From a pre-World War I resolution calling for “the maintenance of peace” to our continuing support for Rotary Peace Centres, Rotary and its members have a long history of promoting peace and working to address the underlying causes of conflict in communities around the world. Rotary Melbourne, thanks to the efforts of Bob Fels and Rob Helme, have for many years successfully nominated someone into the Rotary Peace Fellowship program.
February is our Peace and Conflict Resolution month, when we shine a light on one of Rotary’s seven areas of focus, namely peacebuilding and conflict prevention.
In 2019 Rotary Melbourne joined seven other Clubs around Australia and became a ‘Peacebuilder Club’. Initiated by District 5500 in 2018, the program’s vision is to maximize Rotary as an agent for peace and to connect service to Peace. It was recognised that Rotarians are ‘people of action’ who want to do something-- not just talk-- about creating a safer, more secure world.
Recently, in a communication from the Chair of the Rotary Action Group for Peace, we were provided with 10 things we could do as a Peacebuilder Club:
1. Plan to purchase, plant, and/or dedicate a Peace Pole in your community, at schools, parks, libraries, city locations, etc.
2. Prepare to have a community event focusing on the United Nations' International Day of Peace on September 21.
3. Explore the possibility of sponsoring a Peace Village (5-day summer camp focused on students grades 3 through 7 teaching skills on anti-bullying and non-violent problem solving) in your community/school district. For more details, go to: http://peacevillageglobal.org/
4. Start a Peace focused book club.
5. See if your local librarian will dedicate a section in the library devoted to Peace-related topics/studies.
6. Plan a Peace film festival.
7. Plan an event to celebrate Earth Day Saturday, April 22, 2023.
8. Plan a joint peace-related activity with another service organization in your community.
9. Arrange for a Rotary Peace Fellow to present to your Rotary Club
10. Access The Peace Podcast presented by Ms. Barbara Gaughen-Muller at: www.PeacePodcast.org and listen and learn.
It was extremely appropriate for us to have a distinguished speaker at our meeting on Wednesday – Ciaran O’Toole, who heads up the South East Asia and Pacific program of Conciliation Resources, which is an international organisation committed to stopping violent conflict and creating more peaceful societies. His topic was “Climate Change and Conflict Risks”.
Ciaran’s organisation publishes insights into peacebuilding and peace processes, and works with peacebuilding partners in communities across his region on the key drivers of conflict and providing mediation support. He emphasised how every context is different, thereby requiring a different approach
Ciaran spoke about how Conciliation Resources has been analysing conflict related to climate change in the Pacific. Land is mostly community owned, resulting in unclear boundaries and entitlement of use. Governance is complex, involving headmen or chiefs, who have become resilient to violent conflict. With land depletion and degradation, salination and coastal erosion, comes increased tension, straining governance and conflict resolution mechanisms.
Ciaran explained how weather events result in relocation. This may involve people and communities relocating through formal processes, locally agreed movements or ungoverned mobility into primarily urban settlements. Tensions arise from groups of people moving to other communities’ land. Frustrations increase and situations are potentially dangerous. With natural disasters, people want speedy decisions, and are accepting of states of emergency, which feeds in to authoritarian political instincts.
Pacific states are developing democracies. Ciaran believes consultation is needed, along with community level analysis of conflict risks leading to adaptive, people centred methodologies in support of civil society. This is what Conciliation resources focus on.
I recently came across a Scottish Blessing:
“If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character
If there is beauty in the character there will be harmony in the home
If there is harmony in the home there will be order in the nation
If there is order in the nation there will be peace in the world.”
By Robert Fisher
