The Peace Foundation - Peace News and Happenings

On Friday December 5th the Peace Foundation co-sponsored with Ferner Galleries an exhibit showcasing the artwork of John Lennon from 1968-1980. The exhibit titled “Imagine the Art of John Lennon” included limited edition lithographs, hand written song lyrics, and copper etchings hand reproduced from John’s original drawings. Each edition was numbered and hand signed by Yoko Ono; who releases one original print each year from Lennon’s private collection.

Marion Hancock spoke of the Peace Foundation’s work at the event and was presented with a print titled “ Turn Left and Make Peace”. Over $1300.00 in entry donations throughout the week were given in support of the Foundation’s work. We wish to thank Imagine Entertainment and Ferner Galleries for sharing this wonderful event with the Peace Foundation.

Kiwi children have reported the second highest incidence of bullying in the world, according to a major international report.

But the primary school teachers' union is urging caution over the findings, which show New Zealand second only to Taiwan when it comes to children saying they have been hit, teased, stolen from or picked on. Educational Institute president Frances Nelson said New Zealand had a high-profile focus on bullying, meaning Kiwi children were more likely to disclose incidents.

The Trends In International Mathematics and Science Study, which covered the equivalent of Year 5 pupils in nearly 40 countries, including 5000 from New Zealand, found Kiwi children reported incidences of bullying behaviour at twice the international average. One in three Kiwi children said they were the victim of at least three of five tests to gauge safety in schools. Miss Nelson said she was wary of reading too much into the safety findings though she stressed bullying was unacceptable.

"I do think that we need to be cautious about saying that we're one of the highest bullying countries in the world, because I'm not sure that we are. I just think that we address it more regularly and kids are much more aware. "I would strongly expect New Zealand children to report more frequently because they are encouraged to do so."

Education Minister Anne Tolley said she wanted to see the report and the data it was based on. She did not think the previous government had done enough to deal with bullying, and planned to gather information from schools on what they were doing to spread best practice.

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund is to divest from seven companies involved in cluster munitions and nuclear explosive devices.

Fund chief executive Adrian Orr said the divestment amounted to $37 million, or 0.3 percent of its portfolio. Shares would be sold in six companies involved in the manufacture of the cluster munitions, one of which is also involved in the simulated testing of nuclear explosive devices. The fund will also divest from another company involved in simulated testing.

The move follows the Government joining 93 other countries signing a treaty banning cluster munitions and a review of the nuclear issue. Mr Orr said the fund had never invested in companies that manufactured nuclear bombs, which are illegal in New Zealand, but had decided to exclude companies involved in simulated testing of such devices because they were critical to their manufacture. The fund has excluded companies involved in landmines, whaling and tobacco in the past.

New York and Geneva for the Conference 'Eliminating Nuclear Weapons: Exploring the Next Steps'

By: Alyn Ware

The United Nations General Assembly is currently in session in New York. The First Committee deals with disarmament and international security issues. New Zealand will be again submitting a resolution calling on further steps to lower the operational readiness to use nuclear weapons. Malaysia will again submit a resolution calling for negotiations leading to the conclusion of a Nuclear Weapons Convention. Mayors for Peace has been calling for immediate negotiations on a NWC resulting in the elimination of all nuclear weapons by 2020. Mayor Akiba, President of Mayors for Peace, will be in New York next week to promote the Mayors for Peace program at the UN General Assembly.

There will also be a UN resolution on Depleted Uranium following up on the reports submitted by UN member States in response to last year’s DU resolution. I was asked to speak at the DU Briefing for Diplomats, which was well attended, including by a representative of the New Zealand government delegation.

There has been an undergraduate certificate in Conflict Resolution in the Department of Social Sciences at Auckland University of Technology since 2000. Now AUT is expanding Conflict Resolution to cover programmes at all levels, from undergraduate to PhD.
Conflict Resolution is an umbrella term for a whole range of methods and approaches for dealing with conflict: from negotiation to diplomacy, from mediation to arbitration, from facilitation to adjudication, from conciliation to conflict ‘provention’, from conflict management to conflict transformation, from restorative justice to peace-keeping. Conflict Resolution is applicable over the whole spectrum of societal relationships, usually referred to as the three levels of ‘the personal, the local or the community, and the global’.
Conflict Resolution can be located in a number of different disciplines including psychology, ethics, international relations, sociology, communications, politics, business and the law. The AUT qualifications will be based in the Department of Social Sciences where the academic staff has expertise in these areas. It is also possible to select papers from other Departments within AUT.

From Semester 2, 2008 enrolments will be taken for the 2-year Masters of Arts (Conflict Resolution) This qualification can also be taken part-time over five years. Along with this qualification are offered a Postgraduate Certificate (one semester) and a Postgraduate Diploma (one year), also available part-time.
The Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution is designed to provide an advanced level qualification for people working or seeking to work in fields where human relationships need to be negotiated, where conflict arises and needs to be addressed, and where an in-depth understanding of conflict resolution is required. Conflict resolution approaches such as negotiation, facilitation, mediation, arbitration, therapy are useful for fields such as business, teaching, government and the human services, and is the basis for the professional practice in numerous areas such as family and drug therapy, restorative justice, peace-making, peace-keeping and peace-building, and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) used in the legal and business settings.
The Bachelor of Arts (Conflict Resolution) will commence in 2009, along with a Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Conflict Resolution programmes at AUT click here to download the brochure or contact:

Dr. Heather Devere,
Postal address: School of Languages and Social Sciences, AUT University, PB 92006, Auckland 1,
Email: heather.devere@aut.ac.nz
Phone: 09-921-9999 ext 5782

COMPREHENSIVE NEW STUDY CHALLENGING EXPERT CONSENSUS FINDS INCIDENCE OF TERRORISM DECLINING AROUND THE WORLD.

Challenging the expert consensus that the threat of global terrorism is increasing, a new report from the Canadian research team that produced the much-cited Human Security Report in 2005, reveals a sharp net decline in the incidence of terrorist violence around the world.

Save the Children New Zealand have recently published a book on Section 59 Crimes Act 1961.
Unreasonable force: New Zealand’s journey towards banning physical punishment of children.
By Beth Wood, Ian Hassall and George Hook with Robert Ludbrook.
This book explores key aspects of the debate about physical punishment that look place for over a decade and intensively during the bill’s passage through Parliament in 2006 and 2007. These include factors contributing to a climate in which change was possible, children’s rights, the law, the impact of religious convictions, the media’s role, the work of advocates, shifting public attitudes, the political story and the way forward.

The book not only traces the history of law change in NZ but puts the case positively for change. It is a useful advocacy tool.

KidsCall is the international Youth Campaign by the World Future Council. We are writing to the most important politicians in the world to save life on Earth! Will you join us?

Our Earth is in danger! Climate change and environmental damage threaten our future. To cope with the increasing demand for energy and growing traffic, people are burning more and more oil, gas and coal. This releases CO2 which heavily pollutes our atmosphere and causes climate chaos.
Climate change threatens life on our planet. The polar ice-caps are melting and sea-levels are rising. Natural disasters such as floods, storms and droughts are on the increase. As more and more land becomes desert, many species of animals are dying out and more and more people are starving.
We can do something about climate protection! We are the future generation. We will intervene!
Politicians have the power to make the right decisions. That's why we're writing to the most important politicians in the world to tell them how we'd like our future to look and what they should do about it. If we pressure them enough, they have to listen to us!
Visit http://kidscall.info/en/campaign.html for more information or click here to download a pdf that explains the campaign and how you can get involved.