Rest of June Dates
Dear Peace Information Network,
As I am going to be away from my computer for 3 weeks, I am going to have to give three weeks of dates in one big email! I hope you will keep them in mind as the days come along. Some of these have been very kindly researched and provided by Steve Nation snation@earthlink.net and I have re-spaced and put them into pretty colours. Some I have created myself. Sorry it is so long, but hopefully you will find it interesting.
Saturday June 17 *World Day to Combat Desertification & Drought
http://www.unccd.int/main.php
Up to one quarter of the world's surface is covered by dryland areas. The fragile environment of these areas is under serious threat - deserts are spreading at an alarming rate, and drought increasingly prevalent. More than 135 million people – the equivalent to the population of Germany and France combined - are at risk of being displaced as a consequence of desertification.
June 17th commemorates the anniversary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. The Day reminds us of the serious threat to the health of the planet, and of a vast array of initiatives being undertaken in an effort to prevent the spread of deserts. It is also a Day to focus on the important themes of the International Year.
There is an increasing recognition of the need to reverse the spread of deserts if the Millennium Development Goals are to be met.
Desertification, in the words of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, is one of the world’s most alarming processes of environmental degradation. The issue is often obscured, however, by a common misperception: that it’s a natural problem of advancing deserts in faraway developing countries. In fact, Desertification is about land degradation: the loss of the land’s biological productivity, caused by human-induced factors and climate change.
What does it mean for humanity that during this period when we are in process of making the transition into the Aquarian Age our unsustainable lifestyles and cultures are producing the spread of deserts. What is the significance of deserts in this transition period?
The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is seen as a key instrument to deliver the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that must be met by 2015. The MDGs are the most comprehensive strategy ever put forward for combating global poverty.
"Desertification stands at the root of persistent poverty in Africa, Asia and Latin America. For millions of people around the globe, losing productive land means entering the vicious poverty cycle", Hama Arba Diallo, the Executive Secretary of the UNCCD said. "Desertification poses a threat to the entire global community, as farmers in the South are forced to seek a way of living in the North. Socio- and environmental equilibria are at stake."
For News about the Day check: http://www.unccd.int/publicinfo/june17/2005/menu.php
Look out of a window and you view a world in the thrall of climatic upheaval. Although nothing can be seen, the world is undergoing an environmental shift of a type and scale to rival a geological cataclysm - and one of the most rapid ever to overtake the Earth. To confront it we need a parallel change in our inner world, our world of perception and understanding.
Norman Myers
2006 IS: INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF DESERTS & DESERTIFICATION http://www.iydd.org/
Tuesday June 20 *World Refugee Day
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/events/opendoc.pdf?tbl=EVENTS&id=4436956e2
2006 theme: Giving 19 Million Refugees Reason to Hope. A day to reflect on the scope of the refugee problem (there are some 19 million refugees under the care of the UN High Commission for Refugees); the immense personal, family and community suffering experienced by refugees; and the opportunities which the refugee crisis presents all peoples to act on their sense of interdependence and compassion.
It takes courage to be a refugee. Courage not to give up hope and to make the most of the hand that has been dealt. Courage to start a new life against daunting odds, eventually to become contributing and enriching members of society once more.
Let's celebrate World Refugee Day as a salute to the indomitable spirit and courage of the world's refugees.
What is World Refugee Day? 20 June, marks World Refugee Day. This day is celebrated all around the world with events such as conferences, stand up comedies, concerts and memorial services. 20 June originally marked Africa Refugee Day. In 2000, this same date was adopted by a Special UN General Assembly Resolution as World Refugee Day in an expression of solidarity with Africa, host to the largest population of refugees in the world.
What is World Refugee Day trying to do?
...raise awareness about the plight of refugees and displaced persons
...highlight the situation of “forgotten” refugees and refugee situations
...reinforce the obligation of states to protect refugees and Internally Displaced Persons
Who is World Refugee Day for?
At the start of 2003, UNHCR estimated the number of people of concern to the organisation to be 20.6 million, of which 10.4 million were refugees. Most of these refugees and displaced persons live in dangerous situations, living in an unbearable state of limbo, with no way forward and no way back.Developing countries are host to an estimated 78% of the world’s refugees, many of them struggling to protect the rights of their own citizens as well. A tiny percentage of refugees are resettled to places where they can make a new start and break out of the limbo that they were in. Others return to their country of origin, but are often pressed to do so before they are ready or before their country is ready to receive them. Some are able to stay in their country of asylum, to live and to work, and to enjoy legal rights like the citizens of the country.In the developed world, in countries like those in Western Europe, North America, or Australia, it is getting harder and harder for refugees to find protection. These governments have introduced restrictions like stringent visa requirements, penalties on airlines that bring asylum-seekers into a country, and detention. These restrictions are designed to deter people from coming to their countries to seek protection. World Refugee Day is a time to think about the plight and rights of refugees. It is a time to recall that for a refugee, every day is refugee day, when her rights are too often denied. And it is a time to act.
http://web/amnesty.org/pages/refugees-refugeeday-eng
Wednesday June 21 World Peace & Prayer Day
http://wolakota.org/wppd.html
World Peace and Prayer Day (WPPD) is an initiative taken by the indigenous people of North America. It is a spiritual ceremony that strives to unite all peoples in prayer, asking for Peace and healing for Mother Earth. It is performed by Chief Arvol Looking Horse, together with various other spiritual leaders. Chief Arvol is the leader of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Tribes of North America. They constitute the Great Sioux Nation. The ceremony has been performed in different locations around the world.
We are now promoting to create a mass awareness of “all nations, all faiths, one prayer” to encourage everyone to take time on June 21st and join in the united prayer/meditation to heal our Grandmother Earth. Whether it is a Temple, Church Congregation, religious organization or Mosques, if people are gathering in communities, openly upon the earth or Sacred Sites, please let us know so we can post your information on the web…
Thursday 22nd of June is the Summer Solstice
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_solstice
The summer solstice is an astronomical term regarding the position of the sun in relation to the celestial equator. At the time of the summer solstice, Earth is at a point in its orbit where one hemisphere is most tilted towards the sun, causing the sun to appear at 23.45 degrees above the celestial equator, thus making its highest path across the sky. The summer solstice is the day of the year with the longest daylight period and hence the shortest night. This day usually occurs on June 21/June 22 in the northern hemisphere and on December 21/December 22 in the southern hemisphere. The actual date changes due to differences between the calendar year and the tropical year.
Friday June 23 *United Nations Public Service Day
http://www.unpan.org/dpepa_psaward.asp
A Day to highlight the role that public servants make, and can potentially make, to the development of all societies – and particularly to the development of cultures of peace.
One of the keynotes of our age is the concentration of thought and action around the development of new processes of governance at a local, national, regional and international level.
Monday June 26 *International Day against Drug Abuse & Illicit Trafficking
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/event_2006-06-26_1.html
2006 theme: Drugs are not Child’s Play
Whatever words we use, we must come to the realization of the parallels within our internal environment to those priceless and limited resources within our external environment. Humanity now concerns itself with dangers from the abuse of our forests, our atmosphere, our soil, our rivers and seas. ...
We must begin to talk about the atmosphere within the individual body, its soil (our flesh and bones), its rivers and seas (our arteries and veins). I suppose it is because we are so familiar with our own bodies that the sense of wonder and preciousness has not dawned upon us. We need scholars who will specialize in the ecology of self-esteem for our bodies and gradually develop programmes which will help every child and adult to explore the once-for-all gift of an individual life.
Ted Noffs
Monday June 26 *International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
http://www.irct.org/usr/irct/home.nsf
This Day is widely observed as a focal point for a global campaign to eradicate torture. The campaign is co-ordinated by the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims. On this day events will be held all over the world in support of victims of torture.
Saturday 1st of July is World Nuclear Free Zones Day
Although I found reference to this date being a 'day', I could not find references specifically to the day and how it came about. Many places now are concerned about being nuclear-free zones, and the following excerpt from Wikipedia gives information about what that means.
Nuclear-free zone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear-free_zone
A nuclear-free zone is an area where nuclear weapons and/or nuclear power are banned. The specific ramifications of these depend on the locale in question.
Many local authorities worldwide have declared themselves "nuclear-free". However, this label is largely symbolic, since most local authorities would be powerless to stop the construction of a nuclear plant even if one was planned for the area (which would be unlikely in the many urban authorities with the label).
Here is some history I did find that might be of interest:
In 1959, the Antarctic Treaty created the first nuclear weapon free zone (NWFZ) as part of a broader agreement to demilitarize Antarctica and the high seas that surround it. [1]Ten years later, and in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a reduction in the spread of nuclear weapons was a high priority worldwide. At the initiative of first Brazil , and then Mexico , negotiations started in1962-63 among Latin American countries that eventually resulted in the 1967 Treaty of Tlatelolco. [2] Currently there are half a dozen denuclearized zones (see chart below), all of which include at least the parties' territorial seas; some reach much further out into the oceans. Soon after the 1968 Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was opened for signatures, which had global application. The NPT was a bargain: The nuclear powers provided assurances to pursue disarmament and protect to the non-nuclear states if they were threatened with nuclear weapons, in exchange for the non-nuclear states' promises to not develop or possess nuclear weapons. Finally, there are also two treaties that apply to the seas entirely: both the 1971 Seabed Treaty and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea apply broadly to all of the oceans, albeit in specific ways. [3] http://www.law.berkeley.edu/centers/ilr/ona/pages/zones2.htm
The next date on the peace calendar is the 10th of July - celebrating the first year of the Walk for Peace that began in Leeds, UK and is now global
Linda StricklerPeace Ambassador in Universal Ambassador Peace Circle. For more information, you can Google me at "Linda Strickler" Peace
As I am going to be away from my computer for 3 weeks, I am going to have to give three weeks of dates in one big email! I hope you will keep them in mind as the days come along. Some of these have been very kindly researched and provided by Steve Nation snation@earthlink.net and I have re-spaced and put them into pretty colours. Some I have created myself. Sorry it is so long, but hopefully you will find it interesting.
Saturday June 17 *World Day to Combat Desertification & Drought
http://www.unccd.int/main.php
Up to one quarter of the world's surface is covered by dryland areas. The fragile environment of these areas is under serious threat - deserts are spreading at an alarming rate, and drought increasingly prevalent. More than 135 million people – the equivalent to the population of Germany and France combined - are at risk of being displaced as a consequence of desertification.
June 17th commemorates the anniversary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. The Day reminds us of the serious threat to the health of the planet, and of a vast array of initiatives being undertaken in an effort to prevent the spread of deserts. It is also a Day to focus on the important themes of the International Year.
There is an increasing recognition of the need to reverse the spread of deserts if the Millennium Development Goals are to be met.
Desertification, in the words of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, is one of the world’s most alarming processes of environmental degradation. The issue is often obscured, however, by a common misperception: that it’s a natural problem of advancing deserts in faraway developing countries. In fact, Desertification is about land degradation: the loss of the land’s biological productivity, caused by human-induced factors and climate change.
What does it mean for humanity that during this period when we are in process of making the transition into the Aquarian Age our unsustainable lifestyles and cultures are producing the spread of deserts. What is the significance of deserts in this transition period?
The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is seen as a key instrument to deliver the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that must be met by 2015. The MDGs are the most comprehensive strategy ever put forward for combating global poverty.
"Desertification stands at the root of persistent poverty in Africa, Asia and Latin America. For millions of people around the globe, losing productive land means entering the vicious poverty cycle", Hama Arba Diallo, the Executive Secretary of the UNCCD said. "Desertification poses a threat to the entire global community, as farmers in the South are forced to seek a way of living in the North. Socio- and environmental equilibria are at stake."
For News about the Day check: http://www.unccd.int/publicinfo/june17/2005/menu.php
Look out of a window and you view a world in the thrall of climatic upheaval. Although nothing can be seen, the world is undergoing an environmental shift of a type and scale to rival a geological cataclysm - and one of the most rapid ever to overtake the Earth. To confront it we need a parallel change in our inner world, our world of perception and understanding.
Norman Myers
2006 IS: INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF DESERTS & DESERTIFICATION http://www.iydd.org/
Tuesday June 20 *World Refugee Day
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/events/opendoc.pdf?tbl=EVENTS&id=4436956e2
2006 theme: Giving 19 Million Refugees Reason to Hope. A day to reflect on the scope of the refugee problem (there are some 19 million refugees under the care of the UN High Commission for Refugees); the immense personal, family and community suffering experienced by refugees; and the opportunities which the refugee crisis presents all peoples to act on their sense of interdependence and compassion.
It takes courage to be a refugee. Courage not to give up hope and to make the most of the hand that has been dealt. Courage to start a new life against daunting odds, eventually to become contributing and enriching members of society once more.
Let's celebrate World Refugee Day as a salute to the indomitable spirit and courage of the world's refugees.
What is World Refugee Day? 20 June, marks World Refugee Day. This day is celebrated all around the world with events such as conferences, stand up comedies, concerts and memorial services. 20 June originally marked Africa Refugee Day. In 2000, this same date was adopted by a Special UN General Assembly Resolution as World Refugee Day in an expression of solidarity with Africa, host to the largest population of refugees in the world.
What is World Refugee Day trying to do?
...raise awareness about the plight of refugees and displaced persons
...highlight the situation of “forgotten” refugees and refugee situations
...reinforce the obligation of states to protect refugees and Internally Displaced Persons
Who is World Refugee Day for?
At the start of 2003, UNHCR estimated the number of people of concern to the organisation to be 20.6 million, of which 10.4 million were refugees. Most of these refugees and displaced persons live in dangerous situations, living in an unbearable state of limbo, with no way forward and no way back.Developing countries are host to an estimated 78% of the world’s refugees, many of them struggling to protect the rights of their own citizens as well. A tiny percentage of refugees are resettled to places where they can make a new start and break out of the limbo that they were in. Others return to their country of origin, but are often pressed to do so before they are ready or before their country is ready to receive them. Some are able to stay in their country of asylum, to live and to work, and to enjoy legal rights like the citizens of the country.In the developed world, in countries like those in Western Europe, North America, or Australia, it is getting harder and harder for refugees to find protection. These governments have introduced restrictions like stringent visa requirements, penalties on airlines that bring asylum-seekers into a country, and detention. These restrictions are designed to deter people from coming to their countries to seek protection. World Refugee Day is a time to think about the plight and rights of refugees. It is a time to recall that for a refugee, every day is refugee day, when her rights are too often denied. And it is a time to act.
http://web/amnesty.org/pages/refugees-refugeeday-eng
Wednesday June 21 World Peace & Prayer Day
http://wolakota.org/wppd.html
World Peace and Prayer Day (WPPD) is an initiative taken by the indigenous people of North America. It is a spiritual ceremony that strives to unite all peoples in prayer, asking for Peace and healing for Mother Earth. It is performed by Chief Arvol Looking Horse, together with various other spiritual leaders. Chief Arvol is the leader of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Tribes of North America. They constitute the Great Sioux Nation. The ceremony has been performed in different locations around the world.
We are now promoting to create a mass awareness of “all nations, all faiths, one prayer” to encourage everyone to take time on June 21st and join in the united prayer/meditation to heal our Grandmother Earth. Whether it is a Temple, Church Congregation, religious organization or Mosques, if people are gathering in communities, openly upon the earth or Sacred Sites, please let us know so we can post your information on the web…
Thursday 22nd of June is the Summer Solstice
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_solstice
The summer solstice is an astronomical term regarding the position of the sun in relation to the celestial equator. At the time of the summer solstice, Earth is at a point in its orbit where one hemisphere is most tilted towards the sun, causing the sun to appear at 23.45 degrees above the celestial equator, thus making its highest path across the sky. The summer solstice is the day of the year with the longest daylight period and hence the shortest night. This day usually occurs on June 21/June 22 in the northern hemisphere and on December 21/December 22 in the southern hemisphere. The actual date changes due to differences between the calendar year and the tropical year.
Friday June 23 *United Nations Public Service Day
http://www.unpan.org/dpepa_psaward.asp
A Day to highlight the role that public servants make, and can potentially make, to the development of all societies – and particularly to the development of cultures of peace.
One of the keynotes of our age is the concentration of thought and action around the development of new processes of governance at a local, national, regional and international level.
Monday June 26 *International Day against Drug Abuse & Illicit Trafficking
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/event_2006-06-26_1.html
2006 theme: Drugs are not Child’s Play
Whatever words we use, we must come to the realization of the parallels within our internal environment to those priceless and limited resources within our external environment. Humanity now concerns itself with dangers from the abuse of our forests, our atmosphere, our soil, our rivers and seas. ...
We must begin to talk about the atmosphere within the individual body, its soil (our flesh and bones), its rivers and seas (our arteries and veins). I suppose it is because we are so familiar with our own bodies that the sense of wonder and preciousness has not dawned upon us. We need scholars who will specialize in the ecology of self-esteem for our bodies and gradually develop programmes which will help every child and adult to explore the once-for-all gift of an individual life.
Ted Noffs
Monday June 26 *International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
http://www.irct.org/usr/irct/home.nsf
This Day is widely observed as a focal point for a global campaign to eradicate torture. The campaign is co-ordinated by the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims. On this day events will be held all over the world in support of victims of torture.
Saturday 1st of July is World Nuclear Free Zones Day
Although I found reference to this date being a 'day', I could not find references specifically to the day and how it came about. Many places now are concerned about being nuclear-free zones, and the following excerpt from Wikipedia gives information about what that means.
Nuclear-free zone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear-free_zone
A nuclear-free zone is an area where nuclear weapons and/or nuclear power are banned. The specific ramifications of these depend on the locale in question.
Many local authorities worldwide have declared themselves "nuclear-free". However, this label is largely symbolic, since most local authorities would be powerless to stop the construction of a nuclear plant even if one was planned for the area (which would be unlikely in the many urban authorities with the label).
Here is some history I did find that might be of interest:
In 1959, the Antarctic Treaty created the first nuclear weapon free zone (NWFZ) as part of a broader agreement to demilitarize Antarctica and the high seas that surround it. [1]Ten years later, and in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a reduction in the spread of nuclear weapons was a high priority worldwide. At the initiative of first Brazil , and then Mexico , negotiations started in1962-63 among Latin American countries that eventually resulted in the 1967 Treaty of Tlatelolco. [2] Currently there are half a dozen denuclearized zones (see chart below), all of which include at least the parties' territorial seas; some reach much further out into the oceans. Soon after the 1968 Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was opened for signatures, which had global application. The NPT was a bargain: The nuclear powers provided assurances to pursue disarmament and protect to the non-nuclear states if they were threatened with nuclear weapons, in exchange for the non-nuclear states' promises to not develop or possess nuclear weapons. Finally, there are also two treaties that apply to the seas entirely: both the 1971 Seabed Treaty and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea apply broadly to all of the oceans, albeit in specific ways. [3] http://www.law.berkeley.edu/centers/ilr/ona/pages/zones2.htm
The next date on the peace calendar is the 10th of July - celebrating the first year of the Walk for Peace that began in Leeds, UK and is now global
Linda StricklerPeace Ambassador in Universal Ambassador Peace Circle. For more information, you can Google me at "Linda Strickler" Peace
posted by Cosmic Sunshine @ 8:38 am
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