Author: Assistant Coordinator

Conference Review: ‘From Conflict to Beloved Communities: A Series of International Gatherings on Peace, Justice and Nonviolence’ in Juba, South Sudan

Tyson in Juba, South Sudan

From 03-21 November, the Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan in conjunction with the Organization for Nonviolence and Development hosted the conference “From Conflict to Beloved Communities: A Series of International Gatherings on Peace, Justice and Nonviolence.”

IPB council member and Executive Director of 4kids International, Tyson Smith Berry Jr., hosted IPB Day at the conference on 08 November. The program, titled “Climate Change & Common Security: challenges and solutions in Africa and the world at large,” included various seminars and workshops.

Read Tyson’s report here:

IPB-Day-ReportDownload

Click here to learn more about IPB Day in Juba!

Matt Meyer, Secretary-General of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA), also shared afterthoughts from the events in Juba:

Meyers-ReportDownload

Sharon Dolev – Council Member

Sharon Dolev was elected as IPB Council Member in October, 2022. She is a peace and human rights activist with a focus on eradicating nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction from the Middle East through innovative policy, education, advocacy and activism. She is the founder and director of the Israeli Disarmament Movement (IDM), the Middle East Treaty Organization (METO) and Israeli representative of the 2017 Noble Peace Prize laureate International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

Sharon has been a social and political activist for over 35 years. These include serving as the Director of Greenpeace in Israel, leading the organization’s peace and disarmament campaigns. She was also active in the Meretz Party, a left-wing, social-democratic, and green political party, also called the Movement for Civil Rights; Geneva Initiative; and Women in Black, a worldwide network of women committed to peace with justice and actively opposed to injustice, war, militarism and other forms of violence. In recent years, she presented a radio show called ‘According to Foreign Sources’, an outlet discussing the state of democracy in Israel.

The 5th ITUC World Congress

The 5th ITUC World Congress in Australia has celebrated the role of trade unions in peace-building, without which there can be no social justice.
Presenting the Freedom Report 2022: Unions Building Peace to the delegates, ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow said: “Some two billion people live in conflict-affected countries, with 56 state-based conflicts in the world today.

“International humanitarian trade union solidarity, such as the major efforts to support workers in Ukraine, Myanmar and elsewhere, is part of a broader framework of trade union efforts to build and sustain peace and to avoid conflicts and rebuild in their aftermath. The world must learn from this example.

“If world leaders can come together to look at addressing the threats from climate change, then it should also invest in global dialogue on measures to prevent conflict, to end existing conflicts and to rebuild in the aftermath of war in a just and sustainable way.

“There are many examples of trade union action for peace, justice and democracy. We take pride in these achievements and the inspiration we draw from them will help unions everywhere plan and campaign for fundamental freedoms, democracy and peace.”

The report includes case studies from:
• In Colombia, unions have been at the forefront of decades of struggle for peace and social justice.
• In Northern Ireland, the trade union movement has long been a motor for peace and overcoming division and sectarianism.
• In Myanmar, the unions continue their longstanding peace and democracy struggle in the most difficult and dangerous circumstances under a ruthless military dictatorship.
• In Tunisia, the UGTT and others were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to build a post-dictatorship country with a new constitution. A commitment that remains just as strong as the country faces new challenges.

Open Letter Launch on military spending and climate finance

In a collaboration between the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) , World BEYOND War (WBW), and the International Peace Bureau (IPB), we come to present you two Open Letters written especifically for the occasion of the COP27 happening in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egipt from the 6th to the 18th of November.

The first letter is addressed as an Appeal to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Chang (UNFCCC) to Study Climate Impacts of Military Emissions and Military Spending for Climate Financing. The second one, as a Global Appeal to Reduce Military Spending and Re-Allocate to Climate Financing, is addressed to Yannick Glemarec, Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund.

➡️ UNFCCC-Climate-Financing_Joint-Letter67-1Download

“It is inconceivable that while millions of people are waiting for vaccines, medicines or food to save their lives, the richest countries continue to prioritize their resources in armaments at the expense of people’s well-being, climate, health and equitable recovery.”

We appeal to the UNFCCC and the IPCC to do a special report and assessment of the climate impacts of war and the military. Global military spending has risen to over $2.1 trillion USD. We urge the UNFCCC to call on member states to cut military spending for climate financing.

In 2021, global military spending rose to $2.1 trillion (USD), the highest ever in history. This is 20 times more than the $100 billion pledged for climate finance, a target that Western countries failed to meet. 

➡️ ED-Green-Climate-Fund_Joint-Letter59-1Download

The military is the largest consumer of fossil fuels and biggest carbon emitter in the governments of state parties. Countries must demilitarize to decarbonize.

Military emissions and expenditures are derailing progress on the Paris Agreement. Peace, disarmament and demilitarisation are vital to mitigation, transformational adaptation, and climate justice. We also appeal to the Green Climate Fund to study the reduction and re-allocation of military spending for climate financing facilities.

Conference Program: ‘From Conflict to Beloved Communities: A Series of International Gatherings on Peace, Justice and Nonviolence’ in Juba, South Sudan

“From Conflict to Beloved Communities: A Series of International Gatherings on Peace, Justice and Nonviolence” is being hosted by the Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan in conjunction with the Organization for Nonviolence and Development.

Full program:

Juba-Peace-ProgramDownload

IPB council member and Executive Director of 4kids International, Tyson Smith Berry Jr., will be hosting IPB Day at the conference. The program is taking place on November 8, at 3-5pm CAT (2-4pm CET) under the title “Climate Change & Common Security: challenges and solutions in Africa and the world at large.”

To learn more about IPB Day, click here!

Live from COP27: Climate Change, Militarism, and Justice

The Conference of the Parties (COP27), taking place from 6-18 November in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, intends to bring nations together in a new era of implementation by turning their commitments under the Paris Agreement into action. In the midst of the discussions to happen, how can climate change, militarism, and justice be approached to build an environment of peace?

Join us live from COP27:

Monday, 7 November | 12.00 CET

What to expect from cop27: How is Militarism (not) Addressed? 

Join the International Peace Bureau and CODEPINK as Nancy Mancias gives us the first impressions on the ground in Sharm El-Sheikh at the start of COP27. The discussion will include what is expected to take place in the first week, the atmosphere of a COP in the context of a militarized police state, and the overlap of peace and climate.

Registration: bit.ly/COP27LIVE

Wednesday, 9 November | 16.00 CET/10.00 EST

COP27 Finance Day: Cut Military Spending for Climate Finance

Join IPB and WILPF for a conversation led by Tamara Lorincz, who will provide us insights into what activists are doing in Sharm El-Sheikh to push for reductions in military spending as a tool to support the climate transition and to provide funding for loss and damage resulting from climate change. We will discuss the open letters to the UNFCC and Green Climate Fund, the controversial F-35 carbon impact, and how these ideas are being brought forward at COP27.

Registration: https://bit.ly/COP27LIVE3

Saturday, 12 November | 17.00 CET/11.00 EST

Week 1 Wrap-Up: What have we learned? What to expect in week 2?

Join the International Peace Bureau and CODEPINK as Nancy Mancias shares her experiences from the first week of COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, including the range of civil society activities in the Green Zone, established connections between peace and climate, and what to expect for the second week.

Registration: bit.ly/COP27LIVE2

Tuesday, 15 November | 13.00 CET

Emissions and Spending – A Report from the Blue Zone

Join IPB and Tipping Point North South for a conversation led by Deborah Burton, who will share the results of her organization’s official COP side event, which includes the launching of a methodology around counting of military emissions. We will also discuss a newly-released briefing on military spending and explore the COP’s Blue Zone.

Registration: https://bit.ly/COP27LIVE4

Thursday, 17 November | 19.00 CET/13.00 EST

No War, No Warming: Demilitarization and Climate Justice

Join IPB and Ramon Mejia of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance for a conversation about their groundbreaking events “No War, No Warming” in the Blue Zone of COP27 and further activities in Sharm El-Sheikh to fight for climate justice and peace.

Registration: https://bit.ly/COP27LIVE5

Geneva Peace Week 2022

Join us in celebration of Geneva Peace Week with a video made by Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in partnership with IPB and the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS), titled “Yes, peace is possible: Perspectives on global & local applications of Common Security & Human Security.”

Link to video here.

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“Yes, peace is possible: Perspectives on global & local applications of Common Security & Human Security”

This project is the product of a collaboration between the International Peace Bureau (IPB), the Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU), and the World Academy of Arts and Science (WAAS). This video gathers various observations of the current state of affairs on the international scene, the shortcomings of peace processes and the flaws of the overall peace-building system. The world is at a point where the traditional and military understandings of security are coming to an impasse and the status quo must be challenged for its shortcomings. We interviewed experts, activists, members of international organizations, and parliamentarians and gathered their insights to paint a picture of the concrete solutions that are at the disposal of decision- makers around the world.

What we offer here are insights in the concepts and applications of Human Security and Common Security, in the hope that decision-makers around the world will see them as two useful lenses to recent decisions around the needs of the people and anchor the resolution of conflicts in dialogue, negotiation, and compromise. For us to move beyond securitization, we must learn from the mistakes of the past and move ahead with practices grounded in an absolute compassion for the human condition and a renewed commitment to addressing global issues multilaterally.

The IPU, WAAS, and IPB will continue working with these concepts and further promote human security and common security as universally applicable tools at every level of governance. Tomorrow’s peace depends on today’s change of perspective – Human Security and Common Security are what make peace possible.

Text by IPU for Geneva Peace Week in partnership with IPB and WAAS. View full text here. 

Image from Geneva Peace Week Website.

Nina Engelbracht

Nina Engelbracht has joined IPB as Assistant Coordinator in April 2022 and finished her experience in April 2023.

She holds a Bachelor in Business Administration & Economics from University of Hohenheim and a Master in Political Sciences from Heidelberg University. She further works as a conflict researcher on the intrastate conflict in Azerbaijan (Nagorno-Karabkh) at the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research in voluntary capacity.

Prior to joining the IPB team in Berlin, Nina has been working for the Max-Planck-Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law and in several other working student positions. She is particularly interested in peace activism, nuclear disarmament as well as feminist foreign policy and has expertise in the Arctic region, Eastern Europe and Russia.