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Peace and Justice Centre Speakers Series Upcoming Talks

Maya Evans: The First UK Peace Activist to Visit Afghanistan Since 9/11

Thurs 16 Feb 7.30pm Edinburgh: Friends Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace.

This past Christmas Maya travelled to Afghanistan. She met with human rights activists, refugees, and people affected by NATO night raids and drone strikes. In October 2005 Evans was arrested for reading out the names of British soldiers who died in Iraq, and was the first person to be convicted of demonstrating within 1km of the Parliament. In June 2010 she won “a partial victory” in the High Court that stopped Britain transferring detainees to a detention centre run by Afghan intelligence agency (NDS) because of the risk of torture. Come hear her first hand account of the situation in Afghanistan.

Maya will also be speaking at the following locations:

Tuesday 14 Feb 7:30pm Glasgow:Renfield St Stephens, 260 Bath St. Sponsored by: SCND and Scottish Stop the War.

Wednesday 15 Feb 7.30pm Helensburgh: Victoria Halls. Organised by Helensburgh CND.

Friday 17 Feb Stirling: 7:30 - 9:00pm, Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum.Organised by Stirling CND.

For more info tel P&J 0131 229 0993, or email contact@peaceandjustice.org.uk [1]

The Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre has worked since 1980 to raise awareness of the complex causes of war and offer a vision of ways to create peace through nonviolence, conflict resolution, human rights, alternatives to war, and environmental resoponsibility. We campaign for nuclear disarmament and an end to the ongoing wars. The Centre offers a variety of resources to groups and individuals who share these values.

Newsletter and Diary of events - Nonviolence trainings - Speaker series - Exhibitions for loan and exhibition space - Library of books, films, periodicals and DVDs - Database of groups working for peace and justice in Scotland - Mailbox facility for groups - Leaflets, fact sheets, cards, and badges.

Vistors Welcome. Volunteers Needed! Open 10.00 - 16.00 Tuesday through Saturday

Recent video

To enlarge any video, click on its title.

Afghan youth Peace Volunteers [2]

Alternatives to War [3]

7 February 2012 - 6:48pm — blarkin [4]

Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers is the group that hosted Maya Evans when she travelled to Afghanistan over Christmas with Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Get to know them on their website: http://livewithoutwars.org/ All they want is to Live without wars. That is the simple message of this video.

EASTER WITNESS AT FASLANE [5]

Nuclear Disarmament [6]

21 April 2011 - 10:41pm — Anonymous

On Saturday 16 April Scottish Clergy Against Nuclear Arms held an Easter Witness Against Faslane. About 200 Christians and other peacemakers outside the North Gate of Faslane where a Trident is based. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland Alan MacDonald and Bruce Kent, retired Secretary General of CND spoke to the gathering . They were united in declaring that the possession of nuclear weapons is contrary to the Easter message of peace.

Why not Just Cut Trident [7]

Trade Unionism [8]

13 April 2011 - 10:20am — P and J [9]

The next Scottish Parliament can make a real difference if citizens ensure that the candidates know what the real issues are, regardless of which party they belong to.

One third of Scottish children are living in poverty. Instead of providing the resources their families need now and the education to lift them out of that poverty, the coalition government plans welfare cuts of £18 billion. Meanwhile they waste billions every year on UK nuclear weapons, and expect to waste more than £76 billion on upgrading Trident.

Global Day of Action Against Military Spending [10]

Antimilitarism [11]

12 April 2011 - 11:15am — P and J [12]

The Global Day of Action on Military Spending is a day to mobilize people around the world against the excessive military spending which promotes war and threatens human security.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates that 2010 global military expenditure was $1630 billion, an increase of 1.3 percent from 2009. Although this represents the slowest rate of increase since 2001, governments are still investing in war when they could actually be investing in peace and human security.

Sara Kruzal criminal or victim? [13]

Civil Liberties [14]

4 April 2011 - 3:23pm — Anonymous

Sara Kruzan was just two months past her 16th birthday when she shot and killed George Howard. Howard had raped Sara and then turned her onto the street as a prostitute when she was just 13. Sara's life had already been plagued with physical, sexual and emotional abuse from others.

more [15]

Recent Features

Maya Evans Talk on Afghanistan Transcript [16]

Alternatives to War [17]
Feature [18]

22 February 2012 - 4:23pm — blarkin [19]

Maya Evans, the first UK peace activist to visit Afghanistan since 9/11 presented a talk as part of the Edinburgh Peace & Justice Centre Speaker Series on 16th February, 2012 at Friends Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh.

Maya Evans visits Kabul refugee camp [20]

Alternatives to War [21]
Feature [22]

14 February 2012 - 10:27am — blarkin [23]

Refugee Camp Near Kabul: As we approached a cluster of ramshackle mud huts on the side of a motorway, our driver (a friend of a friend) warned us to be careful as two foreign journalists had been kidnapped in a refugee camp in Kabul only last year. I asked my friend (a young man and member of the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers [24]) if he was comfortable with accompanying me into the camp, he agreed that he was as we both stepped out of the car with Kiwi journalist Jon Stevenson. [25]

Understanding the Ethnic Conflict in Kyrgystan [26]

Alternatives to War [27]
Feature [28]

9 February 2012 - 10:51pm — blarkin [29]

Last month in the Centre's Speakers Series Shirin Abdullaeva and Matthew Naumann spoke on "Understanding the Ethnic Conflict in Kyrgystan. Here is Omigander's report of the talk.

For years Kyrgyzstan was one of the success stories of the post-Soviet
Union. shirin abdullaeva and Matthew Naumann It escaped the civil war that turned Tajikistan upside down
next door. Its first President was an ex-academic who quickly
suspended the death penalty, not one of the Communist Party
functionaries who took power and hold onto it still in the other four
Central Asian states. And it looks like Switzerland, with mountain
lakes in the snow visible from the plane as you land in Bishkek. One
has the name “Beautiful Grandmother” which I think is rarer to
a western ear than a Kyrgyz one.

The violence that broke out between ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks in
south Kyrgyzstan in June 2010 therefore was like a bolt from the
blue.

Trident Ploughshares Founder Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize [30]

Feature [31]
Nuclear Disarmament [32]

29 January 2012 - 11:46am — blarkin [33]

Angie Zelter, founder-member of the anti-nuclear weapon campaign group Trident Ploughshares,has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Mairead Maguire, who won the award in 1976.

The Impact of Conflict on Civilians and Democratic Developments in Nepal [34]

Feature [35]
Nonviolent Direct Action [36]

6 December 2011 - 3:17pm — P and J [37]

You are cordially invited to a talk by Sophie Buxton, former Peace Brigades International Staff 19.00, Thursday 15th December, Edinburgh Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace Sophie Buxton was a civilian peacekeeper in Nepal during the recent conflict between Maoist rebels and the Royalist government. She worked with Peace Brigades International in rural areas among families of those who were "Disappeared" and observed elections and the development of the peace process with the the Carter Center.

more [38]