Pace University was proud to host the 2016 Humanitarian Disarmament Forum on its downtown campus, 15-16 October, a gathering of more than 100 activists and advocates working on disarmament issues from a humanitarian and human rights perspective. Convened by Handicap International, Mines Action Canada, and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the conference challenged participants to think how the advocacy community could make global disarmament policymaking “higher, faster, stronger.”
Keynote speakers included former South African Member of Parliament Andrew Feinstein, who presented his film Shadow World, an expose of corruption in the international arms trade. A panel on ensuring that victims and survivors of violence participate fully in disarmament policymaking was an important highlighting two disability advocates of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), both landmine survivors: Jésus Martinez, President of the National Council for integral attention for persons with disabilities of El Salvador (CONAIPD) and Magaret Arach Orech, Director of the Uganda Landmine Survivor’s Association.
For more comprehensive overviews of the event, see the articles by Handicap International and 4Disarmament.
Information on Previous Humanitarian Disarmament Forums
2015 Forum on “Crisis Advocacy” at Pace University.
2014 Forum on “Gender and Disarmament” at Pace University, featuring 1997 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Jody Williams.
2013 Forum at the UN Church Center
2012 Forum at the UN Church Center