Campus Peace Centers - a UN NGO Committee Project
May 12th, 2007
URI Global Council Trustee Deborah Moldow recently wrote to tell me about a new “Campus Peace Centers” project sponsored by the UN NGO Committee for Spirituality, Values & Global Concerns. These centers are a “gathering place for students to share information, inspiration, ideas, and projects for creating a culture of peace.” As such, they can provide an additional framework for campus-oriented Cooperation Circles to develop activities that move beyond learning about other religions and into active peace-making. The following article includes a brief interview with Deborah about the program; interested readers can download a flyer describing the program in more detail.
Mission Statement for the “Campus Peace Centers” Working Group:
The purpose of the Campus Peace Center project is to foster the development of a global, interconnected peace movement on college campuses. Members of the UN NGO Committee for Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns are exploring the means to encourage autonomous Campus Peace Centers by maintaining a website for the purpose of coordination among various Centers in the United States and worldwide, and will offer the resources available to us at the United Nations to widen the scope of peace-oriented collaboration.
This new Campus Peace Centers initiative looks like it could give a real boost to student groups interested in peace and justice — by providing a strong framework and support system, it could help bridge the gap between inspiration and action. What motivated its creation, and when?
The NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns is the first official NGO committee in the UN system to use the word “spirituality.” It has been a wonderful forum since its establishment in New York in 2004, mainly due to the dedicated efforts of Diane Williams, who has long been associated with URI as well.
The committee encourages smaller working groups on any topics that may interest members. The working group on Campus Peace Centers originally came together around an idea of Jonathan Granoff (another longtime friend of URI) to establish conflict mediation centers affiliated with the UN at major universities worldwide. We realized we could do little to advance this idea, which was more in the hands of the institutions. But we felt we could help motivate a grassroots student network with a web presence offering networking and resources, with special focus on UN issues.
Are there any colleges signed up at this point?
We are still in the early development stage, seeking an informal advisory council of interested faculty mentors and speaking with college students to help define the vision. The next step will be a web launch held at the UN in October.
As a URI Global Council member, how do you see the Campus Peace Centers program interacting with the URI Preamble, Purpose, and Principles? Another approach to this question is to ask — what would it look like for a student group to be both a Campus Peace Center and a URI Cooperation Circle?
A Campus Peace Center is intended to be a holistic gathering place for students interested in any of the components of a culture of peace, including activism, care for the environment, community service, and, of course, interfaith dialogue and activities. Thus, it would be a natural place for students to come together as a Cooperation Circle. The URI Preamble, Purpose and Principles would be an excellent resource for the web site, which will offer practical tools for creating a Campus Peace Center.
Can you tell me more about the UN NGO Committee for Spirituality, Values & Global Concerns?
Like the URI, the CSVGC has attracted members who are interested in peacebuilding on a level that transcends all barriers of religion, nationality or culture. Thus, it has become a beautiful community of representatives of various spiritual and ethical Non-Governmental Organizations. Its current chair is Audrey Kitagawa, who also serves as co-facilitator of URI-UN. You can see information on the various working groups at http://www.csvgc-ny.org