Peace Education – IPB – International Peace Bureau

Featured

The International Peace Bureau (IPB) Has Announced its Intention to Nominate Three Remarkable Organizations with a Focus on the Right to Conscientious Objection for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

3 August 2023

The International Peace Bureau (IPB) Has Announced its Intention to Nominate Three Remarkable Organizations with a Focus on the Right to Conscientious Objection for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize

Berlin, Germany – The International Peace Bureau (IPB) has announced our intention to nominate three exceptional organizations for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize: the Russian Movement of Conscientious Objectors, the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, and the Belarusian organization “Our House”. The decision to nominate these three organizations is a testament to their unwavering dedication in advocating for the right to conscientious objection to military service and promoting human rights and peace in their respective countries.

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the world’s most esteemed awards, recognizing individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to the pursuit of peace and harmony. The nomination period for the 2024 prize will open on 1 September 2023 and the nominations will be promptly submitted for consideration.

The Russian Movement of Conscientious Objectors (https://stoparmy.org/), the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement (http://pacifism.org.ua/), and the Belarusian Our House (https://news.house/) have demonstrated unparalleled excellence and dedication in their efforts as defenders of peace, conscientious objection, and human rights, especially after the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 and despite the considerable stigmatization each organization has faced since.

The fundamental right to conscientious objection to military service is an inherent human right, protected under the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion as safeguarded by Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This right remains inalienable, even during periods of public emergency, as explicitly stated in Article 4(2) of the ICCPR. Embracing conscientious objection is a concrete means of contributing to peace. Hence, it becomes imperative to emphasize and safeguard this fundamental human right, especially during times of war.

Even in the face of escalating threats, the three movements persist in their dedication to aiding individuals who resist war and military mobilization. Their focus is particularly on supporting those who endure persecution, torture, and imprisonment. This commitment encompasses all instances of forced and violent recruitment into participating armies, as well as the persecution of conscientious objectors, deserters, and non-violent anti-war demonstrators.

“We are humbled and honored to nominate these three remarkable movements for the Nobel Peace Prize. Their courage in championing the right to conscientious objection and their tireless efforts to promote peace and human rights serve as an inspiration to us all,” said Philip Jennings, Co-President of IPB.

By nominating these three movements, we seek to raise awareness about the importance of the right to conscientious objection, fostering peace and human rights. Furthermore, we hope that the announcement of this intended nomination will remind and pressure governments and nations across the globe to respect the right to conscientious objection in their own countries and provide alternatives to military service for those that object. This includes the right to asylum for conscientious objectors forced to flee their own countries in order to avoid military service.

We call other organizations and particularly Nobel Peace Laureates from across the globe to support this nomination. Together our voices in support for conscientious objection can protect those who are selflessly putting their lives on the line to defend their beliefs and their compatriots who reject war and violence.

The selection process for Nobel Peace Prize laureates is highly competitive and is conducted by esteemed committees dedicated to recognizing peace efforts worldwide. We firmly believe that these three movements stand among the most deserving candidates for this prestigious recognition.

About IPB

The International Peace Bureau is dedicated to the vision of a World Without War. Our current main programme centres on Disarmament for Sustainable Development and within this, our focus is mainly on the reallocation of military expenditure. We are a Nobel Peace Laureate (1910); over the years, 13 of our officers have been recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize.

For media inquiries or further information, please contact:

International Peace Bureau

info@ipb-office.berlin

+49 (0) 30 1208 4549

Marienstraße 19-20 10117, Berlin – Germany

IPB-2024-Nobel-Peace-Prize-Nomination Download

French 🇫🇷

GERMAN 🇩🇪

Featured

Justice for Yurii Sheliazhenko

Berlin, Germany – The International Peace Bureau strongly condemns the Security Service of Ukraine’s (SBU) decision to charge IPB Councilmember and Seán MacBride Prize Laureate Yurii Sheliazhenko with “justification of Russian aggression” and search of his apartment. The charge is based solely on Sheliazhenko’s “Peace Agenda for Ukraine and the World,” a document which explicitly condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine and promotes peace, justice, and the right to conscientious objection to military service.

Yurii and his organization, the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, have always opposed both sides of the current war and advocated for dialogue, negotiations, and a peaceful resolution which addresses the underlying causes of the war.

We call on the Ukrainian government and the SBU to respect the rights of conscientious objectors and the right to free speech for peace in Ukraine, rights that cannot be violated even during times of war. We vow to support Yurii’s rights and to rally international support for his freedom and wellbeing.

Yurii’s response to the charges and search can be found at https://worldbeyondwar.org/we-object-to-the-illegal-search-and-seizure-at-apartment-of-yurii-sheliazhenko-in-kyiv/

A petition for the Ukrainian government to drop the prosecution of Yurri can be found here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-the-ukrainian-government-to-drop-prosecution-of-peace-activist-yurii-sheliazhenko/

Please see attached Press Release.

IPB-Statement-Yuri Download

Featured

Report – 2nd Negotiations Round on a Nulcear Weapons Ban Treaty

After the successful session in March 2017 and the publication of the draft of the Convention to prohibit nuclear weapons by the Chair Ambassador Elayne Whyte from Costa Rica, the Second round of negotiations on a Convention started on June 15^th.

The sprit of the 125+ participating countries is productive and dynamic and no major disagreements have been stopping the hard works of the participants from going forward. Nuclear weapons States possessors and their allies, the countries who rely on nuclear weapons in their security doctrines, have chosen to boycott the process, except the Netherlands. Continue reading “Report – 2nd Negotiations Round on a Nulcear Weapons Ban Treaty”

Militaries and conflict: critical gaps in climate action

Published by: Conflict and Environment Conservatory

Analysing how governments address military emissions and conflict impacts in UNFCCC Nationally Determined Contributions: the climate action plans that set out how emissions will be reduced and how countries will adapt to climate risks.

Training, Bases, and Militarization in Latin America (Entrenamiento, Bases y Militarización en América Latina)

This book, Training, Bases, and Militarization in Latin America: NATO and the United States in Latin America—compiled by Pablo Ruiz Espinoza—arrives at a historic moment of profound global geopolitical reconfiguration. Its objective is as clear as it is urgent: to expose the multiple ways in which global militarism—driven primarily by the United States and NATO—continues to reproduce structures of domination in our region through new guises, discourses, and technologies.

Author: Pablo Ruiz Espinoza

The Security We Choose: The opportunity cost of UK military spending on education and human security

Published by: National Education Union

Executive summary

UK military spending is rising to the detriment of other public spending

The UK’s commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) target of spending 3.5 per cent of its GDP on defence by 2035 will require an additional £36 billion per year in current terms.

To pay for this, the government is redirecting funds from other government departments and threatening “eye-watering” cuts to public services at a time when many are on the brink of collapse.

The impacts are falling hardest on those least able to shoulder the burden, including through steep cuts to international development assistance and by reduced investment in public services and social security.

Education under strain

Education in the UK has suffered immensely during austerity, with real-terms funding falling by billions since 2010.

Increases to defence spending undermine prospects to close funding gaps, including for teacher pay, building refurbishment, and supporting students with special educational needs.

UK aid and development support to education globally has fallen by 80 per cent since 2016.

One in five children live within 50km of an armed conflict, and attacks on education are becoming increasingly common, rising by 50 per cent in 2024-25 compared with the previous two years.

Just 1.5 days of global military spending in 2025 could pay for an entire year of aid to education.

Rethinking security

Security is about more than borders and external threats. Insecurity is more often experienced through economic, climate, democratic, health and social deficits than an attack by a foreign power. These too have life or death consequences.

Lasting peace requires tackling the drivers of insecurity, which military action often cannot address but can exacerbate. • The UK needs a human centred-approach to security, which prioritises people’s wellbeing and creates the conditions for more equitable, peaceful societies. Security through economic justice

77 per cent of the British public would prefer the government raise taxes on the very richest than cut public services. • A two per cent tax on wealth above £10 million is becoming increasingly popular, including among millionaires.

True security requires an economy that measures success through the extent to which people are able to live secure, healthy and dignified lives, in the UK and around the world.

The Security We Choose: A call to action

The UK must balance the need to respond to genuine threats to the nation’s security with the responsibility to invest in the conditions for people to live secure lives, in the UK and globally.

NEU4532 Impact of military spending on the right to education HQP Download

Statement from the Second International Forum for Peace (Foro Internacional por la Paz)

25 September 2026, Madrid, Spain

Statement – For a World in Peace and Progress

The 149 participants representing 63 organizations from 35 countries who took part in this International Peace Forum share deep concern over growing global instability, rising military spending, the militarization of international relations, and the escalation of conflicts that threaten collective security, social justice, and even the survival of humanity.

In 2026, the world is experiencing one of the most dangerous periods since the end of World War II, defined by a clear dichotomy: on one side, powers that insist on preserving a unipolar order sustained by centuries of colonial domination, with NATO acting as their military arm; on the other side, those of us promoting a new multilateral order committed to the principles of the United Nations Charter, peaceful coexistence, mutually beneficial cooperation, and solidarity among peoples.

Challenging Trump/MAGA Evil by Joseph Gerson’s Oct. 3 Stop the Madness in Washington Rally speech

Friends,

As Dylan sang, “Let us not talk falsely now/ the hour is getting late.” That applies to us now.

Back in the 1960s there was a film, Mondo Cane, a warning about a world gone to the dogs. With Trump and company driving our nation and the world into more crises than we can count, Mondo Cane has arrived. Continuing Gaza, West Bank and Sudan genocides. The catastrophic and widening war on Iran. ICE Brownshirts’ brutality. The widening Russian-NATO Ukraine War now spreading across Europe. AI gone rogue. The climate emergency. Growing nuclear dangers. Food, medical, and housing insecurity. Affordability.

International Peace Bureau Awards 2026 Seán MacBride Peace Prize to Freedom Flotilla Coalition, Global Sumud Flotilla, and Nuestra América Convoy

Berlin, 2 October 2026 – The International Peace Bureau (IPB) is honored to announce that the 2026 Seán MacBride Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, Global Sumud Flotilla, and Nuestra América Convoy, in recognition of their international solidarity efforts in support of the people of Palestine and Cuba.

The annual prize recognises outstanding contributions to peace, disarmament and human rights. This year’s award honours initiatives that mobilise people across borders to challenge blockades, draw attention to their humanitarian consequences, and demonstrate the power of international solidarity.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Global Sumud Flotilla have organised civilian-led initiatives seeking to challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza and bring humanitarian assistance to Palestinians.The Nuestra América Convoy has brought international attention to the humanitarian impact of the US blockade of Cuba through a campaign of solidarity and the delivery of essential goods and medical care.

“IPB is proud to commend these three organizations collectively for their courage, humanity and unwavering solidarity. They crossed borders and seas not with weapons, but with food, medicine, conscience and hope, reminding us that peace demands courage and action. They sailed against the tide of continuing war on the Palestinian and Cuban peoples — and proved that solidarity can become a force stronger than any blockade,” said Cora Fabros, Co-President of the International Peace Bureau.

“During the Nazi Holocaust, courageous people took great risks to end the unimaginable mass murder. At enormous risk to their lives, they opened death train cattle cars, penetrated and escaped Auschwitz so that the world could learn and stop the death camp’s horrors. Modest people risked their lives by giving Jews sanctuary in their homes. It is in this same courageous, caring, and generous tradition that the volunteers of Nuestra América Convoy, the Global Sumud Flotilla, and the Freedom Flotilla Coalition have taken enormous risks, including torture in Israeli prisons. Palestinians have the right to life, to liberty, and to national self-determination. IPB is privileged to present the MacBride Prize to these courageous people as one small way that we can support and act in solidarity with the people of Gaza and Cuba.” — Joseph Gerson, Co-President of the International Peace Bureau.

Named after Seán MacBride, the Irish statesman, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and former IPB Chair and President, the prize reflects his lifelong commitment to peace, disarmament, human rights and international cooperation.

By awarding the 2026 prize jointly to these three initiatives, the IPB recognises the role of grassroots mobilisation and international solidarity in advancing peace and human rights.

Media contact:

International Peace Bureau

info@ipb.org | www.ipb.org

Press Release International Peace Bureau Awards 2026 Seán MacBride Peace Prize Download

Conscientious Objector Deniz Hikmet Hazer Arrested

A conscientious objector and trans activist Deniz Hikmet Hazer, was arrested this past weekend as part of a sweeping, nationwide crackdown on LGBTIQ+ people and organizations.

Ending Fossil Fuels and Abolishing War: A Crossroads Reached

The war machines and lucrative arms industries are at the heart of our climate crisis. They are fossil fuel dependent, largely rooted in the big economies and are the manifestation of decades of colonial, neo-colonial, imperialist policy-making. It has resulted in a century and more of perpetual war waged on innocent civilians and our home planet.

To abolish war is to eliminate a major contributor to death, environmental destruction and climate chaos. To abolish war is to begin to see the end of the military-fossil fuel relationship. To abolish war is one necessary step in pursuit of the end of fossil fuels and the zero-carbon world we must achieve. This report unpacks the issue, gives an historical context and offers up ways forward.

Former IPB Co-President Philip Jennings Delivers Keynote at Live Peace Annecy

Dear friends,

I thank the people of Annecy first for the sun. Last year it rained so hard, I needed a lifebelt; I spoke to a few hardy souls that braved the tempest. If you are thank you for staying.

Now look at this- bravo. There are thousands of you.

Thank you for making Live Peace happen.

UNFOLD ZERO: Actions and events for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World

September 26 is the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Abolition Day), a day established by the UN General Assembly to enhance public awareness and action to reduce nuclear risks and achieve the common goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world.

UNFOLD ZERO is part of NuclearAbolitionDay.org, an open, civil society coalition established in consultation with the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs, to increase cooperation, and elevate political impact of the day.

We encourage you to participate in the NuclearAbolitionDay actions and online event: