WORLD PEACE FORUM 2006
VANCOUVER, CANADA
23 – 28 JUNE

550 W. 6THAVE., SUITE 420 VANCOUVER, BC CANADA V5Z 1A1 TEL: 604 687 3223 FAX: 604 687 3277 EMAIL:admin@worldpeaceforum.ca www.worldpeaceforum.ca

Peace Forum Catching Imagination Around the World

The World Peace Forum 2006, June 23 – 28, will be a showcase of citizen, academic, and government efforts to define and implement world peace. “That’s the message we are taking to the Vancouver City Council’s Standing Committee on Planning and Environment tomorrow afternoon” said Jef Keighley, Executive Director of the Forum, which will decide whether to authorize the second instalment of the $150,000 grant to the Forum approved March 31, 2005. “We expect Council to make good on their decision of a year ago to provide financial support for this bold undertaking.”

“The World Peace Forum has caught the imagination of people around the world” said Keighley. “People are coming to Vancouver in June to help build peace around the world, to celebrate the successes, to exchange ideas and learn from their colleagues. Mayors and civic leaders will assemble to further the aims of the UN designated Peace Messenger Cities and the Mayors for Peace Vision 2020 campaign, which calls for the complete abolition of nuclear weapons by the year 2020. Just last week the Executive of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities unanimously passed a strong resolution supporting the Mayors for Peace Vision 2020 campaign. We have a full schedule of events planned for June, from large panel discussions, to smaller workshops, to cultural concerts and the creation of formal international initiatives to help bring peace to our troubled world.”

The World Peace Forum registrations, now online at www.worldpeaceforum.ca, are brisk and trending upward with each passing week.

During the week of June 23-28, the World Peace Forum will host the Peace Boat from Kobe Japan. The “September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows” will offer a session on “Civilian Casualties to War.” Speakers will include Hon. Douglas Roche, author of The Human Right to Peace, and Dr. Helen Caldicott, Nobel Peace Prize nominee and author of Nuclear Madness. The BC Teachers Federation is hosting the International Peace Education Conference as part of the Forum. Bishop Don Samuel Ruiz from Chiapas, Mexico will offer a “Peace Mass” at Christchurch Cathedral.

“Calls from around the world are flooding into our office,” said Keighley. “We are scheduling program sessions on Economics and Peace, the Root Causes of War, Weapons in Space, Establishing Departments of Peace, and many others.”

War Veterans will convene panels on the Environmental Legacy of War, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, military recruitment, and soldiers as peacemakers. Storyeum and the Forum will host an international exhibition of Hiroshima and Nagasaki photographs and artefacts from the bombing of Japan. The Forum will welcome an art installation for peace by Yoko Ono.

The Forum will include three music concerts and a choral festival. Canadian Landmines Project and the Forum are hosting a fundraising concert at Plaza of Nations. The Secure World Foundation and the Forum will host a concert at the Chan Centre for Performing Arts at UBC to raise awareness of the dangers of the weaponization of space.. There will be a huge Peace Walk on Saturday, June 24, followed by a outdoor Peace Festival at Sunset Beach with musicians and speakers.

Many events will be held at the Liu Centre for the Study of Global Issues at UBC, “where scholars and practitioners work together to generate fresh, coherent, policy directed towards global governance,” according to Director Dr. Lloyd Axworthy. The Simons Centre for Peace and Disarmament Studies will host forum discussions concerning the threats to civilian populations posed by small arms, and an investigation of world security issues from a disarmament – rather than military – perspective. Centre founder, Dr. Jennifer Allen Simons, says the goal is to “help move the human security agenda forward.”

Authors attending the Peace Forum include, Walden Bello, Deglobalization (Zed Books); Mary-Wynne Ashford, Enough Blood Shed (New Society Publishers); and Paul Roberts: A War Against Truth (Raincoast Books), a Canadian bestseller about his four years in Iraq. Renowned author and educator Noam Chomsky will address the Forum via satellite link.

“The Peace Forum will showcase the popular sentiment, worldwide, for peace,” says Keighley. “Our staff and volunteers are working hard and diligently every day. Private citizens are phoning in to volunteer. Professionals from around the world are calling with offers of help. The World Peace Forum is a citizen’s initiative. We welcome government support, be we know that the people of the world want peace, and the people of the world are the ones who will bring peace.”

For further information please call Jef Keighley, Executive Director, World Peace Forum 2006, 604 687-3223 (o) or 778 999-1950 (c)

World Peace Forum 2006
550 West 6th Avenue Suite 420, Vancouver, B.C. V5Z 1A1
Phone: 604 687 3223 ext. 100
Fax: 604 687 3277
Website: www.worldpeaceforum.ca