Charles Bechara

Communications and Media Manager

Tel:+41783235144

Listen to our Podcast : Silent Killers

Learn more about ICBL | CMC | The Monitor

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held in Mariehamn August 11, 2024

The Nordic Council must not be militarized

A working group in the Nordic Council, the main forum for mutual political cooperation in the Nordic Region, is preparing a proposal for a Defence and Security Commission within the Nordic Council.

The Commission would be a new permanent body of the Council, bringing together defence ministers, parliamentarians and experts from the countries, excluding foreign ministers. Its mandate would cover the North from the Arctic to the Baltic and all sectors of national defence. In practice, it would make the Nordic Council a new instrument for deepening NATO policy and NORDEFCO cooperation.

The Nordic countries have often been seen as ideal societies, known for democracy, equality and prosperity. They are at the top of the statistics, whether it is a question concerning stability, freedom, a sense of security or happiness. The Nordic countries should represent a value-based, and peace-enhancing integration that does not rely on military force or the threat of its use.

The Nordic Peace Alliance, representing Nordic peace organizations, objects to the militarisation of the Nordic Council. There are already more than enough military security cooperation bodies. On the contrary, we want the Nordic Council to be a vehicle of peace building and peace mediation and rather start a committee to deal with these issues. What is needed now is stronger efforts for peace, by peaceful means. Joint Nordic policy, projects, and actions are also needed for social reconstruction in Ukraine.

The Nordic Council must remain an instrument of cooperation for human security and diplomacy. It must not become subordinated to the idea of security based on arms.

We want the Nordic Council to heed the words of the Palme Commission of 1982: Nations and populations can only feel safe when their counterparts feel safe. 

• The Nordic Peace Alliance proposes that instead of setting up a Defence and Security Commission, the Nordic Council should set up a committee for peace, whose tasks should include planning the establishment of a Nordic peace and arbitration institute promoting peaceful and just reconciliation in international conflicts.

Mariehamn August 11, 2024,

Annual meeting of the Nordic Peace Alliance

The post Statement by the Nordic Peace Alliance: The Nordic Council must not be militarized appeared first on Rauhanliitto.

The accommodation at Strandnäs Hotell, Godbyvägen 21, Mariehamn, about 2,8 km from the ferry harbour.
The conference itself will be held in Strandnäs school which is about 400 m from the hotel towards the center of Mariehamn (Nabbvägen 12).

Participation in the conference including meals and hotel (two nights) costs €254 per person for a single room, €215 per person for a double room and €180 per person for rooms for 3–6 persons. The participation fee without hotel reservation is €110 per person.

Sign up as soon as possible to guarantee your place! Use this link to the registration form.

Draft program:

Friday 9 August

15.00 (or 16.00) Opening of the conference
Words of welcome
Greetings to the conference. NCM, NC, Åland Provincial Government, Mariehamn City,
Åland Islands Peace Institute
16.00 (or 17.00)
Lecture I: Challenges for the international Peace Movement Sean Connor, Executive director of IPB Discussion
17.30 or 18.30 Dinner
19.30 Participation in the cultural night in the center of Mariehamn (own program ?).
Or eventual working groups

Saturday 10 August

8.00 Morning meal
9.00 Lecture II: Feminist peace in turbulent times. Sylvie Jacqueline Ndongmo, President of WILPF
Discussion
10.30–12.00 Working groups
12.30–13.30 Lunch
14.00 Lecture III: Climate and peace activists share common goals.  Rolf Lindahl, Executive Director of Greenpeace Nordic
Discussion
15.30–16.30 Working groups
17.00 Demonstration outside the Russian Consulate
18.30 dinner
20.00 Conclusions of Conference, or on Sunday morning

Sunday 11 August

8.00 Morning meal
9.00 Conclusions of Conference?
10.00–12.00 Nordic Peace Alliance meeting for member organisations

The post Nordic Peace Alliance (NPA) Conference 9.-11.8.2024 in Mariehamn, Åland Islands appeared first on Rauhanliitto.

No More Hiroshima! No more Nagasaki!

Program

The event begins at 9 p.m. with speeches by MP Eva Biaudet and pastor Hannu Ronimus, music by Merikukka Kiviharju Quartet.
The floating lanterns will be released at approximately 10 p.m. You can buy lanterns at the event venue. The price is 2 euros.

The event takes place at the Opera House Amphitheater and Töölönlahti water front in Helsinki.

The event is organized by The Peace Union of Finland, Svenska Fredsvänner i Helsingfors and Helsingin seurakuntayhtymä, Tölö Congregation in collaboration with different peace organizations.

• See the event on Facebook

The post Hiroshima Day in Helsinki, 6 August appeared first on Rauhanliitto.

At the occasion of the EU meeting, peace organisations invite you to the seminar Responsible Arms Trade? in Eurooppasali (Malminkatu 16, Helsinki) on August 27 2019. The event highlights the themes of responsible and ethical foreign and security policy in EU and Finland through arms trade and arms control. The speakers will focus on Middle East politics and on peace building in a conflict-prone region.

The seminar opens with addresses by Jeff Halper, Laëtitia Sedou and Salih Muslim Muhammad.

Jeff Halper is a human rights activist and cultural anthropologist from Israel. He has taught at Haifa and Ben Gurion Universities and published several books and articles on the Israel/Palestine conflict. Halper is a founding member of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). He is part of the One Democratic State Campaign which calls for the establishment of one democratic state in Israel/Palestine.

Laëtitia Sedou is the coordinator of the European Network against Arms Trade (ENAAT). She follows EU decision-making on the European Defence Fund and coordinates related advocacy.

Salih Muslim Muhammad is the head of international affairs of the Democratic Union Party from Syria.

Commentary from the Finnish perspective will be provided by Kari Paasonen (SaferGlobe), Frank Johansson (Amnesty International Finland) and Syksy Räsänen (ICAHD Finland).

Programme

9:00 Coffee

9:30 Opening of the seminar

9:40 Addresses

• European arms trade and its connections to conflicts in the Middle East
• Ethical foreign and security policy with Middle East states
• Investments in the defence fund and supranational arms industry

10:40 Panel discussions and commentary

11:40 Endnotes

Free admission – welcome!

The event is organised by the Finnish Peace Union, Finnish Peace Committee, Committee of 100 in Finland and ICAHD Finland.

• See the event on Facebook

The post Responsible Arms Trade? Seminar in Helsinki August 27 appeared first on Rauhanliitto.

ICAN Finland’s coordinators Kati Juva and Claus Montonen are happy with the results. “Finns clearly understand the real threat nuclear weapons pose. The only way to abolish the threat of a nuclear war is to completely ban and dismantle them”, says Juva.

“Finland has stated in the UN that it is willing to support all serious attempts of nuclear disarmament. TPNW is currently the only such initiative that has real momentum. Finland must definitely sign it”, says Montonen.

The poll shows similar attitudes as the one conducted in Sweden earlier this year, where 85% of Swedes supported signing the TPNW. National opinions in other European states hosting nuclear weapons are also clearly against the practice, says the survey by ICAN and YouGov.

TPNW was first passed in July 2017. It currently has 79 signatures and 33 ratifications. In order to become binding, it needs the ratifications of 50 states. Finland has yet to show its support to the treaty.

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons is a global network of organisations that support nuclear disarmament. ICAN won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.

The post 84% of Finns want the government to join the TPNW appeared first on Rauhanliitto.

Developing fully autonomous weapons systems could be a reality sooner than you might think. Both the United Nations and the technology sector are currently discussing how these weapons systems should be regulated.

What are the ethical limits of the use of AI in weapons systems? What is the role of an individual tech worker? How can comprehensive international regulation be achieved?

The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots arrives at A Grid Mordor in Otaniemi on Thursday, 13 February. Join the discussion! After the event, there’s coffee and networking at the A Grid cafeteria.

• Sign up for the coffee!

The language of the event is English.

Programme

12.30 Opening by Pekka Orponen, Professor of Computer Science at the Aalto University School of Science

12.40 Laura Nolan: Case Project Maven. How Google was developing AI for weapons systems, and its employees rose against it

13.00 Frank Slijper: Slippery Slope. How far along is the development of autonomous weapons?

13.20 – 14 Discussion

14 – 14.30 Coffee and networking at the A Grid’s Café Factory. Sign up here! 

Speakers

Laura Nolan is a software engineer who worked at Google in Ireland as a Staff Site Reliability Engineer. She was one of the (many) signatories of the “cancel Maven” open letter, which called for Google to cancel its involvement in the US DoD’s project to use artificial intelligence technology to analyse drone surveillance footage. She campaigned within Google against Project Maven, before leaving the company in protest against it.

In 2018 Laura also founded TechWontBuildIt Dublin, an organisation for technology workers who are concerned about the ethical implications of our industry. Laura is an active member at ICRAC (International Committee for Robot Arms Control) and Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.

Frank Slijper is a project leader at PAX, a Netherlands-based peace organisation. Frank is an economist by training and an expert on issues related to the arms trade, export control and the arms industry. In his recent work, he has investigated the development of increasingly autonomous weapons and has closely followed discussions on this topic at the UN in Geneva. He (co-) authored three reports on this issue last year: State of AI, Don’t be Evil? and Slippery Slope.

Pekka Orponen is Professor of Computer Science at the Aalto University School of Science.

Organisers

The event is organised by members of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots in Finland. The Finnish member organisations of the international coalition include Peace Union of Finland, Committee of 100 in Finland, the Finnish Peace Committee, Technology for Life and Women for Peace.

The post Are Killer Robots Coming? And how can we stop them appeared first on Rauhanliitto.

This is a story of people who believe that peace is achieved by building it. Help us to continue our work!

The Peace Union of Finland is a non-profit organisation working for peace. We bring disarmament issues to public discussion and politicians’ agendas. We advocate for a ban on killer robots and promote nuclear disarmament. We strive to stop arms exports to countries at war.

We raise awareness to change the discourse on military spending; we campaign for reallocation of military expenditure to human security and tackling climate change. The Peace Union is based in Finland, but often we cooperate with international campaign networks.

We have been an advocate for a collaborative world and peace-building for a hundred years.

Peace is achieved by building it together

Dramatic cuts in government funding for civil society organisations have caused difficulties for many Finnish non-profit organisations working for peace. After hard work and persistent campaigning, the grants were returned to nearly pre-cut levels.

Yet again, the general funding for the Peace Union of Finland was cut in 2020. Our grant from the Ministry of Justice fell by 20% compared to last year. 30 000 euros is a large amount of money for a small organisation that has been tightening its belt for many years already. As a result, our ability to continue our advocacy in support of peace and disarmament is at stake.

But thanks to people like you, we still have hope! Join us to show how many of us are standing for peace. Crowdfund us and ask your friends to join too!

How your support makes a difference?

With your support, we will be able to continue campaigning for peace and disarmament. These are some of the things that we are planning to work on this year:

• Continue campaigning to stop arms exports to countries at war and to cut military spending.
• Advocate for Finland’s support for an international treaty to ban killer robots;
• Advocate for Finland to sign the Nuclear Ban Treaty;

If we reach at least our minimum goal, we will send you a campaign badge. If you donate 100 euros or more, we will send you also an invitation to the 100th anniversary of the Peace Union of Finland in Helsinki in November 2020.

If we don’t reach our minimum goal amount, Mesenaatti will send your money back to you.

Money collection permit of the Peace Union of Finland: RA/2019/1153

Thank you for your support!

The post Crowdfund Peace appeared first on Rauhanliitto.

“We must commence to act as if a united, neutral and pacific Europe already exists. We must learn to be loyal, not to ‘East’ or ‘West’, but to each other.“

The founding statement of END, the European Nuclear Disarmament Appeal, was issued in April 1980. It was circulated by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation. The END-movement became a pan-European movement, with an impressive list of supporters, mainly in western Europe but also by intellectuals and dissidents from the ”Soviet bloc”.

It came as response from European citizens to NATO’s decision in December 1979 to respond to a Soviet upgrade of intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe with a nuclear modernisation of its own – bringing and deploying medium range nuclear missiles in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy.

The END Appeal refused to take sides in the Cold War. It argued not just for disarmament, ”..a nuclear-free Europe from Poland to Portugal” but also for the destruction of the division of Europe in to blocs.

Forty years after the launch of the END appeal its important to recall it’s history, also in light of the extremely worrying trends in today’s world. The INF Treaty has been annulled and the SALT agreement is also close to being disrupted. Superpower relations, now with China as an emerging player, are severely strained and the danger of a new nuclear arms build-up is imminent.

The END Appeal was a child of its time, the 80s, but many of its key thoughts are relevant. We need new initiatives for European nuclear and worldwide disarmament. We need new initiatives to bridge the various bloc divides and to ease the tensions that are gaining strength.

New publication: An interview with Tair Tairov

Professor Tair Tairov, the key person in this intreview, was an active participant in events of the END processes.

“Tair somehow personifies certain key aspects of the whole END process. He came from the old establishment of the Soviet Union”, tells Folke Sundman, a representative of the Committee of 100 and the Peace Union of Finland at the END Liaison Committee in 1982–1991.

At a fairly early stage Tairov ran into great difficulties in fulfilling the role given to him within the World Peace Council. He started to build contacts and networks across the old bloc divides, reached a point where his ’double role’ was no longer acceptable to his employers, went back home and continued to promote new thinking within the Soviet Union. And thus, he was one brick in the complex process resulting in the new arms control agreements and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

This publication is an interview with Tairov. His story as covered in this interview is of course his subjective version of events, nothing more and nothing less.

The post 40 years since the END Appeal – An interview with Tair Tairov appeared first on Rauhanliitto.

• The event begins at 9 p.m. with speeches by Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto and University chaplain/Sport Chaplain Leena Huovinen.
• Music by Paleface and Koiton Laulu choir.
• The floating lanterns will be released at approximately 10 p.m. You can buy lanterns at the event venue. The price is 2 euros.

The event takes place near the Opera House in the park by Töölönlahti water front in Helsinki.

The event is organized by The Peace Union of Finland, Svenska Fredsvänner i Helsingfors and Helsingin seurakuntayhtymä, Tölö Congregation in collaboration with different peace organizations.

We keep safety distances! And hope nobody come if any symptoms of illness – thank you!

• See also: The event on Facebook

The post An evening of the Hiroshima Day, August 6 appeared first on Rauhanliitto.

The world is facing an array of crises: from great power conflict and nuclear weapon buildups to climate change, health pandemics and inequality. With peace as a center point, this webinar will discuss today’s challenges and the linkages between the issues.

The wide range of speakers will discuss how to address the issues and create a true climate of peace.

Programme

10:00–10:10 Opening words by Lisa Clark, International Peace Bureau IPB co-president.

10:10–10:30 The two interlinked mega challenges in today’s world:

1. How to prevent nuclear war and achieve nuclear disarmament
2. How to stop global warming and promote sustainable development

Key note address by Dan Smith, the Director of SIPRI

10.30–11.15 Comments by Philip Jennings and Reiner Braun from the International Peace Bureau IPB, and Kaisu Kinnunen, Chair of the Committee of 100.

Questions and comments

(Short break)

11.30–12.15 Peace, Health and Development

1. Early lessons of the COVID pandemic on the concept of Health and Development
2. The links between Disarmament and Development

Remarks by Sally Wambui Kamiti (IPPNW), Binalakshmi Nepram (CAFI) and Jordi Calvo (Centre Delàs and IPB).

Questions and comments

12.15–12.30 Concluding statement on Prospects for a Culture of Peace by Ingeborg Breines, Peace Educator, former director of the Women and a Culture of Peace Programme of Unesco.

12.40 Closing words by Tarja Cronberg, Chair of the Peace Union of Finland.

The post Webinar: A Climate of Peace appeared first on Rauhanliitto.

The event takes place near the Opera House in the park by Töölönlahti water front in Helsinki.
The event begins at 9 p.m. with speeches by cosmologist and author Kari Enqvist and priest Raija Korhonen. Music by Emma Salokoski and Johanna Juhola.

The floating lanterns will be released at approximately 10 p.m. You can also buy lanterns at the event venue. The price is 2 euros.

Arranged by:

Peace Union of Finland 
Svenska Fredsvänner i Helsingfors 
The Parish Union of Helsinki  
Töölö Parish 

The post An evening of the Hiroshima Day appeared first on Rauhanliitto.

The Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP) cordially invites you to attend a webinar by Dr. Tarja Cronberg, Distinguished Associate Fellow at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and Member of the Executive Board of the European Leadership Network, entitled “Renegotiating the Nuclear Order: A Sociological Approach,” which will be held on Tuesday, 11 January 2022 at 15:00 Central European Time (CET) In Finland 16:00, via Zoom. The event will also be livestreamed to YouTube.

Dr. Cronberg will provide key arguments and findings of her latest book, Renegotiating the Nuclear Order: A Sociological Approach, which offers a sociological perspective on the nuclear order defined by nuclear technology. Sociology of technology, a discipline, which sees technology and the social world intertwined in a “seamless web,” provides a new tool to better understand the nuclear order and how the rights and obligations are distributed between the nuclear- and the non-nuclear weapon states. The author explores the concepts of “relevant social group” and “technological frame” which enables a restructuring of states as actors and an analysis of their role as change agents in the nuclear order. This analysis, in Dr. Cronberg’s view, leads to policy conclusions not only on the legal right to nuclear deterrence but also on nuclear diplomacy and on the future of the relationship between the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The event will be moderated by VCDNP Executive Director Elena K. Sokova.

We kindly ask you to RSVP using the online registration form below.

The opinions/views expressed by the speaker in this event do not necessarily reflect the opinions/views of the VCDNP.

Registration and Questions

We kindly ask you to RSVP using the online registration form.

Should you have any questions, please direct your inquiries to events@vcdnp.org or call VCDNP at +43-1-236-94-82. In case you have troubles accessing the online registration form, please email events@vcdnp.org

The post Webinar 11.1.2022 Tarja Cronberg: Renegotiating the Nuclear Order: A Sociological Approach appeared first on Rauhanliitto.

Preliminary figures released by the Economy Ministry show Germany exported arms worth 9.35 billion euros ($10.65 billion) last year, an increase of 61% compared to 2020. This topped the previous record amount of 8 billion euros in 2019.

Most of the exports — worth over 9 billion euros — were authorized by the previous government under former Chancellor Angela Merkel, the ministry said. The figures show weapons worth about 4.3 billion euros were exported to Egypt. Human rights activists have accused the Egyptian government of serious rights abuses and involvement in the conflicts in Yemen and Libya.

Germany also exported about 1 billion euros worth of arms to the United States.

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Peace Invaders ry was founded in Finland in 2016 by Hanna Partanen, Susanna Partanen and Ella-Roosa Tenhunen. Coming from the background of TV production, gaming industry, business, design and conflict transformation and having spent various periods of time living in the Middle East, the co-founders decided to find a way to use their skills to support peacebuilding efforts.

After founding Peace Invaders, the trio noticed that they were now part of a growing international movement called peacetech or peace technology. Especially the US had taken a leading role to advance the emerging industry by creating peacetech laboratories and various other projects, while in Finland, peacetech as a term was not very well known.

To raise awareness for the industry in Finland, Peace Invaders teamed up with Stanford Peace Innovation Lab and Helsinki Think Company and organised Peacetech Forum, an event that brought together the peace-builders and technological innovators in Helsinki in May 2017.

Since then, Peace Invaders has continued to network with various peacetech actors both in Finland and in the Middle East and looked for ways to support the local peacebuilding community with new kinds of tools that are targeting the root causes of conflicts.

The post Peace Invaders, the new member of the peace movement appeared first on Rauhanliitto.