The Mindanao Week of Peace
an article by Tommy Pangcoga

The Mindanao Week of Peace is a celebration that involves communities of inter-faith organizations, non-governmental organizations, peoples’ organizations, government agencies who are working and advocating and mainstreaming the CULTURE OF PEACE in the Southern Philippines through various peace activities.

Initiated in Zamboanga in 1997 by Peace Advocates of Zamboanga (PAZ), this activity has become a Mindanao-wide event as adopted by the Bishops-Ulama Conference (BUC). Since then, it is being commemorated annually from the last Thursday of November to the first Wednesday of December, also perpetuated in observance through Presidential Proclamation No. 127, Series of 2001. For each year, a theme is developed by the BUC every month of May or June. Last year, the theme was "In the Name of the Almighty God of Harmony, Care for the Earth!"

In Cagayan de Oro City, the Mindanao Week of Peace is organized by the Interfaith Forum for Peace, Harmony and Solidarity and the Balay Mindanaw Foundation, Inc. In General Santos City, it is celebrated by the Kapayapaan Kapatid Council, KAMINKAP, Inc., and the Notre Dame of Dadiangas University Peace Eduation Center. In Cotabato City, it is observed by the Notre Dame University Peace Center, the Kadtuntaya Foundation, and the Mindanao Peaceweavers Network of Peace Networks.

DISCUSSION

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Where are there other peace weeks?
And what are the advantages of this approach?

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MAKING AN EFFECTIVE PEACE MOVEMENT

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The peace weeks are going on in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, UK, some of them started 30 years ago. Regional Peace weeks for the African Great Lakes region as well as new peace week initiatives in Kosovo, Russia, Croatia, Philippines and Columbia.

Pax Christi Flanders will coordinate the peace week in Belgium and the theme this year is the concern of war refugees. The peace week will be hold from 28 th of September till the 7th of October 2007.

The Flemish peace week of 2008 will take the attention on media and peace, media and violence. In 2009 we will celebrate 20 years of peaceweeks in Belgium and 2010 we hope to point out the end of the decade.

[note added by CPNN Administrator: The website for Peace Week in Belgium (in Flemish) is http://www.vredesweek.be.  Further information on other peace weeks coordinated by Pax Christi may be found at http://www3.unesco.org/IYCP/Report/Paxchristi2.pdf and http://storage.paxchristi.net/PE4E04.pdf].

This report was posted on April 18, 2007. The moderator is CPNN Administrator.

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