Bulletin

Issue: October 2006

News

Building Global Citizens: INU student awards show the way

La Trobe University continues to build global citizens. It was a key player in the recent highly successful inaugural International Network of Universities’ Student Seminar held in Hiroshima, which brought together 55 students from 14 countries.

La Trobe students at a seminar social
evening, from left, Alice Catchlove,
Kathryn Scantlebury, Stefan Lovell,
Lisa Prowling and Alyssa Woodthorpe.

The students discussed issues relating to global citizenship and peace at an event which also commemorated the sixty-first anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima.

The academic program for the seminar was developed by La Trobe’s Dr Thomas Weber and Larry Marshall, in conjunction with Professor Hajime Nishitani from Hiroshima University’s Law School in Japan.

Dr Weber, Associate Professor in Politics, co-ordinates Peace Studies at La Trobe and Mr Marshall is project officer for Australian Studies in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The International Network of Universities (INU) is a consortium of 13 recognised universities from around the globe. La Trobe is a founding member of the INU and Vice- Chancellor, Professor Brian Stoddart, is the Network’s president.

Five La Trobe students from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences took part in the three-day seminar: Stefan Lovell, Lisa Prowling, Alyssa Woodthorpe, Alice Catchlove and Kathryn Scantlebury.

They exchanged ideas and canvassed options for world peace with students from Japan, Korea, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nigeria, Botswana, Australia, Europe, the Philippines, the UK, the USA and Canada. Seminar organisers included La Trobe Pro Vice-Chancellor (Strategic Development) Bob Goddard, Hiroshima’s Professor Nishitani, INU Project Manager, Gunilla Carlecrantz, and Joanna Watts from the INU Secretariat at La Trobe.

Mr Goddard said Hiroshima University organised for students to attend this year’s Peace Memorial Service where Japan’s Prime Minister and a host of dignitaries commemorated the day the world entered the nuclear age, and 100,000 people who died on that day.

‘The students visited the hauntingly beautiful Peace Memorial Museum and watched as hundreds of lanterns were launched that evening on the river to represent the souls of those who died. They also heard a story from one of the survivors of the atom bomb. He was seventeen when the bomb was dropped. ‘

The seminar comprised lectures and workshops dealing with ‘human security’, conflict resolution and the meaning of global citizenship.

Lectures provided ethical frameworks which broadened the meaning of ‘security’ to include issues of health, economics and the environment. Dr Weber’s keynote speech also focused on the meanings of security, as well as the developing study of international conflict resolution.

Workshops allowed students to gain hands-on skills in conflict resolution and ‘nonviolence’, defined strategies for development and reducing poverty, and considered power structures within each of their societies which might disadvantage certain groups of people.

A highlight was a day of ‘role play’. This simulated a regional meeting of the United Nations – chaired by Mr Marshall as ‘Secretary General Koffi Annan’. The meeting was convened to deal with proposed changes to the Japanese Constitution and its ‘Peace Clause’, Article 9, which says that ‘...the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. ‘

Students, acting as delegates, presented their perspectives on how a change to this clause might affect security in the region.

The delegate groups they formed included Japan (accepting that this sovereign issue may be important to its neighbours) South Korea, North Korea, China, Indonesia, Australia, Russia, the USA and the European Union.

‘Given current tensions in the region, the opening debates were quite heated,’ Mr Goddard said.

The delegates then had read to them four letters (again hypothetical) from key international observers – Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Mahatma Gandhi and Johan Galtung – pleading with them to consider broader ethical questions of human security and peace, rather than simply focusing on national military security.

Finally, the student ‘delegates’ not only unanimously voted to support the continuance of the Peace Clause and congratulated Japan on leading the world towards true ‘global citizenship and peace’ – they moved a resolution urging all member states to consider incorporating a similar clause into their own constitutions. Another amendment added the creation of a ‘North Asia Zone of Development and Peace’ based on the European Union model. Mr Goddard said the reaction to the seminar and hypothetical UN Assembly was ‘overwhelmingly enthusiastic and positive’.

One student, from Indonesia, was motivated to write about it on her return home, and was published in the Jakarta Post: ‘We realised that it is not easy to become a global citizen. However, let us not wait until another atomic bomb drops to start thinking about other people. Being a good, responsible citizen in our respective countries will help us to become a global citizen. ‘

Another outcome was a proposal to establish a joint INU Masters program in Global Citizenship/Peace Studies. Several member universities, including La Trobe, have already expressed an interest. And Hiroshima University was so impressed it has agreed to run and host the seminar for the next three years, with planning already underway for 2007.