Welcome to www.workingtogetherforpeace.org, a support website for the Institute for Global Peace and Sustainable Governance. Through this support website we will be able to keep you up to date with the latest news concerning human rights, peace and security and their impact on education. Please keep in touch and thank you for your support.
The future is in our hands...
What are we going to do about it?
The Institute for Global Peace and Sustainable Governance is a not-for-profit organization whose central goal is to support academic study, research and advocacy on the subject of democratic global governance as a necessary prerequisite for long-term peace, prosperity and sustainable development for all humanity. Difficult problems can only be solved if the peoples of the world work together to construct a system of democratic global governance and binding international law.
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Education is the key to ensure the future we want.
Pathways in getting there:
1. Promote the Sustainable Development Goals
https://sdgs.un.org/goals
2. Protect human rights
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
3. Support humanitarian causes
e.g. https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/, ICAN https://icanw.org.au/, https://www.amnesty.org.au/
Prerequisites: Difficult problems can only be solved if the peoples of the world work together to construct a system of democratic global governance and binding international law.
Ultimate Goal - Sustainable global peace
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Announcing our Model Global Parliament 2024! Calling all students to join us.
Please go to the Model Global Parliament page for more information.
The Model Global Parliament invites your participation
in 2024 to discuss global problems and find solutions.
MGPs held at NSW Parliament House are always a tremendous success! Thank you to all those dynamic participants who have participated through the years.. Keep your passion and commitment alive to ensure the future you want. We will be opening applications for the next MGP which will be held on 11 November 2024.
A BRIEF MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
The IGPSG enters the New Year with an increased commitment to promote peace and sustainable governance through education. With this renewed vigour is the affirmation of the importance of maintaining alliances and engagement with other organisations in Australia and overseas. No organisation can survive on its on, and, by working together, goals can be achieved successfully.
Through the years, its aims and objectives were broadened to promote alliances and outreach programs with a strong focus on educational means to achieve its goals. The values and ideals of promoting education were adopted under the subsequent leadership of Daryl Le Cornu, and which remain today as the guiding principles under the current administration.
As a strong and independent entity, IGPSG creates programs and activities for students and the general public across all cultures, all generations, and all fields of study in promoting education as the key to a sustainable future. It will continue to work together with other like-minded organisations which share the same values and ideals for the good of humanity.
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With best wishes,
Dr Zeny Edwards OAM
President, IGPSG
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MY ISSUE OF CONCERN 2024
Prospective international students worried about federal government caps
International student commencements to be capped at 270,000 next year
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Education Minister Jason Clare this week unveiled a proposal to limit international enrolments across universities and vocational training to 270,000 places in 2025, like pre-pandemic levels but about 20 per cent lower than recent peaks. The proposed limits are subject to the government's bill passing parliament.
Education Minister Jason Clare has announced his much-anticipated overall limit for international students starting in 2025, with individual caps to be set for providers. The decision was announced as a part of a wider attempt to crack down on claims of exploitation in the international education sector, with the government also underlining the need to free up homes as Australia's rental crisis continues.
Speaking in May during his federal budget speech, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said international student enrolments had outpaced the creation of dedicated student housing, putting pressure on rents and making "finding housing harder for everyone".
Ngaire Bogemann, president of the National Union of Students, told the ABC this week that the government's proposed cap was "a slammed door in the face of hundreds of prospective students." "Some 741,000 international students in Australia are an important part of our diverse campus communities," the student union leader said.
"The federal government has essentially told them that they aren't welcome here."
Read the full article here.
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NEWS
I attended one of the first International Women's Day events this year. The event was attended by more than a 100 guests including students, professionals and representatives of organisations for the disabled. The forum focused on "Lifelong Financial Education" based on the issues of equity vs equality. We discussed the need to increase support for all girls and women for improved education training ranging from basic skills/knowledge to complex economic disciplines.
Below are two other great reasons to mark International Women's Day, 8 March 2024.
To the Christian community, Christmas week also marked the Massacre of the Innocents which recorded an incident in which King Herod of Judea, in his attempt to kill the infant Jesus, ordered the execution of all male children two years old and under in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding countryside. History repeats itself within the same place that the original massacre of innocents is happening because of the war in Gaza. Innocent children (and their families) are victims of power struggles instigated by leaders who have lost all sense of humanity. According to a report by Save the Children, more than half a million babies may have died because of conflict over the past five years in other parts of the world including Ukraine, Afghanistan, Yemen, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, Iraq, Mali, Nigeria and Somalia and some Asian countries. – that’s an average of more than 100,000 deaths annually – or 300 babies every day. The report also includes deaths resulting in knock-on effects such as starvation, outbreaks of disease, damage to hospitals, or delays to aid deliveries.
This tragedy affects all people of all faiths and culture.
The world is at a tipping point. What are we going to do about it?
I wholeheartedly support Usman Khawaja’s efforts to do something about it with respect and dignity. Let’s follow his lead to promote peace by using the dove as a symbol of peace. In doing so, he correctly cited Article One of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” He should also have cited Article 19 which states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
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I will support Usman’s courageous advocacy and I hope you do too. It is a little gesture of support but which I hope would lead to us working together for peace because there is no other way.
War and violence
Death and torture
Political upheaval
War and violence
‘Atlas of human suffering’: More drought, fire and flood, less snow and coral, UN report says
WHY IT MATTERS
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Australia is suffering greater impacts from climate change than any other advanced economy
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There will be a fourfold rise in heatwaves if the planet warms by 3 degrees.
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The rise in weather and climate extremes has already led to “some irreversible impacts as natural and human systems are pushed beyond their ability to adapt”
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Normal outdoor activity across much of northern Australia could become potentially fatal due to the risk of heat stress, much of the Great Barrier Reef will likely die and snowfields will shrink or disappear under climate change scenarios laid out in a blockbuster United Nations report.
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Flash floods from high intensity rainfall are already the nation’s most expensive disasters, averaging $8.8 billion per year, and this is set to increase, the report said.
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It confirms earlier warnings that Australia is suffering greater impacts of climate change than any other advanced economy, and it shows that efforts to adapt to warming are not keeping up with the changes.
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Describing the report as an “atlas of human suffering” in a press conference late on Monday night, Australian time, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said it revealed a “criminal” abdication of leadership around the world.
“Nearly half of humanity is living in the danger zone now, many ecosystems are at the point of no return now, and unchecked carbon pollution is forcing the world’s most vulnerable on a frog march to destruction now,” he said,
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“The facts are undeniable. This abdication of leadership is criminal. The world’s biggest polluters are guilty of arson of our only home.” Mr Guterres said "The report revealed two core truths: that coal and other fossil fuels were “choking humanity”, and that swift action to reduce emissions and plan for adaptation could still spare millions from suffering. Only 20 governments have agreed to stop funding coal abroad. They must now urgently do the same at home and dismantle their coal fleets,” he said. Those in the private sector still financing coal must be held to account.”
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Updated February 28, 2022 — 10.42pm first published at 10.00pm
INTERNATIONAL DECADE FOR INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES
2022-2032
The current global landscape is quite different from the not-too-distant past. The process of globalization has intensified and the world is moving towards new forms of governance.
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Michelle Bachelet