NZ campaigner wins major peace prize
20 Oct 2009
A New Zealand campaigner responsible for negotiating international peace deals has received a prestigious award known as the alternative Nobel Prize.
Alyn Ware, who was born in the North Island town of Tauranga, was one of four international winners of The Right Livelihood Award 2009, worth €50,000 ($100,000).
Ware’s work drafting a treaty for the United Nations on a nuclear weapons ban, contributed to the win.
The only other New Zealand person to ever receive the award was former Prime Minister David Lange who died in 2005.
The awards were founded by Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull in 1980 to recognise deeds he felt were being ignored by the Nobel Prizes.
World march for peace
Ware, who is currently in New York, has been involved in a World March for Peace which started in New Zealand last month and is moving through 100 countries over 90 days, involving millions of people.
He says solving kindergarten squabbles as a teacher prepared him for a life in international peace relations.
"Some people are loud, shout in-the-street, ban the bomb types. I'm the softly-softly type of person. When I'm with children, I try and sit down with them and not lecture them. - The same applies for politicians and congressman," he said.
Nuclear testing
The spark for his shift from primary teacher to peace campaigner was learning about the impact of nuclear testing in the Pacific on children.
"I thought, how can I be helping children in one area, in learning, when they could be affected in others - in radiation, in violence. And that was testing during peaceful times, so what if a bomb was used during wartime? I felt I had to commit to paving a future for our children."
He says the principles of peace are the same whether in school, at home, in the community or internationally.
"These are primarily about how to solve our conflicts in win/win ways, in ways that meet all peoples' needs. People need to be able to resolve a problem, say, between their brother and sister before they can grasp ideas of peace between ... India and Pakistan."
UN peace treaty
Mr Ware has recently drafted a model treaty for the United Nations on the abolition of nuclear weapons, which is being circulated by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
He is hoping the inspiration of this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner will make the treaty a reality.
"[Barack] Obama has given the vision for nuclear weapons-free world oomph and hope. It is possible ... quicker than we imagined. In New Zealand, we never imagined we would become nuclear-free so quickly. We now have momentum and political will to do this."
Mr Ware is director of the Peace Foundation Wellington Office, global co-ordinator of the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament network and director of Aotearoa Lawyers for Peace.
Judge’s comments
The awards judges said Mr Ware, 47, was recognised "for his effective and creative advocacy and initiatives over two decades to further peace education and to rid the world of nuclear weapons."
Other recipients of this year's award were Catherine Hamlin, an Australian-born doctor who founded a hospital in Ethiopia for women damaged by childbirth, and environmentalists David Suzuki and Rene Ngongo.
The awards will be presented in a ceremony at the Swedish Parliament on 4 December, six days before the Nobel Prizes are handed out.
New Zealand & peace
In 1984, Prime Minister David Lange barred nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships from using New Zealand ports or entering New Zealand waters.
Under the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987, territorial sea and land of New Zealand became nuclear-free zones.
To this day New Zealand remains the only country with a cabinet position devoted to disarmament.
In June 2009 New Zealand was named the most peaceful country in the world, out of 144 countries ranked by the Global Peace Index.
These topics may also be of interest to you
|
