U.N. High-Level Forum on Culture of Peace

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 11 2012 (IPS) - The High Level Forum on Culture of Peace,  scheduled to take place Friday, is being organized by the Office of the President of the 66th UN General Assembly in cooperation with the Foundation Culture of Peace, Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency and the Global Movement for the Culture of Peace (GMCoP).

The Forum is being supported by the Permanent Missions of Bangladesh, Benin, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Kazakhstan, the Philippines and South Africa.

The keynote speakers will include: Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, President of the General Assembly; Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations; Federico Mayor, President, Foundation Culture of Peace; and Cora Weiss, President, The Hague Appeal for Peace.

There will also be two panel discussions: “The Culture of Peace at the core of humanity’s agenda: New partnerships, new developments”.

The moderator: will be Ambassador Paulette Bethel, Permanent Representative of the Bahamas to the UN.

The panelists include: Judy Cheng-Hopkins, Assistant Secretary-General, UN-PBSO; Lakshmi Puri, Assistant Secretary-General, UN Women; Philippe Kridelka, Director, UNESCO New York Office; Mario Lubetkin, Director General, Inter Press Service news agency; Christine Mangale, Programme Coordinator for Africa, Lutheran Office for World Community; and Philip Hellmich, Director for the 2012 Summer of Peace, The Shift Network.

The second panel will be on: “Strengthening the global movement, advancing the implementation of the UN Programme of Action on Culture of Peace: the way forward”.

The moderator will be: Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, Senior Special Advisor to the President of the UN General Assembly and former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The panelists include: Avon Mattison, President, Pathways to Peace; Kathleen Kuehnast, Director, Gender and Peacebuilding Center,   United States Institute of Peace; Cherine Badawi, Coordinator, Generation Waking Up; Jeff Abramson, Director, Control Arms Campaign Scretariat; Maria Butler, Peacewomen Project Director, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF); and Sharon Deep, Spokesperson, Global Movement for the Culture of Peace.

Speaking at the concluding session will be Jan Eliasson, Deputy Secretary-General of the UN;

Federico Mayor, President, Foundation Culture of Peace and Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, President of the General Assembly.