UNOY Collaborates with ECYI on European-wide “Building Peace Skills Training,” The Netherlands
Submitted by Nina Aeckerle, European Network Coordinator and Menno Ettema, International Coordinator, UNOY, with contributions from Dominic Stucker, ECYI International Youth Coordinator
From June 8-15, 2007 the long-time ECYI partner, the United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY), brought together 29 European youth leaders from 18 countries in Shoorl, The Netherlands. The diverse participants, already active in human rights, peacebuilding, and project management, came to deepen their understanding of these fields. They also had opportunities to share their knowledge and experience and build new relationships. The seminar was organized within the frameworks of the “All Different – All Equal” campaign and the Earth Charter.
UNOY has endorsed the ethical framework of the Earth Charter as being fundamental for our work in peacebuilding. Having a special session on the Earth Charter meant that we could show participants why a framework like this is useful and helpful in their work.
Earth Charter Youth Initiative (ECYI) Core Group member, Erik Wedershoven, and the founder and director of FairGroundSessions, Niels Kodewijn, offered a presentation on the Earth Charter and the ECYI. They showed participants how to break down the Earth Charter and make its seemingly theoretical concepts applicable to every day tasks and decision-making. Giving them the holistic EC-Assess tool provided participants with a system to check on their work, making peacebuilding and conflict transformation reachable within their lives [see ECYI blog entry on CIVICUS, below, for more on EC-Assess]. The Earth Charter session flowed nicely with the overall program, demonstrating the important overlap between peacebuilding and sustainable development.
UNOY Peacebuilders…
The United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY) is a global network of 29 youth-led peace organizations and 300 young affiliates, active in the fields of peacebuilding and conflict transformation. The UNOY, as a network organization, contributes to the work of its members and affiliates in two fundamental ways: "Capacity Building" and "Advocacy and Campaigning." It also engages in a range of activities to support these two key functions: networking; sharing of information; advice and support through a pool of resource persons; research; and fundraising and administrative support.
…and the Earth Charter
Since its inception in 1989, the UNOY has organized a series of international working group meetings, training seminars and regional/global conferences. In the past, a major focus has been on peacebuilding activities in Eastern Europe and Africa. UNOY actively promotes the UN declared International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence (2001-2010) and is promoting the values and principles gathered in the Earth Charter, as a guiding ethical framework for action. In 2005, UNOY Peacebuilders contributed to the World Civil Society Mid-Term Report on the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and, in 2006, the organization contributed to the Youth for a Culture of Peace Report.
The UNOY Peacebuilders endorsed the Earth Charter, whose philosophy, ethical principles and holistic approach reflect its own aspirations. More specifically, it provides an ethical framework and guiding principles for the notion, promotion and work for a culture of peace. The launch of the Earth Charter consultation process took place in the Peace Palace, The Hague in 1993; a UNOY Peacebuilders’ youth representative (Joppe Zaat, 17 years old) was a guest speaker at that event. UNOY was also present at the Earth Charter gathering in 2004 and the 2005 Earth Charter+5 meeting, held in the Royal Institute of the Tropics, Amsterdam where it co-organized the thematic sessions on a Culture of Peace, and was responsible for the reporting of these sessions. The Earth Charter promotes a culture of tolerance, non-violence and peace (Principle 16), which is a direct link with our work.
For more information on UNOY, including upcoming trainings and vacancies, please see www.unoy.org.