“DISARMAMENT AND HUMAN RIGHTS”

10A EST (LIVE)

This Human Rights Day, join us on MIDHEAVEN.NETWORK for the latest Cyber Conference in our Building Back Better series, for an important look at the relationship between human rights and disarmament.

From the brutal conditions of workers in arms production to the dire implications of the arms trade to the fatal use of weapons themselves, the negative impact of the global arms trade on human rights is pervasive.

The worst-affected countries in the COVID-19 pandemic are also those with the largest military budgets, showing that national security is not a simple matter of having the most guns. Military spending too often comes at the expense of funding for other vital public services such as health, housing, welfare and education. 

Bringing together speakers with different backgrounds in the arms trade process, we examine how the promotion of human rights without critical work towards disarmament is meaningless, and how the need for a new paradigm of TRUE global security is needed to build a just and peaceful future.

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS 

• KELLY SMITH Poor People’s Campaign

• CARLOS UMAÑA IPPNW

• AKMAL ALI Association of Fiji

• SUMEYA OSMAN ABDI Federation of Somali Trade Unions (FESTU)

MODERATOR

• MOLLY MCGINTY Nuclear Programs Associate, IPPNW

   

“THERE’S STILL HOPE AND HERE’S WHY!” PT. 2

1P EST (LIVE)

From Tulsa to Hiroshima and from Auschwitz to the Trail of Tears and downwards throughout human history, the scenes of death and destruction are the same. The root causes of these atrocities are the same too: cultures of violence, fueling systems of oppression. 

What can the people do to reclaim their rightful democratic power when corrupt governments fail to honor the contracts that ensure we live in a civil society with a sustainable future?

This action-driven conversation, co-sponsored by PEAC Institute, General Board of Church & Society with support from Every Woman Matrix, NGO Committee on Financing for Development Working Group on Climate Finance, will explore the challenge of dismantling oppressive and systemic cultures of violence.

Through both historical and contemporary lenses, we will highlight some of the terrifying consequences we're facing due to failed and incomplete remediations of the imperial colonialist culture of violence, while also offering examples of nature-based solutions that people are successfully implementing today.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are officially out of reach, and our window of opportunity to switch from war economies that prioritize money to peace economies that prioritize people and the planet is closing. Join us now for the first part of this crucial dialogue.

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS

• CARMEN ATZERT Watershed Foundation

• LEON KAULAHAO SIU Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Hawaii

• ROBERTO BORRERO Chair of the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

MODERATORS & SUPPORT

• REBECCA IRBY MIDHEAVEN Network + PEAC Institute

• QUINN WONDERLING General Board of Church and Society, United Methodist Church

• AIMEE H. HONG General Board of Church & Society, United Methodist Church