DISARM
E-NEWSDISARM
E-NEWS
JUNE, 2007
WILPF International Peace and Security Working Group
DISARMAMENT AND DEMILITARIZATION ISSUES:
Action request from WILPF: At last there is a glimmer of hope for ending the ten year block on disarmament treaty negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament. Your help is needed to fan the flame! Click here:
1.For a report on the June 12 session of the CD
2. An Action Alert with background information
3. A News Release
4. A letter you can send to officials in your own country
A Treaty Banning Cluster Bombs in 2008? Read great news from Peru where 68 nations met in May, determined to take "next steps" in negotiating such a treaty.
Time to plan for Hiroshima Nagasaki days, August 6 to 10. Some Sections use this as a time to highlight nuclear issues and say Never again. Read reports received from 2006 observances in the U.S.. Continue to help us enlist Mayors for Peace worldwide in the 2020 Vision Campaign for nuclear weapons abolition led by Mayor Akiba of Hiroshima and the new Mayor of Nagasaki (We continue to grieve for Mayor Itoh, 12 years vice President of Mayors for Peace, who was assassinated in April 2007 during his re-election campaign ). Use fact sheets from Reaching Critical Will on The Dirty Dozen: Partners in Mass Destruction to locate corporations promoting and profiting from nuclear weapons production in your Section. Mitsubishi in Japan, Siemens in Germany and BAE Systems and British Nuclear Fuels are part of this corporate complex, as well as subcontractors and wealthy investors everywhere. Fact sheets on Bechtel, Raytheon and other major U.S. nuclear weapons profiteers have been recently updated.
Time to plan for Keep Space for Peace week September 29 to October 7, 2007. Read the reports on 2006 Keep Space for Peace week submitted by WILPF to UNOOSA and UNCOPUOS, the agencies responsible for monitoring the UN space treaties. Reaching Critical Will now has newly updated fact sheets on the aerospace and other corporations promoting and profiting from space militarization. Find the military base or contractor near you. Reaching Critical Will has extensive information on UN space treaties and Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space.
FROM THE LINKS BELOW ACCESS OTHER WILPF WEB PAGES ON PEACE AND SECURITY ISSUES:
WILPF Peace Women Tri-lingual web site on UNSCR 1375 with e-newsletters, etc. The latest issue (May) focuses on gender and paarticipation, governance and elections, all emphasized in SCR 1325.. Read articles on women and the election process in Timor-Leste, and women's election initiatives in Fiji, Kenya, Syria and Nigeria. There are rich resources for those who encourage women rising as peacemakers, peace builders and peace keepers.
WILPF International Human Rights Web Pages let WILPF members follow actions in the UN Human Rights Council. Julia Federico is the Human Rights Fellow for WILPF in Geneva. She offers rich resources and tools for local Human Rights work. Read a draft report to the June session of the Council by a UN Special Rappateur on military toxics in warfare that violate human rights law.
WILPF Reaching Critical Will, Peace and Security DISARM issues in depth with a special emphasis on nuclear and space treaty negotiations at the United Nations, but there is also extensive information on all other disarmament treaties.
WILPF International Peace and Security Working Group with program guidelines. WILPF Geneva International Office Disarmament web pages with resources on cluster bombs, bio-weapons, nukes, space, small arms and more. From here also access Resolutions on Disarmament that lay out WILPF's disarmament policies since 1915.
WILPF DISARM E-News is a service of the WILPF Peace and Security Working Group. It focuses on the DISARM issues covered by that working group, which also includes Peace Women and Human Rights issues. Edwina Hughes (New Zealand) and Carol Urner (USA) are co-conveners of this group.
Monthly editions are edited by Carol Urner. Please send your reports, comments and suggestions for improvement to her at carol.disarm@gmail.com and copy to Edwina Hughes, co-convener of the group, at pma@xtra.co.nz
DISARM
E-NEWS
May, 2007
WILPF International Peace and Security Working Group
DISARMAMENT AND DEMILITARIZATION ISSUES:
A report to DISARM E-News from ALBANIA. This is one of our Sections with extensive experience in small arms control, but here they are looking at proposed WILPF resoltuions on NO BASES, Cluster Munitions and war profiteering.
Norway WILPFers are proud of their country's divestment policies. What other governments are divesting stock from corporations producing cluster bombs, nuclear weapons and all the rest? This is a route for NGOs, universities and private investors as well!
Reaching Critical Will is updating information on Corporate Connections and War Profiteering as a major contribution to our new international network of organizations seeking to dismantle war economies. Click here for the latest WILPF updates on multinational corporations promoting and profiting from addiction to war. The emphasis is on nuclear weapons and space militarization profiteers, but also helps track producers of small arms, cluster munitions, etc..Use it as a guide to divestment as well.
MAY CALENDAR :
May 1- 11: Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Prep Com in Vienna. Follow the daily action in the Reaching Critical Will NPT News in Review.
May 3: War in Space or Life on Earth: The Choice is Ours. Report on WILPF panel with Bruce Gagnon Coordinator of Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and Carol Urner, co-convener of the WILPF Peace and Security Working Group. The sessions were organized by WILPF Norway at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, New York. Room 2, 10th floor 777 UN Plaza, 1:15 to 3:00 pm. Edel Havin Beukes, co-convener of the WILPF Environmental Working Group, facilitated. Access the WILPF statement presented to the NGO caucus here.
May 8: Nuclear Power Is Not the Solution to Global Warming. WILPF workshop with Alice Slater, .Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Terje Kronen of the Norwegian Forum for Environment and Development and Mary Olsen, Nuclear Information and Resource Service. at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, New York. Room 2, 10th floor 777 UN Plaza, 1:15 to 3:00 pm. This forum is also organized by WILPF Norway and facilitated by Edel Havin Beukes.
May 23-25: Working conference on cluster munitions ban in Lima, Peru, with 104 governments invited. Sections and Branches will find many Resources for those working to ban Cluster Munitions .
FROM THE LINKS BELOW ACCESS OTHER WILPF WEB PAGES ON PEACE AND SECURITY ISSUES:
WILPF Peace Women Tri-lingual web site on UNSCR 1375 with e-newsletters, etc. The latest issue(April 25) of the newsletter focuses on gender and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) in post conflict situations. Read articles on gender and land mines, and gender issues in conflicts in Sri Lanka, El Salvador, Nepal, Ireland, Israel and elsewhere.
WILPF International Human Rights Web Pages let WILPF members follow actions in the UN Human Rights Council. Read the report on the Aeotara Conference on Violence Against Women submitted by Edwina Hughes. Do other Sections have reports of similar events?
WILPF Reaching Critical Will, Peace and Security DISARM issues in depth with a special emphasis on nuclear and space treaty negotiations at the United Nations, but there is also extensive information on all other disarmament treaties.
WILPF International
Peace and Security Working Group with program
guidelines. WILPF
Geneva International Office Disarmament web pages with resources
on cluster bombs, bio-weapons, nukes, space, small arms and more. From here
also access Resolutions
on Disarmament that lay out WILPF's disarmament policies since
1915.
WILPF DISARM E-News is a service of the WILPF Peace and Security Working Group. It focuses on the DISARM issues covered by that working group, which also includes Peace Women and Human Rights issues. Edwina Hughes (New Zealand) and Carol Urner (USA) are co-conveners of this group.
Monthly editions are edited by Carol Urner. Please send your reports, comments and suggestions for improvement to her at carol.disarm@gmail.com and copy to Edwina Hughes, co-convener of the group, at pma@xtra.co.nz
DISARM
E-NEWS
March, 2007
WILPF International Peace and Security Working Group
DISARMAMENT AND DEMILITARIZATION ISSUES:
Foreign Military Bases
Three WILPFers attend
the INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR THE ABOLITION
OF FOREIGN MILITARY BASES in Quito and Manta, Ecuador, March 5
to 9! The German Section is sending Irene Eckert. Kozue Akibayashi of WILPF-Japan
and her friend Suzuyo Takazato from Okinawa will be there, and so will Mary
Day Kent, Executive Director of the U.S. Section. Kozue and Mary Day will actually
have their way paid by other organizations, but our WILPF members will link
up together, and we expect reports back from all three. The presence of foreign
military bases is of great concern to many of our Sections.
Kozue suggests a panel by the three WILPFers at the Bolivia Congress this summer.
Let's hope it becomes a reality! Kozue also points out that she thinks ".
. .it is necessary to ensure wider understanding among participants that it
is not only "foreign" military that is problematic to our real security.
U.S. miltiary is, of course, the major issue, but any military needs to be examined.
(And here, a gender perspective and analysis functions well to reveal the values
system of the military system.) In some cases in Japan or Korea, our national
militaries replaced the bases from which U.S. military had withdrawn. We are
calling not only for U.S. military to withdraw but for closure of the bases
and conversion of the militarized security system." Important issues
for all of us to work on together!
BANNING CLUSTER BOMBS!
Thank you Norway! On February 22 46 nations jumpstarted negotiations for a treaty banning cluster bombs. This initiative bypasses the official UN channels since nations using and/or producing these weapons are blocking progress there. Follow the links on the Geneva DISARM page for background information on other efforts within the UN to ban or limit cluster bombs. Please report on your efforts in your Section to ban these bombs.
U.S., Russia, China and Israel snubbed the conference. Australia, India and Pakistan also did not attend. Japan, Poland and Romania attended but did not join in the declaration. Obviously plenty of work lies ahead for us in countries where we have sections! Peru, Austria and Ireland were among the signers. Norway and Belgium have already banned the weapons. If anyone has the complete list of countries signing the declaration please send it to this listserve!
Let's move forward on banning DU weapons! Follow the
Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Time to register for the 2007 NPT Prep Com in Vienna, Austria 30 April to 11 May. Can we have reports from British WILPF on resistance to Trident upgrade? Read US WILPF response to Complex 2030, the master plan for upgrading the entire U.S. nuclear weapons stock pile.
Prevent an Arms Race in Outer Space! WILPF representation needed at the Global Network Conference in Darmstadt, March 23-24. Linda Richards and Carol Urner are coming for WILPF from the U.S. and Edel and two others are coming from Norway. Regina Hagen (Germany) and Mary Beth Sullivan (U.S.) of Global Network are also WILPF members. U.S. DISARM committee is still collecting reports on WILPF 2006 Keep Space for Peace actions to present to UNOOSA in Vienna. For information and to include your report click here.
Conference on Disarmament (CD) January 22 to March 30. Follow the 2007 CD disarmament negotiations at the United Nations in Geneva on Reaching Critical Will. Also check the RCW for comprehensive background on disarmament issues, negotiations and country positions. Find your own Ambassador's statements in the General Assembly disarmament debate here.
WILPF International Women's Day Seminar at the United Nations March 7. . This year, the seminar, focused on the issue of military expenditures and discussed gender budgeting and human security approaches to financial decision making inside governments. The seminar looked at the issues related to global arms expenditures, and also at how these issues are being dealt with on a local, national, and international level. The seminar was followed, on 8 March, by a statement to the Conference on Disarmament. For more information about the seminar, please contact Yuki Ojutsi at: yuki@wilpf.ch.
Share news from
your country and Section on disarmament issues. Contact Carol Urner and Edwina
Hughes, cochairs of the Peace and Security Working
Group, or write directly to the listserve.
FROM THE LINKS BELOW ACCESS OTHER WILPF WEB PAGES ON PEACE AND SECURITY ISSUES:
WILPF Peace Women Tri-lingual web site on UNSCR 1375 with e-newsletters, etc.
WILPF International Human Rights Web Pages let WILPF members follow actions in the UN Human Rights Council. Read the report on the Aeotara Conference on Violence Against Women submitted by Edwina Hughes. Do other Sections have reports of similar events?
WILPF Reaching Critical Will, Peace and Security DISARM issues in depth
WILPF International
Peace and Security Working Group with program
guidelines. WILPF
Geneva International Office Disarmament web pages. From here also
access Resolutions
on Disarmament that lay out WILPF's disarmament policies since
1915.
WILPF DISARM E-News is a service of the WILPF Peace and Security Working Group. It focuses on the DISARM issues covered by that working group, which also includes Peace Women and Human Rights issues. Edwina Hughes (New Zealand) and Carol Urner (USA) are co-conveners of this group.
Monthly editions are edited by Carol Urner. Please send your reports, comments and suggestions for improvement to her at carol.disarm@gmail.com and copy to Edwina Hughes, co-convener of the group, at pma@xtra.co.nz
DISARM
E-NEWS
February, 2007
WILPF International Peace and Security Working Group
Details on Disarmament and other Peace and Security issues are accessible from links in this email or from this URL: http://disarm.wilpf.org/JAN-FEB%202007/E-newsJan-Feb.htm .
DISARMAMENT ISSUES:
FROM THE LINKS BELOW ACCESS OTHER WILPF WEB PAGES ON PEACE AND SECURITY ISSUES:
WILPF
Peace Women Tri-lingual web site on UNSCR 1375 with e-newsletters,
etc.
WILPF International
Human Rights Web Pages and indigenous and disabled rights.
WILPF
Reaching Critical Will, Peace and Security DISARM issues in depth
WILPF International
Peace and Security Working Group with program
guidelines. WILPF
Geneva International Office Disarmament web pages. From here also
access Resolutions
on Disarmament that lay out WILPF's disarmament policies since
1915.
To unsubscribe or add additional subscribers click here
WILPF DISARM E-News is a service of the WILPF Peace and Security Working Group. It focuses on the DISARM issues covered by that working group, which also includes Peace Women and Human Rights issues. Edwina Hughes (New Zealand) and Carol Urner (USA) are co-conveners of this group.
This first of planned monthly editions is edited by Carol Urner. Please send your reports, comments and suggestions for improvement to her at carol.disarm@gmail.com.