Internationally, disabled women belong to the most marginalized group. There are more than 250 million disabled women in the world today, approximately three quarters of whom live in developing countries. Yet international development programs rarely address the needs of disabled women or include them in development ventures.

Of course, disabled men and women have issues in common which affect them equally. But there are many issues which affect and discriminate against disabled women specifically. These include sexuality, motherhood, bioethics, violence, sexual violence, education and professional training, jobs, health care and personal assistance.

In the developing world, disabled girls are often excluded from even basic education, because of a general perception that education is more necessary for boys. Disabled women are thus forced into economic dependency. Even in the industrialized countries, it is difficult for disabled girls to get training in as many professions as nondisabled girls. Marriage opportunities for disabled girls may be lower than for nondisabled girls, which means that education and training are even more important for them. Disabled women, however, are even more discriminated against than disabled men when it comes to employment.

Violence against women is most prevalent among disabled women. Disturbingly, statistics tell us that disabled girls and women are more likely to be sexually abused than nondisabled girls and women. Political pressure is needed to establish social support mechanisms and facilities for disabled women.

Many disabled women are prevented or discouraged from having children out of fears that their children might also be disabled. A woman should have the right to choose whether she wants to have a baby or not, and all children should be welcomed into the world and provided with appropriate levels of social, practical and financial support.

In order to bring about change, disabled women have to talk about their special issues and demand political change. Disabled women need to be included and specifically mentioned in all relevant laws and regulations.

Every disabled girl and woman (as well as boys and men) must get the support they need so that they are able to participate in all human activities: parenting, sexual activities, education, employment, leisure, culture and politics.

People with disabilities have the right to participate in the life of the community, to live a decent life. And disabled women themselves have to define what a decent life means for them--not politicians or anybody else.

Dinah Radtke is chair of the Women’s Committee and Deputy Chairperson on Human Rights for Disabled Peoples International.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people
Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding
Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people
Nonviolence holds that suffering can educate and transform
Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate
Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice
"We aren't going to march with any Molotov cocktails. That isn't our movement. We aren't going to march with any weapons. That isn't our movement. We aren't going to march with bricks and bottles. We are going to march with something much more powerful than all of that. We are going to march with the force of our souls, mobilized bodies in concern for justice. Somehow we are going to step out. We are going to take the ammunition of determination, we are going to move out with the weapons of courage, we are going to pull the breastplate of righteousness and the whole armor of God and we are going to march."

"Democracy can only be saved through non-violence, because democracy, so long as it is sustained by violence, cannot provide for or protect the weak. My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest should have the same opportunity as the strongest. This can never happen except through non-violence . . . Non-violence cannot be preached. It has to be practised."

Zoughbi Elias Zoughbi

"Nonviolence is not passiveness, weakness or surrender. It is an empowerment and an ongoing struggle requiring inner strength and perseverance.

"We are looking for a new spirituality, one which deals with the etiology of hate and finds a suitable remedy for it: a spirituality of transformation on the personal level, community level and cross-cultural level. Such spirituality satisfies the needs of all concerned. Arms of Dialogue should replace Dialogue of Arms. This kind of spirituality requires us to shift from blame, guilt and victimhood to collective responsibility."

--Zoughbi Zoughbi is founder and director of the Wi'am Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center.

Dr. Arun Gandhi

"Nonviolence is a philosophy that appeals to the goodness in human nature. It fosters in the individual a love and respect for all of God's creation; an understanding of the nature of life; an acceptance of the physical and ideological differences that exist between people; and an appreciation of the need to let compassion be the cornerstone of one's life."

--Dr. Arun Gandhi is founder and president of the M.K. Gandhi Institute and grandson of Mohandas K. Gandhi

Dr. Kamla Chowdhry

"The practice of nonviolence calls forth the greatest of courage. Gandhi often said you cannot practice ahimsa (nonviolence) unless you are moral and spiritual, and you cannot be moral unless you are fearless, and you cannot be fearless unless you have experienced being a zero.

"To change the world, to move toward peace and nonviolence, we must listen to Gandhi: 'things of fundamental importance to the people are not secured by reason alone but have to be purchased with suffering . . . the appeal of reason is more to the head, but the penetration of the heart comes from suffering.' Writing about nonviolence, he said, 'Just as one must learn the art of killing in the training for violence, so one must learn the art of dying in the training for nonviolence.'

"Gandhi's view of progress was defined in terms of nonviolence, compassion and respect for life. He also pointed out that we have enough for our needs but not for our greed.

"In his footsteps have walked many, in all corners of the world, fighting for peace, justice and development with ahimsa, and with nonviolence."

- Dr. Kamla Chowdhry is a Gandhian disciple and co-chair of the Earth Charter Commission

Football isn't a matter of life and death--it's much more important than that." (Bill Shankly, former manager of Liverpool Football Club)

Around the world billions follow it on television, and hundreds of thousands regularly make the pilgrimage to watch it in person.

Some clergymen in the U.K. have begun to fret that football is taking over as the nation's principal religion. They point out troubling similarities. Football, like religion, involves an elaborate set of rules and rituals. Like religion, it brings the community together in a regular act of worship, feeding a need for something greater than people can find in their daily lives. And like some religions it can be supported for long periods by little more than blind faith.

But why is football so popular around the globe--to the despair of all those who felt the World Cup would never end? And does it really threaten to become the new religion?

A clue can be found in the word itself, which is commonly thought to derive from the Latin "religare," meaning "to bind." Religion is what binds people both to some transcendent truth and, crucially, to each other. The historian Arnold Toynbee went so far as to argue that civilizations rise and fall according to the ability of their dominant religions to motivate people to overcome--together--the challenges that confront them.

Football certainly has this power "to bind." Teams are always a focal point for a community loyalty--whether they're stuffed with foreign stars or staffed by part-timers. Witness how "cup fever" grabs a small town when its team draws a top side in a knock-out competition, or how "the nation" rallies behind its team in international championships. There are few social phenomena that share this power, which these days is dramatically magnified by television.

Of course, football can also divide people. The most famous example is the so-called Football War between El Salvador and Honduras--a five-day war in July 1969 that is supposed to have started after a dispute over a World Cup qualifying match between the two countries. (In reality, it arose because of Honduran objections to El Salvadoran migrants.) More locally, hooliganism between rival fans is still with us, and racism and sectarianism are rife in some clubs.

But the central point holds. Football's power to bind has not gone unnoticed by those whose business it is to build peace, and there are many "Football for Peace" initiatives around the world. During a recent visit to FIFA headquarters, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan remarked: "I can't think of anything that can bring people together like football. I've seen countries torn apart by war put their differences to one side to watch a match. For 90 minutes at a time, people become one nation." In fact the sport was actually nominated for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize by a Swedish politician.

Football "binds" not just because it's an entertaining and accessible game, but because of something in people themselves--a deep desire to act together in a common cause; to share in large, emotional events; to experience together the dramatic ups and downs of life that can be represented by a sporting contest. It is the same desire, I believe, that draws people to concerts and plays and--yes--to certain religions.

As a football fan and a practicing Buddhist, I see many Buddhist principles at work in the game. "Many in body, one in mind"--a team of different individuals, with varied skills and roles (many bodies), all working in unity toward a single end (one mind). The power of "ichinen"--of focusing one's whole intent and determination on achieving a desired result. And the vital need for the oneness of mentor and disciple--manager and team--in forging this unity and determination. Perhaps Bill Shankly's famous remark isn't so far from the truth after all.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), proclaimed in Paris on December 10, 1948, represented a unifying foundation for humanity. It was the first occasion on which the community of nations, organized under the newly formed United Nations organization (UN), agreed on the "inalienable rights of all members of the human family" and codified them in the Declaration as "a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations."

At that time, the UN was composed of 58 states with different philosophical, cultural and political traditions. The Declaration therefore was a reflection of these various perspectives; it represented the meeting point of different conceptions of human beings and society. The UDHR developed the human rights provisions included in the 1945 United Nations Charter, which resolved in its preamble "to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small."

Knowledge and Skills

After its proclamation, UDHR principles inspired the anticolonial struggle and were inserted in the constitutions of the newly independent countries. The UDHR also prompted the development of the vast body of international human rights law which exists today, including both legal instruments and mechanisms for human rights protection, and served as the basis and inspiration for all regional human rights systems.

When proclaiming the Declaration, the UN General Assembly affirmed in the preamble: "every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms."

Human rights education is vital to building a universal culture of human rights. In order to contribute to this goal, education needs to address not only knowledge of human rights standards and the mechanisms for their protection, but also the skills necessary for people to apply human rights principles in daily life; it must develop values and reinforce attitudes which uphold them, so as to prompt action to defend and promote human rights. Human rights education is therefore an action-oriented process.

Today, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) contributes to global human rights education by facilitating information-sharing and networking among all those involved in human rights education globally, through, for instance, a web-based Database on Human Rights Education and Training, accessible through OHCHR's website, and a special Resource Collection on Human Rights Education and Training in the OHCHR Library; and by developing and disseminating selected materials. To support UN system-wide coordination, OHCHR bolsters the Secretariat of the United Nations Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee on Human Rights Education in the School System; it also assists UN member states and others with technical cooperation and expert advice, as well as grassroots initiatives through the Assisting Communities Together (ACT) Project, a joint initiative with the United Nations Development Programme providing small grants to national and local nongovernmental organizations.

In recent years human rights education has become more and more present on the international agenda, and programs as well as partnerships among various national and international actors have increased; however, there are still challenges ahead. One of these is a lack of political will to undertake comprehensive and sustainable programming; another is a lack of national and international monitoring and evaluation systems for human rights education. There is a need for further collaboration between governmental and nongovernmental actors, and the need to develop appropriate methodologies, including research on impact. Major contextual problems facing human rights education include poverty, political instability, illiteracy and cultural traditions in contrast with human rights standards.

Brad Adams has been executive director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division since 2002. Previously he worked as the senior lawyer for the Cambodia field office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and legal adviser to the Cambodian parliament's human rights committee.

SGI Quarterly: How would you explain human rights to someone who's never heard of them?

Brad Adams: It's as simple as saying, "You can't do certain things to me without violating a law, and you can't tell me what to think." The history of the world has been full of feudalism and dictatorship with powerful people telling powerless people what they can and can't do. The concepts of human rights are a way of saying that there are limits on this.

SGIQ: Do you think human beings have an innate sense of human rights that is universal?

BA: Yes. I have no doubt about that. Unfortunately temptations like power and money lead people to argue that only some people have rights, or that groups are more important than individuals, which is something we only hear from the powerful, not the weak and poor. People used to talk about "Asian values" being in opposition to human rights principles, but what Asian wants to be tortured by some police officer or soldier? Nobody thinks that's acceptable. What Asian wants to have their land taken away by some rich guy with a gun? These things really are universal.

I'm not trying to say that everybody grows up in the same environment and culture, but I am saying that many basic things are the same everywhere. I think that really there is no debate now about what basic rights are. The challenges for human rights now are largely about holding the people in power accountable, and this is where human rights and politics overlap. In the long run real improvement on rights does require political change or political development.

SGIQ: Do you think in order to push for political change there has to be an educated public that is demanding that change?

BA: Sometimes change comes from the bottom up, such as the ousting of President Marcos in the Philippines in 1986 or the ending of the monarchy in Nepal this year. Sometimes change comes from the top down. If you look at Europe and the abolition of the death penalty, actually the political elite made the change. It's not always driven by the public, but it's much better if the public is on board and educated and believing in it, otherwise you can have a new government come in and just reverse things.

I think human rights education is at its best in civics lessons in primary and secondary education. Educating adults--with all the problems they are facing in their daily lives--about human rights is complicated. Take the death penalty. We're taught from day one in all cultures that killing is wrong. If that's your bedrock principle and you learn that when you are young, it would be very easy for you to get past all the other arguments in favor of state-sanctioned killing, which is what the death penalty is. But if you don't have that bedrock principle, then you can convince yourself that it is OK.

Films are one very good way of raising awareness, as by seeing what happened to someone else, people will say, "Now I see why it's important for the army to be under control, or for there to be international laws against torture." People are touched emotionally, and some of them may take action as a result. The media also has a big role to play.

SGIQ: Do you think the situation is improving globally?

BA: The trend is uneven, but in its historical scope it is very positive. Most countries are at least accepting that in principle they must be more rule-based. The Internet and media are putting everybody under much more scrutiny.

We've been doing a huge amount of work on the Olympics, and a lot of people who come to China for the first time in a long time are quite surprised. Even in a one-party state, the government has to spend a lot of time explaining to the people what they're doing and why they are doing it. And there is a huge amount of demand from the public in China for basic freedoms. People are constantly challenging the authorities. Of course, many still end up in prison or are beaten up by state security, so we have to be vigilant and demand an end to these practices, wherever they occur.

SGIQ: What motivated you to work in this field?

BA: I was initially a legal aid lawyer in California, trying to provide access to the justice system to poor people, homeless people, to get their basic economic rights, because at the time that seemed to be the most pressing human rights problem in the U.S. For me, it's about allowing everyone to pursue happiness. It's not about enforcing rights for their own sake. Rights are a means to a happy end. We're just trying to create the conditions for people to get what they can and want out of life and not be blocked by dictators or other powerful forces. This is one reason we focus so much on freedom of speech, since it is a necessary precondition for this. But if we're just trying to get these rights as some kind of legalistic thing, it doesn't necessarily improve people's lives.

I am a writer and editor by trade and a social justice activist by instinct. I am grateful that the profound power of my 21-year Buddhist practice has led me to the right place at the right time for best using my determination and my capacities to help create a fairer world.

I've been privileged to be part of two community-based, justice-seeking initiatives that started in Ottawa, Canada's capital, and grew to be important catalysts in fostering major systemic change at either the national or local level.

On July 3, 1986, I was one of 21 lesbians and gays gathered in a downtown home who had decided to form Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere (EGALE) to seek sexual orientation protection in the Canadian Human Rights Act. That accomplished (it took 10 years), the nationwide group increased its equality-seeking advocacy work, expanded its mandate to include transgendered persons and changed its name to Egale Canada.

Responding to Violence

The murder in 1989 of a young man who was perceived by his murderers to be gay led to the gay and lesbian community organizing and demands for the Ottawa police to do crime prevention work with the targeted community. Dialogue led to the establishment of the Ottawa Police Liaison Committee for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Communities which I worked with for many years, and action plans to work on community-identified problems. This has transformed community fear and mistrust (based on past harassment) into trust of progressive leadership based on a genuine willingness to work in partnership on hate crime, school bullying and other concerns.

Hate crimes do not occur in a vacuum. As a result, they are one of the easiest crimes to prevent--through education and strong community standards concerning prejudice. A hate-crime approach exposes the root cause (motivation) of an incident and challenges the community at large, including schools and the mainstream media, to work on solving the underlying problem of prejudice.

My Buddhist practice was invaluable in helping me to keep my cool and keep going whenever the progressive work was under attack from individuals either within or without the police service (including the media).

Now I am involved in a community group that is seeking an expanded mandate for the new Canadian War Museum, scheduled to open in downtown Ottawa in May 2005. We want the museum to add examples of efforts to resolve conflict without violence.

The heart-to-heart connections which are at the core of the nonpolitical, multi-faith Committee for an Expanded Mandate of the Canadian War Museum ignited spontaneously following a February 23, 2004, dialogue on "An Inclusive Vision of Peace" attended by about 100 people.

Our year-old, volunteer initiative now has cross-Canada support and an advisory board. Our dialogue-based process itself demonstrates the type of human interaction necessary to foster genuine peace. Immediate next steps include a website (which will make it easier to tap into the country's strong peace pulse); a workshop on creating disarmament and other exhibit proposals for the temporary exhibit area in the museum; and a public meeting.

In all of this work, I am mindful of another grassroots-led project that produced the inspirational Canadian Tribute to Human Rights in Ottawa which was unveiled in 1990. (I was a community relations worker with the project.) Architect Melvin Charney designed the Tribute to be in dialogue with the nearby National War Memorial, both of which are on the same downtown Ottawa street. Figures that are bent over and struggling in the National War Memorial are upright in the Tribute, raised arms holding granite plaques proclaiming "Dignity," "Equality" and "Rights."

Which way will we go from here? The outcome rests with us.

Community initiatives that lead to shared problem solving, accountability and trust (as in the police service work) are crucial to achieving the dignity, equality and rights that define peace. Each achievement fosters hope, countering oft-prevailing feelings today of hopelessness and inertia.

The following is excerpted from the 2009 peace proposal, Toward Humanitarian Competition: A New Current in History by SGI President Daisaku Ikeda. Each year on January 26, the founding date of the Soka Gakkai International, Mr. Ikeda issues a proposal examining the current state of global affairs and proposing solutions grounded in a Buddhist perspective. The full text of this proposal can be read at www.daisakuikeda.org.

The impact of the "once-in-a-century" financial meltdown, which started with defaults in the subprime mortgage market in the United States, has now spread to engulf the whole world.Even as policy makers struggle to find effective responses, the current financial turmoil is undermining the real economy, bringing about a global recession. If we remember that the Great Depression only fully set in two years after the 1929 stock market crash, the gravity of the current situation becomes even more apparent.People have the right to live in peace and humane conditions, and to that end, they exert themselves assiduously day after day. It is unacceptable that the foundations of people's livelihoods should be disrupted and devastated by the effects of "tsunami" that they could not foresee and which originated in realms far beyond their control.

The processes of globalization, buoyed by deregulation and technological innovation, have encountered a fierce backlash in the form of globalized recession. It is now apparent that the faith in free competition and markets to resolve all problems was misplaced; nothing in the world is so neatly preordained.As an alternative paradigm to both unbridled competition and centralized control, I would like to explore certain ideas set out by the founding president of the Soka Gakkai, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, in his 1903 work The Geography of Human Life. Specifically, I would like to explore the possibilities to be found in his idea of "humanitarian competition.

"In the closing chapters of this work, which was published when he was just 32, Makiguchi surveyed the grand flow of human history and identified the forms of competition--military, political and economic--that have prevailed in different periods, overlapping and intertwining as they undergo gradual transformation.Makiguchi concludes with a call for us to set our sights on the goal of engaging in humanitarian competition, a perspective he reached by tracing the inner logic of historical development.

Makiguchi describes humanitarian competition thus: "To achieve the goals that would otherwise be pursued by military or political force through the intangible power that naturally exerts a moral influence, in other words, to be respected rather than feared."I am reminded here of the idea of "soft power," defined by Joseph S. Nye Jr. of Harvard University as "the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion."Likewise, there are resonances between the concept of a "win-win world" put forward by the American futurist Hazel Henderson and the views Makiguchi expresses in the following passage: "What is important is to set aside egotistical motives, striving to protect and improve not only one's own life, but also the lives of others. One should do things for the sake of others, because by benefiting others, we benefit ourselves.

"I am fully convinced that the time has now arrived, 100 years after it was originally proposed, for us to turn our attention to humanitarian competition as a guiding principle for the new era.Free competition driven by the unrestrained impulses of selfishness can descend into the kind of social Darwinism in which the strong prey on the weak. But competition conducted within an appropriate framework of rules and conventions brings forth the energies of individuals and revitalizes society.

Herein lies the value of humanitarian competition. As a concept, it compels us to confront the reality of competition while ensuring that it is conducted firmly on the basis of humane values, thus bringing forth a synergistic reaction between humanitarian concerns and competitive energies. It is this that qualifies it to be a key paradigm for the 21st century.

The Soka Gakkai Youth Peace Conference (YPC) was launched in 1979 to serve as the axis for promoting a youth movement dedicated to building a peaceful society underpinned by the Buddhist philosophy of the sanctity of life. The Soka Gakkai youth division sees its peace activities essentially as an educational movement to awaken in individuals the spirit of global citizenship, a goal upheld by the Soka Gakkai ever since its founding.

Abolishing War
The Soka Gakkai was founded as an educational reform study group in 1930 by Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Josei Toda, who became its first and second presidents. Both were educators. During World War II, Makiguchi and Toda were imprisoned for their opposition to the Japanese military government and its abuse of religion and education in support of its war of aggression in Asia. Makiguchi died in prison in 1944, but Toda, his closest follower, emerged from prison after the war to rebuild the Soka Gakkai as a lay Buddhist association. In 1957, in his "Declaration for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons" delivered at a gathering of 50,000 youth, he called on young people to take responsibility for establishing the principle of respect for the dignity of human life as a basic social standard. This declaration, one of the last instructions of Mr. Toda, who passed away the following year, became the starting point of the Soka Gakkai youth division's peace movement.

In 1973, the youth members of the Soka Gakkai in Japan adopted the Youth Division Appeal for the Protection of the Right to Live. In this they confirmed their commitment to work toward lasting peace and the well-being of all people by persistently calling for the abolition of war, upholding environmental protection, and opposing all forms of oppression and violence. Today the Youth Peace Conference wages various campaigns based on the annual peace proposal issued by SGI President Ikeda. One of the basic directions that the proposal provides is support for UN initiatives. The goal of the YPC's activities in this regard is to raise public awareness around global issues also identified as key concerns of the UN. In this, the YPC adopts an educational approach.Public EducationPeace promotion initiatives include international exhibitions such as "Nuclear Arms: Threat to Our World," first presented in 1982 during a special session on disarmament at the UN Headquarters in New York in cooperation with the UN Department of Public Information and the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It has toured 39 cities in 24 countries. To preserve a record of people's experiences of World War II, Soka Gakkai youth also compiled 80 volumes of more than 1,000 individual accounts. Many of these accounts have also been recorded on video. In 1975 and 1998, anti-nuclear-weapon petition drives collected 10 million and 13 million signatures which were presented to the UN Headquarters and the Abolition 2000 movement respectively.

Another focus of the Youth Peace Conference has been the promotion of human rights education in support of the UN Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004) and the World Programme for Human Rights Education that started at the beginning of 2005. Initiatives include exhibitions such as "Toward a Century of Humanity-Human Rights in Today's World," which has toured some 40 cities in eight countries, an antiapartheid exhibition and lectures and seminars on peace issues. The YPC has also created exhibitions promoting education for sustainable development and campaigns aimed at stopping bullying in Japanese schools.

Humanitarian Relief
The Youth Peace Conference has also been actively engaged in humanitarian activities, including refugee relief and postwar restoration assistance overseas. It has undertaken annual awareness-raising and fund-raising campaigns in support of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and, between 1973 and 2001, it conducted 21 such campaigns to facilitate provision of medical care, food, education and other services administered by UNHCR and related organizations. In 1993, the YPC coordinated the collection of 300,000 secondhand radios and donated them through the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) to the people of Cambodia to help them stay informed about that country's first-ever democratic election.SGI President Daisaku Ikeda has written: "The empowerment of the people, by the people, for the people, to inspire and enlighten the spirit of each individual, will be the fundamental force for truly changing the world.

"The purpose of our movement is to create a culture of peace; it is to plant a seed of peace in every person's heart and cultivate the spiritual soil in which peace can be built. Dialogue is the actual tool in this endeavor. It is our firm conviction that building a fortress of peace within the heart of each person through effective dialogue is the most unfailing path to peace.

Victory Over Violence (VOV) is a youth-driven initiative to help young people identify and counteract the root causes of violence in their lives and in their communities. Its aim is to help inspire positive change in the culture of schools and communities.

On October 26, 2005, Reporoa College became the first school in New Zealand to take part in the program. Students participated in workshops coordinated by a group of voluntary facilitators that were aimed at building respect, for themselves and others.

VOV is based on a personal pledge by participants to value their own life, to respect all life, and to inspire hope in others. Through simple exercises, the students were encouraged to think about new ways of communicating and responding to one another and to daily life situations of violence. They took part in discussions and listened to powerful experiences.

The VOV format was first established by the youth of SGI-USA in response to the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, in 1999. Although violence in schools in New Zealand is less extreme, there are various other forms of "passive violence," manifest in high rates of depression and suicide.

Through the VOV exercises, the students become more aware of passive violence, how it fuels physical violence, and ways they can take action to change this. Participants in VOV workshops have made comments such as: "I thought violence was just fighting and bullying; after VOV I know that people have a reason for why they do it," and "It has changed the way I deal with problems."

One 19-year-old young man wrote about how his participation in the program inspired him to contact the man who murdered his father during a petty robbery and who is now serving a prison sentence. "Since my involvement in VOV, I have learned many things about the cycles of violence, that anger is all-consuming. It is the most active of the negative energies. In particular, during the workshop, I was challenged by the students to understand the difficulties of forgiving people. They inspired me to write to the young man in prison. Violence is cyclic; we choose to break the cycle. You have to be tough, it takes more effort to respect people and forgive people, to find empathy for them, than it does to remain angry!"

SGI-NZ will continue to work with Reporoa College and aims to have VOV running in all 12 high schools in the Reporoa area by 2010. From that solid base VOV will be introduced in high schools across New Zealand.

The opening of Arctic waters creates enormous profit potential from shorter international trade routes and access to seabed oil, gas and marine resources. The Law of the Sea gives countries territorial jurisdiction within 200 nautical miles of their coast, but outside these zones nations are taking measures to ensure access, rights and, in some cases, sovereignty over portions of the seabed. Territorial claims and counterclaims will be a source of tension that could degenerate into open conflict.

Naval operations of both Russia and the United States, the two nuclear powers in the region, will increase when there are open waters, creating a potential for military confrontation, especially because both have nuclear-armed submarines. Nowhere else are the two major nuclear powers in such close proximity to each other. There is a potential for additional nuclearization of both sea and land.

Nuclear weapons in the region present a multifaceted danger to the Arctic lands and peoples, and preventive measures must be taken before it is too late. The creation of legal structures and procedures is already beginning to be discussed, and it is important that nuclear weapons issues are put on that agenda; otherwise the status quo will become ingrained. Existing agreements and the present status in the Arctic provide a hopeful start because:

• There is a seabed treaty in force that prevents stationing of nuclear weapons on the Arctic Ocean floor.
• Strategic bombers in Arctic airspace are much less significant now than during the Cold War.
• Negotiations could begin now on military confidence-building measures. Of note is the Antarctic Treaty, where each contracting party has the right to send observers to every base of any country in that region, thus producing a very powerful confidence-building measure for ensuring full compliance.
• It is hoped that strategic arms reduction talks between the U.S. and Russia will begin again.

There are, however, serious obstacles to a nuclear weapon-free Arctic. The United States and Russia both regularly deploy nuclear-capable submarines in Arctic waters. Russia's naval base at Zapadnaya Litsa maintains their most advanced ballistic missile submarines, and patrol areas are mainly in the Arctic. Thus, negotiations for an Arctic Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (NWFZ) could only be attempted after complementary disarmament measures by the United States.

There is new mainstream support for abolition. Former high-level officials in the U.S., U.K., Italy, Germany and others have called for immediate comprehensive steps to reduce the nuclear danger, continuing to abolition of nuclear weapons. A conference at the Hoover Institute in the U.S. in October 2007 recommended a 500-warhead limit for both the U.S. and Russia. If such a reduction were to be achieved, it would be in the best interests of Russia to place its reliance on mobile land-based Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. The result could be closure of nuclear submarine facilities in the Arctic, or alternatively, retention of nuclear-powered submarines not outfitted with nuclear arms. Either of these alternatives would clear the way for a NWFZ in the Russian Arctic.

The Russian Reality
A most important distinction between Russia and the other Arctic nations is that Russia has nearly 4 million people in the region, and many are not indigenous. The geopolitical reality, as seen from Russia, is that military security is inseparable from energy security. In preparation for greatly enhanced activity in the Arctic, billions of dollars have been or will be spent by both the East (Russia) and the West (U.S. and Canada) for icebreakers, Arctic patrol ships, oil platforms, army bases and similar equipment and infrastructure. At present, Russia appears better prepared than the West.

Over a 14-year period, five Central Asian states negotiated the Central Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (CANWFZ), assisted by the UN. The 2006 Treaty of Semipalatinsk, which has not entered into force, involves former nuclear weapon states that have agreed to International Atomic Energy Agency site visits for inspection and verification. Only Russia and China, so far, are signatories to the protocol respecting the CANWFZ. The CANWFZ offers experience applicable to an Arctic NWFZ: negotiations require a significant period of time. Work should start now.

A Regional Treaty
A potentially productive approach would be for all nonnuclear Arctic states to work together on a regional treaty, as allowed for in Article VII of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, "to assure the total absence of nuclear weapons from their respective territories." Norway, Sweden and Finland, all with sovereign territory north of the Arctic Circle, are nuclear weapon-free. Greenland has a U.S. military base at Thule, but Denmark is a nonnuclear weapon state (NNWS). Canada is already a de facto nuclear-free country. The Northwest Passage, a shipping channel which passes many islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is a very unfavorable passageway for submarines because it is narrow and shallow, posing severe difficulty to both the maneuverability and undetectability of a submarine. This passage is very probably a de facto nuclear weapon-free zone. Regarding surface travel through the Northwest Passage, maritime safety in these dangerous waters would certainly dictate obtaining an international agreement to ban nuclear fissile materials.

Declaring only a portion of the Arctic regions and waters to be a NWFZ could be problematic. On the other hand, partial solutions, taken together, could be the right path.

For the reasons outlined above, it is a realistic hope that the two nuclear weapon states in the region will make significant reductions in their nuclear arms, creating the negotiating atmosphere that would allow them to turn their attention to an Arctic NWFZ.

The issue of a NWFZ is central to the Arctic security environment. Arctic peoples have a right to be secure from nuclear weapons stationed on their land or in their seas.

Declaring a partial NWFZ in Canada, in the Northwest Passage, would be difficult because it would focus attention on assertions by the U.S. and others that it is an international waterway, whereas the mutual benefit of both Canada and the U.S. would be to keep the status quo. In this reality, it would be easier for the Canadian government to designate the whole of Canada as a NWFZ.

Such a legislative act by Canada would show persuasive leadership, leading to a regional treaty between all the NNWS in the Arctic. The cumulative effect would model the process for the United States and Russia.

Once the NWFZ in Africa enters into force, as now expected, 110 countries, including the entire southern hemisphere, will be protected by NWFZs. Each NWFZ is unique, with different terms of agreement. This is a helpful precedent in that both the U.S. and Russia could, with the right political will, designate only their territories north of the Arctic Circle as nuclear weapon-free, without having to change other nuclear security strategies.

Comparison with the legal and political framework of the Antarctic is of interest, although the situation differs greatly. In 1991, the Madrid Protocol designated Antarctica as a natural reserve devoted to peace and science, and prohibited mining exploration activities indefinitely. Environmental protection, wisely seen to be necessary in the Antarctic, might serve as a useful starting point in the Arctic too.

The challenges of opening the Arctic are unprecedented. Providing an equitable governance regime calls for a high degree of international cooperation and a resolution of rivalries. An Arctic Treaty would reduce conflict and provide an opportunity to embed the expectation of a NWFZ. An Arctic NWFZ, introduced conceptually in the near future, could gradually gain support. It would be a significant step toward disarmament, and would build confidence toward a nuclear weapon-free world.

Dr. Adele Buckley is a physicist, engineer and environmental scientist. She is a member of the Pugwash Council, a cofounder and former vice president of MDS Sciex, and formerly vice president of technology & research at the Ontario Centre for Environmental Technology Advancement.

I believe the Culture of Peace transcends boundaries. It transcends differences in age, and it transcends differences in culture. It is the most universal thing that you can have.

I worked for a decade for the United Nations and as an Ambassador for Bangladesh, but this mention of the decade has a different significance for me. It was on 31 July 1997 that I wrote to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, at that time Kofi Annan, as the Bangladesh Ambassador, asking him to circulate my request for a separate agenda item on the Culture of Peace for the Plenary sessions of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Since then, it has been nearly ten years, just fifteen days short. That very letter has mushroomed in a big way to this global movement for the Culture of Peace.

The subject matter under the euphemism “Towards a culture of peace” was debated for a number of years before it became a separate agenda item of the UNGA in 1997. The Secretary-General was asked to present a draft program of action, which, after long negotiations for nine months, was adopted in September 1999. Earlier in 1997, the UNGA adopted another resolution declaring the year 2000, the millennium year, as the International Year for the Culture of Peace. The next year, the United Nations adopted a very significant and promising resolution to declare the years 2001 to 2010 as the International Decade for the Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World. I believe that during these last ten years, from July 1997 to this day, the international community has reached a point where we can surely call it a Global Movement for the Culture of Peace. For that, all of you deserve a big “thank you” as well!

Peace is integral to human existence ‚Äî in everything we do, in everything we say and in every thought we have, there is a place for peace. Absence of peace makes our challenges, our struggles, much more difficult. I believe that is why it is very important that we need to keep our focus on creating the Culture of Peace in our lives. 

• I will value my own life. Today, again, I will reach beyond my doubts, taking concrete steps to uncover my unlimited potential. Recognizing that a lack of self-identity and hope for the future are at the root of all violence, I will fight to realize my dreams, even if they seem impossible. 
• I will respect all life. Through understanding, tolerance and respect for diversity, I will see beyond superficial differences. I will awaken to a deeper sense of interconnectedness with those around me by reflecting on the common humanity I share with all people.
• I will actively pursue dialogue. With care and consideration for the dignity inherent in others, I will make continual efforts to reach out to people each day, especially those different from myself. Through genuine friendship, I will break through feelings of isolation and hopelessness that can lead to acts of violence.
• I will inspire hope in others. With courage, I will resolutely stand up against violence, be it passive or physical and teach others through my own example. I will support others and encourage them to follow their dreams.

• The relationship between passive violence and physical violence 
•  The value of dialogue
•  The need for each of us to stand up and take full responsibility for the violence in our environment.