Dear Friends,
The isssue of No 16 brings to you some recent news about the specialized secretariats - SIESC and SIIAEC and Pax Romana representatives' activities at UN. The other attached file in HTML is the annual report of Pax Romana Team at UN in New York 2002. Hope they are useful and interesting to you.
Despite global protest and demonstration by more than ten million people
throughout the world around Feb. 15,
the possibility of waging a tragic war - invasion into Iraq - led by George
W. Bush adminstration in USA
without the legitimate UN Security Counsil resolution - remain a threat to
all peace-loving people around the world.
It is really worring and depressing to hear everyday the news about possible
war - how to kill people.
There are many other important issues in the world today which require urgent
attention of political leaders of powerful and rich countries
and there are so many people everyday who are dying of lack of their adequate
attention and action.
As many people pointed out, war is the worst 'solution' to any violence or human rights violations. Any form of violence is a clear sign of failure or human inability to solve the problem peacefully.
"May the specter of war that leads to death give way to the joyful praise
of the Lord of life,"
the Pope said today at the general audience, at the conclusion of his meditation
on Psalm 150.
Addressing 700 Poles who attended the audience, the Holy Father added: "Yes,
human life is a wonderful reason to praise God."
From ZENIT, www.zenit.org Feb. 26, 2003
Let us continue to pray and act in favour of genuine peace and justice at
this critical moment in human history.
In solidarity and peace,
Seonghoon LEE (Anselmo)
Main News
- SIESC Annual Meeting
- SIIAEC Annual General Assembly
- Pax Romana Representative to UN in New York, Geneva,Vienna and UNESCO in Paris
- Patricio Rode’s visit to Europe and USA
SIESC’s Annual Meeting,Praque, Aug. 6 - 11, 2003
The SIESC, ICMICA’s Specialized Secretariat for the secondary school teachers - in coopeation with the Union of Christian Teachers of the Czech Republic will hold its 49th annual meeting in Praque from August 6 - 11, 2003 under the theme Christian Education for the Europe of the 21st Century . The meeting aims to address the challenge in developing new teaching approaches and methods based on Christian spiritual values for the life and development of the European community.
The three lectures will be based on the following topics, followed by a debate among participants. The topics are i) the importance of Christian spiritual values for the European Union and educational policies ii) problems in contemporary society and its development prospects viewed through the prism of human sciences, and iii) ways to increase and improve the quality of family and school education at the beginning of the 3rd millennium
Fur further enquiries, please contact President Dr Susanne Kammerer cbif@xpoint.at or Secretary General, Lilemor Speckmann at Virchowstr. 124, D 45147, Essen, Germany.
Prior to this meeting, Youth Walk will be organized for students and younger teachers by a young Salesian priest. Participants is expected to go through the beautiful sports of Moravia, the Eastern part of the Czech Republic. Those who wish to join are requested to contact Mgr Maria Salkova, U tenisu 13, CZ 75000 Prerov. Cezch Republic.
SIIAEC Annual General Assembly, Paris, March 22, 2003
SIIAEC, ICMICA’s Specialized Secretariat for engineers,professionals in agriculture and economy - will hold its annual General Assembly at 10:00 am on March 22 (Saturday), 2003 at the headquarters of MCC (Mouvement Chretien des Cadres et dirigeants), ICMICA federation in France at 18 rue de Varenne, F-75007, Paris, France. Agenda includes report by the animator,election of a new leading team,installation of a SIIAEChomepage,planning of the next activities,especially for young professionals. There will be a meeting with young professionals of the MCC in the evening.
Fur further enquries, please contact Animator, Wolfgang Spitaler, ws96612@i-one.at or General Secretary, Bernard Hyon, hyon@noos.fr.
Pax Romana Activities at UN in New York
Kevin Ahern, Pax Romana main representative to UN in New York published an annual activity report 2002. This is the first documentary outcome of his four year commitment to UN in New York. Last November, he was elected as the interim Chair of CONGO NGO Committee on Youth till June 2003. As his first duty, he worked on developing new bylaws and strategies for the Committee. He was also involved in other CONGO NGO Committees such as Committee on Social Development and its sub-committee on Poverty Eradication. The report made in HTML will be sent to you separately.
Pax Romana Activities at UN in Geneva
The annual Human Rights Internship program will begin from March 10 to April 28 in Geneva in conjunction with the 59th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights (March 17 to April 25, 2003). Joseph Rajkumar from India will conduct the training.
Pax Romana Activities at UN in Vienna
Dr Elisabeth Pomberger attended the 4th Session of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Negotiation of a Convention against Corruption held in UN Headquarter in Vienna from January 13 - 24, 2003. According to her report, there was a controversial debate on the definition of some terms such as public official, ‘illicitly acquired assets’ and ‘corruption’ The key focus of the convention is on asset recovery and return of grand corruption of State property. She informed that there would be 11th International Anti-Corruption Conference from May 25 to 28 2003 in Seoul, South Korea under the theme "Different Cultures, Common Values". More information is available at www.11iacc.org
Pax Romana Activities at UNESCO in Paris
After the resolution Building up peace through dialogue between cultures and civilizations adopted by the last UNESCO/NGO Conference in December 2001, the ICMICA team, working in cooperation with more than 20 other NGO representations to UNESCO, has launched a Working Group "Dialogue between Cultures for Peace (fight against intolerance; action and promotion of universal values)" with the following objectives :
- Collect and promote the different initiatives taken by NGOs in order to encourage knowledge of other cultures, detect possible conflicts at the root level and bring together men and women with a willingness to live together;
- Pursue the thinking on the stakes, the richness and the difficulties of the dialogue between cultures, civilizations, religions and spiritual traditions for a culture of peace;
- Set up and run a UNESCO/NGO network on these topics.
Any ICMICA federations and groups interested in the topics are most welcome to contat Jean Bussac bussac.jean@wanadoo.fr and/or Maria Rosaria Giovannelli Le Pechoux lepechoux@wanado.fr
International Team
Patricio Rode, ICMICA President based in Uruguary will make a trip to Europe and USA, both sides of Atlantic ocean for consultation on various issues and for meeting with member federations. His itinerary is as follows ; Barcelona, Catalonia (March 11 to 13), Tirana, Albania (March 14 to 16), Geneva and Fribourg (March 17 to 21), New York (March 22 to 26), Washington D.C. (March 26 to 28) and Miami (March 28 to 31). Please contact him prode@adinet.com.uy if you wish to meet him during his visit.
Anselmo Lee leesh@paxromana.int.ch will also travel to a few cities in Europe for different meetings ; meeting with Pax Romana Representative to UNESCO in Paris and MCC (Feb. 28), Visit to CCFD (March 3), Meeting with ICMICA ICMICA Belgium and Mr Lucien Morren (March 3), CORDAID (March 4, to be confirmed), MISSIO and MISEREOR in Aachen (March 5).