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| Istanbul, Turkey, the venue of the IPRA 25th General Conference |
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| Johan Galtung speaking at the 25th IPRA General Conference |
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| Dr. Herbert Rosana with Johan Galtung at the IPRA Conference |
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From IPRA Press Release:
IPRA Celebrates 50th Birthday with Big Conference in Istanbul, Turkey ---
2016 one to be held in Freetown, Sierra Leone
The International Peace Research Association(IPRA) celebrated its 50th
anniversary and the First World War Centenary in style as part of its
25th biennal General Conference on “Uniting For Peace: Buılding
Sustainable Peace Through Universal Values” hosted by Sakarya
University at the prestigious Hilton Bomonti Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey,
between August 11-15 2014.
The conference brought together about 550
peace researchers and few others interested in peace research from 94
countries across all the continents with about 600 papers presented in
146 sessions. A very colourful Turkish cultural music and dance
performance by the State Conservatory staff members of Sakarya
University kick-started the proceedings of the conference.
In her
opening and welcome address, IPRA co-Secretary General Dr Nesrin
Kenar, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Sakarya
University in Turkey, told participants that this conference “is not
just business as usual -- organizing plenary sessions, giving academic
peace research papers, and holding administrative meetings. It is also
about reflecting on all our achievements and challenges as an
organization in the past 50 years, and what lessons we have learned
during this period and how we intend to use them to build a better IPRA
in the future.”
Dr Kenar lamented the escalation of armed conflicts
in Turkey’s close neighbours such as Iraq, Syria, and most recently in
Gaza, and in Ukraine, which she described as “an arc of violence that is
tearing these regions and their people to shreds”. She noted that the
fact that the conference is happening at this time shows that peace
researchers have more work on their hands now more than ever before. She
added that with Turkey as the host country of this conference “is all
the more significant since it is the link between three continents and
surrounded by hot armed conflicts in the region”.
Dr Kenar
expressed hope that the stimulating discussions in the five plenaries:
Peace, Conflict and Evolutions; Transnationalism, Sustainable Peace, and
Human Security; Disarmament and Strategic Non-Violent Action; Political
Economy of Peace, Conflict and War; and The Future of Peace Research,
and research papers in the commissions, will address some of the biggest
challenges to global peace. She observed that the conference theme
presupposes the nexus between sustainable peace and universal values,
‘that is to say the attainment of universal values is a precondition for
sustainable peace, Violations of universal values which undermine the
attainment of sustainable peace can be either visible or invisible’, she
said while echoing Professor Johan Galtung conflict triangle. She,
however, noted that at the moment the focus of peace researchers is on
visible over invisible violence.
In concluding her remarks, Dr
Kenar extended warm appreciation on behalf of IPRA to the main sponsors
who made the conference possible. She singled out Sakarya University,
especially its Rector Professor Muzaffer Elmas, for special praise for
offering both moral and financial support in hosting the conference in
such a prestigious hotel. She also expressed warm thanks to the Turkish
Prime Ministry Promotion Fund, Prime Ministry Turkish Cooperation and
Coordination Agency – TİKA, ZIRAAT BANK, TURKISH AIRLINES, IPRA
Foundation and TODA Institute for their massive financial support,
without which the conference would not have happened in this special
way.
In his opening remarks, Sierra Leonean-born IPRA
co-Secretary General Dr Ibrahim Seaga Shaw, Senior Lecturer in Media and
Politics at the Northumbria University in the UK, expanded the
discussion on the sustainable peace—universal values nexus to Lisa
Schirch’s concept of justpeace, which is a hybrid of human rights and
peace. He argued that justpeace goes beyond efforts to reduce direct
violence: “Justpeacebuilding efforts prioritise the proper
transformation of principles and values over a long period of time
through an organised system of distributive justice where resources and
decision-making are shared”.
Dr Shaw approached the concept of
justpeace from the perspective of what he called the indivisible First
Generation Political and Civil Rights and Second Generation Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights thereby emphasising the importance of the two
sets of rights. He, however, lamented that the reason why we are
seeing a vicious circle of violence, especially in the developing world
is because most of the time focus has been placed on taking care of the
Political and Civil Rights of all parties to the conflict but ignore
their Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Drawing on examples in
the escalation of conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians, and in
Syria and Iraq, Dr Shaw said: “In this way it is often easy to dismiss
the weak and the poor as monsters trying to create disorder for the
strong and rich as victims, without trying to find out the extent to
which these so-called ‘monsters’ may have been created by the very
unjust structures set up by the so-called ‘victims’ ”, He argued that
in order to avoid a situation of a vicious circle of violence and
achieve a kind of sustainable peace, interventions to prevent or resolve
conflicts must be based on the principle of justpeace for all parties
to the conflict be they ‘victims’ or ‘monsters’.
Dr Shaw
concluded his remarks by expressing hope that “by the end of this
conference participants will return home better equipped with knowledge
on how to use their peace research work to address the topical issues of
the conference such as those related to post Cold War political
ideology, geopolitics, geo-economics’, international and regional
cooperation on intra-state and cross-border conflicts, climate change,
inequality, poverty, arms race etc.”
In his warm welcome
address, the Rector of Sakarya University, Professor Dr Muzaffer Elmas
noted that crises can happen at any time in any where in the World.
“Today, in many parts of the world, civil society suffers because of
violent conflicts and war. We condemn all kind of violence all over the
World and recently in Gaza”. Professor Elmas referred to education as
the key to uniting nations, bringing human beings closely together, and
above all contributing to building a culture of peace. He emphasised
that education is important in combating poverty and promoting peace and
human rights. He added: “Education for peace implies an active concept
of peace through values, life skills and knowledge in a spirit of
equality, respect, empathy, understanding and mutual appreciation among
individuals, groups and nations.”
Professor Elmas wrapped up his
speech by emphasising how Sakarya University supports peaceful
resolution of conflicts and practice of non-violence through education,
dialogue and cooperation. “Sakarya University gives high importance to
the agenda of internationalisation to create unity among cultures and
implement universal values in its education policies to contribute to
more peaceful environment in Turkey and in the World”, he added.
In another welcome speech, member of the Turkish Constitutional Court
Prof. Dr. Engin Yıldırım spoke extensively about the principles and
instruments within the international Human Rights Charter of the United
Nations that provide legal safeguards against violence. However, he was
quick to acknowledge the shortcomings when it comes to the political
will of nation states to implement these principles and instruments for
the benefit of the global culture of peace.
In her keynote
video address screened at the opening ceremony, the Special
Representative of the UN Secretary General on Violence Against Women in
Conflict, Mrs Haja Zainab Hawa Bangura reminded participants that one of
the causes of armed conflicts is often the marginalisation of women,
and yet when there is an outbreak of conflicts they are often on the
receiving end of the worst human rights violations. Mrs Bangura, who
formerly served as both Foreign and Health minister in Sierra Leone,
recalled her experience working to empower women victims of the
1991-2002 Civil War in Sierra Leone, and in post-conflict Liberia where
some women victims of human rights violations became very successful
peace activists.
In his keynote speech, Professor of Peace
Studies, Johann Galtung said: “We have come of age, at 50; and I am the
only surviving founder from 1964 in London, capital of a foggy island
in the North Sea. Now we meet in the sunny capital of another empire;
bridging three continents. One cloned itself all over; the other was
more an Islamic umma, a community of togetherness-and-sharing, with
millet islands of tolerance. And now: the superb IPRA program.”
Professor Galtung said what they wanted in 1964 when they founded IPRA
was to push for peace research to be recognized as a social science,
member of the UNESCO International Social Science Council, and to do
this they needed to by pass opposition from Western universities. “We
got it. Elise Boulding–role of culture, women–very active at the
founding, saving IPRA several times afterward. Her husband Kenneth–the
Image, stable peace, economic evolution–was in the background and Bert
Röling–the youngest judge at the Tokyo Tribunal, disarmament, law for
peace–became the first IPRA Secretary General. And then Galtung–at the
time the health studies parallel and positive/negative peace.”
Professor Galtung said he and others who started IPRA were from the
Northwestern part of the world; however, he acknowledged that IPRA has,
“like the world, moved East and South, with a Turkish Delight and a
Sierra Leone Diamond as secretaries, with a Prognosis: we will move on
to Islam and China–India still needs time to grow with our Guiding
Spirit: Gandhi. Then back to a more modest Northwest, circling on, as we
should”.
On the issue of Uniting for peace, part of the theme of
the conference, Professor Galtung cautioned: “But we differ, disagree?
Incredible how far we can come if we identify and focus on the good and
the positive in Kiev, Donetsk and Moscow, or husband and wife in broken
marriages rather than what is wrong, and build new relations on that.
Peace is a relation, not attributes of the parties. So also for
conferences: focus on the best in paper, praise it; not on the dubious
and missing.”
Turkey, the host country of the conference, is
geographically located at the centre of Afro-Eurasia where both
opportunities and risks interact profoundly. Turkey is committed to
preventive diplomacy and the resolution of conflicts through peaceful
means. Turkey also intends to host a center in Istanbul which can be
used by the UN for its mediation-related activities.
Turkey’s
support and extraordinary contribution to the 25th IPRA General
Conference is a symbol of Turkey’s peaceful foreign policy and the
efforts for the preservation of peace and stability at the regional and
international levels. İt is important to note that in the past 50 years
of IPRA history, this is the first time an IPRA conference has been
fully funded by a government.
Turkey is a candidate to one of the
two non-permanent seats allocated to the Western European States and
Others Group (WEOG) at the United Nations Security Council for the term
2015-2016. The elections for this term will be held during the 69th
session of the UN General Assembly in 2014.
The two IPRA
Secretaries-General, Dr. Nesrin Kenar and Dr. Ibrahim Seaga Shaw who
co-ordinated the 25 IPRA conference in Turkey, were re-elected at the
organisation’s administrative meeting on August 14 during the conference
to serve a second term of two years. Both made commitments to work
together to continue the restructuring of IPRA and organise the next
IPRA conference in November 2016 in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
