RCE Salisbury - 2023

The creation of truthjustice.org for SDG#16 and partnership with the nonprofit Strength to Strength
CSV
Basic Information
Title of project : 
The creation of truthjustice.org for SDG#16 and partnership with the nonprofit Strength to Strength
Focal point(s) and affiliation(s)
Name: 
Brittany Foutz
Organizational Affiliation: 
RCE Salisbury
Name: 
Alison Wright
Organizational Affiliation: 
RCE Salisbury
Name: 
Michael Migliozzi
Organizational Affiliation: 
RCE Salisbury
Format of project: 
Website
Language of project: 
English
Date of submission:
Friday, July 14, 2023
Amnesty Bill
At what level is the policy operating?: 
International
Geographical & Education Information
Region: 
Americas
Country: 
United States
Location(s): 
Salisbury, MD
Ecosystem(s):
Target Audience:
Socioeconomic and environmental characteristics of the area : 
The Eastern Shore began the twenty-first century with strong growth across multiple economic indicators. The region gained jobs at double the rate of the rest of the state from 2001 to 2007 while also outpacing the state in net business creation and keeping pace in wage growth. However, there are more people experiencing poverty now than there were 30 years ago. Maryland’s poverty rate is 19 percent higher than it was in 1990 – a year that the U.S. economy entered a recession – and there are nearly 200,000 more Marylanders trying to get by on incomes below the federal poverty line. Nearly every county in the state has a higher poverty rate than it had in 1990. While unemployment rates have continued to decline since the 2008 recession, wages often are not high enough to support a family. However, Maryland has a history of supporting effective programs that help lift people out of poverty. Working together, the state can do even better. Maryland is working strongly to support efforts to address the state’s many unmet needs and invest in the success of all Marylanders.

The State of Maryland has an estimated population of 6,052,177 people based on the most recent US census calculations. When broken down into regional populations, the Eastern Shore of Maryland region includes the following nine counties: Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne’s, Talbot, Caroline, Dorchester, Wicomico, Worcester, and Somerset. The sparsely populated counties of the Eastern Shore of Maryland have a combined population of 454,889 or 13% of the state population.
Description of sustainable development challenge(s) in the area the project addresses: 
The core area in the region constitutes the “shore counties” or those that reside either within or on the Chesapeake Bay (watershed) and along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. This includes all of the counties in Delaware, Maryland, and nineteen of the forty counties in Virginia. These physical locations are being subjected to the quickest increases in climate change activities and the poorest residents in these locales will experience severe detrimental impact on their quality of life.

SDG 4 - Quality Education
Secondly, the citizens of the Delmarva Peninsula, by and large, have lower levels of educational attainment and lower incomes. RCE Salisbury will focus in part on communities in these areas that experience the highest high school dropout rates where the social reproduction of poverty is endemic.

SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
The most vulnerable members of this region are in the crosshairs of climate change and educational disadvantage. Both will lead to increased social conflict and with limited resources and limited planning the consequences are dire. These dynamics will impact the foundational resources that people and the institutions built on these resources - depending on for survival, security, and prosperity.
Contents
Status: 
Completed
Period: 
June, 2021
Rationale: 
-Ongoing pressure from families on the UK and Ireland governments to allow a Public Enquiry investigating the effectiveness of police handling of the attack.
-Could the bombing have been handled better, both in preventive terms & the contested investigation afterward?
-Pushback by the local police force (West Midlands) who say the inquiry is ongoing, but the wide perception of dragging feet.
-Slow progress from the government in London to set up a public inquiry
-Financial pressures on the group to fundraise amid setbacks in their legal costs to pressure UK govt/ police to begin a public inquiry

Objectives: 
-Campaign to pressurize regional police, courts & UK government to deliver accountability for perpetrators of local pub bombings in 1974 that claimed 21 lives. No one has been arrested/convicted in 40 years.
-Additional objective to establish Public Enquiry from the UK government.
-Campaign to highlight undelivered justice to convict perpetrators of 'Ireland's September 11th' atrocity in a 1998 car bomb attack that claimed 31 lives.
-Pressure on police & governments to deliver on promises to 'leave no stone unturned in finding perpetrators & repair damage in public confidence in policing and morality of the peace process.
Activities and/or practices employed: 
See pdf entitled "UN SDG 16 Project Final Report - Assisting Victims of Violent Extremism in the UK & Ireland with Peter Kelly".
Size of academic audience: 
100+
Results: 
-Widespread support for Omagh campaigners from the international survivors' sector on different continents.
-High praise/support for survivors from across the media who regularly platform their cases and pressurize governments and police into assisting the families' quest for justice.
-Hollywood movie Omagh (by Bourne Supremacy director) highlighted the heroism of the survivors and their leader, Gallagher, and won many international awards.
-Ireland's Police Oversight Ombudsman strongly supports survivors' campaign for accountability and transparency
-Wide support in local public towards the campaign, including the Irish community who have built a steel memorial (Tree of Life) outside the city's railway station to honor the campaign/deceased
-Prominent media support from the regional press - Birmingham Mail newspaper platforms the group's work on front pages & headline coverage, calling for the government and the police to act
-Bi-partisan political support from regional and national politicians (from city mayor/MPs/Ministers) for public inquiry call

Lessons learned: 
Key Challenges:
-Calls on the UK and Ireland governments to resist a suspected amnesty to the perpetrators, thus undermining the whole conflict resolution effort by cheating justice by immorality and pacifying the guilty.
-Upholding justice will enhance public confidence in peace accord and care for innocent survivors.
Key messages: 
Violent extremism or terrorism rears its ugly head in all forms, shapes, and sizes. Whether it's in the form of far-right extremism, far-left extremism, radical Christian extremism, radical Jewish extremism, radical Islamic extremism, or many more ideological motives behind extremists or terrorist groups, no matter the reasons, the fallout from extremist attacks can be very deadly. It can cause significant damage to the infrastructure and the culture of a particular region or community.
Relationship to other RCE activities: 
Some of the research team members will continue working on an upcoming project working with Ukrainian women and girls researching transgenerational conflict through a transitional or restorative justice lens with the U.S. State Department's Diplomacy Lab Program.
Funding: 
This project was pro-bono on behalf of RCE Salisbury. Funding came from RCE Salisbury Co-Secretariat Dr. Brittany Foutz for the website purchase and labor fees.

Pictures:

File Name Caption for picture Photo Credit
Image icon Boston College 1.png (15.34 MB) Boston College evidence Brittany Foutz
Image icon Boston College 2.png (14.96 MB) Boston College evidence Brittany Foutz
Image icon Boston College 3.png (13.92 MB) Boston College evidence Brittany Foutz
Image icon Boston College 4.png (9.18 MB) Boston College evidence Brittany Foutz
Image icon Boston College 5.png (8.23 MB) Boston College evidence Brittany Foutz
Image icon Boston College 6.png (8.06 MB) Boston College evidence Brittany Foutz
Image icon Boston College 7.png (8.3 MB) Boston College evidence Brittany Foutz
Image icon Boston College 8.png (8.32 MB) Boston College evidence Brittany Foutz
Image icon Boston College 9.png (8.69 MB) Boston College evidence Brittany Foutz
Image icon Boston College 10.png (7.82 MB) Boston College evidence Brittany Foutz
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
(https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs) and other themes of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
SDG 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all 
Direct
SDG 10 - Reduce inequality within and among countries 
Indirect
SDG 11 - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable 
Direct
SDG 16 - Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels 
Direct
SDG 17 - Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development 
Direct
Theme
Traditional Knowledge  
Direct
Curriculum Development 
Indirect
Ecotourism 
Indirect
ESD for 2030-Priority Action Areas
Priority Action Area 1 - Advancing policy 
state: 
Direct
Priority Action Area 2 - Transforming learning and training environments 
state: 
Direct
Priority Action Area 3 - Developing capacities of educators and trainers 
state: 
Direct
Priority Action Area 4 - Mobilizing youth 
state: 
Direct
Priority Action Area 5 - Accelerating sustainable solutions at local level 
state: 
Direct
Update: 
No
I acknowledge the above: 
Yes