The 2019 Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) was convened in Geneva on 13-15 November. It was decided that the CCW will discuss lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) on 22-26 June and 10-14 August 2020. These meetings will focus on the “development of aspects of the normative and operational framework” on LAWS. …
2019 APFC Annual Meeting
The Asia Pacific Faith-Based Coalition for Sustainable Development (APFC) convened its annual meeting on 11-12 November in Kathmandu, Nepal, hosted by Islamic Relief Worldwide. Hiro Sakurai, who has represented SGI as convener of the Coalition for the past year, chaired the two-day internal sessions, covering topics such as the review of APFC’s activities, plans for the next 2 years and …
2019 UN General Assembly First Committee and Related Activities
The 74th session of the UN General Assembly First Committee took place from 7 October to 8 November. Hayley Ramsay-Jones and Anna Ikeda of SGI attended parts of the sessions in October and November. They actively supported the activities of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, both of which SGI is a …
UNECE Beijing+25 Regional Review
Ivy Koek of SGI participated in the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Beijing+25 Regional Review Meeting held on 29-30 October at the Palais de Nations. The meeting provided a forum for UNECE Member States to review progress and identify challenges in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, and 51 national reports were submitted. A Civil Society Forum …
Nonviolence Radio – Do Nuclear Weapons Make Us Safe?
On 25 October, Anna Ikeda of SGI was invited to join Nonviolence Radio. Hosted by the Metta Center for Nonviolence‘s Stephanie Van Hook and Michael Nagler, Nonviolence Radio airs every other Friday at 9:00 am PST, broadcasting live from community radio station KWMR. During the 30-minute interview, Ikeda discussed various themes related to nuclear disarmament, including its connection with nonviolence …
UN Climate Action Summit and SDG Summit
SGI was engaged in activities during the UN Climate Action Summit and first UN SDG Summit, held during the high-level week of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly. SGI representatives also attended the climate strike on 20 September and Youth Climate Summit on 21 September. SGI organized a civil society side event on 23 September held at the …
Article by Dr. Sarah Ann Wider, Professor of English at Colgate University
Dr. Sarah Wider, Professor of English at Colgate University wrote an article for the readers of the Seikyo Shimbun, a Japanese daily newspaper, addressing the theme of dialogue as a contribution to its monthly Culture of Peace series throughout 2019 to mark the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace (UN General …
UN Expert Workshop on Racism and Information Technology
A UN expert workshop on the impact of new information technologies on racial equality was convened on 16-17 October by E. Tendayi Achiume, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law. The meeting was sponsored by the UN Office of the High Commissioner …
NGO CSW/NY Monthly Meeting on Women, Peace and Security and the Culture of Peace
On 17 October, the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, New York (NGO CSW/NY) held a monthly meeting on “UNSCR 1325- Towards the Culture of Peace.” Speakers included Ambassador Katalin Bogyay, Permanent Mission of Hungary to the UN and Mallika Iyer, Program Officer, Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP). Ivy Koek of SGI and Vice Chair of NGO CSW/NY …
Interview with Dr. Kevin Clements, Toda Peace Institute Director
Dr. Kevin Clements, Toda Peace Institute Director, and Foundation Chair of Peace and Conflict Studies and Foundation Director of the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (NCPACS) at the University of Otago, New Zealand was interviewed by the Seikyo Shimbun a Japanese daily newspaper, as part of its monthly Culture of Peace informational series throughout 2019 to mark the …