The BIPPIblog deals with education for a culture of peace.
It is not something that I invented myself.
The concept of Culture of Peace was delivered at the Congress on International Peace in Côte d'Ivoire in 1989. The Congress recommended to UNESCO to work to build a new vision of peace based on the universal values of respect for life, freedom, justice, solidarity, tolerance, human rights and equality between men and women.
Then it was discussed at the highest international levels for more than ten years in congresses, forums, conferences, committees and assemblies, a huge diplomatic effort to get the resolution 53/243 of 13 September 1999 in which the UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration on a Culture of Peace.
It states that "since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed".
Education for a culture of peace is "building peace in the minds of men".
This educational duty "belongs to parents, teachers, politicians, journalists, religious bodies and groups, intellectuals, those engaged in scientific, philosophical and creative and artistic activities, health and humanitarian workers, social workers, managers at various levels as well as to non-governmental organizations". (art.8 of the Declaration)
All actors in the civil society are called by the highest authorities of the world to guide young people to a culture of peace, namely towards a "set of values, attitudes, traditions and modes of behaviour and ways of life based on respect for life, ending of violence and promotion and practice of non-violence through education, dialogue and cooperation". (art.1 of the Declaration)
Education for a culture of peace is giving young people cultural models that orient them to meeting and not to confrontation, to dialogue and not to fight, to understanding and not to the injury, to the right and not to the oppression, to respect for diversity and not to its demonization. Building these values in the minds of young people all together, with great patience, in every corner of their daily lives.
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2 comments:
Something that I am struggling to put into words is the difference in approach between the Madron Seligman lecture which talked about "taking warfare off the menu of mankind" (reference pending) and "building a culture of peace" (Congress on International Peace in Côte d'Ivoire 1989).
Peace is not merely an absence of war. Building a culture of peace feels to me more like starting from the foundation and building something new, rather than looking at what is there, and trying to remove it.
"As the twig is bent, so grows the tree". For this cultural change to be permanent I believe we must look to youth, to establish this culture at base level. But it would certainly make growth much stronger if we could also remove the shadow of war, and let the sun shine where seeds of peace are planted.
"Pax in Spinus" suggests that peace comes from war. I want to believe that peace has a life of its own.
Very wise words and I want to add that in today's world we see wars everywhere: not only the war of (t)errorism but also the war between economies or the war against poverty and so on. Therefore even if peace is "simply" the absense of war, such an absence might never be achieved totally but describes an on-going process of society that is constantly transforming into something better. A life of its own... I understand you now I hope.
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