“The world is over-armed and peace is under-funded” (UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon). Given the omnipresent atmosphere of political confrontation and the worldwide armament, the International Peace Bureau (IPB) organizes the World Congress on global disarmament and military spending.
The event takes place from 30 September until 2 October at the Technical University of Berlin. About 1000 guests from all over the world are expected to participate at the Congress.
The IPB World Congress is supported by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), UNI Global Union, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), by international religious organisations (of different persuasions), organisations from the environmental and development policy sector as well as political foundations.
The coordinating foundations are: Heinrich Böll, Hans Böckler, Friedrich Ebert, Rosa Luxemburg, and transform! europe. You will find an overview of the supporters at: www.ipb2016.berlin/partners.
Aim of the Congress
According to official SIPRI records, the combined military budgets of the world’s governments totalled $1,7 billion in 2015. In the same year, 900 million people suffered from hunger. Every day, 10.000 children die of curable diseases. Social inequalities are increasing. In the face of these growing social challenges and the desperately needed financial resources to mitigate and adapt to climate change, money must under no circumstances be wasted by investing in the military sector.
Global disarmament must be put on the international agenda. Therefore, the Congress wants to help build support for a peace agenda, bringing about a peaceful and fair distribution of the world’s resources.
The Congress will centre on questions of global transformation. How can we encourage fundamental and desperately needed changes? How can we foster cooperation and dialogue in order to reach common security goals?
Transformation to peace is among the biggest challenges of the 21st century. Thus, the Congress is set up as international peace gathering with a clear message: “no to war and confrontation”. The people’s active participation, promoting a new international democracy, is inseparably linked with the successful development of the worldwide peace process.
Humans are led to support wars, often seduced by lies and false concepts of ‘the enemy’. Nevertheless, people all over the world stand up for freedom and peace, often by organising great public events.
One big aim of the Congress is to make a major contribution to the international peace movement. A range of ideas will be discussed and a “Plan of Action for Peace” will be presented. Attempts will be made to bring together theoretical considerations and real transformation strategies. Moreover, the Congress shall be an impulse for the initiation of more peace actions all around the world. The organisers confront the world of war with a clear vision of a world of peace.
Prominent participants
Several prominent guests joined the Congress. Among the speakers in the plenaries, in panel discussions and working groups will be, among others, the Nobel Peace Prize laureates Tawakkol Karman from Yemen and Mikhail Gorbachev (via video), the founder of the “Right Livelihood Award” Jakob von Uexküll, the laureates of the “Right Livelihood Award” Vandana Shiva and Alyn Ware, prominent economists like James Galbraith, Noam Chomsky (via video) and Samir Amin, the Co-President of the Club of Rome Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, the secretary generals of ITUC and UNI Global Union Sharan Burrow and Philip Jennings, the former chairman of UNESCO Federico Mayor Zaragoza, the former Defence Minister of Ecuador and current Permanent Representative of her country to the United Nations in Geneva María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, the director general of the United Nations office in Geneva Michael Møller, and the chairman of ver.di Frank Bsirske.
Website: www.ipb2016.berlin
Facebook: www.facebook.com/IPBcongress2016
Twitter: #IPB2016
Programme
You will find the full program at www.ipb2016.berlin/program/program-structure.
The latest news will also be published on Facebook: www.facebook.com/IPBcongress2016.
transform! workshop
Saturday, 1 October 2016, 4.30 – 6.30 pm
“(In-)visible, (in-)secure, (in-)dependent – The future through the prism of women resistance”
Organisers: transform! europe / change4all and WILPF
The refugee policy crisis is not gender neutral. This Workshop will tackle women refugees in a broader context: women as political subjects who face and fight multiple discrimination and forms of physical and structural violence, in their countries of origin, on the flight and in the receiving countries. Their role in our societies and position in conflict solutions, the often invisibility, insecurity and dependency in patriachic androcentric societies everywhere will be discussed as well as the possible common demands of women and feminist activists transnationally and the future cooperation possibilities
Conveners:
- Katerina Anastasiou (transform! europe / change4all)
- Heidi Meinzolt (WILPF)
Participants:
- Joumana Seif, Syria-Berlin, participant in Geneva peace talks
- Salome Mbugua, DRC-Irland, Migrant women network
- Nil Mutluer, Academics for Peace (Turkey)