Launch of Civil Paths to Peace, the Report of the Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding
31 October 2007
Civil Paths to Peace is the result of a mandate from Commonwealth Heads of Government to look into the causes of conflict, violence and extremism in Commonwealth countries.
The report by the Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding chaired by the Nobel laureate Professor Amartya Sen will be launched on 9 November 2007 in London.
It focuses on the problem of group-based violence and its impact on communities, advocating solutions based on individuals’ multiple identities. This marks a departure from cultural or ‘civilisational’ explanations of world conflict.
Civil Paths to Peace argues that the solution to conflicts within the Commonwealth should be rooted in the association’s agreed principles of human rights, democracy, gender equality, the rule of law and a transparent and accountable political culture.
It recognises that the Commonwealth’s focus and successful track record on promoting dialogue and consensus-building has a renewed urgency. Civil paths to peace are the preferred and, the Commission argues, more effective approach to dealing with conflicts, as opposed to military routes which can have a devastating impact on civilian lives and destroy communities.
Recommendations include new forms of political participation, an emphasis on non-sectarian non-parochial education that expands rather that reduces the reach of understanding, and greater support to young people, who represent over half of the Commonwealth’s two billion citizens.
The report will be launched in the company of Professor Amartya Sen, and fellow Commissioners including Lord John Alderdice and H E Mrs Joan Rwabyomere at 10.30am on Friday 9 November, at Marlborough House, Pall Mall, London, SW1Y 5HX.
Note to Editors: For further information, please contact Yvonne Chin, at y.chin@commonwealth.int or 020 7747 6514.
The Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding comprises:
Professor Amartya Sen (India) – Chairperson - is Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University. Until recently he was the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He has served as President of the Econometric Society, the Indian Economic Association, the American Economic Association and the International Economic Association. He formerly served as Honorary President of OXFAM and is now its Honorary Advisor. Born in India, Sen studied at Presidency College and at Trinity College. His previous posts include the Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford University, and Professor of Economics at Delhi University and at the London School of Economics. Among the awards Amartya Sen has received are the Bharat Ratna (the highest honour awarded by the President of India), the Eisenhower Medal, the George C. Marshall Award, the Brazilian Ordem do Merito Cientifico (gra-Cruz), Companion of Honour (U.K.), the Edinburgh Medal, and the Nobel Prize in Economics. His last book is Identity and Violence, published by Norton and Penguin.
Rt Hon Lord John Alderdice (United Kingdom) was from 1987 to 1998 leader of Northern Ireland's cross-community Alliance Party, and played a key role in the negotiation of the 1998 Belfast Agreement. He was the first Speaker of the new Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998 until 2004, and was then appointed as one of four international monitoring commissioners overseeing security normalization in Ireland. He sits on the Liberal Democrat benches in the House of Lords, and since 2005 has been the elected President of Liberal International - the world-wide federation of liberal political parties. He runs the Centre for Psychotherapy in Belfast and is a Visiting Professor in Psychiatry and Joint Chairman of the Critical Incident Analysis Group at the University of Virginia, with a special interest in the psychology of terrorism and violent political conflict.
Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah (Ghana) is Laurence S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. He has published widely in African and African-American literary and cultural studies, and in 1992, Oxford University Press published In My Father's House, which deals, in part, with the role of African and African-American intellectuals in shaping contemporary African cultural life. His most recent publications include The Ethics of Identity (2004) and Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (2006).
Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson (Canada) is an accomplished journalist and until 2005 she served as the 26th Governor General of Canada: she was the first Chinese Canadian and second woman to hold this position. She was also the first (and thus far only) Governor General to be awarded the Order of Canada prior to taking office. Clarkson is well known for her work in broadcasting, having hosted and produced several shows for the CBC between 1964 and 1982.
Dr Noeleen Heyzer (Singapore) is the first executive director from the South to head the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the leading operational agency within the United Nations to promote women’s empowerment and gender equality. She played a critical role in the Security Council’s adoption of Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. Previously, a policy adviser to Asian governments, in 1994-95 she played a key role in the preparatory process for the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, including organising 1000 NGOs in the Asia Pacific region to develop the first ever NGO Action Plan. Dr. Heyzer has been a founding member of numerous regional and international women’s networks and has received several awards for leadership including the Dag Hammarskjöld medal in 2004.
Dr Kamal Hossain (Bangladesh) is a former Minister of Law and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh and is credited with being one of the principal authors of his country's National Constitution. Co-patron (and formerly Chair), of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, and formerly UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan, he has recently been highlighting the plight of Afghan refugees and the need for international aid.
Elaine Sihoatani Howard (Tonga) is the Executive Director of Tonga National Youth Congress (Nuku’alofa, Tonga), and Chairperson of the Commonwealth Youth Programme - South Pacific Regional Youth Caucus (RYC) (Honiara, Solomon Islands). She was awarded: Winner - Best Original Research Presentation at International Development Conference of New Zealand 2004, and Overall University Winner, University of Auckland Postgraduate Research Exposition 2004.
Professor Wangari Muta Maathai (Kenya) is the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize 2004. An academic, Professor Maathai's role as an environmental campaigner began in 1977 when she formed an organization - primarily of women - known as the Green Belt Movement – which mobilized poor women to plant some 30 million trees across Africa. Having been elected to parliament with an overwhelming 98% of the vote in 2002, Professor Wangari Maathai was subsequently appointed by the president, as Assistant Minister for Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife in Kenya's ninth parliament.
The Honourable Ralston (Rex) Milton Nettleford OM (Jamaica) better known as Rex Nettleford is a Jamaican scholar, social critic and choreographer. A former Rhodes Scholar he is currently a Vice Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies where he pursued a first degree in History before proceeding to postgraduate studies at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. As a creative artist he founded in 1962 the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica which under his direction has done much to incorporate traditional Jamaican/Caribbean music and movement into a formal balletic repertoire. He is the author of several books including Mirror Mirror: Identity Race and Protest in Jamaica and in 1971 compiled, edited, annotated and introduced the speeches and writings of Norman Manley in Manley and the New Jamaica. Nettleford established himself as a serious public historian and social critic and was awarded the Order of Merit by the State in recognition of his cultural and scholarly achievements. He was later appointed an ambassador-at-large by his native Jamaica.
HE Mrs Joan Rwabyomere (Uganda) is High Commissioner of Uganda to the UK and Ireland. As a qualified lawyer, she has worked extensively in both business and government. Her positions have included being Vice-Chairman of Board of Directors, National Enterprises Corporation (1999-2000); Deputy-Director General, External Security (1996-1998); Minister of State for Agriculture (1995-1996); Director, Uganda Electricity Board (1989-1995); Chairman, Board of Directors, Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (1989-1995); Delegate to the EU-ACP Joint Assembly (1989-1995); and a Member of Parliament (1989 – 1996). Mrs Rwabyomere took up the position of High Commissioner to the UK having been High Commissioner of Uganda to Nigeria from 2001 – 2005. She has four children.
Mrs Lucy Turnbull (Australia) is an Australian businesswoman and former Lord Mayor of Sydney. For many years she worked a commercial lawyer and in investment banking. She is a member of the board of the Redfern Waterloo Authority, which was established in 2005 to assist the NSW government to develop a comprehensive plan (social and spatial) for the Redfern -Waterloo area of Sydney, one of the most socio-economically disadvantaged suburbs in Australia. From 1999-2004 she was a member of the Central Sydney Planning Committee. She chairs the Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal in Sydney, is a member of the board of governors of the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, a respiratory and sleep research institute. She is a board member of Melbourne IT Limited, a publicly listed internet services company and is a board member in several other private companies in the technology and financial services industries.
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