June 27, 2008

Announcements

University of Waterloo interns

On May 1 we welcomed Simon Palamar, George Hamzo, and August Claxton, University of Waterloo MA students in Global Governance, as interns for the May – August 2008 term as part of their MA program.

International Day of Peace — September 21

On June 13 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Governments, communities, and individuals to start preparing activities for the International Day of Peace on September 21. For more information, see the International Day of Peace section of the Ploughshares website.

Ploughshares a communter challenge leader

Ploughshares was honoured recently in Waterloo Region’s 25 or fewer employee category for having 100% staff participation in the annual Canada-wide commuter challenge.

Program Updates

Canada's Role in Afghanistan

Senior Policy Advisor Ernie Regehr visited Afghanistan from April 24 to May 5 to conduct interviews and speak with a broad range of people in Kabul, including government representatives and religious and tribal elders, about their views on the current situation, and in particular, about prospects for new peace and reconciliation processes. Ernie has written about his Kabul conversations in Briefing 08/2.

Ernie and Surendrini Wijeyaratne of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation met with the Toronto Star Editorial Board on May 28 to discuss issues related to Afghanistan, with a particular focus on opportunities for peace and reconciliation. Also on May 28, Ernie discussed his visit to Afghanistan at a roundtable with church representatives held at The Canadian Council of Churches office in Toronto.

In Ottawa on June 19 Ernie was a panelist at a “Symposium on German and Canadian Perspectives on Statebuilding in Afghanistan,” sponsored by the North-South Institute and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Canada.

Small Arms Working Group

On April 22 Senior Program Associate Ken Epps and Program Associate Maribel Gonzales along with other members of the Small Arms Working Group (SAWG) of Peacebuild met with officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade to receive and discuss a draft of Canada’s report on implementation of the UN Programme of Action on small arms that will be submitted at the Biennial Meeting of States in New York in July 2008. In preparation for the Ottawa meeting SAWG members prepared papers and briefings, available on the Ploughshares website and listed below in the publications section.

Space Security

In May Program Associate Jessica West and Executive Director John Siebert participated in two consultations on space security organized by Project Ploughshares and co-hosted with the Institute of Air and Space Law at McGill University in Montreal. On May 14 a roundtable with senior government officials, academics, and civil society experts on Canadian space policy discussed the benefits and possible drawbacks of a whole-of-government space policy, and what steps, if any, might be taken to achieve such a policy. On May 15-16 a consultation with government officials, academics, private sector representatives, and civil society experts from Canada, the US, France, Russia, India, and Japan reviewed the draft text for the upcoming publication Space Security 2008 and discussed the current status of space security.

On May 10 John Siebert made a presentation on religion and space at North Bramalea United Church in Brampton, Ontario.

Visit of Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat

On June 6-9 Project Ploughshares hosted Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat at meetings in Waterloo and in Ottawa. Ambassador Kiplagat is the Executive Director of the Africa Peace Forum (APFO) based in Nairobi, Kenya. APFO and Project Ploughshares have cooperated for over 15 years on peacebuilding projects in the Horn of Africa. In Waterloo, Ambassador Kiplagat met with local academics and non-government organizations, providing insight on current conflicts in the Horn and in Kenya following the December 2007 elections. John Siebert accompanied Ambassador Kiplagat to meetings in Ottawa at Peacebuild, DFAIT, CIDA, IDRC, and with the Africa Study Group of the Ottawa chapter of the Canadian International Council. John and Ambassador Kiplagat participated in the June 10-13 partner consultation of the Justice, Global, and Ecumenical Relations Unit of The United Church of Canada, held in Toronto.

Nonproliferation: Iran and North Korea

On April 20-24 Ernie Regehr visited Tehran, Iran to participate in informal Canadian-Iranian consultations organized by the University of Ottawa. The talks touched on a range of issues, including Iran’s nuclear program and proliferation concerns.

In New York on May 22-23, Ernie served as a respondent to a paper on “Current Crises: Iran and North Korea” in an academic workshop on the UN and the nuclear challenge, sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung New York office and the Ralph Bunche Institute at The City University of New York Graduate Center.

Ploughshares Local Groups

More than 1,000 people attended the Project Ploughshares Niagara and the St. Catharines and Area Arts Council 6th annual Art of Peace Festival on Saturday June 7 at Montebello Park in St. Catharines, Ontario.

On May 22 Project Ploughshares Calgary, along with other members of the Calgary Community Peace Pole Committee, hosted a successful design celebration for the sculpture and plaza that will be Calgary’s unique peace pole. The peace pole will be unveiled on the International Day of Peace, Sunday September 21. On May 24 Ploughshares Calgary held its spring workshop on the theme “Cause for Hope: Facing the World’s Challenges.”

Publications Now Online

The Ploughshares Monitor — Summer 2008

Conversations in Kabul on Military Intervention and Political Reconciliation
Ernie Regehr
Briefing 08/2, June 2008

Small Arms Working Group papers and briefings, May 2008

Armed Violence Reduction and Development Programming: the Canadian Experience and Status, Chistina M. Yeung

Review of the Progress in Canadian Implementation of the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms, Adam Parsons and Kenneth Epps

Armed Violence Reduction through Development Programming: Implications for Canadian Policy, David Jackman

Canadian Policy on Small Arms Transfers and the Arms Trade Treaty,
Kenneth Epps

The Illicit Trade in Small Arms: Addressing the Problem of Diversion,
Wendy Cukier

Effective Canadian Regulation of Small Arms and Light Weapons,
Wendy Cukier

Canadian Perspectives on Gender and Small Arms and Light Weapons,
Emily Alexander

Small Arms Proliferation and Misuse: Towards a Caribbean Plan of Action
March 5-6, 2008 Workshop Report

Transparency and Accountability: NPT Reporting 2002-2007
Adam Parsons, Jessica West, and Ernie Regehr
April 2008

Disarming Conflict
Ernie Regehr's blog has recent postings on Afghanistan, nuclear non-proliferation, and the relevance of R2P to Burma.

The Ploughshares E-Newsletter is a regularly issued publication that is intended to keep readers current with new Ploughshares publications, research and program updates, and special events. Comments on the newsletter are invited at plough@ploughshares.ca. Back issues are available here.

To subscribe or unsubscribe from this newsletter, please click here.
To support Project Ploughshares, please click here.