Move to appoint Peace Minister in the North
A campaign to appoint a Minister of Peace within the Stormont Executive was launched today by the Peace People.
They said their initiative had been endorsed by numerous Nobel Peace Laureates including the Dalai Lama, who has just arrived in the UK, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who will be addressing a conference on the North's peace process in Belfast later this week.
Betty Williams, the Belfast woman who set up the Peace People in the 1970s with Mairead Maguire, mobilising tens of thousands of people to march for peace on the streets of Northern Ireland – both also winning the Nobel Peace Prize – are backing the campaign.
The Minister for Peace – working within the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister – would be responsible for ensuring all Executive policies were ’proofed’ so that they comply with an agreed agenda for peace and reconciliation.
American Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams said: “Countries across the world such as Italy, Costa Rica and the Solomon Islands all have Ministers for Peace.
“This initiative to encourage the Northern Ireland Executive to establish a Minister for Peace not only gives encouragement to many people in Northern Ireland working for peace, but also gives hope to the International Movement for Peace Ministries and Departments.”
Edward Confor-Dumas, secretary to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on conflict issues at the UK's House of Commons also gave his backing.
He said the launch was a hugely significant addition to the growing campaign to establish ministries and departments of peace in governments around the world.
“We’ll do all we can to support the initiative here in Westminster. We hope too, to learn a lot from the people of Northern Ireland about the realities of transforming deep and protracted conflict.”
Kevin Cassidy, a member of the Peace People in Northern Ireland and chair of the Ministry for Peace Initiative, said at the campaign launch in Parliament Buildings: “The most common phrase around today is that we all have to move on.
“This campaign is about a vision and plan that will help us identify the walls that divide us and what stops us from moving on.
“The campaign is calling for the walls to come down, not just the peace walls, but the walls that we create within ourselves.”
Campaigns to have Ministries of Peace established are currently being mounted in the USA, Canada, Israel and Pakistan, as well as Uganda, Rwanda, Japan, Australia and Brazil.
