This page will feature the latest on upcoming events, breaking news, and spotlights on people and organizations who are living and demonstrating a culture of peace. So come back and check often!
A National Peace Academy Is On Its Way!
"Change" is the big buzz word in the United States this year. Why? Because Americans recognize the need for a serious rethink in the way this country operates, both domestically and internationally. Troubled with a trillion dollar war, a homicide rate 10 times that of other leading industrial nations, and a prison population that includes 1 in every 100 citizens, Americans are seeking solutions that are less costly and more sustainable.
That is why, in 2009, the first-ever National Peace Academy will be formally launched in the United States.
Peace Partnership International has just issued its March 2008 e-newsletter. It contains articles about Dot Maver taking the reins as President & CEO of Peace Partnership International; a new initiative to establish a National Peace Academy; exciting developments with the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace regarding youth, Africa, and the Israel/Palestine situation; a movement for a UN General Assembly resolution calling for structures in government supporting a culture of peace; a speech by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that seems to be calling for such structures, as well, a public service announcement for Youth Violence Prevention week; inspiring profiles of some amazing peacebuilders; and some thoughts to ponder about peace.
If you missed the email or just want to see it again, please click here. And to be sure that you receive future issues promptly, please subscribe .
World Spirit Youth Council 2008
The World Spirit Youth Council (WSYC) is an international youth project incubated by Children of the Earth. According to the meeting proposal, “The aim of the WSYC is to connect youth who live oceans apart by awakening the realization that we are all related to one another and the earth. Youth are inspired by other active people they meet and become spiritually activated themselves; they are called to be a moral force on the world's stage. The 2008 World Spirit Youth Council met February 12-22 in Thailand. Peace Partnership International provided travel scholarships for Aaron Voldman of the United States and Corina Simon of Romania to attend. Here are their stories.
Anne Creter, liaison to the United Nations from Peace Partnership International, has been leading an effort within the UN NGO community and the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace to draft and promote a UN General Assembly resolution calling for structures in governments that support the culture of peace.
Peace Mnistries on the Table for Israel and Palestine
The Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI), founded in Jerusalem in 1988, is the only joint Israeli-Palestinian public policy think-tank in the world. It is devoted to developing practical solutions for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
IPCRI co-founder Gershon Baskin, who attended the Third Global Summit for Ministries and Departments of Peace in Japan, reports that, "We are on the road to establish Ministries of Peace in Israel and Palestine!"
Julia Simon-Mishel reports: "As one of two American youth delegates at the Third Global Summit for Ministries and Departments of Peace in Japan in September 2007, I arrived in Hiroshima expecting to see a city still leveled to the ground. Tears welled in my averted eyes as I walked through the Hiroshima Peace Museum and experienced the reality of the A-Bomb Dome and the staggering consequences of nuclear weapons."
Radical Conferencing for Crime and Conflict Management
“We do the incredibly radical thing of getting people to talk to each
other,” says Lauren Abramson, Ph.D., founder and executive director of
the Community Conferencing Center in Baltimore, Maryland. The people
she and her staff of five bring into discussion are criminal offenders,
their victims and the supporters of each. The forum is face-to-face and
everyone has an equal voice. The purpose is to introduce dialogue, gain
understanding, create win-win resolution and, ultimately, transform
attitudes.
Robert M. Weir provides Lauren Abramson's Profile of Peace.
Montana. More than 147,000 square miles, the fourth largest state in
the nation. Eight cities, 56 counties and nine Indian reservations.
Eight hundred thousand people with a reputation for being
individualists live in this Big Sky Country, which commands 13 hours to
drive from the Canadian border in the northwest to the Wyoming border
in the southeast. There is but one Congressman in the U.S. House of
Representatives and one key advocate for the U.S. Department of Peace
and Nonviolence.
Robert M. Weir provides Debi Strong's Profile of Peace.
The Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace held its Third Global Summit in Japan, September 21-October 3, 2007. The Summit was attended by 50 people from 21 countries on six continents (see photo) and included a six-day conference in Kisarazu, which opened on the International Day of Peace, followed by press conferences, public symposiums, and other public outreach events in Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Okinawa.
The World Spirit Youth Council (WSYC) is an international youth project incubated by 
Anne Creter, liaison to the United Nations from Peace Partnership International, has been leading an effort within the UN NGO community and the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace to draft and promote a UN General Assembly resolution calling for structures in governments that support the culture of peace.
Julia Simon-Mishel reports: "As one of two American youth delegates at the Third Global Summit for Ministries and Departments of Peace in Japan in September 2007, I arrived in Hiroshima expecting to see a city still leveled to the ground. Tears welled in my averted eyes as I walked through the Hiroshima Peace Museum and experienced the reality of the A-Bomb Dome and the staggering consequences of nuclear weapons."
The Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace held its Third Global Summit in Japan, September 21-October 3, 2007. The Summit was attended by 50 people from 21 countries on six continents (see photo) and included a six-day conference in Kisarazu, which opened on the International Day of Peace, followed by press conferences, public symposiums, and other public outreach events in Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Okinawa.