Saturday, April 21st, a controversial law about the electoral code which was adopted at the beginning of last April, lead to trouble among the deputies of the House of Commons in Madagascar. Of the 152 deputies, 79 voted FOR and 73 AGAINST this law. The 73 deputies of the opposition denounced the abnormal way in which the law was passed, which they called fraudulent and corrupt. These 73 deputies decided to publicly denounce the actions of their colleagues in parliament before the population of the Capital (Antananarivo) on the 21st of April. The army forbid them access to the Main Square of Independence, where they planned to hold a public rally. The incident ended with violent clashes between the protestors and the army. Four people were killed and many were injured.
On April 14th, The United States, Britain, and France launched air strikes against Syria in retaliation for the suspected chemical weapons attack. The delegates to the EUFOR meeting held a silent circle in Turin's main square honoring the victims of war and making a stand for peace and nonviolence. They drafted and released the following statement in response to the air strikes:
IFOR's International Secretariat is looking for a new part time Administration and Communications Assistant to support IFORs global network of people working for a more peaceful and just world. Location is negotiable but the person will need to come to IFOR's administrative office in Utrecht regularly. If you are interested, please send a CV and cover letter to Adminposition@ifor.org. The application deadline is March 19th.
IFOR's Representatives to the United Nations in Geneva worked closely with the dedicated international observation program supported by several IFOR branches known as FOR Peace Presence, to describe ongoing attacks on conscientious objectors and human rights defenders in Colombia. On February 2, they submitted a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council about the ongoing situation in Colombia.
IFOR's representatives to UNESCO participated in the 39th General Conference, held in Paris 30 October - 14 November 2017. The resolutions of the General Conference have just been published in January, 2018.
During the General Conference, IFOR's Main Representative to UNESCO, Maria Antonietta Malleo, delivered a much appreciated speech where she called called upon the global community to invest in peace building. Assessing the conditions of the world today, she said our priorities must be to:
Move towards institutionalization of peace and human rights education.
Confront the cultural aspects of contemporary violence.
Implement knowledge-sharing on theory and practice of nonviolent conflict resolution
Denounce a widening international trend to the criminalization of humanitarian action
The IFOR Secretariat joins FOR Peace Presence and IFOR members around the world in expressing alarm and concern regarding assissination attempt on members of the Peace Community of San José de Apartado, including German Graciano, Legal Representative.
The Justice and Peace Program organized by Dr. Suseela Mathew was a part of the continued efforts of IFOR's branch in India to provide support and training for those seeking to address social and political challenges in the country. This program was for teachers in the higher secondary schools from throughout the state of Kerala. The teachers participating in the program are trained counsellors and deal with students directly at schools. Dr. Mathew described the situation in schools facing students and teachers:
"Schools are hot beds of unrest and violence and this is observed as the overflow of the social and political currents generally. With the influence of media and usage of mobile apps students are being increasingly swayed to resort to display of intolerance and often violently. Often what is seen as assertion of rights by one section is equally an assault of the rights of another section. Dialogue is being substituted with hate filled rhetoric."
The program was designed to enable the teachers to deal with the variety of issues they confront by addressing the way that our emotions can sometimes distract us from the more strategic choices including pursuing legal redress for the concerns and grievances faced. Dr. Mathew pointed out that
"There are provisions of the law which deal with abuse of all kinds and laws which are enacted to protect the child. An effort was made to encourage teachers to use the laws and also to "conscientise" students about what was acceptable and unacceptable. All problems and solutions must face the test of justce and fairplay."
On October 26th 2017, eleven LGBTIQ Faith Leaders came before the world at United Nations Headquarters in New York City to tell their stories. They came together under the auspice of the Ethics of Reciprocity project and with great courage poured their hearts and souls on that international stage. Long before that, however, they came to know each other as members of the same family.
It is with great sadness and disbelief that we, members of the Ethics of Reciprocity family, mourn the passing of one of our own. On December 11th, 2017, Abubakar Sadiq Yussif passed away.
On Thursday, Oct 26 from 11:30am – 3:00pm, IFOR is hosting an unprecedented gathering of conservative & progressive religious leaders, diplomats and human rights experts in a project called the Ethics of Reciprocity (EOR).
IFOR has a long history of engagement at the intersection of gender and peace building and has a long history of advocacy against violence and discrimination on the basis of gender. With millions of people around the world suffering increasing amounts of violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, IFOR is proud to host this important conversation. EOR was envisioned by IFOR's representative to the United Nations Dr. Patricia Ackerman.
