Established in 1998, the Disarmament and Security Centre (DSC) is a specialist arm of the Peace Foundation coordinated by Kate Dewes and Rob Green from their Christchurch home. Kate had previously coordinated the Peace Foundation's South Island office from her home since 1980. In 2002 the DSC became a separately incorporated branch of the Peace Foundation. The broad objective of the DSC is to provide a resource centre for alternative thinking on disarmament and security issues, both within Aotearoa/New Zealand and internationally. Currently the work focusses on promoting the World Court's 1996 Advisory Opinion on nuclear weapons and its implications; promoting the United Nations Study on Disarmament and Non Proliferation Education; and implementing the Peace City recommendations adopted by the Christchurch City Council in May 2002.
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BACKGROUND of the PEACE FOUNDATION

EDUCATION, INFORMATION and RESEARCH

AIM:
To promote, in the broadest sense, a climate of peace in Aotearoa/New Zealand, together with a public understanding and awareness of the mutual interdependence of all countries and people. To this end the Foundation shall aim to:

- support and encourage peace education and peace educators as an integral part of both the education system and the wider community,
- encourage the media to adopt a positive and balanced approach,
- provide resources and data for decision-making bodies, about education, foreign affairs and defence policies,
- act as a clearing house in this country for the exchange of ideas and information concerning peace issues.

HISTORY and STRUCTURE:

The Foundation for Peace Studies ( later named the Peace Foundation) was formed in 1975. The initiative for it came from a small group of people who were deeply concerned about growing violence in the world. Some of them had had experience in overseas posts and were sensitive to world issues. A number of the original group were members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) who had followed with interest the establishment of a Chair of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom. Many universities around the world now present peace studies courses but in 1975 they were rare.

Valuable advice was given by Dr Norman Alcock, Founder and President of the Canadian Peace Research Institute, who visited New Zealand for the Foundation's inauguration, and gave the first of its Annual Peace Lectures. U Thant, then General Secretary of the United Nations, shortly before his death, agreed to become a Patron. Other Patrons have included Sir Guy Powles, New Zealand's first Ombudsman, Betty Holt, Archbishop Sir Paul Reeves, Dame Catherine Tizard, Cardinal Thomas Williams, Dame Miraka Szaszy, Archbishop Alan Johnstone, Rt Rev Dr Alan Brash, Dame Laurie Salas, Judge Mick Brown, Pauline Tangiora, Jack Shallcrass and other distinguished New Zealanders.

Over many years the Peace Foundation had two Regional Representatives - in Wellington and Christchurch - and Resource Persons (volunteers) around the country. Their activities were overseen by the Foundation's Council, which is an elected executive that meets quarterly to deal with the Foundation's policy issues. The Foundation's main office is opposite the campus of the Auckland University. It now employs 9 staff members and is supported by many volunteers. Its South Island office was run from the home of Kate Dewes and her family since 1980. Most of her work was on a semi-voluntary basis until recently.

The Foundation receives some Government grants, and depends solely on subscriptions, grants, contracts, fundraising and donations from its members for funding. From 1988 onwards it has received grants from the Peace and Disarmament Education Trust which was established with compensation money from the French government following the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour in 1985. Since 2004 it has received grants from the Disarmament Education UN Implementation Fund.
 

An original aim of the Foundation for Peace Studies was to sponsor a Chair of Peace Studies at one of New Zealand's universities. Because of the enormous costs involved this proved to be an unreal ambition for the Foundation to achieve, but it still holds that such a Chair or Institute attached to one of our Tertiary Institutions is an essential step. The Christchurch Regional Representative Kate Dewes played a key role in helping establish and coordinate a Peace Studies course up to Stage III level at the University of Canterbury from 1987-1998. The Stage I course began again in 2003 and will finish after 20 years in November 2006.

From the outset, the Foundation concentrated on providing resources and stimulus for peace education in educational institutes, as well as servicing community groups. It also acted as a catalyst for the formation and/or maintenance of a number of groups including Students and Teachers Educating for Peace (STEP), Media Aware and the World Court Project. During the 1980s STEP made a significant contribution to disseminating resources, information and knowledge about peace education amongst the teaching profession. It also participated in a series of conferences arranged by Russell Marshall, during his term as Minister of Education from 1987-1990, and made a major contribution to the development of the Peace Studies Guidelines for schools. Media Aware formed in 1988 as a result of Continuing Education courses based on Peter Watkins' film, The Journey.

The World Court Project grew out of an initiative by Foundation member and retired District Court Judge Harold Evans following meetings with international lawyer Richard Falk in Christchurch in 1986. Harold Evans campaigned with Kate Dewes, Alyn Ware and others for nearly a decade to convince governments to request the United Nations General Assembly to ask for an advisory opinion on the legal status of nuclear weapons. New Zealand doctors, lawyers and peace activists played a key role in convincing many citizen groups, diplomats and finally governments, to support the Project. In 1993 and 1994 respectively, the World Health Assembly and the UN General Assembly requested separate advisory opinions. In 1996 the World Court judges decided unanimously that:

... a threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, and in particular the principles and rules of humanitarian law,
and
... there exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to complete nuclear disarmament under strict and effective international control.

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES:

In collaboration with the Women's International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF), and in consultation with the Curriculum Development Unit of the former Department of Education, the Foundation published a resource book for teachers at the primary/intermediate level entitled Learning Peaceful Relationships. This has become almost a standard resource and some 12,000 copies have been sold both in New Zealand and overseas. In 1986, as part of the activities of the United Nations' International Year of Peace, the Foundation commissioned a similar book for use in secondary schools entitled Extending Peaceful Relationships. In 1994, a handbook for parents and teachers to help children handle their anger in constructive and non-violent ways - A Volcano in My Tummy- was published. In 1989 the Foundation produced a pamphlet to provide all Boards of Trustee members with specific information about the implementation of peace education, when the School Charters were being drawn up. In 2000 the Foundation published Thanks not Spanks, a book designed to give parents and caregivers ideas on how to raise children with out resorting to violence.

The Foundation played a major role in the establishment of the "Cool Schools" Peer Mediation Programme in 1991, in conjunction with the Mobile Peace Van and Students and Teachers Educating for Peace (STEP). This outstandingly successful programme has been termed "an idea whose time has come", and Yvonne Duncan, the Cool Schools' National Co-ordinator and Trainer joined the Peace Foundation staff on a full-time basis from the beginning of 1994. The programme has now been introduced to over 1300 schools around the country, and is supported by part-time trainers in both Christchurch and Dunedin. The Cool Schools' Parents Programme has subsequently been set up to extend the peer mediation skills into the home and community.

BEYOND THE SCHOOLS:

The Foundation's day-to-day activities have been based on the provision of peace education material, - teaching units, books and booklets, posters, videos and films. It operates New Zealand's largest peace and disarmament  education resource centres in Auckland and Christchurch. In addition other activities and projects have included:

a) publishing a number of books - (see Peace Foundation website at ).
b) organising seminars and conferences.
c) assisting other organisations and individuals.
d) inaugurating the Media Peace Awards in 1984.
e) arranging speaking tours for numerous overseas lecturers
f) funding the production of a record and a Compact Disc.
g) arranging premiere screenings of important new peace films.
h) maintaining regular communication with like-minded peace organisations world- wide.
i) working to inform MPs and other community leaders on a variety of peace issues.
j) establishing the Media Studies Fellowship to enable Peter Watkins (film director and media analyst) to organise a pilot media studies project in New Zealand schools.
k) helping produce the video A Dream of Peace in 1990, on how NZ became Nuclear Free.

ANNUAL PEACE LECTURES:

The Foundation has organised Annual Peace Lectures since 1975. Lecturers have included Dr Norman Alcock, Dr Homer Jack, Professor Johan Galtung, Professor Adam Curle, Dr Helen Caldicott, Charlotte Waterlow, Professor Richard Falk, Dr Marilyn Waring, Elsie Locke, Peter Watkins and Senator Jo Vallentine. Other guests of the Peace Foundation have included John Pilger and Noam Chomsky who have been keynote speakers at the annual Media Peace Awards Ceremony.

SUMMARY:

The Foundation came into being at a time when peace was far from fashionable and it worked with enthusiasm to promote peace education, the role of the UN and nuclear disarmament when there were very few other groups active in New Zealand. It can pride itself in pioneering a concern for the issue of peace at all levels global, national, racial, group and individual. It can, with justification, feel some responsibility for the increasing concern for peace in all sectors of the population.

The Foundation's role, in providing material resources and information to other groups as they developed during the 1980s has been vital. The decision to bring Dr Helen Caldicott to New Zealand, in 1983, can be pinpointed as a crucial turning point in the history of both the peace movement and the country as a whole. She helped spark a tremendous awakening and upsurge in activity that carried through to enable sufficient energy to be focussed on activities that led to New Zealand passing the Nuclear Free Zone Act in 1987.

Such occurrences happen only rarely in the life of any organisation, but it can be fairly claimed that the everyday 'spadework' for two decades, although less spectacular, played an equally important role in New Zealand's crucial decision to take the stand against nuclear weapons that was hailed by many around the world as a sane step in an insane world, and a beacon of hope.

The Foundation has also played a major role in the provision of peace education resources for schools from its inception in 1975 and especially since the directive from the Minister of Education of the then Labour Government in 1985 that 'peace studies' be integrated into the school curriculum. The Foundation has been able to bridge the gap between supply and demand for many teachers and educationalists, and continues to be the only organisation capable of fulfilling this role.