Good News Agency – Year IV, n° 15
Weekly - Year IV, number 15 – 26
September 2003
Managing Editor: Sergio Tripi,
Ph. D.
Rome Law-court registration
no. 265 dated 20 June 2000.
Good News Agency carries
positive and constructive news from all over the world relating to voluntary
work, the work of the United Nations, non governmental organizations, and
institutions engaged in improving the quality of life – news that doesn’t “burn
out” in the space of a day. Editorial research by Fabio Gatti. Good News Agency
is published in English on one Friday and in Italian the next. It is distributed free of charge through
Internet to the editorial offices of more than 2,400
media in 46 countries, as
well as to 1,000 NGO.
It is a service of Associazione Culturale dei Triangoli e della
Buona Volontà Mondiale, NGO associated with the United Nations Department of Public
Information.
International legislation – Human rights – Economy and development
Solidarity – Peace and security
– Health – Energy and Safety
Environment and wildlife – Culture and education
AEGEE-Europe
organised on 12 September the conference 'Cyprus in Europe - Europe in Cyprus'
in the Buffer Zone in Nicosia, the last divided capital in the world. The
conference gave the youth from the two Cypriot communities as well as European
students the possibility to engage in an open dialogue concerning the situation
on the island. The discussion about the future are needed now, as Cyprus will
join the EU in less than 8 months and plans for future collaboration are needed
between the two communities. (…)
25 Cypriots - Greek and
Turkish - as well as students of 16 different
European nationalities took part in the conference, organised in cooperation
with the local organisation Youth Promoting Peace. The conference was a
contribution in a manner that has proved most successful in the 'Turkish-Greek
Civic Dialogue' project - an open and forthright dialogue between youngsters.
The conference was a starting point for a longer project on Cyprus by
AEGEE-Europe. (…)
The AEGEE network consists of
260 local branches in 42 European countries, gathering 17.000 members. (…)
http://www.karl.aegee.org/aeg-info.nsf/PRelByIssue/r200318?OpenDocument
This year the European Women’s
Lobby’s annual seminar will be held in Brussels on the 10th October 2003, just
before our General Assembly and we are very pleased to invite you to take part
to this event.
The theme of the seminar is
women in political decision-making and the seminar is entitled “European
Elections 2004: women demand an equal share”. The aims of the seminar are to
identify the main obstacles for women in political life; to agree on strategies
to promote the nomination of women by political parties and their election to
the European parliament and to put pressure on political parties, government
and the European institutions in order to achieve gender equality in the future
European Parliament. (…)
http://www.womenlobby.org/Document.asp?DocID=639&tod=103221
Thursday, 11 September - An
independent commission helping Timor-Leste uncover and come to terms with
widespread violence and other human rights violations has found so many people
coming forward to participate that it is extending its work until next year,
with help from UNDP.
At community hearings people
tell of brutality and suffering they endured or witnessed, and lives of loved
ones lost, during the decades before independence last year. Others are owning
up to inflicting beatings, burning houses, thefts and other acts of violence
and intimidation.
Community members then agree
on steps for reconciliation that draw on traditional customs, including
apologies, pledges by offenders never to repeat such acts, community service,
and symbolic contributions such as a goat and fortified wine for a communal meal.
Serious offences can be referred to the justice system. (…)
http://www.undp.org/dpa/frontpagearchive/2003/september/11sep03/index.html
September 8 - Two women legal
activists who are respected for their bold effective action for women’s rights
will receive the 2003 Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of
Hunger, The Hunger Project announced today.
Meaza Ashenafi established
Ethiopia’s leading women’s legal aid, education, and policy reform organization
in 1995 - the Ethiopian Women Lawyers’ Association (EWLA). (…)
Sara Longwe of Zambia is a
grassroots mobilizer, writer and gender consultant. She is the author of the
"Longwe Framework for Gender Analysis" which is used internationally
to promoting focus on gender issues in development program. (…)
The Africa Prize, often
referred to as the “Nobel Prize for Africa”, will be awarded at a ceremony in
New York on Saturday, October 11. The laureates receive a sculpture by Takenobu
Igarashi and US$50,000 each to continue their work for the well-being of
Africa’s people. (…)
The Africa Prize is awarded by
The Hunger Project, a global, non-profit, strategic organization committed to
the sustainable end of world hunger. (…)
People are returning to their
land - largest FAO operation in Africa
19 September, Rome/Nairobi --
Almost 2 million Angolans will receive agricultural emergency assistance in the
next few weeks before the start of the rainy season, FAO said today.
FAO will provide agricultural
kits to farmers in 14 of the 18 provinces in Angola. The kits will include
locally adapted varieties of maize, beans, vegetable, millet and sorghum seeds,
and agricultural tools such as hoes and machetes.
Other humanitarian
organizations working in Angola will distribute an additional 300 000 kits, the
total will be some 600 000 kits.
In what is FAO's largest
operation in Africa, approximately 5 000 tonnes of inputs will be distributed
to the most remote and isolated villages, where pockets of extreme
vulnerability still exist. (…)
http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom/news/2003/22381-en.html
Rome, 17 September – A new
IFAD-supported programme will provide a much needed boost to economic
development in the Dry Region of Nicaragua. The USD 25 million programme will
also strengthen Government efforts to implement its Reinforced Strategy for
Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction, which was adopted in 2001 to take full
advantage of the international Debt Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries (HIPC). The Initiative permits Nicaragua to reduce its debt stock by
70%, representing annual savings equivalent to 5% of GDP, which will be devoted
to poverty reduction. Many of the country’s rural poor live in the Dry Region,
where natural disasters in recent years have damaged infrastructure and left
the economy increasingly vulnerable.
Through economic revival and
the creation of small business and employment opportunities, the new Programme
for the Economic Development of the Dry Region targets 44,600 rural poor
families with annual per capita incomes under the poverty line of USD 430 in 33
municipalities of the region. The programme will be financed partly by a highly
concessional loan of USD 14 million from the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD). The loan agreement was signed today at IFAD
Headquarters in Rome (…)
http://www.ifad.org/media/press/2003/32.htm
Geneva, 17 September - At the
invitation of Mr. Vladimir Konopljov, Deputy Chairman of the House of
Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, the United
Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the World Youth Bank (WYB)
made a joint advisory mission to Minsk to explore the current youth situation
and to advise the Parliament, government authorities and non-governmental
organizations how to develop youth entrepreneurship. The mission was also to
advise on the creation a Youth Entrepreneurship Development Centre (YEDC)
within the framework of national entrepreneurship as well as youth policies.
(…)
Discussions were held on the
establishment of a Belarusian branch of the World Youth Bank in Minsk.
http://www.unece.org/press/pr2003/03ireedd_n01e.htm
Monrovia, 17 September – The
United Nations World Food Programme has sent a consignment of food to tens of
thousands of people in the insurgent-held Liberian city of Buchanan for the
first time since heavy fighting between government forces and rebel factions
erupted in and around the capital, Monrovia, earlier this year.
Despite the continuing
precarious situation, WFP and its partners have gone ahead with plans to start
a general distribution of cereals, pulses and vegetable oil to about 32,000
people in Buchanan, a port city some 100 kilometres south-east of Monrovia. (…)
WFP is also starting food distributions this week to tens of thousands of
displaced Liberians and refugees from Sierra Leone in camps outside Monrovia.
(…)
Over the past month, the
agency has provided food assistance to some 420,000 people, most of them
displaced by the fighting and living in temporary shelters in the capital. (…)
On Sunday 19 October, Beirut
will host its first International Marathon. Already, it is noted not only as a
unique sportive event but also as a remarkable charity initiative.
The United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) is a partner of the Beirut Marathon Association (BMA), a
non-profit organization, to promote and support humanitarian and development
projects endorsed by the BMA within the framework of the Beirut International
Marathon. The theme of the humanitarian component is "Youth and the
Community" and consists of seven projects that are given visibility and
for which the Beirut International Marathon (BIM) and runners will mobilize
resources. Within the context of the BIM, the United Nations Volunteers
Programme (UNV) agreed to support the event through volunteer services. Also,
participation of UN staff as runners in the BIM is being promoted and
encouraged within the context of healthy lifestyles. UN runners will form a UN
team. (…)
As of
today, the commitment and the enthusiastic participation of staff and UN
agencies lead to say that the Beirut International Marathon (BIM) will
effectively combine sports and development.
19 September - A second
campaign on the dangers of anti-personnel landmines, organized by the Peruvian
Mine Action Centre (CONTRAMINAS) with the support of the ICRC and the
Organization of American States (OAS), came to an end this week in the
department of Junín (central Sierra), Peru.
The event was part of the 2003 National Mine-Awareness Plan for the
Central Sierra, a community-based project using various art forms to convey
important messages about mines.
During the first phase of the
plan, a technical team trained teachers and community leaders so that they
could go on to spread the messages in their respective towns and villages. The
team was made up of representatives from the national police, the Ministries of
Education and Foreign Affairs, the ICRC and the OAS, and two mine accident
survivors.
So far, 275 teachers and 110
community leaders have taken part in the training workshops, in which they have
learned various methods of spreading information and devised their own messages
to be used in specific situations. (…)
September 19 - Some 1,000
residents and 1,200 internally displaced persons living in the war-torn village
of Endembastifanos no longer need to walk for five hours to fetch drinking
water. Now they can get safe water from two public fountains that the ICRC has
built in their village.
Endembastifanos is situated
about 15 kilometres northwest of the border town of Tsorona, where some of the
fiercest battles of the 1998-2000 war between Eritrea and Ethiopia took place.
At the time, inhabitants of the border villages fled their homes in large
numbers and found temporary shelter in a camp for displaced persons. Owing to
the threat of landmines, many of these people are still unable to return to
their villages – among them the 1,200 displaced persons who have resettled in
Endembastifanos. (…)
Clean drinking water is a
precious commodity in Eritrea. Since the opening of its delegation in 1998, the
ICRC has endeavoured to provide safe water for both internally displaced
persons and residents living in the areas most hard-hit by the war – those in
and close to the temporary security zone, a buffer zone along the
Eritrean-Ethiopian border. A variety of other water-supply systems have been
completed or are currently under way, for instance in Bishuka (Gash-Barka) and
Adi Quala (Debub). ICRC technicians have also repaired dozens of broken hand
pumps in areas close to the border.
15 September - The third
online course on journalism in armed conflicts organized by the ICRC was
launched on 15 September with the participation of 180 journalists and students
of journalism from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay and
Peru.
For one month the participants
will have access to the course on a website set up by a company specializing in
online training. The course takes 10 to 20 hours to complete, depending on how
much of the material each student wishes to cover. Among other things, it
focuses on the protection and assistance afforded to victims of armed conflict
under international humanitarian law, the responsibility journalists have to
report on violations of humanitarian norms and the protection which the ICRC
can provide for journalists on dangerous assignments.
This time around, the course
contains a new component on the recent armed conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
It presents the views of journalists who covered those events and their
thoughts on their work, in particular as regards breaches of humanitarian law.
The ICRC delegation in Buenos
Aires provides ongoing tutoring for participants. Over the past two years, 320
people have attended the course and qualified for a certificate.
Campaigners
against the use of land mines have gathered in Bangkok this week for a
UN-sponsored conference on the international treaty against their use. A
nongovernmental organization called the International Campaign to Ban
Landmines, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, has sent 250 delegates to
the five-day event.
Prague, 15 September (RFE/RL)
- A large delegation of anti-land-mine
campaigners is in Bangkok this week to urge countries to stop using, producing,
and stockpiling the weapons.
A nongovernmental organization
called the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) -- which won the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 -- has sent some 250 campaigners, de-miners,
researchers, and land-mine survivors from 70 countries to a five-day conference
in Bangkok convened under the auspices of the United Nations. The event is the fifth annual meeting on the
implementation of the 1997 convention against land mines. It also is the last
formal gathering of officials from the 136 countries that have signed the
so-called Ottawa Convention before a review conference scheduled in Nairobi,
Kenya, at the end of next year. (…)
Several nonsignatories have
sent observers to the session in Bangkok this week. Among them are China,
Vietnam, and Laos. But a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Bangkok said the United
States is not sending any official observers. An observer from Pakistan had
been expected at the conference but had not arrived in time for the opening
today.
Second
IIPT African Conference on Peace Through Tourism
The International
Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) is pleased to announce the
IIPT 2nd African Conference on Peace through Tourism to be held in
Dar-es Salaam, Tanzania, 7-12 December, 2003 The Conference theme is: "Community Tourism - Gateway to Poverty
Reduction." The Conference is being organized in partnership with the
African Travel Association and hosted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and
Tourism, Tanzania. Aim of the Conference is to develop partnerships,
implementation strategies, and action initiatives that contribute to
sustainable community development, peace and poverty reduction. (…)
The Conference will bring
together senior African executives from both the public and private sectors of
tourism, donor agencies, educators, policy makers, leading-edge practioners,
entrepreneurs, future leaders of the industry - and senior representatives of
related sectors including environment, culture and economic development.
To register, please see our website: www.iipt.org
An Iflac Delegation including:
two Women Peace Leaders, Palestinian Samia Shahade and Israeli Ada
Aharoni, has been invited to represent IFLAC: The International
Forum for the Culture of Peace, at the "Gather The Women"
Congress for "Peace Among Nations" in San Francisco, (October 16-17,
2003). After the Congress, the Iflac Delegation will go on a
"Peace Tour" which includes contacts and lecturing to various
groups and universities, and Media exposure.
“IFLAC: The International
Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace” is conducting important
work in spreading the "Culture of Peace and Reconciliation" in
the Middle East, and especially in Israel and Palestine, through various
projects. Palestinian Samia, and Israeli Ada (former Egyptian), who are
both from Haifa, will bring the message that multicultural and pluralistic
Haifa, in the North of Israel, where Jews, Arabs and Christians live and prosper
side by side, can indeed be a model for the whole of the Middle East.
Convened by the
Women's Learning Partnership in collaboration with the Global Fund for Women,
at
The purpose of the conference
is to provide a forum for women leaders and human security experts from the
Global South, particularly from Muslim societies, to come together to discuss
and strategize on ways to advance human security around the world.
Traditionally, human security
has been concerned with protecting the state–its boundaries, people,
institutions, and values– from external attacks. (…) This conference will
advance the debate on the new vision of human security by (a) analyzing human
security issues from a gender perspective, and (b) exploring ways to implement
human security goals including conflict prevention, sustainable development,
gender equity, and strong civil societies that promote democratic processes.
(…) Keynote Address: Mary Robinson,
Director, Ethical Globalization Initiative, former UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights, and former President of Ireland.
http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/2involved/events/clash-or-consensus.html
17 September - Signaling the
level of priority the Global Polio Eradication Initiative places on vanquishing
the crippling disease in India, World Health Organization Director-General Lee
Jong-Wook was present at the launch of a round of Subnational Immunization Days
in New Delhi on 14 September. Tens of millions of children across polio-endemic
and at-risk states in India were targeted in the five-day effort.
The WHO chief said that
although India had made progress in efforts to eradicate polio, the situation
remained fragile due to new cases of the poliovirus in parts of the country.
This poses a problem to the rest of the world, he said. (…)
To ensure maximum coverage
during the SNIDs, nothing was left to chance. Health workers, students,
government officials, community leaders, celebrities, and volunteers rallied to
mobilize families and to administer the polio vaccine door-to-door.
As usual, Rotarians were at
the forefront of those efforts. (…)
http://www.rotary.org/newsroom/newsbasket/2003/030917/india.html
250 U.S. Rotary members to immunize children
against polio in Africa and Southeast Asia
As polio still threatens
children in parts of Africa and South Asia, Rotary remains steadfast in its
20-year commitment to eliminate this crippling disease worldwide. In
support of this global endeavor, approximately 250 Rotary club members from the
United States and Canada will help administer drops of oral polio vaccine to
children, deliver the vaccine to health clinics and recruit fellow volunteers
during mass national immunization campaigns in the following countries:
Ethiopia, 12-18 October; Nigeria, 24 November to 2 December; Niger,(1-14
December;
India (Delhi), 12-26 February 2004; India (Calcutta) and Nepal/Tibet, 5-18
February. (…)
Since establishing the
PolioPlus program in 1985, Rotary members have helped to immunize more than 2
billion children in 122 countries, and have contributed more than US$500
million toward a polio-free world. Rotary is the lead private sector
contributor and volunteer arm of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a
partnership spearheaded by the World Health Organization, Rotary International,
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF.
For more information, contact:
Vivian Fiore, Rotary International, fiorev@rotaryintl.org
Mumbai, 18 September - For the first time in cricket, the
International Cricket Council (ICC) has joined forces with the Joint United
Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to take up the fight against HIV/AIDS in
cricket playing countries, some of which are hardest hit by the epidemic.
Today's partnership announcement was made by ICC President Ehsan Mani in
Mumbai.
The partnership's primary aim
is to use cricket to raise public awareness of HIV/AIDS in the cricket playing
world. Other objectives are to incorporate UNAIDS education and training
messages and materials in the ICC's own global Development Programme and
encourage National Cricket Boards to support HIV/AIDS issues. (…)
The ICC will work with UNAIDS
to integrate HIV/AIDS in activities around cricket tournaments, and link up
UNAIDS with individual National Cricket Boards to increase awareness about
HIV/AIDS in each country. Initiatives will vary from country to country
depending on the issues identified between the Boards and the local UNAIDS
staff. (…)
(top)
Washington DC, September 17 -
The World Resources Institute (WRI) and the 12 members of its Green Power
Market Development Group today announced 97 megawatts (MW) of groundbreaking
green power deals. The purchases include the largest corporate fuel cell and
renewable energy certificate deals in the United States.
The Green Power Market
Development Group (The Green Power Group) is a unique commercial and industrial
partnership dedicated to building corporate markets for green power. Its
members are Alcoa Inc, Cargill Dow LLC, Delphi Corporation, The Dow Chemical
Company, DuPont, General Motors, IBM, Interface, Johnson & Johnson,
Kinko's, Pitney Bowes, and Staples. (…)
The 97 MW announced today,
enough to power 73,000 homes, represent purchases made in the past year by 250
facilities in 22 states and the District of Columbia. This brings the total amount
purchased by The Green Power Group to 112 MW since it started identifying green
power options in 2001.
The purchases announced today
include a wide variety of green power technologies and products to match
corporate interests. From on-site solar power and landfill gas to electricity
from wind farms, the projects offer the companies the best economic and
environmental value. (…)
http://newsroom.wri.org/newsrelease_text.cfm?NewsReleaseID=260
100%
green energy reduces WRI's carbon emissions
Washington, DC, September 17,
2003 -- The World Resources Institute (WRI) announced today that it is now 100
percent powered by green energy, making it the largest environmental non-profit
in metropolitan Washington, DC to use renewable energy.
WRI achieved this by
partnering with its landlord, the American Psychological Association (APA) and
property manager, Trammell Crow Company, to purchase renewable energy
equivalent to 75 percent of the electricity used in its two Capital Hill
buildings. WRI, headquartered in one of the buildings, bought additional
renewable energy to make its office 100 percent green.
All the purchases were made in
the form of renewable energy certificates (RECs) which represent the amount of
pollution avoided when electricity is generated by renewable resources instead
of by fossil fuels. Green Mountain Energy Company will supply WRI and APA with
more than 20 million kilowatt hours of RECs from wind and other renewable
resources. With 100 percent green energy, WRI's annual greenhouse gas emissions
will also be reduced by more than 40 percent. (…)
http://newsroom.wri.org/newsrelease_text.cfm?NewsReleaseID=261
Beijing, Bangkok, Nairobi,
September 19 – The United Nations Environment Programme today opened an office
in Beijing, China. Speaking at the opening ceremony, UNEP Executive Director
Klaus Toepfer said it was a response to the important progress being made in
meeting environmental challenges in China, the world’s largest developing
country, and to the challenges
lying ahead. (…) He said China
had a historic opportunity to leapfrog traditional polluting technologies and
to adopt sustainable production and consumption policies.
The new office will work
closely with the State Environmental Protection Administration of China (SEPA)
and other ministries, international agencies and non-governmental organizations
in implementing programmes in environmental assessment, law, education and
training, management, technology transfer and innovation and natural disaster
prevention.
It will also develop and
support projects under the Global Environment Facility, an international fund
to address climate change, biodiversity, land degradation, transboundary water
and chemical management issues. (…)
http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=332&ArticleID=4255&l=en
New Executive Director Joins Television Trust for the Environment
London, 25
September - Cheryl Campbell has joined Television Trust for the Environment
from one of the UK and Ireland’s leading aid agencies, Christian Aid. Cheryl is
a journalist who worked in print, radio and television in the UK before moving
to Christian Aid in 1992. She played a significant role in developing its
cutting edge approach to development education.
TVE’s Founder
Executive Director, Robert Lamb has stepped aside after leading the non-profit
organisation for almost two decades. Robert will continue as Series Editor of Earth
Report, TVE’s long running BBC World television series, which he has
personally supervised since 1996.
TVE was set up in
1984 with the backing and support of the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), UK broadcaster Carlton (then Central) Television and WWF (World Wide
Fund for Nature). It raises global awareness of sustainable development,
environment, health and human rights issues through television and electronic
media. It has two flagship series, Earth Report and Life, both of
which are broadcast on BBC World which is received in 264 million homes
throughout the world.
16 September - The Park of
Koga, Japan, has won this year’s $20,000 Melina Mercouri International Prize
for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes (UNESCO/Greece),
which will be presented on September 18 at UNESCO Headquarters. The 25-hectare
park is in the centre of the Kanto plain, 60 km north of Tokyo. Although under
pressure from housing development because of its proximity to the capital, it
is an exceptional example of a green space devoted to peace and relaxation and
is visited each year by half a million people. (…)
The renowned Japanese
landscape architect Yoshio Nakamura redesigned the lake area. Some of the
buildings near the park date from the 18th century and are part of Japan’s
national heritage.
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php@URL_ID=14637&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
9 September – The city of
Ludwigshafen, Germany, together with BASF and UN-HABITAT have agreed to initiate
on a joint project to showcase environmental technologies and successful
collaboration with the private sector in the development of sustainable cities.
The agreement was reached at a
meeting between UN-HABITAT’s Executive Director, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, the Mayor
of Ludwigshafen, Dr. Eva Lohse, the Deputy CEO of BASF and representatives from
the Federal Ministry of Transport, Construction and Housing. They met at the
City of the Future: Opportunities for Europe conference, held in Ludwigshafen on
8-9 September.
The conference, whose main
theme was sustainable urban development in a European setting, focused on
energy-saving technologies. Practical experiences, best practices and lessons
learnt on improving energy efficiency were shared with the aim of replicating
them in other cities, particularly in eastern European countries about to join
the European Union. The meeting also highlighted strategic partnerships with
the private sector in building sustainable cities. (…)
http://www.unhabitat.org/ludwigshafen.asp
Wednesday, 17 September - More
than 150 delegates from 23 African countries meeting recently in Maputo,
Mozambique, agreed to bring "e-strategies" for mobilizing information
and communications technology (ICT) for development into the mainstream of
government planning.
The gathering was held in
preparation for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva
this December. The summit will provide a unique opportunity for developing
countries to voice their needs and development priorities relating to the
rapidly expanding global information society. (…)
Delegates recognized that
e-strategies are essential policy tools for achieving the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), including halving severe poverty, and related
development targets. They agreed to adapt these strategies to their countries'
unique socio-economic conditions.
So far, over 30 African
countries have completed or are in the process of completing national ICT for
Development strategies.
http://www.undp.org/dpa/frontpagearchive/2003/september/17sep03/index.html
New York, 17 September - The
world would be a healthier and less dangerous place if nations invested more
seriously in their citizens’ right to participate in sports, according to a
report launched today by 10 United Nations agencies. “The aim of the United
Nations activities involving sport is not the creation of new sporting
champions and the development of sport but rather the use of sport in broader
development and peace-building activities,” states the report, published at the
request of Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Launched at UN Headquarters in
New York, the report says team sports embrace core values such as cooperation,
social interaction, fair play, sharing and respect. Participation in sports and
other physical activity also has public health benefits. Initiatives
incorporating sports are used to promote drug-free lifestyles, control
aggression and build volunteer support for multiple causes. Thousands of street
children and orphans also learn life skills while sharing in basketball, dance
and other activities. The report, entitled Sports as a Tool for Development and
Peace: Towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals, states that the UN
has only scratched the surface of possibilities for integrating physical
activity, recreation and sports activities into development programming. (…)
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_14614.html
Global Learn Day VII - October 12
Global Learn Day is the largest education conference in the world, the
most technically complex conference of any kind in the world … yet simple to
attend virtually and wonderful to attend physically. Global Learn Day is truly global — speakers
and panelists from 24 time zones with an audience from 100 plus countries.
Global Learn Day is now in its seventh consecutive year
Each October we host an annual 24-hour, non-stop round the world
"voyage" which showcases highly innovative activities in education
and internet technology from 24 time zones. In order to build an audience in
the millions we involve community radio stations and local television.
The event opens in the South Pacific then makes about 40 stops in 24
time zones where those doing truly extraordinary work in the field of
education, training and affordable technology are showcased. 24 non stop hours
after the opening, GLD concludes with a demonstration of technical wizardry
provided by the University of Hawaii and their friends in the Central Pacific.
The total number of physical attendees expected to gather at the
Celebrations will exceed 2,000. With
radio, television and the Internet, the total real time audience will approach
one million. With electronic mailings, magazine supplements and local newspaper
partners in the Celebration cities, the total number who will learn about
Global Learn Day VII will be several million.
The Earth Charter Community
Summits are a grassroots effort to bring people together in cities around the
world to be inspired to make the Earth Charter's principles a reality in their
lives and communities. The Institute for Ethics & Meaning, a volunteer
community building organization based in Tampa, Florida, is the international
organizer for the annual summits held in the Fall. 2002 summits were held in 24
cities around the US and Canada, and were connected by webcast. In 2003 the
summits will include cities in other countries and will be held on Saturday,
Oct. 11.
IFLAC: Pave Peace - International
Ataturk Peace Culture Conference
Bursa, Turkey, 9-11 October 2003
We invite you to participate
in this innovative International conference. Its central theme is
"Building Bridges through Culture, Conflict Resolution, Communication, and
Literature". Writers, poets, peace researchers, experts in conflict
resolution, and the general public will jointly explore the role of culture,
literature, poetry, and other means of artistic expression and communication in
guiding society towards a more peaceful world. Registration
is $100, and it includes participation in all lectures, roundtables and
workshops, a Tour of Bursa, and Iflac membership for 2004. For more
information, the program, and for the registration form, you are invited
to visit: www.iflacturkey.org
and www.iflac.up.co.il as well as
www.ada.up.co.il
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Good News Agency is distributed through Internet to over 2,400 editorial offices of the daily newspapers and periodical magazines and of the radio and television stations with an e-mail address in 46 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Finland, Holland, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela, USA, and it is also available in its web site: http://www.goodnewsagency.org
It is a free of charge service of Associazione
Culturale dei Triangoli e della Buona Volontà Mondiale, a registered
non-profit educational organization chartered in Italy in 1979. The Association
operates for the development of consciousness and supports the activities of
the Lucis Trust, the Club of Budapest, the Earth Charter, Radio For Peace
International and other organizations promoting a culture of peace in the
‘global village’ perspective based on unity within diversity and on sharing. Via Antagora 10, 00124 Rome, Italy. E-mail: s.tripi@tiscalinet.it
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