MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union

THEME 6
resources and prices influencing the demand for firearms could usefully
inform both disarmament and development interventions’. 2
BOX 17 INSTITUTIONALIZING VIOLENCE REDUCTION: MINISTRIES OF PEACE
There is growing global support for the idea that peace and violence reduction—including
the devastating societal impacts of gun violence—should be
institutionalised within government with leadership at the ministerial or
cabinet level. A formal Ministry of Peace would promote peace and violence
reduction much the way Environment Ministries are designed to protect
the environment.
In 2004, as member of the House of Representatives and Democratic
candidate for president of the United States of America, Dennis Kucinish
formally proposed the establishment of a federal Department of Peace in
the United States (a Ministry of Peace would be the equivalent proposal in
the parliamentary system). The next year, a bill to establish the department
was introduced in the House with over 60 co-sponsoring members of Congress;
shortly thereafter a version of the same legislation was introduced
in the Senate. If established, this cabinet level agency would be headed by
an Under Secretary for Peace and Nonviolence.
Addressing armed violence and its impacts is an important feature of
the proposed agency. Among its many responsibilities, the Department of
Peace would:
• analyse existing policies, employ successful, field-tested programs, and
develop new approaches for dealing with the implements of violence,
including gun-related violence and the overwhelming presence of
handguns;
• develop new policies and incorporate existing policies regarding crime,
punishment, and rehabilitation;
• develop policies that address domestic violence, including spousal abuse,
child abuse, and mistreatment of the elderly;
• counsel and advocate on behalf of women victimised by violence;
• develop new programs that relate to the societal challenges of school
violence, gangs, racial or ethnic violence, violence against gays and
lesbians, and police-community relations disputes;
• assist in the establishment and funding of community-based violence
prevention programs, including violence prevention counselling and
peer mediation in schools;
This idea is catching on elsewhere in the world. In October 2005, an international
People’s Summit for Departments of Peace was held in the UK that
drew representatives from Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East.
National campaigns for departments of peace are currently underway in at
least nine countries. More information is available at www.peoplesinitiative
fordepartmentsofpeace.org.
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