This spring, the Catalan Forum for Peace will be reactivated with two key objectives: to design a public policy for peace in Catalonia and to strengthen the peace movement.
The first major step in this direction will be the elaboration of the Country of Peace Master Plan, a strategic framework that should provide a greater coherence, visibility and impact to the actions of the Government and to municipal and supramunicipal entities in terms of peace promotion, both locally and globally.
To meet this challenge, a citizen participation process will be launched, with three channels of participation aimed at all citizens: deliberative sessions and self-managed sessions on the central themes of the Forum (which will take place throughout Catalonia), and online participation through the Government of Catalonia’s Participa website. The participatory process will begin in April and conclude in June.
Modification of the Law for the Promotion of Peace
As a prelude to the beginning of the participatory process of the Catalan Forum for Peace, on Wednesday 12 March, the Catalan Parliament approved the modification of the Law for the Promotion of Peace so that it includes the obligation for each government to elaborate a Master Plan for Peace. The reform, promoted by the working group of the Catalan Forum for Peace, was approved with 106 votes in favor, from the parliamentary groups of PSC, Junts, ERC, Comuns and CUP, and 27 against, from the Popular Party, Vox and Aliança Catalana.
The new law establishes that, every four years, the Government will have to present a master plan called Country of Peace, a strategic framework to ensure greater coherence, visibility and impact in the actions of the Government, the municipal and supramunicipal entities and other public entities in the promotion of peace. This master plan, which must be approved by Parliament, must be drawn up following a previous process of analysis, information, consultation and participation, and must anticipate the resources and establish the priorities to be respected and specified in the annual peace plans.
Intervening in the debate were the MPs Sílvia Orriols (AC) and Alberto Tarradas (Vox), who defended their respective groups’ procedural motions to halt consideration of the bill, as well as Francesc de Dalmases (Junts), Ruben Wagensberg (ERC), Hugo Manchón (PPC), Susanna Segovia (Comuns), Laura Fernández Vega (CUP-DT) and Neus Comes (PSC-Units).
Representatives of ICIP, the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation, Lafede.cat and peace movement organizations, such as FundiPau and Novact, followed the debate from the chamber.
