North America

Ban Ki-Moon, U.N. secretary-general, designated American singer, Stevie Wonder, a U.N. Messenger of Peace. At a press conference also attended by the artist, Ban praised Wonder saying he was a “musical genius” and a “man dedicated to humanitarian causes who has campaigned against Apartheid (in South Africa), for children in need, and for people with disabilities”.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon received a delegation of the World March in New York and gave his enthusiastic support to this “noble” effort. Both parties offered to find ways to work together in the task of abolishing nuclear weapons. The March organizers agreed to adopt the Secretary General’s 5-Point Plan as one of its official documents.

The World March for Peace and Nonviolence arrived on the US west coast today, with events in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Red Bluff and San Francisco. In LA a March of over 500 people took to the streets in support of the global initiative passing through 100 countries to send a strong message to President Obama condemning his decision to increase US troop presence in Afghanistan.

The US is waiting for the new Russian-American Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) draft to be ready by the end of this December, declared State Depart Spokesman, Ian Kelly in a November 24 press conference in Washington, DC. The current START-1 treaty that requires both powers to reduce their nuclear warheads, expired December 5th.

The International Base Team of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence arrived today in New York and marched with over 1000 people from Brooklyn to Manhattan to celebrate the start of the North American leg of the March. Later, in the evening Dr Bernard Lafayette, civil rights activist and nonviolence educator inspired the audience at the Riverside Church.

As the World March for Peace and Nonviolence is due to arrive in New York on Monday November 30th, it has issued a statement regarding President Obama’s speech on Tuesday at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York which is widely expected to be an announcement of an increase in troop numbers in Afghanistan of anything up to 40,000.

Japan, the only country to be the target of atom bombs, and the U.S., the only country to drop them, firmly committed themselves to working towards a nuclear weapons free world, when President Barack Obama visited Japan during his first presidential tour of Asia. Both governments reaffirmed their “determination to realize a world free from nuclear weapons”.

“In the next 60 seconds, 10 children will die of hunger,” says a United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) online video. It continues, “For the first time in humanity, over 1 billion people are chronically hungry.” In addition to this online campaign, United Nations is hosting the World Summit on Food Security in Rome this week

Excellent news for the Quebecois! The organising committee of Non-violence Week in the Saguenay region in partnership with Stéphane Bédard, deputy of Chicoutimi, obtained the introduction of a bill on non-violence at the National Assembly of Quebec on November 12. This bill aims to designate 2 October every year as International Day of Non-violence.

The Zero Nuclear Weapons Forum was held in Toronto this weekend, bringing together renowned experts and activists for informative discussions on nuclear disarmament. Over 250 people attended, and what was perhaps most notable throughout all the talks was the sense of optimism and hope that achieving a world free of nuclear weapons was now becoming possible.