Uniting Nations: Recent Episodes
Metta Center for Nonviolence
Saffet Catovic is the Director of the United Nations Operations for Justice for All, a faith-based, human-rights organization.
Bedi Racule is a nuclear and climate justice advocate from the Pacific - hailing from the Marshall Islands and Pohnpei (Federated States of Micronesia). She began her advocacy journey with MISA4thePacific - a youth grassroots organization, sharing stories of nuclear testing in the Pacific with young people and communities around the world. Bedi currently resides in Fiji and serves as an ecumenical enabler for climate justice at the Pacific Conference of Churches, where she tackles issues related to climate, oceans and the Pacific nuclear legacy. She is also the co-founder of the Bok im Na youth project, and co-chair of the Nuclear Truth Project.
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See You Soon, Lagoon, a poem
Show music by Penguinmusic, song Better Day.
In this episode, guest Sai Bourotho with Automated Decision Research discusses Stop Killer Robots.
Stop Killer Robots is a growing global coalition of more than 250 civil society organizations working together to prevent digital dehumanization, build a better society, and overcome inequalities and systems of oppression through the creation of legally binding rules on autonomy in weapons systems.
In this episode we speak with Ramu Damodaran who is the first chief of the United Nations’s Academic Impact Initiative.
Ela Gandhi is the chairperson of the Gandhi Development Trust and Phoenix Settlement Trust, The Metta Center's board member, and the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi. Listen to this episode where she speaks about the significance of International Day of Nonviolence, observed on 2 October every year to commemorate the birthday of her grandfather. She also discusses the potential that nonviolence has for the UN, and our collective responsibility to empower and strengthen the global institution.
Yehuda Silverman is the creator of the peacebuilding network, Acquaint, “a nonprofit platform where people around the world grow and learn through human connections.” He joins Uniting Nations to speak about peacebuilding, dialogue, and his hope and idealism for the United Nations as a peacebuilding entity through his participation in some of the UN’s key peacebuilding programs.
In this episode we speak with a retired scientist who was instrumental in the creation of the Seville Statement on Violence from 1986, which brought together scientists for UNESCO to refute the claims that underpin violence and war that we are predestined and genetically inclined toward violence and destruction as a species. David discusses this document as well as his work within the UN system for a Culture of Peace, including the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace
In this episode of Uniting Nations -- Gay Rosenblum-Kumar from Nonviolent Peaceforce. Nonviolent Peaceforce's mission is to protect civilians in violent conflicts through unarmed strategies, build peace side by side with local communities and advocate for the wider adoption of these approaches to safeguard human lives and dignity. Gay is the UN representative of the NP based in New York.
This episode of Uniting Nations features Houry Geudelekian, the Chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women (NGO CSW), New York.
The NGO CSW is the convener of global civil society for the annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and global gender equality advocacy.
The UN convenes the Commission, or CSW for short, every year, for a period of two weeks. There, representatives of UN Member States, civil society organizations and UN entities gather at UN headquarters in New York to discuss emerging issues that affect gender equality and the empowerment of women. This year’s Commission, held in March, addressed the theme of “Innovation and Technological Change, and Education in the Digital Age for Achieving Gender Equality and The Empowerment of all Women and Girls.”
Houry has been involved in the NGO CSW for over 12 years. As she approaches the end of her term as the Chair of the Committee, she reflects on the work of the UN in advancing gender equality and challenges and reasons for optimism she sees in her work.
In this episode of Uniting Nations, John Reuwer from World BEYOND War shares an example of UCP at work in one of the deadliest, most violent conflicts in the world today: the war in Ukraine. While NATO and independent governments continue to increase military aid to both sides, the Zaporizhzhya Protection Project is endeavoring to end the war from an entirely different angle, that is, by training volunteers to support the UN’s efforts to ensure that the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant remains undisturbed by the conflict.
The danger posed by the power plant is enormous – even a small misstep, one missile misfired could lead to a global disaster. And the potential devastation the world faces given a war between two nuclear powers cannot be overestimated. Increasing the availability of arms to either side is a move in the wrong direction. Einstein famously said that ‘no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.’ The use of nonviolent tactics – like UCP used by the Zaporizhzhya Protection Project – is a move to a higher level of consciousness. And it is one that has been proven, time and again, to work.
On January 22nd, 2021, theTreaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weaponsentered into force. It’s the first international treaty that comprehensively prohibits any activities related to nuclear weapons, that includes developing, testing, producing, and manufacturing.
An interesting dynamic has emerged in recent years at the UN: to have this kind of shift in the narrative about what does security really mean?
In this episode, Anna Ikeda with Sokka Gakkai International and Mary Yelenick with Pax Christi International discuss the importance of the treaty, and how it connects to nonviolence and what each one of us can do.
Learn more:Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear WeaponsICAN
Metta Center for Nonviolence
Pax Christi International
Soka Gakkai