On Friday, Sept. 6, the United Nations held the Second High Level
Forum on The Culture of Peace. The background for the forum is the
passing of, by consensus, Resolution 53/243 on the Declaration and
Program of Action on a Culture of Peace, followed by the implementation
of the International Decade for Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for
the Children of the World (2001-2010).
The president of the General Assembly, Vuk Jeremic, opened the forum
followed by opening remarks from the deputy secretary-general Jan
Eliasson. In recognition of the vast role of religion for a Culture of
Peace, the three keynote speakers came from the religious community: His
Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia; Sayyid M. Syeed, National
Direction Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances, Islamic Society
of North America; and Elie Abadie, M.D., a rabbi from the Edmond J.
Safra Synagogue.
As noted, the keynote addresses were given by persons from the
Abraham faiths--Jewish, Christian, and Islamic. They were followed by
addresses from heads of state, theologians, and professors, among other
noted individuals. All spoke their own words on peace, or quoted words
from holy books, and upheld modern-day peacemakers such as Nelson
Mandela or those deceased peacemakers we build monuments to honor such
as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Three of the people who spoke at the day-long forum have gone forward
with making a difference in their communities, or helped make peace
somewhere in the world by their actions.
One was Azim Khamisa, founder of the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, whose
son was killed 18 years ago by a 14-year-old gang member. Khamisa runs
his organization along with the grandfather of his son’s killer, to help
bring youth safety to our urban areas. He noted that the killer of his
son was only 11 years old when he joined the gang. His organization
offers youth an alternative to joining a gang. He quoted Dr. King on the
responsibilities of those who love peace to learn to organize and be as
effective as those who love war.
Tiffany Easthom, country director for South Sudan, Nonviolent
Peaceforce. Easthom goes to both of the sides involved in an armed
conflict. Her organization does not take sides in the conflict, but acts
as mediator between the warring factions. Sometimes the warring
communities cannot speak face-to-face with each other, but will talk to
strangers that they feel do not have a stake in the outcome. The
Nonviolent Peaceforce does not have weapons of any kind.
Grace Akallo, founder and executive director of United Africans for
Women and Children’s Rights (UAWCR) was one of the 139 girls kidnapped
from a girl’s boarding school in 1996 by the Lords Resistance Army in
northern Uganda. Although 109 of the kidnapped girls were released to
Sister Rachelle Fassera, who had followed the rebels into the forest,
Akallo--who was 15 at the time--was one of the 30 girls that the rebels
kept. The girls had to become soldiers and wives to the rebels. As a
survivor, she speaks on behalf of children who are forced, by adults, to
become soldiers and if they survive, cannot return to their villages or
homes because of the stigma of what they have done and/or because their
families are dead.
Special thanks to the forum and its reminder of the actions that are
needed for a Culture of Peace to take hold. We all have the words for
peace and most of us can quote peace texts either from scripture or from
other people we have heard speak on peace. But, this forum forced me to
ask myself, What action did I take today toward a Culture of Peace? For
indeed it is said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be
called the Children of God” (Matthew 5:9).
-- Doris Abdullah is the Church of the Brethren United Nations
representative and chair of the Human Rights Sub-Committee for the
Elimination of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related
Intolerance.
Source: 9/20/2013 Newsline
No comments:
Post a Comment