The Vatican endorses CISD's Strategic Concept for the Removal of Arms and Proliferation and its ...
19 May 2020
The Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy’s (CISD) Strategic Concept for the Removal of Arms and Proliferation and its Freeze initiative (SCRAP) has received public support from The Vatican.
Included in The Vatican’s newsletter on 28 April 2020 , SCRAP was listed as an example of an initiative promoting the freezing of arms production and supply. The newsletter encourages readers, churches and faith-based groups to promote disarmament by asking states and corporations to reinvest part of the resources currently dedicated to arms production to global food security instead.
In communication with CISD, The Vatican stated that, “The Vatican Task Force on COVID-19 has enthusiastically welcomed SCRAPs' initiative and intuitions and, it is giving them public relevance, as you can see from the publication of our newsletters on the Dicastery's website.”
The Vatican has confirmed that they will “keep supporting SCRAP’s impressive work” in future newsletters.
Dan Plesch, Director of CISD said:
"We hope that other faiths and secular organisations will now join the Vatican in using the “Freeze Weapons Production” for conflict prevention and sustainable peace and the ideas of the staff and students at SOAS's SCRAP . This affirmation from the Vatican is a tribute to a decade of determination from SOAS alumni, students, staff and associates.”
Dr Olamide Samuel, Project Coordinator at SCRAPWeapons said:
"We have a 'once in a generation' opportunity to transform our economies in a manner that will result in greater investment in health, safety and social security. We hope that global civil society follows the Vatican's lead in supporting the #FreezeWeapons campaign, as a practical means of addressing the humanitarian needs of our time"
The UN and Advocacy Summer School and CISD Masters Programmes are opportunities to critique these ideas.
SOAS Digital Ambassador Rut Einarsdottir recently blogged about working on the SCRAP project .
