December 18, 2009 Best Wishes of the Season All of us at Project Ploughshares send best wishes to our E-Newsletter subscribers for a joyous and safe holiday season.   Announcements

Ecumenical Brief on Canada's Role in Afghanistan (English) (French
On Human Rights Day, The Canadian Council of Churches released a new brief on Afghanistan. The brief was prepared by a working group consisting of Senior Policy Advisor Ernie Regehr (Project Ploughshares), Mike Hogeterp (Christian Reformed Church in North America – Canada), Remmelt Hummelen, and John Lewis (KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives). It encourages Canada to focus on two priorities: 1) to encourage the international community to give significant new attention to diplomatic efforts to end the war, and 2) to support Afghans in implementing participatory reconciliation programs and responsive governance at district and local levels. Arrangements are underway to present the brief to appropriate officials and ministers and to the House of Commons Special Committee on the Mission in Afghanistan.

Addressing Armed Violence in East Africa
Noon Lecture Series with John Siebert, and Kenneth Epps
Thursday, January 28, 2010 - 11:45am - 1:00pm at CIGI, 57 Erb Street West, Waterloo,
(For those in the Waterloo area who would like attend, there is no charge but an RSVP is requested.)

Program Updates

Small Arms

On November 23-24, Program Associate Maribel Gonzales travelled to London, U.K. to participate in an organizational meeting of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). The meeting discussed governance reforms and strategic priorities for IANSA that will be recommended to the broader membership.

Disarming Domestic Violence

As part of the Disarming Domestic Violence (DDV) Campaign coordinated by Project Ploughshares and the Small Arms Working Group of Peacebuild, Maribel Gonzales participated in a December 6 vigil to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1989 École Polytechnique Massacre. The vigil, held at the Guelph City Hall Galleria was organized by the Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis ( a participant in the DDV campaign) and the Guelph City Youth Council. The community vigil featured special speakers, performances, information and art work by children about their vision for a peaceful, violence-free community. Maribel put up a Project Ploughshares display panel on the DDV campaign and provided information on the link between small arms and domestic violence.

Development and Armed Violence Reduction

On December 14 in Ottawa, Maribel Gonzales chaired a workshop titled "Can Development Programming Reduce Armed Violence?". Organized by Project Ploughshares and sponsored by the Small Arms Working Group of Peacebuild and the Canadian Council for International Cooperation, the workshop highlighted the recently-released Ploughshares-World Vision publication, Addressing Armed Violence in East Africa. Speaking on this research were Executive Director John Siebert and Senior Program Associate Ken Epps from Project Ploughshares as well as Suzanne Cherry from World Vision Canada.

Space Security

Program Associate Cesar Jaramillo participated in the 2009 Canadian Space Summit, held November 20-22 at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. At the event, Cesar chaired the Law and Policy panel of the conference and spoke of the Space Security Index project and its annual publication. The summit also included sessions on Planetary Exploration, Commerce, Low Earth Orbit and Life Sciences. On the evening of November 20, Cesar and the other session chairs participated in a public discussion at Kingston City Hall where they talked about their work and addressed questions from the audience.

Nuclear Disarmament

Ernie Regehr participated in, and presented a paper to, an ecumenical consultation (December 4-6, 2009) on nuclear issues in the Korean peninsula and approaches to global efforts toward zero nuclear weapons. The event included participants from South Korea, Fiji, Pakistan, Canada, Norway, U.S.A. and the Philippines. It took place in Hwacheon, north of Seoul and near the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ), and was sponsored by the Asia Pacific Graduate School in Korea, the Korean YMCA, the National Council of Churches in Korea, Presbyterian Church in Korea, Conference of Christians in Asia, and World Council of Churches. The consultation was hosted by Hwacheon County and included a visit (pictured here) to the new Bell Park for World Peace at the edge of the DMZ, opened in May during a visit by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. A “Hwacheon declaration” was drafted and will be released soon.

Ernie also participated in, and served as a discussant for, a dialogue on India/Pakistan nuclear issues held in Bangkok December 11-14. The dialogue is part of a series of Track II meetings organized by the University of Ottawa. The focus of this meeting was on South Asian responses to the emerging international agenda in support of disarmament efforts toward the objective of zero nuclear weapons.

Other Meetings and Speaking Engagements

On November 20, Ken Epps spoke about Project Ploughshares’ advocacy work to students taking a Field Course in Global Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. A week later at York University, Ken participated in a full-day seminar on disarmament with post-graduate students and university faculty at the Centre for International and Security Studies.

Ernie Regehr participated in the Halifax International Security Forum in Halifax on November 20-22, 2009. He was invited in his capacity as Chair of the Advisory Council of the Pugwash Peace Exchange. The conference included a broad range of high-profile speakers, including US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay, and US Senator John McCain. Particularly noteworthy was a panel presentation by Michael Semple on the importance of reconciliation and negotiation in ending the Afghanistan conflict. A long-time specialist in Afghan issues, Semple recently published a book on reconciliation in Afghanistan with the US Institute of Peace. The Halifax International Security Forum is intended to become an annual event.

On November 23, Cesar Jaramillo attended an event in Ottawa entitled “Democracy Dialogue 2009: Democracy in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations.” The event, organized by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, brought together several scholars and practitioners to discuss the principal challenges for the promotion of democracy in societies affected by violent conflict. Afghanistan, Haiti and Sudan were prominent case studies during this event, and questions related to the proper sequencing of state-building efforts were addressed throughout the day.

John Siebert participated in a November 23 roundtable discussion at the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, DC entitled: “Regional Peace, Development and Security: The Role of Regional Organizations and Civil Society”. The roundtable panel participants were welcomed by OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza. Government perspectives were presented by representatives from Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, the USA State Department, and Latin American sub-regional bodies the Andean Community, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and the Central American Integration System (SICA). The civil society representatives were organized by Andres Serbin, President of Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Economicas y Sociales (CRIES), pictured below moderating a panel that included John (2nd from the right) with academics from Brazil and Costa Rica.

John also traveled to Boston for December 3-5 to participate in research being conducted by University of Massachusetts-Amherst professor Charlie Carpenter on “Transnational Networks and Global Agenda Setting.” Focus group discussions with representatives from United Nations agencies, academia, and civil society organizations were intended to solicit information on why certain issues in the human security agenda have succeeded in gaining public attention and inter-governmental action, while other issues have not. John used the opportunity of visiting Boston to meet with Marshall Wallace and Isabella Jean at Collaborative Learning Projects, a research NGO formerly headed by Mary Anderson which headed development of the “Do No Harm” framework for humanitarian and development assistance. He also met with Jonathan McDowell, astrophysicist with the Science Data Systems Planning Group, in the Chandra X-Ray Center, at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Dr. McDowell has participated the past two years in the Space Security Index working group meetings in Montreal.

On December 20, John Siebert, Maribel Gonzales and Ken Epps of Project Ploughshares, and Chris Derksen-Hiebert of World Vision Canada, met with officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade at the DFAIT building in Ottawa to discuss the Ploughshares-World Vision publication, “Addressing Armed Violence in East Africa.” The discussions covered the context and findings of the report as well as wider issues related to the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development.

Project Ploughshares in the News

Ernie Regehr is quoted extensively in a straightgoods.ca article by Ish Theilheimer titled "Obama's surge could help, if the focus is on negotiations".

Documents and Publications Now Online

Ecumenical Brief on Canada's Role in Afghanistan (English) (French)
Canadian Council of Churches, December 10, 2009

The Ploughshares Monitor — Winter 2009

Disarming Conflict
Ernie Regehr's blog is at http://www.cigionline.org/publications/blogs/disarmingconflict . His postings since early November have focused on nuclear disarmament -- from Canadian, Iranian, and Korean (North and South) perspectives as well as The Canadian Council of Churches December brief on Afghanistan.

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