Pía Figueroa

Crossing the frontier and producing synthetic life for the first time, the discovery by a group of U.S. scientists, opens many areas of application while leaving open a new horizon for what we consider typical of the human being: the ability to make life. This is an extraordinary discovery that opens up the hope of better understanding the basic mechanisms that drive all life.

On June 5, 2010, thousands of people across the world will take part in coordinated local events to mark Nuclear Abolition Day. The message is simple: it’s time for governments to begin negotiating a Nuclear Weapons Convention to ban all nuclear weapons.
In some countries, protests will take place outside government buildings or at nuclear facilities.

UN Secretary-General remarks to the Inter-Parliamentary Union and Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament:
“Ten years ago, the NPT Review Conference described the total elimination of nuclear arsenals as “the only guarantee against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons”. Ten years on, I urge you to help to make disarmament a truly global cause”.

With the aim to create a sustainable, national children’s organ, the Finnish Children’s Parliament is having a positive impact on the establishment of local parliamentary activities.
Direct network democracy is enabled through weekly chat meetings with electronic voting and permanent forum in children’s Finnish Parliament.

“If we talk about deactivating something that has already expired, it makes no sense. I have a medicine cabinet at home from which I remove expired medicines. Unless we talk seriously about disarmament we cannot accept that there are countries that are armed to the teeth and others that are unarmed”, said the President of Brazil regarding the new USA and Russia agreement.

This weekend, while US Congress voted to pass a historic health care bill, more than 100,000 activists gathered in Washington, D.C. to mark the dawn of a new civil rights movement. These activists included students, parents and children. They are young and old, Asian, African-American, Latino and Caucasian, and they are demanding immigration reform and economic justice now.

“The forthcoming Football World Cup in South Africa provides an opportunity both to take a fresh look at the issue of racism in sport, and to enhance sport’s tremendous potential to undermine racism, xenophobia and similar forms of intolerance in wider society”, declared Navi Pillay, High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Global warming, global economic crisis, US-Japan alliance, nuclear proliferation, poverty – the 21st century world is now facing multiple crises requiring global solutions. With the election of a new government and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, Japan now has the opportunity to become a world leader in dealing with the challenges of a changing world.

Interesting relationships are developing among the residents of different Chilean cities and neighbourhoods only days after the earthquake that left many families unable to return to their homes. Squares have been turned into camping sites where people can cook together, take a bath and lead a community life that did not exist before.

PNND welcomes Edine von Herold Duarte to its Global Council. Edine, a legislator in the Costa Rican Assembly, is a doctor of medicine who has been active in health and disarmament issues. She has submitted a number of bills which have been adopted by the Costa Rican legislature including one to prohibit Depleted Uranium weapons.