News
The ICIP and the Catalan Federation of NGOs hold the Peace Movement congress
The Pati de Lletres in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Barcelona was the venue for the event.
On 13 and 14 November, the International Catalan Institute for Peace (ICIP) and the Catalan Federation of NGOs for Peace held the "Peace Movement Congress" in order to consider and debate the movement's current approaches, to identify new conditions, future challenges and possible adjustments to new focuses and strategies in order to increase their transformational effect in the social and political arena.
Neus Sotomayor, president of the Catalan Federation of NGOs for Peace, Xavier Badia, director of the Office for the Promotion of Peace and Human Rights of the Generalitat (Government) of Catalonia, Andreu Felip, director of the Generalitat (Government) of Catalonia Agency for Cooperation and Development, and Jordi Armadans, president of the Catalan Committee for the Promotion of Peace, opened the congress.
The opening lecture, "We can make peace", was given by Vicent Martínez Guzmán, director of the Chair in Philosophy for Peace at Universitat Jaume I in Castellón, and Rafael Grasa, the ICIP president, talked about "The ICIP and the Challenges of Constructing Peace".
On Saturday 14, several simultaneous working groups were organised (culture and education for peace, disarmament, militarization and security, conflict and peace processes) and Arcadi Oliveres, president of Justícia i Pau and the president of the International University of Peace of Sant Cugat del Vallès, gave a lecture on "The Situation of the Peace Movement in Spain".
Background
In February 2006, the Department of Institutional Relations of the Generalitat (Government) of Catalonia organised conferences on "The Peace Movement in Catalonia" to raise awareness of its history since the foundation of Pax Christi in 1953, which marked the beginning of the Movement. The Conferences provided cohesion and strength for the Peace Movement as a whole, and were the driving force behind new projects. Since them there have been important changes both internationally and in Catalonia, which in some ways could affect the general focus of the Peace Movement.