Afri’s 2012 Hedge School will be organised in partnership with the International Peace Bureau (IPB) and will coincide with the first ever IPB Council meeting taking place in Dublin on the same weekend. The IPB is the longest established International Peace organisation with member organisations around the globe, and is a winner of the 1910 Nobel Peace Prize. Sean MacBride, a longstanding friend and advisor to Afri was IPB President for more than ten years. During this year’s Hedge School week-end the IPB sponsored Sean MacBride Peace Prize will be presented by its first ever recipient, President Michael D. Higgins. The IPB’s peace promoting influence has already been felt on this island. Adi Roche of the Chernobyl Children’s Project was an IPB Board member in the early 1990s, and during her term an IPB tour of Ireland North and South was organised, in association with Afri, which was extremely successful. This tour led to the establishment of Peacewatch Ireland, an organisation that made a very positive contribution to promoting peace during critical years in Ireland’s recent history.
One of IPBs main themes is ‘Disarmament for Development’ which connects with Afri’s work and this year’s Hedge School will explore related themes such as ‘Climate, resources and war’, ‘Non-violent struggles for democracy’ and ‘The role of women in the Arab Spring’. As usual, there will also be music, theatre and good conversation.
- “Disarmament, Development and Democracy: Joining the Dots” will take place on Saturday 17th November 10am – 5:30pm at Woodlock Hall, All Hallows College, Dublin 9. For more details please check the Afri website.
End Irish investments innuclear weapons
To mark the United Nations International Day of Peace on September 21st, the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (ICND) published a new policy document on Irish financing of the nuclear weapons industry, calling for legislation to end the investment of state funds in companies involved in the manufacture, testing and maintenance of nuclear weapons, their components and their delivery systems. The document, Ireland, Irish Finance and the Nuclear Weapons Industry can be accessed on the Irish CND website. It is written by Irish CND chairperson, David Hutchinson Edgar, and finds that the National Pensions Reserve Fund has investments worth around €10 million in companies involved in the nuclear weapons industry. It also discloses that AIB, in majority state ownership, was involved in giving a loan of €28 millionto a major American company heavily involved in the maintenance of US nuclear weapons.
In tandem with the launch of this policy paper, Fine Gael TD Eoghan Murphy announced his intention to move a Bill which would give effect to some of the principal recommendations of the Irish CND report.
INNATE launch My kind of nonviolence booklet
INNATE’s booklet, My kind of nonviolence, where fifteen people around Ireland explore what nonviolence means to them, was launched at an International Day of Peace event in Coleraine on 21st September. The publication is available online on the INNATE website as a PDF under ‘Pamphlets’. Only a very limited number of copies were printed and it will not be sold. The launch event in Coleraine, in the Town Hall in association with the Stitching and Unstitching the Troubles exhibition there (see NN 202) included songs from Tony Kempster, a short talk by INNATE coordinator Rob Fairmichael, a talk by Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire, and a guided tour of the textiles exhibition by its curator, Roberta Bacic. The event also served to mark 25 years of INNATE and 200 issues of Nonviolent News. See also http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/quilts/exhibit/followup.html#coleraine210912
MII annual conference: ‘Embracing the new era.....’
“Mediation: Embracing the New Era of Collaboration and Co-operation” is the title of this year’s Annual Conference of The Mediators’ Institute of Ireland (MII). The conference takes place in the Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel, Killiney, Dublin, on 16th and 17th November, 2012. Keynote speakers are Michelle Le Baron, Professor and Director, Program on Dispute Resolution at the University of British Columbia, Canada and Janine Geske, Distinguished Professor of Law & Director of the MULS Restorative Justice Initiative at Marquette University Law School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There will be a wide variety of workshops on both days (the opportunity to choose 4 out of 13 workshops in all). Full conference fees are currently €325 and there are some discounts and day rates. For further details including the registration address see the web site . The home page of MII is at www.themii.ie/ and they can be contacted at ph 01609 9190 and e-mail info@themii.ie
MNI Training: Supervision, Mediation theory and practice
Mediation Northern Ireland (MNI) is running two forthcoming trainings.
1) Supervision Skills in Mediation is accredited by the National Open College Network. This course takes place over 60 hours of training contact time. In addition, participants will also explore and reflect on the topic independently and carry out guided research, amounting in total to 15 hours of learning. Dates 16 & 17 October 2012 (to be confirmed) - 10am – 6pm. Cost: £200 per person. This course is for anyone who has undergone an ‘accredited mediation training’ (in any sector) who wants the skills to be a professional practice supervisor to support other Mediators - you should have sufficient experience as a practising Mediator to enable you to assist those to whom you will be supervising.
2) Mediation Theory & Practice runs over 6 days and is accredited by the National Open College Network. This course introduces a basic mediation process for use in a two party dispute. It is suitable for community workers, individuals with HR responsibilities, teachers, social workers, development workers, and supervisors, those who interface with the public, line managers in the workplace, clergy and church workers. Dates: Monday November 5th, 12th 19th & 26th and Monday December 3rd and 10th. This course is priced at £1200 per person including the 6 full days training, training manual and support for NOCN portfolio completion. For either course contact: Máire Patton e-mail maire@mediationorthernireland.org or phone 028 90 438614.
Hume/O’Neill peace chair at Magee
The University of Ulster is fundraising (they have over £2m out of £5.5m needed in total) for a John Hume and Thomas P O’Neill Chair in Peace (which would be established at the Magee campus) along with related developments in INCORE – Ulster’s International Centre of Excellence for the Study of Peace and Conflict. The development would include an expanded programme of activities for INCORE and Masters and PhD scholarships. The University sees the new development as building on the original Tip O’Neill Chair (2002-9) held by John Hume. Further details are available on the website at www.ulster.ac.uk/incore
Housmans Diary 2013
It feels like summer has never come and yet it’s time again to ‘think diary’ for next calendar year. Housmans Peace Diary is an indispensable aid to movements working for peace, social justice and the environment. The directory lists over 1500 national and international human rights organisations as well as Diary features such as a week to a view, notable dates and anniversaries etc. This is the 60th edition of Housmans Peace Diary. One copy is £8.95, postage is £1 extra per diary for 1-4 copies in UK postage area, £3 per diary elsewhere. Discounts for more copies. Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX, ph 020 7837 4473, e-mail orders@housmans.com or to order online visit www.housmans.com
- INNATE will have a limited number of Housmans Peace Diaries for sale.
- The World Peace Directory is also available online in a fuller version. It is worth reading the background information on the website to get the best use out of it.
New Gen Sec for Church and Peace
Church and Peace, the ecumenical peace church network in Europe, has appointed Davorka Lovreković from Hamburg to be the new General Secretary from January 2013. Marie-Noëlle von der Recke will hand over her post into new hands after decades of involvement as General Secretary and earlier Chair. Davorka Lovreković has many years of experience in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and works as a mediator and skilled organisational developer, and has been centrally involved with IFOR/International Fellowship of Reconciliation. www.church-and-peace.org and e-mail: IntlOffice@church-and-peace.org
International Campaign to Stop Rape & Gender Violence in Conflict
This is a global collaboration between the Nobel Women’s Initiative, international advocacy organizations, and groups working at the regional and community levels. See http://www.stoprapeinconflict.org Most paper copies of Nonviolent News 203 carry a leaflet from the Peace People promoting the signing of support for this campaign. For the Peace People see www.peacepeople.com [NN 199 e-mail and web editions previously carried information on this]
Grassroots Gathering Galway
12th - 14th October sees the Grassroots Gathering (yes, it is happening once again) come to Galway (at NUIG). This one will have particular sessions for communities resisting fracking and drilling and for movements against austerity, as well as an open stream and a radical arts stream. The idea it to bring together campaigners, people in communities, experienced activists etc to share experiences, discuss, question, make connections and meet new and old friends. See on facebook
Smart Taxes
In September 2008, Feasta, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability, was awarded multi-annual funding from the Irish Department of the Environment for a Smart Taxes policy research project. The purpose of the Smart Taxes project is to develop policy options to reform fiscal and other financial and monetary mechanisms in Ireland to deliver environmental, social and economic sustainability. This website documents the development of this project which is being led by Feasta but involves a network of organisations and individuals. The Smart Taxes site includes information on Site Value Tax which levies an annual charge on the value of all developed and undeveloped zoned land including the site under every building in residential use. It does not include un-zoned land i.e. agricultural land, forestry and peatlands. It does include land zoned for commercial uses not currently subject to rates.
Incinerator plans incinerated
Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland has welcomed NI Environment Minister Alex Attwood’s decision, announced at the start of October, to refuse permission for a waste incinerator at Ballyutoag Road, outside Belfast. Friends of the Earth Campaigner, Declan Allison, said: “This is the right decision by the Minister. This application was for the wrong technology, at the wrong scale, and in the wrong place. The Minister should be congratulated for this decision, but he should be wary of similar applications coming along in the future. Incineration is not the right way to deal with our rubbish. We need to reduce the amount of waste we produce, and recycle what can be recycled. That means we need to eliminate unnecessary packaging, for example, and collect more recyclable materials from people’s doorsteps. Incineration cannot be made green just by calling it energy-from-waste. It is dirty and wasteful. Friends of the Earth does support some energy-from-waste technologies, like anaerobic digestion of food scraps and garden waste......” See www.foe.co.uk/ni Friends of the Earth, 7 Donegall Street Place, Belfast BT1 2FN, ph 028 9089 7591.
Cultivate
As always there are interesting events coming up in the autumn/winter period including green building lectures in Dublin and a course on fostering active and collaborative learning in Cloughjordan. You can subscribe to Cultivate’s e-mail newsletter at their website which has this and other news.
Friends of the Irish Environment
The detailed information available from Friends of the Irish Environment on a wide variety of environmental and green issues in both their e-mail newsletter (the most recent issue is on aquaculture) and on and through the website is difficult to equal (e.g. just look at the topics under ‘Press releases’ on their website). You can subscribe to their email newsletter online. For information and contacts see www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.net
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