International Peace Constitutions Conference for Nuclear and Foreign Military Base Abolition (November 5-6, 2009)
Co -organized by the Global Article 9 Campaign to Abolish War, Peace Boat and the International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases (NO Bases), the International Peace Constitutions Conference for Nuclear and Foreign Military Base Abolition took place on November 5-6 in Manta and Montecristi, Ecuador. The event, held in the same civic center where Ecuador's new peace constitution was written and adopted in November of 2008 and at a renowned university, focused on the concrete functions and outcomes of peace constitutions, especially in the areas of nuclear abolition and foreign military base abolition. The conference consisted of sessions on peace constitutions and foreign military base and nuclear abolition and testimonies from ten Hibakusha — or survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who are currently travelling with Peace Boat as part of its Global Voyage for a Nuclear Free World – Peace Boat Hibakusha Project. Performances, cultural workshops and a peace festival also took place. In addition to the conference, a delegation of Hibakusha met key high-level officials in the Ecuadorean government in Quito and three mayors from the Manabi region joined the nuclear disarmament initiative Mayors for Peace.
> Read the Manta and Montecristi Declaration in English and Spanish
> View the programme of the conference here (in Spanish) and guests profiles here (in Spanish).

Article 9 and Article 12 Conference -- Peace Constitutions for Global Disarmament (July 16, 2009)
A year after the Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish War, an international follow-up event was held onboard Peace Boat at the port of Puntarenas, Costa Rica with more than 500 participants. Guest speakers from Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, the United States, Switzerland and Japan explored the value of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution and of Article 12 of the Costa Rican Constitution in their historical perspectives and contemporary contexts, as well as their regional and global significance. They also looked at the links between these peace clauses and Article 26 of the United Nations Charter, which calls for the establishment of a system for the regulation of armaments with the least diversion of the world's human and economic resources for armaments in order to promote the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security. The conference concluded by adopting a declaration, proposing a UN resolution acknowledging the role peace constitutions play in promoting global disarmament and calling on government to shift priorities in the allocation of resources and decrease military expenditures to invest in financing sustainable development, human security and peace.
> Read the Article 9 & Article 12 Declaration - Peace Constitutions for Global Disarmament in English, Spanish or Japanese.
> View the programme of the conference here, and guests profiles here.
> Read Costa Rican President Oscar Arias’ message to the conference here, as well as Secretary General of the Vice Presidency of the Republic of Ecuador Homero Arellano Lascano's keynote speech here. Read more messages and speeches here.
The event was co-sponsored by the Global Article 9 Campaign to Abolish War, Peace Boat, International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA)-Latin America Branch, the Faculty of Law of the University of Costa Rica and Japanese Lawyers International Solidarity Association (JALISA).

Global Article 9 Campaign Letter to the UN Security Council
This letter was sent to all Council members, as they were preparing to hold a debate on "strengthening collective security and armament regulation." The letter reiterated that Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution supplements Article 26 of the UN Charter and called on governments to regulate armament, reduce worldwide military spending and reallocate the world's limited resources to sustainable development and peace promotion.