INTERNATIONAL STUDENT / YOUNG PUGWASH IS NOW BEING ESTABLISHED

Report By Tom Børsen Hansen,
Chairperson of the Interim Committee of International Student / Young Pugwash

Let me start with some background information. Since the first International Student/ Young Pugwash (ISYP) pre-conference in Lillehammer in 1997, Student/ Young Pugwashites have discussed the possibilities of forming an International Student/Pugwash Organisation. At the 1999 pre-conference in South Africa we formed an Advisory Board, which should investigate the funding possibilities and the formal requirements of setting up such an organisation. The Advisory Board, consisting of Sandra Ionno (SPUSA), Tannia Falconer (S/Y Pugwash Mexico), Jeffrey Boutwell (Observer on behalf of the Pugwash Conferences) and Paul Guinnessy (S/Y Pugwash UK, and chairperson of the Advisory Board), hired Hugo Estrella as International Coordinator for six month. The work of the Advisory Board and the Coordinator resulted in a series of memos, which was presented to the Student/Young representatives at the Pugwash Cambridge conference this year. At the conference in Cambridge, the Student/Young delegates agreed to hold an election to an Interim Committee of ISYP, consisting of seven voting members.

Five of the seven members of the Interim Committee must have a regional affiliation (one member from each of the regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America/Australia). Two of the members have no specific geographical affiliation. The elected representatives of the Interim Committee are: Gina van Schalkwyk (South Africa), Hugo Estrella (Argentina), Jin Xie (China), Susan Veres (US), Carsten Rohr (UK), Lise Østby (Norway), and Tom Hansen (Denmark, and chairperson of the Interim Committee). A non-voting member of the Interim Committee, representing Pugwash, is Sir Joseph Rotblat.

This is a very exciting step to formalise a network between all existing Student/Young Pugwash National Groups, and to establish a permanent office responsible for coordination and support for all national groups, and to support the setting up of new Student/Young Pugwash groups in countries currently lacking a group. It will also help to enhance and coordinate contacts and communication between Student/Young Pugwash and Pugwash.

The Interim Committee is respon-sible for setting up a legally recognised International Student/Young Pugwash Organisation. In Cambridge we agreed to give the Interim Committee the following tasks: conduct fundraising and write proposals, write a budget for the ISYP, design office structures, research and establish a legal structure of ISYP, establish a 6-month work plan, research the best option for office space, and decide upon its establishment, research and write a job remit for the ISYP Executive Director, draft election procedures for the organisation's board, hold the elections for the board, maintain contact, distribute information, and gain input from National Student/Young Pugwash groups, and prepare ISYP nomination procedures for the Pugwash Conference in India 2001.

The Interim Committee started working at the end of September after the result of the election was known. We started our work by sharing ideas and constituting ourselves. We split into three groups dealing with the legal structure, fundraising, and setting up an office (including maintaining contact to the National Student/Young Pugwash Groups and to the National Pugwash Groups). As a first achievement we have a draft of the Statutes of ISYP ready for discussion on our web page. Discussion papers detailing the remaining tasks will also be placed on the website.

We want the formation of ISYP to be as open and inclusive as possibly. We hope that many Student/ Young as well as Senior Pugwashites will be willing to discuss, inspire, and take part in the process of making International Student/Young Pugwash a reality. Hence we invite everybody to visit our web page and follow and comment on the formation of our organisation. We accept good advice and useful information with gratitude.

I will end this short article with my personal vision for the organisation. As I see it an international organisation of young committed students and scientists, such as ISYP, has at least three purposes:

1. It should support young committed students and scientists to choose the path of a "Humane Science" (a Science that benefits Humanity) and not just follow the crowd. This includes forming local as well as global networks of "humane" young students and scientists enabling them to support each other. It also means to challenge and change mainstream scientific research and science educa-tion and to relate science to the "Humane Imperative."
2. This organisation should also support emancipative initiatives, which are not necessary restricted to the sphere of science. The problems facing Humanity are complex, and cannot always be reduced to and resolved in only one sphere. On a longer time scale this approach might lead to the formation of new types of mainstream research programs as well as educational institutions that have the problems of Humanity as their "object," and the solution of these problems as their purpose. In this longer time perspective, purpose one—mentioned above—and purpose two will converge.
3. The organisation must be global, because many of the threats facing Humanity are global, and hence can only be solved globally. The organisation should be locally based in every inhabited continent of the World. This means that groups should be formed and supported all over the world. Now Student/Young Pugwash Groups exists in about 30 countries. Since the election took place contact persons have been found in at least four new countries: Serbia, Peru, Italy, and Papua New Guinea.

The progress of International Student/Young Pugwash can be followed at: www.student-pugwash.org.

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