Advance for Nato Summit 2009 :
Civil Society Actions

At a recent meeting in Hannover on Afghanistan, plans were drawn up for a major civil society programme of action at the time of NATO's 60th anniversary summit (Strasbourg-Kehl) in April/May 2009. See here for statements (NATO Commitment) ... > READ MORE
NPT : IPB Session (and new publication) on costs of nuclear weapons
Geneva, on Monday 28 April 2008, IPB organised a meeting, together with the World Council of Churches, on the theme : Nuclear weapons at what price? An economic, moral and political assessment. This session was held within the ... > READ MORE

World Court Project to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Geneva 1 May 2008 :
Successful Conference, 1st Report

“Good faith is a fundamental principle of international law, without which all international law would collapse”, Judge Mohammed Bedjaoui declared last week. President of the ... > READ MORE

Brussels Appeal for a Ban on Uranium Weapons 
ICBUW's third international appeal was released following the Human Cost of Uranium Weapons exhibition in the European Parliament on May 17th 2007. From Berlaar to Hiroshima and now Brussels, it represents a continued call for action to ban the ... > READ MORE

Japanese Rainbow gathers tens of thousands to defend Article 9
Tokyo, 5 May 2008. By Frederic Durant, IPB representative. “It is simply the major peace event this year” a peace researcher told me, while discussing the Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish War which took place in Tokyo – with parallel meetings .... > READ MORE

Money for Women Peacemakers
IFOR/WPP releases annual May 24 package
24 May 2008. Fundraising, drawing up budgets, keeping records of expenses, and writing donor reports may not be the most attractive tasks for women peacemakers to spend their energies on, but they are indispensable. Related to the May 24 celebration... > READ MORE

'Books or Bombs ?'
IPB Seminar, Alexandria 11-12 Nov. 2007
First set of papers now available
Once again I would like to thank all our colleagues at the IPS for their efficient and friendly collaboration, notably Amb. Aly Maher, Prof. Azza M. H El-Kholy and Ms. Shahinaz Elhennawi... > READ MORE

IPB Activity Report 2006-07
For a detailed overview of IPB's recent work, please take a look at our Activity Report for 2006-2007. This was presented at the annual Council meeting in Nov. 2007 in Alexandria. Note: This publication covers mainly the work of the Secretariat and Board. To find out about the activities of the member organisations please visit the Membership link on the menu above, choose ... > READ MORE

New IPB Book : Whose Priorities ?
This book is a follow-up to IPB's earlier volume Warfare or Welfare? Disarmament for Development in the 21st Century.While that work attempted to describe the nature of the problems facing us, the new publication sketches out some approaches to campaigning in opposition to militarism, and offers summary accounts of 18 projects undertaken by civil society groups around the ... > READ MORE

New IPB Paper ! Article 9 & Article 26 :
Twin campaigns to move the world towards peace and social justice
In his new essay, our Secretary-General Colin Archer links the "pacifist" Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution and Article 26 of UN Charter that requires Security Council to "formulate ... > READ MORE