International

The Peruvian Government has sent four ministerial delegations to various South American countries to put into practice a proposal made by Alan Garcia, the President of Peru, at the last South American Union of Nations meeting. The Proposal is promoting a commitment to non-aggression, with the aim of ending the huge arms purchase in a continent seeking to eradicate poverty.

The city of Berlin commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall as guests, political leaders from throughout the European Union as well as the four allied powers that guarded the former divided city have already begun to arrive. The Nobel Peace Prize Laureates are also meeting at their 10th Summit which will take place at Berlin’s City Hall.

Twenty years ago a wall fell and the world watched in awe and in hope. The Berlin Wall had stood for decades as a physical reminder of how mistrust and hatred can dominate relations between nations and peoples. The men and women celebrating its fall were rejoicing not just the reunion of Germany and end of the Cold War but the promise of a new era of freedom and optimism.

This declaration, to be taken to the Nobel Peace Laureates Summit that will take place in Berlin on November 10th and 11th, requesting them to promote it from there, is signed by Patricia Arriagada and Roberto Kohanoff, in the name of the Middle East Team of the World March for Peace and Non-Violence, and Giorgio Shultze, Humanist European Spokesperson.

A report prepared by Marco Gandásegui, professor at the University of Panama and researcher associated with the CELA, demonstrates that the United States approved a military budget of 626 billion dollars in October 2009, the highest sum for a country in all of history. Alarming statistics and tendencies for a world that is on the brink of a possible nuclear tragedy.

Concluding the Third Global Forum on Migration, Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, urges governments of the world to improve living conditions and treatment of immigrants. Moon emphasizes that ‘immigrants be treated with more sensitivity in the face of these dramatic events. Protecting and promoting human rights of immigrants is fundamental, regardless of legal status’.

Former boxing World Champion, Mensur Peljto is accompanying the World March for Peace and Nonviolence on its Balkan route between Istanbul and Geneva. As the only Bosnian member of the team, and given that most peace and nonviolence activists are unfamiliar with boxing champions, he was an unknown quantity but very quickly he won the hearts of everyone in the bus.

Today a delegation of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence Balkan team had a meeting with Stjepan Mesić, President of Croatia. During the meeting he was presented with the documents of the World March and asked to read and endorse the Nobel Laureates Charter for a World without Violence. “There’s no one more in favour of peace than I am”.

As the World March for Peace and Nonviolence reaches Bosnia and Herzegovina on day 8 of its Balkans tour the March was welcomed by Presidency Chairman Željko Komšić and by the city Mayor, Alija Behmen. Accompanying the March at the start of its procession through the 16th century streets around Baščaršija square, Sarajevo, Komšić wished the March all the best.

Prague, November 3, 2009. Thousands of people have gathered in Prague’s Wenceslas Square to participate in the biggest event in the country organized as part of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence. It was the last and the biggest event that concluded a three day stay of members of the World March’s Base Team in the Czech Republic.