MPI Event Report
Vancouver, Canada
June 23-28 2006
By Jim Wurst
An evocative and spirited discussion of the key issues on the global peace agenda held on the Peace Boat was the highlight of the Middle Powers Initiative's (MPI) participation at the World Peace Forum in Vancouver, Canada, on June 28. Some 300 people attended the forum entitled Making the Earth Whole: An Integrated Peace Agenda. Living up to that theme, the panelists at the MPI-sponsored event on June 28 took the long view on how nuclear disarmament, social and economic justice and environmental protection are being integrated in such a way as to improve each element of the global campaign. Hon. Douglas Roche, O.C., the Chairman of the Middle Powers Initiative, highlighted the theme of civil society empowerment, not only in issues of war and peace, but across the range of social movements, citing in particular the Nuclear Freeze movement of the 1980s and the campaign for the International Criminal Court in the 1990s.
Turning to nuclear disarmament, Hon. Roche said while civil society influence in these fields "appear to be minimal," nuclear proponents "find they have less and less ground to justify [their positions] and we are here to cut that ground out from under them." He added, "The nature of the nuclear weapons problem - the very concept of human security - now requires a renewed two-pronged strategy by civil society: a push by abolition groups, constantly enlarging the critical mass of public opinion, augmented by the informed work of specialized groups integrating their ideas into government policy." Placing Abolition 2000 in the first category and MPI in the second, he said, "Both approaches reinforce each other" and as Western governments "become disenchanted, even alarmed at Washington's nuclear policies, the prospects of making an impact on governments go up."
Mary Wynne Ashford, a past Co-President of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, past President of Physicians for Global Survival (Canada) and author of Enough Blood Shed: 101 Solutions to Violence, Terror, and War, argued for the promotion of cross-cutting, which have appeared in all great social movements. She focused particularly on the empowerment of women in such movements. For example, research shows that when a nation's government achieves 1/3 representation by women, "the whole atmosphere changes" in which internal wars become less likely, education for women improves with a corresponding increasing of women in the workplace and greater individual control over a women's reproductive choices.
Akira Kawasaki focused on the ongoing tensions over the military programs of North Korea. The crisis in Northeast Asia is becoming more urgent, he said, and it can not be solved by looking at it as a North Korean issue in isolation. Kawasaki is a member of Peace Boat's Executive Committee and is the Program Coordinator for Peace Boat's Global University, a peace educational program on the Peace Boat's Global Voyages. The Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, the NGO that runs the Peace Boat, has conducted forums involving China and Russia on "how to create a regional mechanism for peace." He said a broader forum for negotiations could grow out from the Six Parties Talks and that the Peace Boat - as a neutral party - could be the venue for such talks.
Jacqueline Cabasso, the Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation (WSLF) and a member of the Steering Committee of United for Peace and Justice, said it is "simply unsustainable" that security be defined solely as military security. As the United States increases its military budget and modernizes its nuclear arsenal, other states are following suit. This concept of military must be replaced with a vision of human security, meaning the improvement of individuals' lives through increasing the available of clean air and water, reducing poverty and improving energy security. "There is another way forward because it applies to everyone," she said.
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The theme of the first World Peace Forum assembled in Vancouver from June 23 to 28, 2006 was Cities and Communities: Working together to end war and build a peaceful, just and sustainable world. Participants attended plenaries and workshops on themes including indigenous rights, African issues, faith and spirituality, women's issues and peace education. The Peace Boat docked in Vancouver for the last day of the Forum and was the focus of the last day's events, including the MPI plenary and the concluding ceremony of the Forum. The Peace Boat is a Japan-based international non-governmental that works to promote peace, human rights, equal and sustainable development and respect for the environment.
MPI, as represented by Hon. Roche, also was present at other sessions. Abolishing Nuclear Weapons: The Foundation for the 21st Century was a wide-ranging and ambitious panel discussion. Hon. Roche expressed in the most basic terms the core of the nuclear disarmament argument: "Nuclear weapons are immoral, illegal, militarily useless and they are devoid of any intellectual standing. They are a curse upon humanity. They must be done away with." The reality, however, is trending in the opposition direction with "half the world's population [living] under governments brandishing nuclear weapons" and the nuclear powers making nuclear weapons "permanent instruments of their military doctrines."
As part of a series of panels exploring various aspects of nuclear weapons issues, one on Diplomatic Initiatives focused on how to counter the ever-growing rationales by the nuclear powers concerning the possible use of nuclear weapons. Hon. Roche's contribution to this panel was to use the history of MPI as an example of how like-minded governments and civil society can combine to create a practical alternative to national strategies that call for "preemptive" use of nuclear weapons and the use of those weapons in response to a non-nuclear attack.
A Roundtable on Mayors' and Parliamentarians' Action for Nuclear Disarmament, sponsored by the Mayors for Peace and the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (which, like MPI, is a program of the Global Security Institute), explored the various strategies from around the world, drawing on the experience of officials from four continents and demonstrated how elected officials below the national level are providing tremendous energy in moving forward the civil society campaigns against nuclear weapons. Hon. Roche said he saw a developing fusion between the mayors and parliamentarians as "a powerful combination that can and will affect governmental policies as we move forward into this century."
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