By Scilla Elworthy

How can the crisis over Iran be resolved without resort to violence? Scilla Elworthy looks at the possibilities for creative action at citizen level.

Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer and Nobel peace laureate, writes in her new autobiography Iran Awakening : "Bellicosity and brinkmanship are what have brought us to where we stand now, but they remain ingrained habits for both sides….The threat of regime change by military force, while reserved as an option by some in the western world, endangers nearly all the efforts democracy-minded Iranians have made in these recent years."

Even the threat of force gives the Iranian government a pretext to crack down on the opposition and undermine the civil-society groupings that are slowly forming. It also, in Ebadi's words, "makes Iranians overlook their resentment of the regime and move behind their unpopular leaders out of defensive nationalism."

What are your thoughts on the movement to establish Ministries and Departments of Peace in governments worldwide?

TUTU: It’s an extraordinary idea and, it fills one with a great deal of excitement and exhilaration, and it sounds crazy, but then I think it was crazy when Gandhi said we’re going to work so that eventually India is free. It must have been crazy when Martin Luther King Jr. also said we’re going to make civil rights a real issue in the United States, and maybe when Nelson Mandela and others said one day apartheid will be no more, that we need those like yourselves who dream dreams and say, “It is possible. It is possible for people to know that war is not natural.”

People have been able to live peacefully together, but if they live peacefully together after war, why should they have war first before they can realize that it is a great deal better. War is not nice to children, it’s not nice to people, it’s not nice to the environment.

And so I say go for it. This is marvellous. Go for it and really be crazy and say, one day we’ll ask, “Why were we so stupid for so long because of something so obvious?” Saying let us put our massive investment that we are putting right now in instruments of death and destruction, let us put them into something that is creative, that is life-enhancing teaching kids that there are ways of resolving differences that don’t need to be violent. You can sit down and ultimately say, “You know, actually, an enemy is a friend waiting to be made.”

Photo and interview by Mark Tompkins
For the Peace Alliance
At the Quest for Global Healing
May, 2006, Bali, Indonesia

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This very important letter was written by many of the world’s leading organizations dealing with human rights, peace, and global issues. It was forwarded to the UN Security Council on May 19th, and deals with the Multinational Force occupation of Iraq.

The Security Council, under Resolution 1637, is required to review the mandate of the MNF no later than 15 June. Please forward this message to individuals, networks and organizations you believe may find it of interest, and, in particular, to local and national media in your country.

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Have you ever slammed a door in rage? Have you ever been really hurt by something someone has said? Have you ever had a fight with your mother? Have you ever been angry when your pay rise was turned down?

Every day people find themselves in conflict, ranging from minor discomfort to serious confrontations. Generally, when people think about conflict they believe that there are only three solutions: compromising, winning or losing. But now, Conflict Resolution Network training provides a new way to look at winning so that opponents become partners.

Conflict Resolution Network training shows how to recognise typical conflict behaviour patterns and how to avoid them. As well, it teaches us how to understand the power dynamics in any relationship. Most importantly, however, it shows how improved communication can help us to better understand those with whom we find ourselves in conflict, and help them to understand us, in order to achieve a happy solution.

Dr. Stella Cornelius, Director of the Conflict Resolution Network in Australia, has generously donated her Conflict Resolution Network training materials to ministry for peace. Stella is a big supporter of this new wave of organisations world wide calling for government Ministries/Departments of Peace. She founded the original Ministry for Peace campaign in Australia in the 1980s in the midst of the Cold War and worked for it tirelessly for a good number of years. She is keen to support this new movement in any way she can.

 

Have you ever slammed a door in rage? Have you ever been really hurt by something someone has said? Have you ever had a fight with your mother? Have you ever been angry when your pay rise was turned down?

Every day people find themselves in conflict, ranging from minor discomfort to serious confrontations. Generally, when people think about conflict they believe that there are only three solutions: compromising, winning or losing. But now, Conflict Resolution Network training provides a new way to look at winning so that opponents become partners.

Conflict Resolution Network training shows how to recognise typical conflict behaviour patterns and how to avoid them. As well, it teaches us how to understand the power dynamics in any relationship. Most importantly, however, it shows how improved communication can help us to better understand those with whom we find ourselves in conflict, and help them to understand us, in order to achieve a happy solution.

Dr. Stella Cornelius, Director of the Conflict Resolution Network in Australia, has generously donated her Conflict Resolution Network training materials to ministry for peace. Stella is a big supporter of this new wave of organisations world wide calling for government Ministries/Departments of Peace. She founded the original Ministry for Peace campaign in Australia in the 1980s in the midst of the Cold War and worked for it tirelessly for a good number of years. She is keen to support this new movement in any way she can.

 

This month we are extremely pleased to offer you an on-line course in peacebuilding skills together with an introductory article by our Australian colleague Biannca Pace.

Our heartfelt thanks to both the Australian Network of Conflict Resolution for the course and our colleague Biannca Pace.

Conflict is all around us, it is not something we can choose to have or not to have. It just is. This course is not about avoiding conflict. Avoiding is not only impossible but undesirable.

This course is about discovering productive ways of handling conflict. Ways that make a difference in all areas of our lives.

To resolve conflict and BUILD PEACE it is helpful to have a series of skills for interacting with others to create the basis for a mutually empowering dialogue.

 

Click Here To Access The On-Line Course

MFP Italia

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(Italian Constitution art.11. Italy renounces war...)  

ministry for peace is a non political organisation working for the creation of a Ministry for Peace within the Italian Government, whose purpose will be to implement, in all areas of government and society, the programme of action outlined in the 1999 UN Declaration on a Culture of Peace. This aims to create values, attitudes and behaviours that address the root causes of violence, with a view to solving problems through dialogue and negotiation among individuals, groups and nations.

The 1999 Declaration was passed unanimously by the UN General Assembly. The Ministry for Peace would work in the eight action areas proposed by the Declaration:

In carrying out its work ministry for peace will be open, democratic, co-operative and creative, with the emphasis on dialogue and a non-confrontational approach. The intent is that the means will reflect the ends.