Service Civil International

For this month's 2020 interview, we talked to Nerea de Miguel, who is an activist within VIA - NL (Dutch branch of SCI). Here is what she said about her first workcamps, peace and what 2020 means to her. 

Reinforcing European defence: remarks by President Donald Tusk at the event on PESCO

Reading the press release of 14 December 2017 from the Council of the European Union (Statements and Remarks 806/17), Service Civil International (SCI) was heavily concerned about the latest decisions the Council of the European Union made in regards to security and defence.

We are concerned with the narrative coming out of Brussels. In our nearly 100 years history of speaking to people of different nationalities and backgrounds and bringing them together, we are convinced that war and conflict are unnecessary to the functioning of humanity and society and can only bring about destruction.

We call for a European Union devoted to the original aims of the Community, defined in the Article I-3 of the Constitutional Treaty - sustainable development, scientific and technological advance, promotion of economic cohesion and solidarity among Member States - that stands strongly behind its values of peace and tolerance by remaining an important player in non-violent and diplomatic resolutions of conflicts.

SCI's full response can be read and downloaded here. 

A message from the BB team, who have worked hard to present us with this overview, in hope that it would inspire new ideas and initiatives under the Building Bridges label. 

Toyohisa Monden has been active for almost 60 years in SCI. This year he was the delegate of SCI Japan at the ICM, the annual meeting of SCI, in Catalonia.  The interview started Thursday-afternoon and continued early Saturday morning, Monden actually had so much to tell!