Global Network for Nonviolence

Video made at the October 2006 organizing conference.

The *Global Network for Nonviolence* was established in early 2007 by individuals who participated in a course on Nonviolent Approaches to Conflict Resolution, Peace Building and Reconciliation that was held at the United Nations University’s International Leadership Institute (UNU-ILI) in Amman, Jordan, in October 2006. This course brought together for four days in Amman some 55 people from South Africa, Russia, Pakistan, India, Uganda, Cameroon, Burundi, the USA, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, other Middle East countries, and more....

This course was our starting-point; it created a fertile ground for people who decided to work together as a group despite our widely scattered locations. So we decided to institutionalize the group. Group members elected a Steering Committee which is committed to democratic and accountable governance.

h3. The Steering Committee members are:

* Neven Bondokji (Jordan) and Hagit Tarnari (Israel), co-chairs
* Sagar Gurung (Nepal), secretary
* Michael Simmons (USA), webmaster
* David Foncho (Cameroon) and Zoughbi Zoughbi (Palestine), members

This group then co-opted onto the Committee Jairam Reddy (South Africa) to serve as treasurer and Helena Cobban (USA and Britain) as fundraising director. Dr. Reddy’s position as Director of UNU-ILI is a symbol of our continuing good relationship with UNU-ILI. Group member Linda Carranza also agreed to act as GNN’s web management advisor.

The Steering Committee held its first meeting in Amman at the end of February 2007, with the help of the Friedrich Nauman Foundation and the Foundation for Middle East Peace. We agreed on the Mission Statement, Bylaws, Key Decisions, Initial Activities and the name of the group –

We Are: GNN -- the Global Network For Nonviolence!

We believe in the power of nonviolent approaches and actions in order to create a positive, caring world. We are inspired by the work and contribution of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and others. We wish to raise awareness, share knowledge, encourage, support, promote and contribute to the same mutual goal.

Our strength is in our unity and our global diversity.

Dear friends of GNN,

Greetings! I write to congratulate all of you for your sustained encouragement and interest in Global Network for Nonviolence over past few months of its existence. It is due to this support that GNN has become a reality and a guiding force for many of us who believe in nonviolence; to be active and be heard.

As you know, in February three activities were endorsed for 2007. I am glad to share with you that two of the three activities were successfully implemented. The official GNN website www.gn-nonviolence.org is set up, though it is currently undergoing some redevelopment and updating-- check back regularly to see our improvements!  Also, numerous GNN members took part in or helped organize activities around the June 5th anniversary in their respective locations.  We will be uploading some reports of these events onto the website in near future.

The third and the final activity planned for this year is to observe the International Day of Peace on September 21. As we draw closer to the day, I urge all of you to mark this day in your best possible capacity with a message of nonviolence. In this process, GNN encourages active information exchanges amongst the members. Additionally, if you would like to see some coordination amongst the friends of the network be established for the purpose, please let us know. The Steering Committee will do its best to help you help each other into the meaningful observance of this day. Likewise, your programs can be listed in our website so that more people can learn about it and partcipate.

Lastly, as you prepare to observe the International Day of Peace, I wish you all the best and look forward to hear from you.

best regards,
Sagar Gurung
Secretary
Global Network for Nonviolence

We're sorry our reports from the events that GNN people organized and participated in around the June 5 anniversary of 40 years of Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and Golan have been a little delayed. Below, find the first of these-- from GNN co-chair Hagit Tarnari. We hope to get a couple more good ones up here in the coming days... Also, following some changes in administering the site, we intend to have it be much more timely and useful over the months ahead. We apologize that it was shut completely down for a few days in late August. Bear with us! Check back often! And send any suggestions you have for the site to webmaster@www.gn-nonviolence.org.)

Description of Israeli-Palestinian events to mark 40 years of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza

by Hagit Tarnari

See some photos of the events here.)
Tantur is located on a hill belonging to the Vatican. I think that legally it is not Israel. It is part of the Vatican state and is now on the Israeli side of the wall. Palestinians need permits to enter this area. With the help of IPCRI and especially Yael Shalem, we managed to issue hundreds of permits for Palestinians who registered through phone and internet.
 
But the permits arrived from the IDF only a day or two before the events, and we could not distribute them on time for most people. We arranged for busses to take the Palestinian friends, but eventually, not that many managed to make it. Those who did enjoyed very much. It was an uplifting hopeful ending for a week of  commemorating hard memories for Palestinians, and impossible present for both Palestinians and Israelis...

In June, as part of GNN's commitment to trying to inject an intentional "nonviolence message" into commemorations of the 40 years of Israel's occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and Golan, Co-chair Neven Bondokji organized two half-day workshops on the topic of nonviolence for Jordanian and refugee youth in Amman, Jordan. (The refugees were Iraqi nationals, survivors of some of the worst violence in today's world who are among the two million Iraqis currently living as refugees in Jordan and Syria.)

For more details of GNN's mobilization around the June commemorations, click here.

Neven wrote a great report on the workshops in Amman. You can read the full text of that here. It starts like this:

"Non-Violence: The Ignored Option"
Workshops on 10 & 15 June 2007
Amman- Jordan

Under the banner of GNN, two workshops were held in Amman with around 30 participants of Jordanian and refugee youth to explain the philosophy of non-violence and to explore non-violence as an option in daily lives and political contexts.

The first workshop was held on June 10th and addressed refugee youth of ages 14-18 years. The second workshop was held on June 15th addressing Jordanian youth of ages 19-24 years.


Workshop Agenda

Introduction –GNN
Questionnaire & exercise "what is violence?"
Forms of violence
Violence and counter options
Elements of nonviolence
Methods of nonviolence
Nonviolence philosophy in the global context
Role play/ case studies
Understand nonviolence as an approach

Here is Neven's summary of the results of the questionnaires she used at the beginning and end of the workshops:

At the beginning of workshops, most participants defined violence in forms of physical and verbal violence. Almost 90% of female participants defined violence to include verbal violence. Around 35% of participants referred to structural violence that deprives them from certain rights.

In defining non-violence at the beginning, 15% said they don’t know; 45% defined it as dialogue or talking to the "other" while 30% defined it as trust and peace.

After the workshops, participants defined non-violence as a method that builds peace and trust. Many referred to some means or elements of non-violence to define it. Around 40% of participants said more awareness sessions or campaigns on non-violence must be organized.

... Anyway, do go read the whole text of her report. Great job, Neven!

Greetings to all our friends on the UN's designated International Day of Peace!

Several GNN members around the world had planned to mark the International Day of Peace with activities and events designed to inject a strong "pro-nonviolence message" message into the commemoration. We are awaiting reports of those activities, to post news of them here.

Meanwhile, though, two sets of these plans have had to be suspended or postponed due to the very challenging events in the regions in which our members work:

(1) A GNN member working in Kisai Occidental province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had to postpone the plans there because of an outbreak of the very lethal Ebola virus in the province, that he reports has been "spreading like wildfire," and

(2) The Secretary of our Steering Committee, Sagar Gurung, wrote us from Kathmandu, Nepal that,


the events planned by GNN in partnership with Photo.Circle, scheduled for 28 Sept- 2 Oct. 2007, have been cancelled in the wake of uncertainties ushered by new political developments here in Kathmandu. This decision was reached with thorough assessment of the implications of the nationwide street agitation program announced by the Maoists on the 18th Sept. 07.

Nepal is currently struggling to escape from many years of deeply-rooted political violence. Sagar had done a lot of preparations for the "International Day of Peace" events in Kathmandu-- and will certainly be working with his circle of contacts to keep the flame of nonviolence alive for the future.

In the meantime, he advises us that to follow the developments in his Himalayan country, we can visit these websites:

www.ekantipur.com
www.nepalnews.com
www.nepalitimes.com

Regarding the very serious Ebola outbreak in DRC, our friend there writes:

Dear friends,

I am sorry, I have not been able to communicate with you all this while. You must have heard the sad news: Kasai Occidental is seriously affected by the deadly Ebola hemorrhagic fever. So far over 380 cases including 172 deaths have been reported in two endemic areas of the province. My Office is located some 250 km from those areas, and in the last two weeks, I have been very busy with the enforcement of precautionary measures... We are still far from the dangerous zone but we can only be safe if we restrict movements of people and goods from the affected areas to the provincial capital. Experts of the Atlanta-based Centre for Disease Control arrived here yesterday to conduct rapid diagnoses for suspected cases, which can spread like wild fire at any time.

Medical and security advisories have reduced all [activities.] ... We must quarantine ourselves in order to avoid the epidemic. As a result, there won’t be any International Peace Day celebrations in this region this year... As you know, it is really sad because 21st September is my birthday. Imagine what it means to be quarantined on a birthday. Even my leave plans have been cancelled. We had planned a series of interesting events with several local NGOs. They have been postponed sine die.

Dear friends,

Please pray for us as we continue our difficult job ... in this country. We have been through a series of hurdles including war, but death has never been so close in the last four years or so. You just have to shake hands with an infected individual to catch the deadly disease. You will find a lot of information on this very contagious disease on the Internet...

Take good care of yourself as you celebrate International Peace Day.

Peace!

If readers would like to send messages to our friend in DRC and his colleagues, or to Sagar in Nepal, please do so through the "Comments" section here.