[van-announce] World Peace Forum - Latin American & Caribbean Plenaries June 25-26 ** All Free Events - No Registration Needed **

[Claudio Ekdahl]

World Peace Forum 2006
Latin American & Caribbean Plenaries

Schedule of Events 

**Please note: These events are free, no need for registration, all are
welcome**

"There is nothing harder than the softness of indifference" - Juan
Montalvo

Sunday June 25th 
9:00 am-7:30 pm        Latin American & Caribbean Plenary – Part 1

                        Venue: Geography 100, 200, UBC
*NOTE: The International house at UBC will be hosting a photo exhibit on
Colombia by Jesus Abad Colorado, and onother on Guatemala and Suriname
by the canadian Crossroads Intl.


9:00- 9:30 am              Latin America & the Caribbean Opening

9:30- 11:30 am  "Highlighting the case of Haiti: Sovereignty and
Occupation”
                                    Venue: Geography 100, UBC

Description: This forum will look at Haiti and its current reality
through outlining the history of intervention and occupation leading up
to the most current episode of intervention, and the Haitian struggle to
regain sovereignty. Particularly, outlining Canada’s role in the
overthrow of the democratically elected president Jean Bertrand Aristide
and the subsequent UN occupation. Sponsor Group: Haiti Solidarity BC
Speakers: Anthony Fenton, co-author of “Canada in Haiti: Waging War on
the Poor Majority” and founding member of Haiti Solidarity BC; Jeb
Sprague, a California researcher, graduate student, freelance
journalist, and Flashpoints correspondent studying the role the NGO’s
have played in subverting Haitian democracy.


10:30-12:00 pm "The Solidarity Economy: Fair Trade as a Tool for Social
Transformation"                        
                               Venue: Geography 200, UBC

Description: panel discussion/workshop that will explore the impact of
fair trade relationships and the potential for broader social change
when they are in the hands of social movements rather than NGOs.
Presenters are representatives of Latin American campesino movements
that have developed fair trade relationships with Northern partners.
These organizations view fair trade not as an end in itself, but as one
more tool in the struggle for broader social change and social justice.
The workshop will then divide into three discussion groups, with a
panelist in each as a resource person and will discuss more effective
ways to promote, increase and cement these kinds of social/economic
relationships. Sponsor Groups: BC CASA and Café Etico
Participants: Lesbia Morales from the Comite Campesino del Altiplano
(Guatemala); Incarnacion Suarez Obregon from the Associacion de
Cafeteleros Organicos de Pancasan (Nicaragua). 


1:00- 2:30 pm   Highlighting the case of Cuba                         
                      Venue:  Geography 100, UBC


1:00- 3:00pm   Impunity and Human Rights                        
                         Venue: Westbrook 100, UBC

Description:  A panel from Chile, El Salvador, Colombia, Mexico,
Argentina, and Canada  will examine the need to bring perpetrators of
State sponsored violence and human rights abuse to justice in order to
prevent the continuation of these crimes and bring about genuine peace
with justice.
Sponsor Group: Ecumenical task Force for Justice in the Americas in
Memory of Isidro Salaverria.   
Participants: Henry Monroy, Guatemalan Judge, expert on impunity, human
rights and international law; Elena Argueta, El Mozote, El Salvador:
Fabiana Garcia, Guatemala; David Dannis, Canada First Nation; Raul
Gatica, Mexico; Alfredo Porras, Colombia.

1:00- 2:30pm   Education for all: Fundamentals for Peaceful Societies
                      Venue: Scarfe 205
Description:   A panel presentation and discussion.
As a key element of social reproduction, it is essential that public
education systems are equitable, democratic and inclusive for all
members of society.  If societies are to be democratic and respectful of
differences, education systems must also teach democratic practice,
social analysis, empathy and collective problem-solving skills. Yet, in
the past two decades throughout the Americas, neoliberal policies in
education have led to social polarization and have promoted individual
competition over social cooperation. Nevertheless, the struggle for an
education that reflects the aspirations and needs of all peoples has
managed to slow the penetration of neoliberalism in the schools and
bring about small changes consistent with a compassionate society.
Student and educator organizations in the Americas have been at the
forefront of this struggle. In this workshop, leaders of such
organizations describe the strategies they have used to struggle for an
education that promotes the formation of citizens with social commitment
and skills to resolve conflicts peacefully.
Sponsor Group: IDEA Network
Participants: Gisleidy Sosa (Cuba), President, Latin American and
Caribbean Students’ Organization; Mariluz Arriaga, Mexican section
Tri-national Coalition to Defend Public Education; Edwin Olivia,
(Honduras) President, Federation of Central American Teachers’
Organizations; Francisco Nenna, International Secretary, Confederation
of Education workers of the Argentine Republic; Roustan Job, (Trinidad
and Tobago) First Vice-President, Caribbean Union of Teachers; Amanda
Rincon, the Women’s Secretary of the Colombian Teacher’s Union- FECODE,
a union with the unfortunate distinction in the past few years of having
more members murdered than any other labour organization in the world.


3:00 - 7:00 pm             Organic Class-Consciousness in Colombia and
its Broader Goals                               Human Rights and
Impunity
                           Venue: Geography 100
Part One
Experiences of Campesino / Peasant Resistance in the Midst of State
Terrorism in Colombia
Description:  With the onset of interventionist plans such as Plan
Colombia, the Patriotic Plan and antiterrorist legislations, the violent
persecution against political opponents in Colombia has worsened and
with it, the already generalized Human Rights crisis.  In this context,
we focused on the work of the National Federation of Agricultural
Farming Unions, FENSUAGRO, the largest federation of farmers in
Colombia, which in coordination with indigenous sectors, of
Afro-Colombian communities, the working-class and progressive sectors of
society, struggles in defense of the interests of the impoverished rural
population and the people in general in the search for political
solutions and for the building of peace with social justice.
Sponsor Group: FENSUAGRO-CUT
Participant: Liliany Obando (Colombia) - National Director of Human
Rights / International Relations Commission of FENSUAGRO-CUT

Part Two
Indigenous Self-determination and Revolutionary Movements in Latin
America
Description: This presentation will touch on important lessons from
examples like that of the indigenous Miskitus in the remote north
eastern region of Nicaragua and on the external impediments to the
process of creating new and equitable social revolutions, particularly
in the face of low intensity counter-insurgency warfare.
Participant: Dr. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, professor in Ethnic Studies,
California State University East Bay

Part Three
Political Power in the Context of Internal Armed Conflict in Colombia
Description:  Examining the collusion between the US and Colombian
governments, the role of the armed forces, elite bands of paramilitary
assassins, and organisms of Justice which attempt to stiffle any
manifestation of opposition in Colombia.
Participant: Germán Hernandez – Human Rights Activist – Veterinarian,
involved in research on alternative crops and organizing with Campesino
and Afro-Colombian communities in Colombia
Part Four
Convergences & Contradictions of Social Movements in Colombia
Description: This presentation examines the points of convergences of an
emerging large variety of social movements  seeking distributive justice
and peace in the face of State structural violence. Sponsor Group:
Bolivarian Circle-Manuelita Saenz Participant:nchamah miller, Director
of International Relations- Network of Latin American Investigators for
Democracy and Peace, political science PhD candidate at York Universtiy.


Monday June 26th
9 – 5:30 pm     Latin American & Caribbean Plenary Part 2
                        Venue: Henry Angus 104, 226,33 UBC
                        *Note: Films will be shown all day in room 226


       9:00-10:30 am    New Scenarios for Peace Learning
Local educational policies towards Democracy and Culture of  Peace: The
practicum in Latin America           
                Venue: Henry Angus 33
Description: This interactive presentation will offer an analysis of
different practices developed on cooperation between local governments
and universities in Latin America toward Education for Democracy,
Culture of Peace and Human Rights. Emphasis is placed on how local and
national educational policies can create conditions under which the
formal educational system at all levels including the universities can
develop sustainable peace education
 Participants: Prof. Alicia Cabezudo (University of Rosario; Educating
Cities- Urban Society and Curriculum); Prof. Magnus Haavelsrud (Director
of International School program on Human Rights and Peace Education
called, My City and the World); Dra. Consuelo Vicideo, head of the
Educators for Peace of the Cuban Movement for Peace

       
        10:00am-12 pm   Venezuela's Proposal for Regional Integration,
ALBA vs. FTAA: Peace Through Integration
                  Venue: Henry Angus 104
Description: Another America is possible and it is beginning to develop
through the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean
(ALBA) - Venezuela's proposal for regional integration that addresses
social, cultural and economic axchange based on social justice and
equality, and counteracting the hegemonic neo-liberal model promoted by
the US0sponsored FTAA. This workshop explores the potential of ALBA to
transform the Americas through a dialogue with three panelists.
Participants: Gustavo Marquez, Minister of Regional Integration and fair
Trade, Venezuela; Benito lara, FMLN Member of the National Assembly, El
Salvador; Manueal Yepe, Secretary, MOVPAZ, Cuaba.
            


1:00pm-3:00 pm  The Movement to Close the School of the Americas

                Venue: Geography 100
Description: The School of the Americas is a U.S. army training school
for Latin American military officers based in Fort Benning, Georgia. The
graduates of the school are notorious for committing bizarre human
rights abuses, many eerily like those now being exposed at Guantanamo
and Abu-Grahib. Graduates include Noriega, Banzer, and those responsible
for the massacre of El Mozote and the assasination of Oscar Romero.
Participants will talk about the school and the strong, creative
movement to close it down. They will discuss implications for, and
connections to, other human rights struggles, as well as lessons that
other movements can learn from this work.
Participants: Eva Urrutia, filmmaker and co-founder of HIJOS (Hijos por
la Identidad y la Justicia contra el Olvido y el Silencio/ Children for
Identity and Justice Against Oblivion and Silence), made up of children
(now adults) of disappeared relatives; Father Bill Bichsel, a “prisoner
of conscience”, takes part in prison witness for those who have been
incarcerated for struggling to shut down the school. Based at the
Catholic Worker House in Washington; Andres Thomas Conteris works with
Nonviolence International and the Spanish Production of Democracy Now!
He recently led a delegation to Uruguay and Argentina which successfully
petitioned those governments to no longer send military to the SOA.
Co-producer of the documentary, Hidden In Plain Sight; Sara Koopman
coordinates Spanish interpretation at the vigils to close the school.
She recently did research for her MA on ways in which the movement
inadvertently reproduces structures of dominations.

3:30-5:30pm    "Focus on Women and Children in Vulnerable Situations"
                        
                           Venue: Henry Angus 104

Description: Lecture to create broader awareness of the consequences and
impacts of trafficking and sexually exploited children. Create a support
network with NGO and government institutions to advance preventative
strategies for Children’s Rights.
Participants: Dra. Maria Eugenia Vilareal, Director ECPAT (Guatemala);
Dora Giusti, Assistant Programme Officer, Child Protection,
UNICEF-Guatemala. Proposal by: ECPAT Guatemala

Please Note,
These events are FREE and ALL are welcome