Organizer: Further Activities

Organizer,  Directors & Advisors,  Sponsors,  Team

 Imperial Palace / Hofburg

Gala of the Vienna Peace Summit 1999 and Establishment of the Foundation for the International Peace University

The Vienna Peace Summit`s social highlight will be a Gala taking place at the Great Festival Hall of the Imperial Palace on July 3, 1999, from 7 p.m. till midnight. The event includes a reception followed by a special program with the Nobel Peace Laureates, artists and prominent participants of the Vienna Peace Summit as well as a communal gala dinner.

At the gala the results of the Vienna Peace Summit 1999 will be presented to opinion leaders from politics, economy, science, religion, culture, and the media, and further discussed with the partcipants of the Summit. On this occasion the non-profit Foundation for the International Peace University will be established with the following objects:

a) to follow the tracks of the Vienna Peace Summit 1999 and to garuantee the implementation of it`s results, in particular
 

• The development of action drafts and proposals for governments, the European Commission and the United   Nations
• The realization of further courses and pratical studies in schools and universities
• Impetus to businesses and the development of innovative work forms
• The support of international relations to contribute to a peaceful understanding between peoples
• The support of civil societies, social responsibility, ethical ways of acting and the co-creation of change
• Involvement of the media through media ethics programs
• Documentation in print, AV, www

b) to support national and international institutions with the appropriation of financial resources and contacts

c) to establish as a mediator new networks between private and public institutions, associations and companies for the concentration of powers and the enabling of synergies and co-operation

d) to sensitize the public for the work of existing institutions to reach new target groups

The Foundation for the International Peace University will be ideologically, politically and religiously independent. It`s activities will be unselfish and not directed towards profit. It will exclusivly and directly pursue non-profit aims.

Governmental law demands a capital stock of ATS 1.000.000 (DM 142.000/SFr 115.000/Euro 72.000) to establish the foundation on July 3, 1999. To reach this aim trust accounts have been set up in Austria, Germany and Switzerland at which donations can be received to be used exclusively for the foundation`s establishment. We hope that many people will contribute to the non-profit foundation with smaller or larger donations. If the needed capital stock cannot be reached until July 3, 1999, all amounts received at the trust accounts will be repaid to the donors.

The legal steps to establish the foundation are handled by the President of the Lawyer`s Chamber of Vienna, Dr. Klaus Hoffmann, who is at disposal for any questions and further information.

Among the honorary founding members who garuantee for the foundation`s success will be Nobel Peace Laureates and personages including Dr. Oscar Arias, Franz Beckenbauer, Frederik De Klerk, Jochen Gerz, Gyula Horn, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Edzard Reuter, Dr. Horst Teltschik and Jody Williams.
 

Program of the Vienna Peace Summit Gala on July 3, 1999
 

Reception of the participants and guests of honor

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Commemoration of Lord Yehudi Menuhin

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Presentation of the results of the Vienna Peace Summit 1999 through the rapporteurs of the working groups and additional remarks by the Nobel Peace Laureates

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Three-course gala dinner and possibility to discuss the results of the Vienna Peace Summit 1999 with the Nobel Peace Laureates and international opinion leaders from politics, economy, science, culture, religion, and the media

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Ceremonial act with the Nobel Peace Laureates and the foundations`s honorary members to establish the non-profit Foundation for the International Peace University to implement to results of the Vienna Peace Summit 1999

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Desert and artistic program with the participation of Uwe Kröger, Erika Pluhar, Konstantin Wecker and special guests
 
 

Projects of the Foundation for the International Peace University
 

Award of the Sir Sigmund Sternberg Prize
 
Shortly after the Vienna Peace Summit 1999 the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will receive the Sir Sigmund Sternberg Prize of the Foundation for the International Peace University for his just, last and effective contribution to inner, social and outer peace, international understanding and the protection of human rights. The prize will be awarded to Kofi Annan at a special ceremony in July in Vienna. On this occasion the ethical action plans for governments drafted by the participants of the Vienna Peace Summit 1999 will be personally handed over to the Secretary-General.

The prize was dedicated by Sir Sigmund Sternberg, Chairman of the International Council for Christians and Jews and Founder of the Sternberg Centre for Judaism in London. It is awarded every second year to a non-profit organization or an individual who has contributed to peace, disarmament and international security in an outstanding way.

For the first time the prize was awarded to the Community of St. Egidio on October 6, 1997, at the city hall of Padua for its mediation in political conflicts, its contribution to the interfaith dialogue and its social service projects. In the past three years St. Egidio has given hospitality to 50,000 immigrants at their community centre in Rome, its soup kitchen has fed 70,000 homeless and refugees. The community has engendered development and emergency aid programs, particularly in Africa, the Balcans and Latin America. It has also been the official negotiator in the peace talks for Mozambique. The award of the Sir Sigmund Sternberg Prize to the Community of St. Egidio has been the start of a co-operation with the Society of Founders of the International Peace University to establish joint courses and practical programs on "Interfaith Dialogue" which are offered in Berlin and Assisi to support international understanding through non-violent forms of conflict prevention.
 

The former warship "Golden Bear" in California: Future US-Campus of the Peace University
 
Directly after the Vienna Peace Summit the renovation process of the former warship "Golden Bear" into the future US-campus of the Peace University starts with an opening celebration on August 7, 1999, in Oakland, California. With the support of Congressman Ronald V. Dellums and signed into law by President Bill Clinton the government of the United States has donated the ship with a capacity for 1,500 people to the International Peace University and the ArtShip Foundation. After the 2nd World War the "Golden Bear" was used as a training ship for the California Maritime Academy. Now it will be transformed into a peace and multicultural center with classrooms, studios, a theatre and cabins for students to live on the ship. With an opening celebration the Nobel Laureates Dr. Oscar Arias, Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, Shimon Peres, Prof. Joseph Rotblat, Prof. Wole Soyinka and Betty Williams will inaugurate the transformation process of the "Golden Bear" on August 7, 1999.
 

The former benedictine monastery "Abbaye De La Grasse" in the South of France: Future European Campus of the Peace University
 
The former benedictine monastery "Abbaye De La Grasse" will serve as the future European campus of the Peace University. Located between Montpellier and Toulouse the monastery was founded by Charles the Great in 798 and was for a long time one the most influential monasteries in the South of France. In the main building with a dwelling space of 8,500 m2 classrooms, apartements and a dormitory for 130 people will be created. Events for up to 1,000 people can take place at the monastery`s inner court. A library with an Internet-forum will be established in the old tower of the abbey.
 

Semester for Personal Orientation
 
Filled with new meaning and content, the former warship, a state symbol for reaching out to "keep outer peace", as well as the former monastery, a church symbol to "keep inner peace", shall become contemporary peace symbols for the new millenium. Therefore the Foundation for the International Peace University will develop a semester for orientation in co-operation with academic and social institutions, associations and companies. This semester is especially directed towards young people following high school prior to beginning further special education such as university studies or an apprenticeship. It is also directed towards people who lost their jobs or a sense of purpose in their present occupations. The semester seeks to offer orientation for an authentic link of profession and vocation, for creative forms of work that correspond to the talents and capacities of the individual and that can be connected with an experience of sense.
 

Early Warning System for Conflict Prevention and Conflict Solution
 
The Peace University will use its network of 17,700 international organizations and representatives in the fields of politics, economy, science, culture, religion, and the media to create an independent board of experts to develop an early warning system for intelligent conflict prevention and conflict solution. The Peace University board of experts shall co-operate with the United Nations` Secretary-General to draft ethical action plans for governments on the basis of a creative management of conflicts and interdisciplinary thinking. The process- and action-oriented work of the board of experts will be available and transparent to a broad public through the Internet. It shall lead to the establishment of an independent media agency network promoting ethical values for the world of media to contribute to peaceful transformations of conflicts.
 

Further projects:
 
Among further projects of the foundation range the courses of the International Peace College with the following main topics:
 

• Education towards tolerance - Non-violence as a basis for social and inner peace (Program coordination: Prof. Helm Stierlin, social scientist at Heidelberg University, and Betty Williams, Nobel peace laureate)
• Peace Journalism - Ethical criteria for crises and war reporting to contribute to peaceful tranformations of conflicts (Program director: Prof. Johan Galtung, president of Transcend Peace Network)
• Inner and outer peace - Spirituality, religion, culture, and peace in the 21st century (Program director: Dr. Linda Groff, professor for political science and future studies at California State University)
• Interfaith Dialogue: Towards a new ethics in a common Europe (Program director: Prof. Michael von Brück, dean at the protestant-theologian faculty at Munich University, in co-operation with the commissioner for foreigners of the Berlin senate and the Franciscian Centre for Interreligious Dialogue in Assisi)
• Evolution of consciousness - Developments of evolutionary ways of sight and action in the face of global and multidimensional conflicts (Program director: Prof. Ervin Laszlo, president of the Club of Budapest, co-founder of the Club of Rome)
• Communication and new media (Program co-ordinator: Prof. Ivan Havel, director of the Center for Theoretical Studies at Charles University Prague)
• Perspectives of work - Revision of the modern concept of work (Program coordination: Kurt Eicher, entrepreneur, and Marie-Luise Schwarz-Schilling, consultant)
• Cultures of collaboration - Interdisciplinary studies in art creating processes (Program director: Slobodan Dan Paich, president of the ArtShip Foundation in Oakland, and Ismael Ivo, ballet director at the German National Theatre in Weimar)

Detailled course information is available at www.peace-university.net

The courses will be complemented by study journeys connecting inner and outer travelling. Personal encounters with teachers and members of the Peace University in India, South Africa, the United States and other countries will be at the core of these journeys.
 
 

Projects proposed by the Participants of the Vienna Peace Summit 1999 for the Foundation for the International Peace University
 

Advancing the Commission of the Nobel Laureates` International Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers: Developing European and Grass-Roots Support
 
Dr. Oscar Arias, patron of the International Peace University, has convened a group of 16 fellow Nobel Peace Laureates to endorse an International Code of Conduct an Arms Transfers. It was drafted by an international group of arms control specialists from organizations, such as the British American Security Information Council, Saferworld, Amnesty International, Demilitarization for Democracy, the Council on Economic Priorities and the American Friends Service Committee, and signed at a ceremony in New York City in May of 1997.

The International Code, inspired in part by initiatives in the European Union and the United States, is meant to provide a comprehensive system of moral restraints on the arms trade. It would require that arms-importing governments uphold humanitarian law and internationally standards of democracy, human rights, and peaceful international relations. In addition, the code would prohibit the transfer of weapons to states that spend more on their militaries than on health and education, or the introduction of significantly new levels of technology into unstable regions. This dual emphasis on human rights and human development makes the International Code of Conduct a crucial initiative for advancing the human security of millions of people around the world. As part of its broader peacebuilding program, the Foundation for the International Peace University should help to realize this potential by vigorously promoting the Code at both the grassroots and diplomatic levels in the following ways:
 

• Develop a strong and active worldwide network of NGO´s and activists to promote national, regional and international codes of conduct using the Laureates` Code as a benchmark. In the United States, actively campaign for the McKinney-Rohrabacher Code of Conduct already approved by the House of Representatives. In Europe, continue to work with partner NGO´s to strengthen the EU code in the vital areas of transparency, brokering and end-use certification;
• Ensure that the call for an international code of conduct becomes the principal international campaign initiative of LANSA, the International Action Network on Small Arms. Work towards ensuring a stronger voice for the South within LANSA, particularly from those Central American and African nations that have experienced most immediately the horrors of the light weapon crisis;
• Convene regional conferences to bring together NGOs and activists from the network to launch regional working groups in favor of codes of conduct;
• Engage the Commission of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates to speak more actively on behalf of the Code of Conduct and coordinate speaking engagements and diplomatic meetings around their travel schedules. Gain letters of support for the code project from at least 30 other, non-Peace Laureates;
• Engage the media in major arms producing nations to promote an International Code through opinion editorials and news articles;
• Identify and engage prominent leaders of public opinion and representatives to support the call for an International Code of Conduct;
• Identify and engage, through close co-operation with the NGO network, sympathetic governments that will endorse a Code and help advance the diplomatic efforts towards an eventual convention establishing an international code of conduct on arms transfers;
• Produce attractive campaign materials that can be adapted by the regional working groups to lobby for codes of conduct. These materials will include posters, flyers, brochures, information booklets, and sample newspaper advertisement, among others;
• Secure the support of at least 500 NGO´s and prominent individuals from around the world for the code effort. Solicit particularly the participation of Asian, African and Latin American partners in this and other international peacebuilding initiatives.

Detailled information on the International Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers is available at www.arias.or.cr
 

Promoting Communication between Conflicting Factions within Divided Societies in Africa
 
Frederik Willem De Klerk, patron of the International Peace University, has proposed a co-operation with his own foundation in South Africa dedicated to the development of multiparty democracy in the African continent. Areas of mutual projects could include:
 

I. The economic integration of Africa into the globalization process

1. Action drafts for the European Union to take steps to promote the economic development of Africa and its integration into the global economy by
 

• examining the feasibility of eliminating or reducing the outstanding foreign dept of African countries, particular for those states which have adopted responsible economic policies; and by
• taking steps as soon as possible to ensure that exports from African countries enjoy the most favourable possible access to European markets;

2. Action drafts for the International Monetary Fund and other appropriate international and economic organizations to investigate ways and means of limiting the damage done to emerging economies, and particular those in Africa, by uncontrolled speculation and the volatility in international financial markets;

3. Action drafts for the appropriate international economic and trade organizations to investigate the hardships caused to developing countries, and particular those in Africa, by seriously deteriorating terms of trade for many of their main exports, with a view to taking steps to stabilize and improve the situation;

4. Action drafts for the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and other appropriate international organizations to intensify their efforts to assist and encourage African governments to adopt and adhere to economic, financial and fiscal policies and approaches which are most likely to promote rapid economic growth and development in their societies.
 

II. The promotion of peace and stability in divided societies

Action drafts for the United Nations to hold an international conference on societies which are divided on ethnic, cultural or religious lines with a view to

1) examining the nature and scope of such conflicts throughout the world;

2) estimating the human and economic cost of such conflicts;

3) assesing the threat which they pose to international peace;

4) identifying the causes of such conflicts and the methods and approaches by which they may be resolved.
 

III. Coverage of African affairs by the international media

Action drafts for the international media to increase and intensify its coverage of developments in Africa, particularly with regard to the conflicts and economic and developmental problems experienced by the continent, but also of the successes that are being achieved in many African societies.
 
 
Further proposed projects in brief
 

• Information and research on the human`s early developing stages for the prevention of psychosocial crises and conflicts
• Research on how families in modern, complex and open societies prepare children for expected social changes and at the same time provide a base for their stability and integrity
• Revision of history text books and development of new information technology programs, social service programs, programs in ethics, ecology and environmental care, development studies, human rights issues and social anthropology and world religions as standard courses weighing the same importance as classical subjects, such as maths and languages
• Creating, supporting and evaluating multi-cultural exchange programs for partner families and partner schools allowing young people to learn languages and communication skills and to gain background information and understanding of different cultures and religions through an "insider" view
• Mobilizing education and training effort in the interests of those adults with low levels of education and qualifications, and those who must renew their personal competencies on a lifelong basis, in order to facilitate the best adaptation possible to new employment conditions and the development of the learning society
• Setting up and maintaining a website featuring online educational programs (seminars, discussions, contacts, forums, etc.) on peace research, conflict solution strategies, background information on religions and cultures, and inviting entries for grants for innovative research into communication techniques that could be applied to mediation in inter-cultural and inter-religious conflicts
• Promoting a pledge of scientists similar to the Hippocratic oath, committing scientists to high ethical standards, rigorous quality control of their findings, open access to their knowledge and public accountability
• Researching, discussing and promoting new concepts of work, creating part time work programs for mothers and fathers and sensitizing the economy for the necessity of family-friendly measures
• Documentation of positive examples for concrete integration measures for foreign workers in companies at operational level
• Appeal to Muslim governments to stop ideologizing Islam in the sense of changing the old schools of interpretation, to stop disseminating non-civilized viewpoints on the role of women, to stop tendencies of uniformation, to keep distance from all acts of violence in the name of religion and to adopt the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights
• Action drafts and elaboration of an adequate legal (including taxation) framework for a more intense and sustainable co-operation between state authorities, economic actors and civil society as a triangle of responsibility to transfer or share various tasks ranging from education, culture, social welfare to local development
• Careful analysis of the terms "refugees", "asylants", "desserteurs" and "immigrants" and action drafts for a more human rights oriented legislation
• Establishing regional, national and international ideologically, politically and religiously independent "Value Commissions"
• Strengthening the participation of youth in political decision-making processes by creating influential political forums for young people and by including them in "adult" forums
• Development of a code for a careful political language dealing with current-events
• Joint projects with deaf and dumb persons to become aware of language beyond words and to use it for creative forms of conflict management and frontier-crossing co-operations
• Discourse and elaboration of a manifest outlining the chances, risks and responsibilities of a united Europe in the era of globalization for a broad public
• Action drafts for a reform of the United Nations strenghtening its legal authority