Visions of an Ocean of Peace

International Day of Peace – 21st September, 2024

The theme of this year’s International Day of Peace, “Cultivating a Culture of Peace” is significant for our Pasifika Household as we seek to flourish amongst the many challenges that we face today. 

Recently, at the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ meeting in Tonga, political leaders from our region tasked the Forum’s secretariat to develop the draft concept on the Ocean of Peace Declaration for consideration by Leaders at the 54th Pacific Islands Forum in Honiara, Solomon Islands in 2025. The concept for the Ocean of Peace, introduced at last years Forum Leaders’ meeting in the Cook Islands, aligns with the twinned thematic area of “Peace and Security” in the Pacific Islands Forum’s 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, the 2018 Boe Declaration on Regional Security and the 2000 Biketawa Declaration. This call was highlighted as an opportunity to focus on the “peace” aspect of “Peace and Security. The “2050 Strategy” thematic area of Peace and Security notes that, “Peacebuilding that ensures safety and security at the community level is supported by faith-based and non-governmental organisations.” 

An “Ocean of Peace” could provide the litmus test of whether the 2050 Strategy delivers what it promises on Political Leadership and Regionalism, People-Centred Development, Peace And Security, Resources And Economic Development, Climate Change And Disasters, Ocean And Environment, Technology And Connectivity.

However, this is where we need to ensure we move beyond the rhetoric of these terms and policies and phrases which can so easily be captured by political and corporate interests.

So, while the announcement of plans to develop an Oceans of Peace Declaration is welcomed, there is a stark gap. 

Just one month after the Pacific Women’s Triennial Conference & Ministerial Meeting and Pacific Forum Women Leaders Meeting in Majuro - there is no reference to progress, including financing, on the Revitalised Pacific Leaders Gender Equality Declaration, which as a Leaders’ Declaration should be a standing agenda item in all Forum Officials, Ministerial and Leaders’ Meetings.

In a region where women are severely under-represented in national and sub-national decision making processes, civil society will continue to have remind government officials that they are just as accountable to gender equality, inclusive peace and security. 

Even as Pacific Forum Leaders came together to "endorse the Pacific Policing Initiative (PPI), a major regional initiative to strengthen collective peace and security throughout the Pacific" there is no mention of what this means to women and young women of the Pacific and gender diverse people.

Why does this happen ?

Is it because there is still an air of patriarchy that permeates through these processes despite the commitments and high-level processes don't include gender equality? 

Are Pacific Forum Leaders not being asked to report on the progress they are making on the Revitalised PLGED? 

Peace is not possible without gender justice.

This year we mark thirty years since Pacific governments and civil society addressed the "multiple, severe, and converging crises impacting women in the Pacific region." These included the climate crisis, gender-based violence, and the deterioration of physical and psychosocial health for women and girls. In the same year, they called for a regional Pacific charter on human rights and a zone of peace.

An Ocean of Peace needs to ensure that those involved in the work of peace-making and peace-building, not just peacekeeping are heard. In our region the majority of peacemakers and peacebuilders are women.

We cannot ignore the critical need to ensure that we are supporting women in their struggle for peaceful transitions to self-determination including in Papua, Kanaky, Maohi Nui and Bougainville. 

Utilizing multi-track processes with women mediators and civil society peace support teams in all regional assistance missions & mediations can advance our goal of inclusive peace.

During their dialogue with Forum Leaders, Civil Society Organisations called for a commitment from the region’s political leaders that the further development of the Ocean of Peace concept would uphold commitments to demilitarization, self-determination and denuclearization and shares the collective vision for fossil fuel-free Pacific, the realization of all Indigenous peoples’ human rights and self-determination, as well as the honoring of Indigenous values, wisdoms and traditions. 

 

I am often reminded that “the Political is Personal and the Personal is Political”. Developing an Ocean of Peace as a Culture of Peace means diving deeper, from a head only exercise to a heart exercise, that adds the voices of communities, indigenous practitioners, and wisdom holders and teachers, women, youth, children, elders, people often marginalised and not just policy makers and policy writers. This means going beyond workshops and consultations to engage in talanoa in its truest form - at national level, at community level and perhaps even at family level.

During the Forum Leaders’ meeting in Tonga, the Fijian voyaging canoe, Uto Ni Yalo (Spirit of the Heart) arrived in Nuku’alofa, its voyage aptly named “Sautu — Moana ‘o e Melino” as a reminder to Pacific Islanders of an ancient understanding: the ocean is an ‘Ocean of Peace,’ where all depend on it, treat it with respect, and see it as a force that connects rather than divides the islands.

Greeted by difficult ocean conditions, including shifting winds and ocean swells, the crew overcame many challenges to deliver a message of peace, prosperity, and resilience.

Margaret Tabunakawai-Vakalalabure, Chair of Uto Ni Yalo Trustees said, “The winds and waves that our crew experienced on our voyage to Tonga are a metaphor for the many winds of change and strong currents buffeting the fleet of our Liquid Continent, the vaka of Pacific Regionalism. Climate Change, Geopolitics, Development, Drugs and many other waves and swells.

But as we sailed, tacking to catch the right wind, our course was not a straight line, progress was slow and many considerations had to be made. But ultimately the safety of our vaka and her crew remained the priority. Likewise we urge our leaders, government, civil society, private sector, and all who would be friends of the Pacific, to ensure the wellbeing of our Pacific vaka and her people.”

Our region is both the most vulnerable but has the greatest gifts to offer to the world from our indigenous spirituality, knowledge and wisdom to the understanding that Peace, Salaam, Shalom, Bula Sautu, wellbeing, fullness of life, abundance and flourishing for all is the right of every creature on this planet.

May we have the courage to be instruments of peace. 

ENDS

Rev. James Bhagwan is the General Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches, which is currently the regional secretariat for the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict