This begs the question: what exactly is it?

As my lead suggests, it’s not the first [...]]]> This week, as minds here in New York and elsewhere are inevitably drawn back to 9/11 and its aftermath, the U.N. General Assembly (GA) will once again discuss the worldwide promoting a Culture of Peace.

This begs the question: what exactly is it?

As my lead suggests, it’s not the first time the topic has passed our U.N. news desk.

Spearheaded by UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2000 became the U.N. Year for a Culture of Peace. For those who missed it, the GA doubled down on the concept a year later by declaring a Decade of the Culture of Peace (2001-2010) in which it took a stab at involving civil society in creating a global movement for peace culture.

75 million people signed a 2000 Manifesto pledging their support – Meanwhile, a quick survey among my friends revealed that, unfortunately, none knew of it.

“Peace is the absence of war” continues to be an evergreen.  But how exactly do you create a culture in which war is absent? What is a Culture of Peace?

In a 1999 resolution and Programme of Action prepared by UNESCO, the GA agreed on eight elements of a Culture of Peace.

Here’s a little overview, drawn from the ’99 resolution and various works of David Adams, former Director of the UNESCO Unit for the Year of a Culture of Peace and an expert on the brain mechanism of aggression.

1. Education for Peace

Since warfare is a learned behaviour, according to Adams, a key component to building a Culture of Peace is a shift from an authoritarian and war-centric educational tradition to a participatory education on values and modes of behaviour that allow youth to resolve disputes non-violently and with respect for human dignity.

This education ought to take place not only in schools, but include informal education taking place through the family and the media, as well as non-governmental and community organizations.

2. Understanding, tolerance and solidarity

The act of “othering” people and designating an enemy is a key component to warfare and detrimental to a Culture of Peace.

Instead, the U.N. and social institutions at all levels ought to foster dialogue and actions that build mutual understanding, tolerance and solidarity.

3. Democratic participation

Hierarchical structures and authoritarianism that are at the centre of warfare ought to be replaced with people’s democratic involvement at all levels of decision-making affecting their lives.

In addition to stronger education on democratic principles, the resolution mentions capacity-building of public officials to strengthen institutions and processes that promote democracy.

4. Free flow of information and knowledge

A strong and free media is essential to documenting and promoting peace culture, while networks are essential social infrastructures.

Propaganda and secrecy, on the other hand, are essential to maintaining public approval for warfare. A free flow of information is thus essential to building a culture of peace in which an informed population is able to exercise its democratic rights to voice disapproval of acts of aggression.

5. Equality of women and men

Male domination is a central part of the culture of war, according to Adams, not because of a genetic disposition to warfare, but because of the age-old initiation of men into war and women’s systematic exclusion from it.

A transformation to a Culture of Peace therefore requires power sharing and the equal participation of women in decision-making.

6. Sustainable human development for all

Building secure livelihoods and the ability to lead healthy productive lives are key to building and maintaining peace.

Debt relief for developing countries, post-conflict reconciliation processes, and a special focus on the needs of women and children in developing strategies are listed as state-based contributions to a Culture of Peace.

7. Disarmament

While this may seem like a no-brainer, disarmament was actually among the last two items to be added to the action agenda, which originally only had six points.

It finally made it in under the header “Actions to promote international peace and security”, with complete disarmament as the top action item.

8.  Respect for human rights

Respect for human rights as an essential component of peace culture encompasses many of the above points and should need little explanation.

Among the action items, the U.N. declaration sought the full implementation of the 1993 Vienna Declaration and the development national programmes and institutions to protect human rights.

As I reported last month, [...]]]>

UN Photo/WFP/Phil Behan

As Beyonce’s video celebrating World Humanitarian Day continues to make its rounds through the internet, humanitarian workers on the ground in the drought-affected Sahel arguably have bigger fish to fry as they try to stave off deteriorating conditions in Niger and Mali amidst staggering shortages in relief funding.

As I reported last month, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recently adjusted its needs projections for 2012 upward in light of what can be called a foreseeable escalation of the food crisis in the Sahel that started last fall.

Now it looks like cholera and locusts are further foiling already underfunded relief efforts across West Africa.

With four months left to the year, only 51 percent of the funding goal for the region has been met according to latest numbers by the U.N.’s Financial Tracking Service.

So far, an estimated 19 million people in the region are in dire need of assistance, many of whom were expected to rely on emergency food aid as primary means of sustenance by August.

In a special humanitarian bulletin on the Sahel crisis published last week, OCHA now warns of a developing locust infestation that could affect another 50 million people and diminish yields in the upcoming October harvest.

“Desert locust infestation remains dangerous as more egg-laying and hatching are expected in the coming weeks. Agricultural crop production, food and nutrition security, and the livelihood of some 50 million people in Chad, Mali and Niger are currently at risk, according to the FAO. This threat is the most serious since 2005.

Ground teams in Niger have treated 1,200 hectares against the pest since 5 June but ground surveys need to be scaled up to determine the scale and extent of current breeding, especially in those areas where rains have recently fallen.”

Still, rains are badly needed, as an early end to the current rainy season would further affect the upcoming harvest and increase food prices, according to a special report by the Famine Early Warning System Network.

As if that weren’t enough to juggle, cholera is now becoming an increasing worry in Niger, where refugee camps are a potential hotbed for the disease that could affect neighbouring countries along the Niger river, such as Mali, Nigeria and Benin.

About 52.000 people have fled political upheaval in Mali for Niger where 394,000 children under five will need treatment for severe acute malnutrition this year, according to UNICEF, which warns that malnutrition increases the chances of cholera outbreaks.

Nigeria has seen three times the number of cholera cases this year that it registered in 2011, according to Innocent Nzeyimana, the World Health Organization (WHO) Emergencies Manager in Niger in a recent OCHA story. “At this rate, we should be prepared for at least 9,000 cases by December.”

More from Nzeyimana:

“With high levels of water contamination and inadequate sanitation, our area is so prone to cholera. We’ve had cases in 2010 and 2011, but this time it is really getting serious.”

“In a closed environment like a camp, the spread is very fast and we may end up dealing far beyond the 9,000 projected cases. We don’t want that to happen.”

Prevention and treatment of cholera, meanwhile remains underfunded across the Sahel, with only 21 percent of the projected 53 million dollars needed for such programmes covered so far. In Niger only 30 percent of the roughly 8-million-dollar projected sanitation need has been met.

Organizations increasing their appeals

Last week, U.K.-based NGO Christian Aid doubled down on its aid appeal amidst reports by the World Food Programme (WFP) that without increased international support an estimated quarter million people fleeing political instability in Mali for neighbouring Niger, Mauritania and Burkina Faso, will go hungry in just weeks.

WFP is appealing for urgent contributions of 115 million dollars to address pipeline shortfalls for the next three months, according to last week’s OCHA bulletin, as the region is going through its lean season.

As the region awaits the fall harvest and food prices soar, many families continue to sell off their life stock, thus further diminishing their future capacity to foresee in their own livelihoods.

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), which aims to build farmer’s resilience to future crises has seen less than 25 percent of its 112-million-dollar appeal met, threatening FAO’s ability to support preparations for the next food production campaign from October to December.

FAO is appealing for 10 million dollars to tackle the locust situation. So far France has contributed 550,000 dollars, and another 2.8 million has been pledged bi-laterally.

Last month, British NGO Development Initiatives released a comprehensive report on Humanitarian Aid that projected record shortfalls for 2012. Among other conclusions, the report showed a disproportionate funding for the 2010 mega-disasters in Haiti and Pakistan that syphoned away funds from other countries, including crisis prevention in countries in the now heavily affected Sahel region.

A quote from an OCHA rep in a recent AP article sums it up nicely, I think:

“Pictures of starving goats do not attract aid in the same way as images of dying children.”

Well, folks, we’re getting there.

The recent photo confirmation of ‘uncontacted’ peoples in the [...]]]> The media-themed International Day of the World’s Indigenous  Peoples brings the relentless stereotyping of indigenous peoples by the mass media into focus, but as indigenous peoples themselves reclaim these stereotypes to advocate for their rights, the question arises, are Hollywood stereotypes a bane or blessing?

Ancient Forest Alliance supporters dressed up as Na’vi characters from the movie Avatar and rallied in Vancouver, BC for the protection of the province’s endangered old-growth forests.

The recent photo confirmation of ‘uncontacted’ peoples in the southeast Peruvian Amazon has captivated the media gaze with images of people naked but for red paint shooting at a plane with arrows.

The Mascho-Piro, uncontacted peoples, or better put people who live in voluntary isolation, capture the imagination of a public enticed by the story-like quality of otherworldly beings not so distant from the “Red Indians” of Wild West films or the uncontacted alien tribes from the film Avatar.

Sheila Aikman, a lecturer in education and development at the University of East Anglia, whose research interests lie in intercultural education and the indigenous movement, tells me that the extensive coverage has positive aspects, bringing the challenges faced by the Mascho-Piro from resource exploitation and encroaching tourism starkly into view.

This includes the devastating effects of unregulated gold-mining in the Madre de Dios, alongside reporting of a proposed highway planned by the Peruvian government between the towns of Inapari and Puerto Esperanza cutting through exactly the region where Mascho-Piro groups live.

But what escapes the media gaze is that incidents such as unregulated gold-mining are not new or one-off but “embedded in a long history of struggle against neoliberal development programmes, unregulated resources exploitation, and under-regulated multinational hydrocarbon extraction,” Aikman says.

Pointing to a recent headline in the UK newspaper The Observer: “New Amazon highway ‘would put Peru’s last lost tribes at risk”, Aikman voiced her concern that reports have sought to hold the attention of their audience through appealing to stereotyped images of indigenous peoples.

Reclaiming Hollywood stereotypes 

However, adding to the complexity of the issue, Aikman told me, “Indigenous representative organisations are themselves drawing on images from the blockbuster film Avatar to garner attention and understanding of the life-threatening dimensions of the pressures they are facing.

“Indigenous organisations are playing on the stereotyped image of ‘other’ as a strategy to reach out to the many millions who have seen this film and make them aware of the parallels in terms of the despoiling of indigenous peoples territory, their social and spiritual lives, and abusing their rights in the name of destructive resource extraction and economic profit,” she said.

In Avatar, the indigenous Na’vi people fight to save their land and traditional way of living on the planet Pandora from human beings who want to destroy it to extract minerals to fuel Earth’s energy supply.

At a screening of the film for a group of indigenous leaders from the Ecuadorian Amazon, one Achuar elder comments, in Public Radio International video footage of the event, that the emphasis on war detracts from the path of dialogue, which the Achuar have adopted in the struggle for their rights, and suggests the film incorporate a more peaceful message.

James Cameron, the director of the film, has taken heed of the criticism, commenting in an interview that he “has altered the story somewhat” for the sequel.

Other members of the Achuar voiced the hope that the movie would attract the public’s attention to their own struggle, as they try to sue Texaco for illegal dumping practices in their region.

Palestinians on the West Bank have also used the analogy to draw attention to their plight, dressing up like blue Na’vi people and capturing footage of protests on the streets of Bilin against Israeli occupation and the ongoing construction of a separation barrier in their town.

Feeding misconceptions

The recent annual report of the Minority Rights Group titled “State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2012″ illustrates the parallels between the fictional film and the realities facing indigenous peoples, reflecting the urgent need to draw attention to such issues.

The report provides concrete evidence of how the generation of vast revenues by government-sponsored projects from logging and dams to mineral and oil extraction are too often at the expense of the rights of indigenous peoples.

Harsh realities explain in part the use of simple messages to foster public support. But such tactics run contrary to indigenous demands to stamp out stereotypes in the mainstream media, which crystallise misconceptions about indigenous peoples and grossly narrow public understanding of indigenous issues.

Speaking at the OURMedia annual conference in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2004, Guambiano leader Jeremías Tunubalá was vehement in his condemnation of the stereotyping of indigenous peoples.

“Through the folklorisation, the exoticisation and the banalisation of indigenous people, the media normalise and sanction exclusion and erase differences among various indigenous cultures,” he said.

On the subject of representations associating indigenous peoples with violence, he said, “This type of coverage ignores the legitimacy of indigenous demands, the long-term dimension of indigenous struggles, and the complexity of indigenous mobilisations.”

Global advocacy

Aikman puts the use of Hollywood stereotypes by indigenous representatives in a broader context of enduring struggles and global advocacy strategies.

It is crucial to recognise that “Local, regional and national indigenous organisations have been working with global networks and international NGOs to get attention for issues that they have been working and struggling with– issues which have been devastating indigenous peoples’ lives for many years,” she said.

Giving the example of the Federation of Natives of Madre de Dios (FENAMAD) established in 1984 in South East Peru, Aikman points to the 30-year struggle of the organisation to lobby for respect for indigenous lands, for legal and environmental protection and for the recognition of uncontacted peoples and their legal protection from “development”.

FENAMAD is capitalising on recent media attention “using its sophisticated website and wide and active networks to prompt response from not only Peruvian society in defence of indigenous rights but globally as part of a globalised network of indigenous and non-indigenous organisations,” Aikman explained.

“It seems that only now these issues have reached a point at which they have been able to capture a wider audience and demand attention,” Aikman said.

Among a sea of more than 3,000 journalists clacking away at keyboards in the media centre at the Rio+20 conference, Zofeen Ebrahim desperately searched for an adapter for her computer. Having arrived in Rio de Janeiro just 12 hours earlier, Ebrahim bubbled with nervous energy, or perhaps jetlag.

“I [...]]]> By Katie Taft

Among a sea of more than 3,000 journalists clacking away at keyboards in the media centre at the Rio+20 conference, Zofeen Ebrahim desperately searched for an adapter for her computer. Having arrived in Rio de Janeiro just 12 hours earlier, Ebrahim bubbled with nervous energy, or perhaps jetlag.

In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, journalist Zofeen Ebrahim (right) interviews a source at the UN summit on sustainable development.

“I need to get something to eat and then I want to find a woman leader who was here 20 years ago,” she said as she struggled to plug in the adapter loaned to her by a fellow journalist.

A mother of two from Pakistan, Ebrahim was in Rio last week to cover the conference along with 16 other journalists from developing countries around the world. Their trip was part of an IFAD-supported training programme presented by the Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF) and IPS International News Agency.

“When I left Pakistan to come here, my country had a prime minister,” Ebrahim said between mouthfuls of pizza in the canteen of the conference venue. “When I landed in Rio, my country no longer had a prime minister.” Just the day before, Pakistan’s Supreme Court had removed Yousuf Raza Gilani, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, from office.

Read the rest of the post at IFAD’s social reporting blog here.