Winter 2010 - Project Ploughshares

22Invest inpeaceIn advance of the G8 Summit in Muskoka, 80 leaders ofthe world’s religions and faith-based organizations convenedin Winnipeg and issued a closing statement. Here isan excerpt. (For the full statement, go to www.faithchallengeg8.com.)The well-being and shared security of all can only be realizedwhen grounded in justice. Shared security focuses onthe fundamental inter-relatedness of all persons and theenvironment (World Religions Summit, Sapporo 2008).Civilians in the world’s poorest countries are the primaryvictims of war, insurgencies, criminal activities and otherforms of armed violence. At the same time, we are collectivelyaffected and implicated in global turmoil throughour common humanity and through the priorities we set.One clear example of misplaced priorities is globalmilitary spending, estimated to be US$1,464 billion for2008, while support for United Nations peace-keepingoperations is only US$9 billion. NATO countries accountfor over two-thirds of this global military spending;these payments for military services are more than 20times the annual world financial contributions to OfficialDevelopment Assistance. Another example of misplacedpriorities is the continuing threat of nuclear weapons andother weapons of mass destruction that represent a moralaffront to human dignity and a grave danger to life.We are aware that there are those who use religion tojustify violent acts against others, and thereby offend thetrue spirit of their faith and the long-standing values oftheir faith communities. We condemn religiously motivatedterrorism and extremism and commit to stop theteaching and justification of the use of violence betweenand among our faith communities.In 2010, we expect inspired leadership and actionsthat invest in peace!• We call on governments to halt the arms race, makenew and greater investments in supporting a culture ofpeace, strengthen the rule of law, stop ethnic cleansingand the suppression of minorities, build peace throughnegotiation, mediation, and humanitarian supportto peace processes, including the control and reductionof small arms that every year are the cause of over300,000 deaths globally.• We call on states with nuclear weapons to make immediateand substantial cuts in the number of nuclearweapons and to cease the practice of having nuclearweapons on hair-trigger alert. Let these be the initialsteps in a defined process leading to the complete andpermanent elimination of nuclear weapons.• We call for the establishment of transparent and effectivedialogue mechanisms between international organizationsand faith communities that takes advantage of thepeace-making potential of religion.Binalakshmi Nepramreceives Sean MacBridePeace PrizeBinalakshmi Nepram, founder of Manipur Women GunSurvivors Network and Secretary-General of ControlArms Foundation of India (CAFI), has been awardedthe Sean MacBride Peace Prize for 2010. During 2009and 2010 Nepram and CAFI partnered with ProjectPloughshares to advance support for the Arms TradeTreaty in India with funding from the UK Foreign andCommonwealth Office.The prize, awarded annually by the InternationalPeace Bureau, was given to Nepram in recognition of her“pioneering work,” which has demonstrated, in particular,“the linkage between disarmament and development.” Inher acceptance speech, Nepram called upon people, organizations,and nations around the world to rally for peaceand justice in some of the world’s forgotten areas.Canadian Schoolof Peacebuilding:Courses for 2011Details of the courses to be offered by the CanadianSchool of Peacebuilding in June 2011 are nowavailable. A brochure can be downloaded by goingto http://www.cmu.ca/csop/pdfs/csopbooklet.final.pdf.CSOP is housed at the Canadian MennoniteUniversity in Winnipeg. Courses are available forprofessional development or academic credit andare open to members of all faith groups.The Ploughshares Monitor I Winter 2010