I have submitted our Report to the United Nations Secretary General
pursuant to General Assembly Resolution A/RES/58/11 paragraph 12
http://www.peace.ca/UNa55r047.pdf  (i.e. the Mid Term Report of the
Decade of a Culture of Peace) (copy below) as Director of Canadian
Centres for Teaching Peace.  

 Comments are very welcome. 

 
I would urge everyone to submit their own reports.  You can do so
through The Fundación Cultura de Paz  (i.e. David Adams and Federico
Mayor's NGO; ref. http://www.decade-culture-of-peace.org
<http://www.decade-culture-of-peace.org/>  ), UNESCO (ref.
http://www3.unesco.org/iycp/kits/survey/CPQ_en.pdf ), and/or to the
U.N. Secretary General directly.  We are submitting ours to all three.

 Regards,
Bob Stewart
http://www.peace.ca
ANNUAL PEACE EDUCATION CONFERENCE IN CANADA
http://www.peace.ca/CanadianAgenda2005.htm
<http://www.peace.ca/CanadianAgenda20054.htm>
 

"The world is dangerous not because of those who do harm, but because
of those who look at it without doing anything." - Albert Einstein

WHAT FUTURE WILL YOU CREATE?

 

Making an Impact: Your gift to the Canadian Peace Education Foundation
will do much to reduce the human cost of violence in our communities
and world through education about peace and the future in classrooms.
Your gift will have a critical impact on future generations.  You will
enable youngsters to widen their sights by exploring alternate paths
to transforming conflicts and building a better world.  Gifts of cash,
securities, and planned gifts are welcome and may be sent to the
Canadian Peace Education Foundation, Box 70, Okotoks, AB, Canada, T1S
1A4.  For more information, visit the website at
<http://www.peace.ca/foundation.htm>
http://www.peace.ca/foundation.htm
 

Email from Bob Stewart, Rotary Club of Okotoks, Alberta, Canada (D5360)

http://www.peace.ca     email:  stewartr@peace.ca

 (Parkwood Rotary Club)  Home Page

 World Peace and Understanding

 

THE UNITED NATIONS CULTURE OF PEACE AND NON-VIOLENCE PROGRAM IN
CANADA: A Report to the United Nations Secretary General pursuant to
General Assembly Resolution A/RES/58/11 paragraph 12
http://www.peace.ca/UNa55r047.pdf  (i.e. the Mid Term Report of the Decade of a Culture of Peace)

 

Prepared by Robert Stewart, Director, Canadian Centres for Teaching
Peace

March 14, 2005

 
"The General Assembly .

12. Invites civil society, including non-governmental organizations,
to  provide information to the Secretary-General on the observance of the
Decade and  the activities undertaken to promote a culture of peace and
non-violence;"

 Canada is not at peace.  We may be relatively well off.  Historically,
Canada has been better than some, and not as good as others.  But we
are in a state of denial about our actions and contributions to war and violence, at home and abroad.  We try to avoid conflict.  However,to quote, "We may not be interested in war, but war is interested in us."

 

The vast majority of Canadians have little or no knowledge of the
Culture of Peace and Non-violence Program and Decade.  The vast
majority of politicians and officials in the Canadian Government have
little or no knowledge of the Culture of Peace and Non-violence
Program.  Little, if any, new resources (financial, informational or
human) have been provided to build a Culture of Peace and
Non-violence.  This is ample evidence that the Government of Canada
has not rushed in to participate.  Furthermore, the Canadian
Commission for UNESCO does not see its role as one of leadership. 

 
In short, despite what some may say, we are underachieving our
potential to build a Culture of Peace and Non-violence in Canada, and
in the world.  A major reason for this lack of development is that
there has been a lack of motivation and action.  To those leaders who
proclaim an interest in peace, the challenge as they say in the movies
is, "Show me the money."  It is not there in any significant way.  And
so, it will be up to civil society to motivate our leaders to build a
Culture of Peace.  For those leaders who resist change, and have a
vested interest maintaining the status quo, civil society must convey
that the status quo is no longer acceptable.  For those leaders who do
not wish to lose their perceived 'right' to go to war, civil society
must take away those pretenses.  Canada and mankind can not wait any
longer for our Governments to respond - people are suffering now, due
to violence of all sorts, and the looming specters of nuclear
holocaust, weapons of mass destruction, and environmental destruction
is unacceptable and unjustifiable.

 
From our personal experience, we had difficulty getting the
information that we needed to do something to contribute to a Culture
of Peace.  So we created our own: Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace,
a virtual centre at http://www.peace.ca <http://www.peace.ca/> 

* Since incorporation in 1998, we have had over 1,000,000
visitors to the site,
* We are currently averaging over 50,000 visitors per month,
from around the world,
* We are the best (most active) peace web site in Canada and one
of the best in the world (in plain language, suitable for all
readers),
* We host National and several Provincial Peace Education
Conferences annually,
* We host several email listservers, to provide tools for
communication, networking, dialogue and information dissemination.

 The bottom line is that there is a lot of opportunity for improvement
in building a Culture of Peace and Non-violence in Canada - a lot of
opportunity for us all to make a difference. 
 
A raison d'être for the Culture of Peace Program (identified by the
U.N. program) is "to build peace in Canada by working to change
behaviours, forge values, and incite the institutional transformations
that are indispensable for eliminating the deep roots of violence,
exclusion and conflict."

What we found in Canada was an information void, a leadership void, a
resource void, and an educational void.  Our civil society goal has
been to help fill these gaps.

Our sense is that Canadians (inside and outside of government) want a
Culture of Peace and Non-violence, however they do not know what they
can practically do to develop on that path.  Our civil society goal is
to help raise this awareness and understanding.  We have a Canadian
Peace Education Strategy with a short-term goal to get peace education
on the Canadian agenda, and a longer term goal to get peace education
integrated into all curricula by the end of the decade.

You will be pleased to know that in November 2004 we have successfully
completed 9 days of intensive peace conferencing at McMaster
University in Hamilton, involving some excellent minds, and we are
happy to tell you that our deliberations have given birth to a
'Canadian Culture of Peace Program' ("CCOPP") - a new formal
institution (Note 1) with the mission to advance a Culture of Peace
and Non-violence, at home and abroad.  We have a larger core group of
people to carry on this important work, and a wonderful list of tasks
to commence work on.  We will also enlarge our community of support
and engagement through inviting the participation of all Canadians,
individuals and organizations, who wish to share our mission, and
follow the values of the U.N. Culture of Peace Program.  You can read
about these developments, which form a part of this report, at the
temporary web site at
http://www.peace.ca/canadiancultureofpeaceprogram.htm .

To meet these important goals, Canadians have a lot on our Culture of
Peace Agenda:

A significant item is the design paper for the CCOPP Stakeholder
Web/Network concept (including CCOPP governance issues), which a
smaller working group has been collaboratively developing over the
past month (reference http://www.peace.ca/StakeholderWebDesign.doc ).
A Stakeholder Web/Network/Organization, as it has been described at
various times, is a network of stakeholders that scrutinizes and
attempts to influence Canada's behaviour with respect to peace and
violence.  The United Nations Culture of Peace Program tells us that
we need to transform all institutions from a Culture of Violence to a
Culture of Peace.  Stakeholder webs are a powerful force for
transformation.  They actively investigate, evaluate, and seek to
change the behaviors of institutions (such as corporations,
governments, educational institutions, religious organizations, NGOs,
etc.) to achieve better alignment with the values and interests of
their participants - in this case, a Culture of Peace.  Our role is
one of catalyst and facilitator.  The Internet gives us the tools to
build the Culture of Peace Stakeholder Web.  Discussion of this design
will also help provide input for the (very important) Marketing
Strategy (i.e. How to 'Sell' the Culture of Peace Program), and a
Canadian Culture of Peace Program Handbook with a significant section
on Leadership for Peace.

Significant discussion will also be required and planned with respect
to:

a)      The projected relationship with the Canadian government
(including Department of Peace Initiatives),

b)      Preparations for at least 3 annual national conferences (the
Second Peace and Leadership Workshop, the Second Canadian Culture Of
Peace Program Conference, the Fourth National Peace Education
Conference), and provincial Peace Education Conferences,

c)      Development of the Canadian Culture of Peace News Network,

d)      Development of the new Peace and Governance Program at the
University of Alberta, with a specialty in the Culture of Peace and
Non-violence Program,

e)      research on the needs and issues related to "Educating Peace
Educators" (i.e. peace pedagogy to guide the establishment of a
University program to teach teachers and other potential peace
educators how to teach peace),

f)        Preparation to initiate "crucial conversations" with
leadership of key institutions in Canada to seek transformation as
follows: government, business, media, religion, education. (We will
need to refine our protocols to hold successful, difficult, crucial
conversations.) We should also be preparing to initiate case studies
conducting 7 Crucial Canadian Conversations to build better key
relationships as follows:

1.      the Canada/United States relationship,

2.      the Canada/United Nations relationship,

3.      the Anglophone/Francophone relationship in Canada,

4.      the male/female relationship in Canada, 

5.      the aboriginal/non-aboriginal relationship in Canada,

6.      the business/community relationship in Canada,

7.      the military/foreign affairs/community relationship in Canada.

Our government is not yet doing this, and so we must.  In the process,
Canadians have developed some significant expertise in peacebuilding,
peace education and leadership.  We are pleased to offer these
services to others.

 In conclusion, Canadians must no longer take inaction and resource
deprivation towards the Culture of Peace and Non-violence Program for
granted.  At Riverside Church in 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. opened
his famous speech that linked poverty, racism and the Vietnam War
with, "I come to this house of worship tonight because my conscience
leaves me no other choice." The ultimate challenge for Canadians is to
stir that same spirit throughout Canada and the world to build a
Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World.  The
challenge for our leaders will be to rise to the occasion - and we
must help them see that.

Note 1 -  " 'institution' ... tucked away among the many historical
meanings is: "something that enlarges and liberates" ... An
institution is a gathering of persons who have accepted a common
purpose, and a common discipline to guide the pursuit of that purpose,
to the end that each involved person reaches higher fulfillment as a
person, through serving and being served by the common venture, than
would be achieved alone or in a less committed relationship."   Robert
K. Greenleaf, in his book "Servant Leadership: A Journey into the
Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness" (ref.
http://www.peace.ca/servantleadership.htm )   


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