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Tomas Magnusson, Co-President of the International Peace Bureau, IPB
How come that everybody knows about the Nobel Prize for peace, but not the International Peace Bureau?
For sure, Alfred Nobel knew about the Peace Bureau at that time. If not we would not have had the Nobel Peace Prize. And I am pretty sure that most people who are actively engaged in a practical work for disarmament and peace know about the Peace Bureau.
Today we are a network of nearly 300 organisations in 70 countries, but following today’s trends and views on organizations, we are a loose network of independent organisations with their own programs and priorities. Our work is to coordinate, to inform, and to inspire. And when we find common goals and common activities that are adopted by many members, we get results, but the credit goes not to IPB – it stays rightly with the different member organisations in the different countries.
Your vision is a "World Without War". What are your main activities to get closer to it?
It is a nice slogan isn’t it, a transcription of the well-known “www”. Our main program is “Disarmament for Development”, which argues for a transfer of money from military purposes to social and development goals. The most visible example we have right now is the Millennium Development Goals, although there is a very limited chance that they will be reached within the timeframe decided – by 2015.
However, a transfer of just a small portion of the amounts wasted on military purposes would make the world reach the MDG's, that is ending of poverty, education for children, child health and maternity health etc.
It is only a decision on priorities that will make the MDG's happen!
What are the main challenges for the International Peace Bureau these days?
There are many challenges. One is for sure the nuclear threat, which is someway forgotten in main stream discussion, but half of the stock of nuclear weapons are still existing, many on trigger alert, and those weapons if used, would eradicate most of life on Earth. We must abolish all nuclear weapons.
Another challenge is the general appetite for military solutions to conflicts, seen in so many situations all over the world, while the conflict resolutions by peaceful means have somewhat been forgotten. We urge more recourses to the UN, for conflict prevention and conflict mediation.
How can international associations support your mission for a peaceful planet?
We invite everyone to join our work, whether it is as members, associates or partner in any of our campaigns. It all depends on the nature of the association, where there is a common ground of cooperation, but adding peace goals is a possibility for every association.
A good opportunity would be to give space and publicity and help the outreach of the GDAMS, Global Day Against Military Spending, which we have arranged for the last two years, and the next “Global Day” will be on the 15th of April 2013. On that day the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute publishes its figures on world military expenditure, and peace organisations and all kind of groups and associations make their own “mark in the sand”. Just look at the website www.ipb.org for ideas on what to do!
For your IPB Conference from 16 to 19 November 2012 you have chosen Dublin. Why?
We always arrange our annual conferences in cooperation with national members, and very simply, this year our Irish members came up with a good program proposal.
At our annual conference, one of the exciting moments is to give the Sean McBride Prize, and this year it will be honour to two of the female front figures in the “Arab Spring”, the Egyptian writer Nawal El Sadaawi and the Tunisian blogger Lina Ben Mhenni – and the prize medal as such will be given by the Irish President Michael D. Higgins, himself a peace activist and previously winner of the MacBride Prize! The prize ceremony will in itself be a great event, but also a starting point of a new campaign for democracy and women’s rights in the Middle East, which IPB will launch at its meeting in Dublin.
Photo: IPB conference in 2010, Co-Presidents Tomas Magnusson in front and Ingeborg Breines celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize given to the International Peace Bureau.
The International Peace Bureau, ICP is dedicated to the vision of a World Without War. Our current main program centres on Sustainable Disarmament for Sustainable Development and we campaign mainly on the reduction of military expenditure. Our 300 member organisations in 70 countries, together with individual members from a global network, bring together expertise and campaigning experience in a common cause. http://ipb.org/web