File #: Res 0627-2006    Version: * Name: Congress to pass House Bill 3760 and Senate Bill 1756, the “Department of Peace and Nonviolence Act”.
Type: Resolution Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Intergroup Relations
On agenda: 11/29/2006
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution urging the United States Congress to pass House Bill 3760 and Senate Bill 1756 (H.R. 3760/S. 1756), the “Department of Peace and Nonviolence Act,” which would create a cabinet-level department headed by a Secretary of Peace who would advise the President on both domestic and international peace issues including non-military conflict resolution and human rights.
Sponsors: Rosie Mendez, Inez E. Dickens, Helen D. Foster, Melissa Mark-Viverito, Robert Jackson, Darlene Mealy, Gale A. Brewer, Letitia James, G. Oliver Koppell, John C. Liu, James Sanders, Jr., Kendall Stewart, Thomas White, Jr., Tony Avella, Vincent J. Gentile
Council Member Sponsors: 15

Res. No. 627

 

Resolution urging the United States Congress to pass House Bill 3760 and Senate Bill 1756 (H.R. 3760/S. 1756), the “Department of Peace and Nonviolence Act,” which would create a cabinet-level department headed by a Secretary of Peace who would advise the President on both domestic and international peace issues including non-military conflict resolution and human rights.

 

By Council Members Mendez, Dickens, Foster, Mark-Viverito, Jackson, Mealy, Brewer, James, Liu, Sanders Jr., Stewart, White Jr., Avella and Gentile

 

                     Whereas, Representative Dennis Kucinich introduced House Bill 3760 in the United States House of Representatives to create a federal Department of Peace and Non-Violence, a bill that has garnered the sponsorship of seventy-five (75) members of the United States House of Representatives including Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Gregory Meeks, Jerrold Nadler, Major Owens, Charles Rangel, Jose Serrano, Edolphus Towns, and Nydia Velazquez; and

                     Whereas, Senator Mark Dayton introduced Senate Bill 1756 in the United States Senate to create a federal Department of Peace and Non-Violence; and

                         Whereas, The creation of a cabinet-level United States Department of Peace and Non-Violence would be headed by a Secretary of Peace who would advise the President on issues that are both domestic and international in scope; and

Whereas, The Department of Peace and Non-Violence would consist of seven offices including an Office of Peace Education and Training, an Office of Domestic Peace Activities, an Office of International Peace Activities, an Office of Technology for Peace, an Office of Arms Control and Disarmament, an Office of Peaceful Coexistence and Nonviolent Conflict Resolution, and an Office of Human Rights and Economic Rights, each of which would be responsible for developing detailed policies and curricula aimed at furthering the cause of peace at both macroscopic and microscopic levels; and

Whereas, The New York City Council maintains a strong interest the proposed Department of Peace and Non-Violence’s goals including active coordination with and empowerment of communities, the reduction of domestic, school, racial, ethnic, and sexual orientation-based violence and hate crimes, stopping the proliferation of illegal guns, peaceably resolving police-community relations disputes, and the conception of peace as an organizing principle for our society; and

Whereas, The proposed Department of Peace and Non-Violence would balance military spending with a research-based approach, would work to provide a feasible exit strategy for the current war in Iraq as well as post-conflict reconstruction and demobilization of the region, and would seek, in the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, "an end to the beginning of all wars;" and

Whereas, The New York City Council commends the members of the New York State Congressional delegation who have signed on as co-sponsors of the proposed legislation and urges the twenty-two members of the delegation who have not yet signed on as co-sponsors, including Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, to consider doing so; now, therefore, be it

                     Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York urges the United States Congress to pass H.R. 3760/S. 1756, the “Department of Peace” and Nonviolence Act,” which would create a cabinet-level department headed by a Secretary of Peace who will advise the President on both domestic and international peace issues including non-military conflict resolution and human rights.

 

BRS

LS#2056

10/26/06