Asian peace-builders pledge to work for just peace order

By A Staff Reporter

IMPHAL | Oct 22

A total of 182 peace-builders from 21 countries in Asia, Middle East, Canada and United States of America met in Jakarta, Indonesia for the 6th Action Asia Peacebuilders’ Forum on the 16th to 18th of October 2017 to gather as a community to discuss and explore solutions under the theme “Preventing Violent Extremism: A Peacebuilding Perspective”, a press release of the organisation said.

Manipur was represented in the meet by Rajkumar Bobichand, social worker and deputy director of the newly formed institute, Free Press School of Journalism.

The meet came out with a joint declaration on the concluding day which among others pledged to uphold Action Asia’s shared vision of a world of justice and peace, where basic needs are met, and dignity and human rights are respected, it said.

The release said the meet also acknowledged the United Nation’s efforts mandating member states to create a National Plan of Action to prevent violent extremism.

“We believe that national and local governments, and local and international resource agencies should seriously consider a paradigm shift recognizing that the issue on violent extremism is not just a security and law enforcement concern, which underscores the necessity for inclusivity such as a consultative approach to all stakeholders most importantly to those directly affected by conflicts and by committing appropriate resources to achieve these goals,” it noted.

The meet also expressed full support to the Indonesian Government’s objective of mainstreaming peacebuilding as a framework in its national policy for preventing violent extremism in its country, it said. The same appreciation is also extended to other governments presently exerting similar efforts, it added.

“We assert that it is of utmost importance to address political, economic, cultural, social and historical injustices that are aggressively exploited by violent extremists to imbue hate and animosity,” it said

It said the meet was of the opinion that in this era of social media and fake news, it urged peace-builders and all stakeholders, including governments, to create and effectively message a better and constructive narrative, which is consistently challenged by violent extremist groups.

It said the meet also implored all civil society and interfaith leaders, the youth and women, to embrace an active role in dialogue, human rights work and development programs to negate the influence of violent extremism.

It also emphasized the need to sustain the essential work for unity, integration and rehabilitation especially with communities and individuals targeted by both attack and influence by violent extremist organizations, the release said.

The meet also sought to learn from the experiences of Marawi City in Southern Philippines, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria on the grave consequences, including casualties, massive displacement and destruction of properties, if the root causes of violent extremism are not immediately and genuinely addressed, it said.

The meet further expressed deep concern over the rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis in Rakhine State of Myanmar as a result of the growing tension especially the massive influx of refugees into Bangladesh, the release further said.

It also urged peace-builders, networks and governments to heed the call to innovatively translate the learning from the discussions and conversations in this Forum into community, national, regional and cross-regional realities, the release said, adding that it expressed its belief that that peace is possible and that there is hope.