Piece of Castle to become zone of peace

"Abandon your weapons" and your alcohol in Dunedin's war zone

A Zone of Peace is to be declared covering the region from St David’s lecture theatre to the intersection of St David’s Street/Dundas Street. “It’s a voluntary initiative,” says Sung Yong Lee, lecturer at the National Peace and Conflict Centre at the University of Otago. There will be no repercussions for breaking the peace any more than breaking the peace in any other region of Dunedin “as we don’t have the power,” says Lee. However, he hopes the Zone will result in improved behaviour in the area.

The project is in the early stages of development and the name “Zone of Peace” is tentative, but Lee explained that the concept has prevailed in many war-affected countries: “When you enter the zone, you should abandon your weapons.”
Lee described that people who were victimised in war-torn countries had used the Zones of Peace. Non-government organisations (NGOs) had success using Zones of Peace to start positive initiatives and now wanted to use the same model to initiate peace in Castle Street.

He said that the Zone of Peace has three key goals: to be environmentally friendly; mutually supportive; and to build a sense of community. He intends on the zone offering hot tea and coffee whilst people are out partying.

Lee referenced a street in London, England, which had also used a similar model because of its high crime and violence rate. Once the peaceful zone was declared and offerings of hot drinks were made on the street instead of allowing alcohol, many people began to bond with their neighbours and the crime rate drastically decreased.

“We want to hear from people who are interested in the cause,” says Lee. He has already had interest from the Dunedin City Council as well as the Centre for Sustainability, Selwyn Hall of Residence, the Maori Students’ Association and the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.

He explains that the majority of people seeing the damaged area are young children from the childcare centre on Castle Street and young adults from Selwyn College. Lee said students had not shown much interest, but they were the ones being affected. “Just last week two young girls from Selwyn were harassed,” he says. “There shouldn’t be violence round here and young children shouldn’t see smashed bottles on the ground.”

On 22 July, there will be a commencement party to declare the Zone of Peace at 520 Castle Street. No alcohol and no violence will be allowed, but soup and hot drinks will be served, as well as music from a blues band. Critic is aware that the hot liquids could be used as weapons, but we advocate peaceful and non-violent consumption.
This article first appeared in Issue 16, 2014.
Posted 5:12pm Sunday 20th July 2014 by Josie Cochrane.