November 2009—January 2010

The Arms Down! Campaign for Shared Security, led by youth from the world’s major religions, works to engagereligious leaders and believers around the world to unleash the power of multi-religious cooperation throughshared action. It will also reach out to international organizations, governments, national assemblies andparliaments, municipalities, media, and all men and women of good will. Through education, mobilization andadvocacy, the campaign will advance shared security by working to reduce nuclear and conventional weaponsand to reallocate military spending to support urgently needed development, as set forth in the MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDGs).

The stories that follow are just a few examples of dedicated work undertaken by members of the Religions forPeace Global Youth Network in relation to the Arms Down! campaign, from November 2009 to January 2010.Religions for Peace is the world’s largest and most representative multi-religious coalition dedicated to promotingpeace. Its Global Youth Network is representative of the world's major religious traditions across six regions.

GLOBAL

COSTA RICA | ARMS DOWN! GLOBAL YOUTH CAMPAIGN LAUNCH

The first youth-led global multi-religious campaign on disarmament, led by the Global youth network of Religionsfor Peace, was inaugurated in San José, Costa Rica, from 79 November 2009. The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sánchez offered their support to this historicinitiative. More than 120 young religious leaders of different faiths from forty-nine countries in six regions cametogether to outline their strategies for meeting the campaign’s three goals: abolishing nuclear weapons, stoppingthe proliferation and misuse of conventional weapons and redirecting at least 10 percent of military expenditure toachieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.

Over the three days of the event, several panel discussions were held that exposed the youth to valuable insightsfrom international experts on each of the campaign goals. At the same time, capacity building workshopsequipped the participants with the practical tools to work on lobbying and advocacy, engaging the media, raisingpublic awareness and working with mayors, parliamentarians and policy makers for the purposes of the campaign.Lastly, participants were divided into regional working groups to develop national, regional and global plans ofaction that would eventually contribute to the success of the campaign.

IN THIS EDITION, READABOUT:

Inauguration of the Arms

Down! Global Youth Campaign

in Costa Rica

Regional and national

updates of Arms Down!

activities and signatures

collected

Arms Down! partnerships

Arms Down! forthcoming

events

Arms Down! on the web

Arms Down! logos

Send us your news and work,

and we'll include it in the next

quarterly e-Bulletin!

Questions, comments, ornews? Kindly Contact:Ms. Katerina Ragoussi

Associate Director, Youth &

Network Coordination

Religions for Peace 777 United

Nations Plaza New York, NY

10017 USA Tel: 212 687-2163

Fax: 212 983-0098

kragoussi@religionsforpeace.org

www.religionsforpeace.org

RELIGIONS FOR PEACE—the world’s

largest and most representative multi-

religious coalition—advances common

action among the world’s religious

communities for peace. Religions for

Peace works to transform violent conflict,

advance human development, promote

just and harmonious societies, and protect

the earth. The global Religions for Peace

network comprises a World Council of

senior religious leaders from all regions of

the world; six regional inter-religious

bodies and more than seventy national

ones; and the Global Women of Faith

Network and Global Youth Network.

At the closing ceremony of the event, the International Youth Committee (IYC) of Religions for Peace presentedthe Statement and Plan of Action of the Global Level to Mr. Hernando París, the Minister of Justice and Peace ofCosta Rica. Each region has also committed to collect signatures on the Arms Down! Disarmament petition, andthe Global Youth Network has set a goal of 50 million signatures to be delivered to the United National SecretaryGeneral, the permanent members of the Security Council, as well as to Members of Parliaments, in one year’stime.

SIGN THE PETITION!

REGIONAL UPDATES

AFRICA

Number of signatures collected. Local religious youth groups and members of the network have collected 2,311signatures in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo so far. More updates from other parts of the country aswell as reports from other countries in the region are expected.

TUNISIAN REPUBLIC | YOUTH AND THE FUTURE

The Arms Down! campaign was successfully presented by Mr. Abubakar Kabwogi, special advisor to Religionsfor Peace Secretary General, at the International Summit on Youth and the Future: Current Challenges, CapacityBuilding and Participation Mechanisms, which took place in Tunis, Tunisian Republic, on 1416 January 2010. Theevent took place under the High Patronage of His Excellency Mr Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, President of the TunisianRepublic, who was the one to propose to the United Nations General Assembly proclaiming 2010 as anInternational Year of Youth. Representatives of religious and academic youth organizations who may not havebeen youth per se (find a better way to say this than per se) but have the opportunity to champion the needs ofyouth and influence the leadership within the Middle East and North Africa, were present. The speech was warmlywelcomed by participants, who got the opportunity to learn more about Religions for Peace and our activities inNorth Africa and the Middle East in general, as well as the Arms Down! campaign in particular.

ASIA & THE PACIFIC

Number of signatures collected. Religions for Peace Japan has collected 34,000 signatures.

JAPAN | INAGURATION OF THE ARMS DOWN! CAMPAIGN

Network and Global Youth Network.

The Religions for Peace Arms Down! campaign was granted important recognition during its inauguration inTokyo, Japan, on 3 December 2009. More than 300 religious youth leaders representing forty membercommunities of Religions for Peace Japan came together to attend presentations on the campaign and its goals,as well as a panel discussion on the current status of the UN Millennium Development Goals with representativesfrom Mayors for Peace, UNICEF and members of the Japanese Diet. The Japanese religious youth leadersexpressed their support to the campaign and its goals, and committed to actively engaging their communitiesacross the country. The Religions for Peace Japan Youth Board and its Chairman, Rev. Koichi Matsumoto, playa leadership role in the campaign not only in Japan but also worldwide. Rev. Kyoichi Sugino, Assistant SecretaryGeneral of Religions for Peace, and Ms. Katerina Ragoussi, Associate Director for Youth, also met with RisshoKosei-Kai’s (RKK) senior leadership, including RKK President-designate Ms. Kosho Niwano, RKK ChairmanRev. Yasutaka Watanabe, and Rev. Takeshi Kawabata, Director of RKK General Affairs Bureau, all of whomexpressed strong support for the campaign after hearing about its successful launch in Costa Rica. RKK is aninternational engaged Buddhist movement with 6 million members in Japan and abroad, and it is one of the majorsupporters of Religions for Peace Global Youth Network and its activities. Japanese RKK members related thecampaign’s value of shared security to Japan’s own historic promotion of harmony and peace, thus conveying theimportance of Japan playing a leading role in the Arms Down! campaign.

INDONESIA | INAGURATION OF THE ARMS DOWN! CAMPAIGN

Indonesian youth joined the campaign and translated the campaign’s petition in Bahasa Indonesia fordissemination across schools and the interfaith network in their country. Concrete activities supporting thecampaign’s goals are scheduled to take place in the following months.

EUROPE

Number of signatures collected. Religions for Peace France has collected 351 signatures in the Paris area.Updates from other cities are forthcoming.

LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN

Number of signatures collected. 235. More updates from the region are forthcoming.

COSTA RICA | UNITED WORLD COLLEGE MEETING

Following the inauguration of the Arms Down! campaign in San Jose, Costa Rica, students of the United WorldCollege met to discuss the event at the end of November 2009, presented a summary of the inauguration and hadthe college’s president sign the petition.

URUGUAY | WORKSHOP: DISARMING PREJUDICES, WE BUILD CITIES

The youth chapter of Religions for Peace Uruguay organized on 27 November 2009, in Montevideo, Uruguay, aworkshop called Disarming Prejudices, We Build Cities. The workshop brought together teenagers from threecommunities: Jews, Catholics and Protestants. During the workshop, the Arms Down! campaign was for the firsttime presented in Uruguay, and individual, family, and community disarmament was presented as the first step tobuild safe cities. The workshop was organized in partnership with the youth group of the Uruguayan Council ofChristians and Jews.

URUGUAY | WALDENSIAN CHURCH SUPPORTS ARMS DOWN!

Representatives of the youth chapters of Religions for Peace Uruguay and Religions for Peace Argentinapresented Arms Down! during the XXVII Youth Waldensian Assembly that took place in Colonia Valdense,Uruguay from 9-16 January 2010. The Waldensian Church of the Rio de La Plata, a region at the border ofArgentina and Uruguay, has approximately forty communities and 15,000 members shared between Uruguay andArgentina. More than 140 youth were present and decided to work together planning common actions to developthe campaign. The Waldensian youth expressed commitment to interreligious cooperation and disarmament anddecided to be part of Religions for Peace Argentinean and Uruguayan chapters.

EL SALVADOR | RELIGIOUS LEADERS SIGN CAMPAIGN PETITION

The third Mesoamerican Interreligious Meeting took place on 5-7 December 2009 in San Salvador, El Salvador,where Arms Down! was presented to religious leaders. Representatives from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,Panamá, Nicaragua and Costa Rica will give support to the development of Religions for Peace national chaptersand many of them recorded audio declarations supporting the campaign in Central America, namely BishopMartín Barahona Moderator of the Mesoamerican Interreligious Network, Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez MaradiagaReligions for Peace Co-president, Rabbi Gustavo Kraselnik Panamean Interreligious Committee coordinator,Ms. Ana Victoria Peláez, Mesoamerican Women of Faith Network coordinator; Rev. Marcelino Bassett,Nicaraguan Interreligious Committee coordinator and Rev. Roger Cabezas, Costa Rican representative of theLatin American Council of Churches.

EL SALVADOR & HONDURAS | INTERRELIGIOUS YOUTH NETWORKS JOIN

Following the creation of two new national chapters in December 2009, young religious leaders in Tegucigalpa,Honduras, and in San Salvador, El Salvador, met on 4 and 7 December 2009 respectively, to engage youth ininterreligious cooperation through Arms Down!. In El Salvador, one of the most important newspapers in thecountry, Diario Co Latino, agreed to support the Arms Down! campaign by putting a banner on its first page untilDecember 2010. The emerging network in the country is currently in discussions with different institutions such asthe Ministry of Public Security, the Fundación de Estudios para la Aplicación del Derecho (FESPAD), UnitedNations Population Fund (UNFPA-El Salvador), Procuraduría para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos(P.D.D.H), Campos Art Group and Citizen Network to support the campaign.

EL SALVADOR & COLOMBIA | SUPPORT FROM THE BOGOTA PROCESS

The leaders of the Bogota Process gained support for the Arms Down! campaign from religious leaders acrossLatin America by promoting it at their most recent meeting in early February. The Bogota Process is a platformthat aims for the creation of strict norms on the use and trade of arms on behalf of governments in the region. Itincludes representatives of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) and the Latin American BishopsConference (CELAM) as well as Religions for Peace. It is also the counterpart to the international “GothenburgProcess” which is an ecumenical forum for dialogue on arms transfers.

MEXICO | COLLECTED SIGNATURES AT SCHOOLS

The youth chapter of Religions for Peace Mexico did the first Arms Down! presentation on 18 December 2009, atthe Sócrates School, in Mexico City, Mexico. More than eighty children, parents, and teachers signed the petitionand received a sticker with the campaign logo. This activity was supported by CUPSA, a publishing house thatprinted a campaign banner for the presentation.

ARMS DOWN! PARTNERSHIPS

MAYORS FOR PEACE

Mayors for Peace, an organization comprised of cities from around the world that have formally expressed supportfor the total abolition of nuclear weapons, is also supporting the Arms Down! campaign. This partnership hasallowed the Arms Down! campaign to reach a larger audience and has provided Mayors for Peace with theopportunity to support young leaders advocating for disarmament. Recently, Mr. Steve Leeper, Chairman of theHiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, which acts as the Secretariat for the Mayors for Peace network, sent an e-mail to 3,500 mayors around the world asking them to support the Arms Down! campaign by 1) signing thepetition; 2) informing and engaging religious communities in their cities; and 3) supporting religious youth in theircities who are members of the campaign.

THE INTERNATIONAL PEACE BUREAU

The International Peace Bureau (IPB), with its 300 member organizations in seventy countries working to securea world without war, has partnered with the Arms Down! campaign to have governments reduce their militaryexpenditure by 10 percent to make the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.IPB has pledged to carry the Arms Down! campaign’s petition in its upcoming newsletter as well as feature it on itswebsite.

THE PEACE FOUNDATION

The Peace Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation actively involved in creating a more peaceful society, activelypromotes Arms Down! through their youth peace website, ENACT - Youth Enabling Actionhttp://www.enact.org.nz/ , and also through their electronic newsletter.

HEADS UP | FORTHCOMING EVENTS

ARMS DOWN! AT THE 2010 NPT REVIEW CONFERENCE

Religions for Peace will send a delegation of religious youth leaders to participate in the Review Conference of theNuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to take place in May 2010. The month-long diplomatic conference at theUnited Nations in New York will also bring together members of civil society from all over the world to speak outabout the importance of eliminating the nuclear threat. The Religions for Peace youth will organize an officialconference side event at the UN called “Arms Down! Religious Youth Respond to Nuclear Weapons” and will tryto strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in the 2010 Review Conference to achieve complete nucleardisarmament by 2020. They will also have opportunities to interact with diplomats, collect signatures for thepetition and collaborate with other young people. The youth will also be joined by a delegation of senior religiousleaders.

2010: INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF YOUTH

The United Nations has officially declared 2010 the “International Year of Youth.” The declaration is meant toenergize young people and challenge them to tackle the world’s problems, from nuclear proliferation to povertyand hunger. For more information, visit the website for the International Year of Youth at:http://social.un.org/youthyear/. In order to start the dialogue with youth from around the world, the UN Program onYouth has also launched a facebook page entitled “United Nations International Year of Youth”. The page isavailable at: www.facebook.com/pages/United-Nations-International-Year-of-Youth/398805690289

2010: YEAR OF PEACE AND SECURITY IN AFRICA

The 2010: Year of Peace and Security in Africa campaign was launched in late January at the African Union (AU)Summit in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). The Year of Peace aims to give added momentum to peace and securityefforts on the continent. During 2010, AU member states will work to speed up the implementation ofcommitments and instruments to promote security. They will also establish a bridge between official efforts andcivil society initiatives to promote peace and security. For more information, visit the website: http://www.africa-union.org/root/au/index/index.htm

ARMS DOWN! ON THE WEB

Please visit the Religions for Peace Arms Down! campaign’s webpage at:http://religionsforpeace.org/initiatives/global-youth-network/campaign-for-sh ared-security/ to sign our petitioncurrently available in English, Arabic and Spanish, and help us reach our goal of 50 million signatures!

On this Web page you may find:

Our Arms Down! resource guide for engaging the public and mobilizing for disarmament;Detailed information on each of our campaign goals;The procedure for disbursement of funds for local, national and regional activities conducted in theframework of the Arms Down! campaign.

Please also join us and invite your friends on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/arms.down and athttp://www.facebook.com/arms.down#!/event.php?eid=313358504704&ref=ss

The official logos of the Arms Down! campaign are now available in Spanish and Portuguese. Both logos areavailable on Religions for Peace campaign Web page.

ARMS DOWN! LOGOS

Please visit the Religions for Peace Arms Down! campaign’s webpageat: http://religionsforpeace.org/initiatives/global-youth-network/campaign-for-shared-security/resources.html todownload our logos.

RELIGIONS FOR PEACE—the world’s largest and most representative multi-religious coalition—advances common action among the world’s religiouscommunities for peace. Religions for Peace works to transform violent conflict, advance human development, promote just and harmonious societies, andprotect the earth. The global Religions for Peace network comprises a World Council of senior religious leaders from all regions of the world; six regionalinter-religious bodies and more than seventy national ones; and the Global Women of Faith Network and Global Youth Network. 777 United Nations Plaza| New York, NY 10017 USA | Tel: +1 212-687-2163 | Fax: +1 212-983-0098 | www.religionsforpeace.org Forward | Unsubscibe | Update Profile