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By Federico Mayor*
On the eve of a new century and millennium, the world is challenged, more than at any time in the past, to transform human history from its domination by war and violence to a new culture of peace and non-violence. What is so unique about this historical moment that the challenge only arises at this time?
It is a moment foreseen in the correspondence between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud in 1932. Freud speculated that for the first time, the abolition of warfare seemed possible, because of ‘these two factors - man’s cultural disposition and a well-founded fear of the form that future wars will take.’ The form of war has changed over the past century and has indeed become universally intolerable. For war now endangers the very existence of our planet. The victims of war have also changed. No longer are the vast majority of the casualties the combatants themselves. Instead, it is now civilians who suffer most: children, women, the elderly and infirm.
It is at this significant point in time that the United Nations General Assembly has taken a series of decisions:
1 proclaiming the Year 2000, the International Year for the Culture of Peace;
2 proclaiming the Decade 2001-2010 the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World;
3 requesting a Declaration and a Programme of Action for a Culture of Peace.
There are many factors in contemporary societies which favour this move towards decisive, concerted action. Humanity’s ‘cultural disposition’ and capacity for common action has been greatly enhanced by modern technology.
By pressing a computer key, a person can make instant contact with others on every continent. This enables people - and, most importantly, the young - to learn about each other, exchange views and begin to coordinate their actions. Unfortunately, extremes of wealth and poverty increasingly divide the world into ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, and many are still excluded from these cyber links. Indeed, we are challenged to ensure the fruits of technology are used to increase human solidarity rather than to divide people further from each other.
The ‘peace movements’ of yesterday have come of age. No longer confined to a single issue, they have diversified into the full range of issues contributing to a culture of peace: human rights, democracy, social justice, protection of the environment, international solidarity, gender equality. No longer restricted to protest against government policy, they are creating new forms of solidarity and positive action, promoting reconciliation, building bridges, cultivating peace.
Peace itself is being redefined. Instead of the absence of war, it is increasingly seen as a dynamic, participative, long-term process, based on universal values and everyday practice at all levels - the family, the school, the community, as well as the nation. Of course, there have been important forerunners of this process. There have been movements for non-violent social change such as those identified with Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, and organizations such as the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, showing us the way towards a dynamic, active, positive vision of peace.
With the end of the Cold War, and the renewed capacity of the United Nations Security Council to take unanimous action for peace, UNESCO joined in the post-conflict peace-building initiatives of the UN by launching its Culture of Peace Programme. For us at UNESCO, peace has always been our core mission. UNESCO’s Constitution, drafted at the end of World War II and dedicated to the permanent abolition of war, says ‘wars begin in the minds of men,’ and adds that therefore, ‘it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.’ Its words are as pertinent today as the day they were written: ‘a peace based exclusively upon the political and economic arrangements of governments would not be a peace which could secure the unanimous, lasting and sincere support of the peoples of the world, and that the peace must therefore be founded, if it is not to fail, upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind.’
| ‘For us at UNESCO, peace has always been our core mission.’ |
In this spirit, UNESCO’s Culture of Peace activities work to weave a web of cooperation and understanding in previously divided communities. In programmes such as those in El Salvador and Mozambique, reconciliation was achieved by bringing together those previously shooting at each other and engaging them in jointly designing and implementing human development proposals. In El Salvador, NGOs associated with the former guerilla movement worked together with government ministries to broadcast a radio series providing information on women’s rights and giving a voice to poor rural women. The broadcasts were heard throughout the country and were accompanied by a grass-roots educational campaign involving voluntary community peace promoters.
The process of the project was as important as the results - the former enemies were gradually transformed into partners through their participation in a shared initiative. In Mozambique, parliamentarians representing parties on both sides of the former conflict visited their parliamentary counterparts in neighbouring countries to learn how violent conflict can be transformed into constructive parliamentary debate. The experiences in El Salvador and Mozambique -and in many other countries from the Philippines to South Africa, Burundi and Mali- have shown that reconciliation is possible through acknowledgment of the past and working together for a common future.
The United Nations initiatives for a culture of peace mark a new stage: instead of focusing exclusively on rebuilding societies after they have been torn apart by violence, the emphasis is placed on preventing violence by fostering a culture where conflicts are transformed into cooperation before they can degenerate into war and destruction. The key to the prevention of violence is education for non-violence. This requires the mobilisation of education in its broadest sense - education throughout life and involving the mass media as much as traditional educational institutions. Just as violence is a learned behaviour, so, too, is the process of active non-violence. It must be learned and perfected through practice. The skills are many: active listening, dialogue, mediation, cooperative learning, conflict transformation. It may be said that, as we enter a new century, the ‘second literacy’ of ‘learning to live together’ has become as important as the first literacy of reading, writing and arithmetic.
The importance of learning cannot be stressed too much. We must all learn the skills and attitudes needed for a culture of peace. It is important, in this regard, to reassure young people that our behaviour is not pre-determined by genes or brain mechanisms. The consensus of leading scientists, expressed in the 1986 Seville Statement on Violence, is that ‘biology does not condemn humanity to war .... the same species that invented war is capable of inventing peace. The responsibility lies with each of us.’
While the state, as always, has a leading role in the prevention of violence, it is not alone in this responsibility. The culture of peace is the responsibility of each citizen in his or her daily life, and can be translated into numerous forms of action. One initiative is the Manifesto for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence, written and signed by Nobel Peace Laureates. Individuals are signing the manifesto and their signatures are being collected throughout the world - with a goal of 100 million for the UN Millennium Assembly in September 2000. The Manifesto commits each individual to cultivate a culture of peace ‘in my daily life - in my family, my work, my community, my country and my region.’ It makes the individual, rather than the state, the central actor in creating a world of peace.
The culture of peace is becoming a global movement - a movement of movements - in which everyone who is working for human rights, non-violence, democracy, social justice, sustainable development, women’s equality, join together in a ‘grand alliance’ of social transformation. The action of nongovernmental organizations working for these varied goals is a particularly powerful motor of social change.
This book is a milestone in the movement towards a culture of peace. It documents how, throughout the world, people are making progress on the various issues that -taken together- contribute to the coming culture of peace and non-violence. I invite the reader to take up this book and learn from the rich experiences and visions documented in its pages. I also invite readers to take up the challenge and emulate these actions in their own communities. It is by joining together that we can make the global transformation from a culture of war and violence to a culture of peace and non-violence.
* Federico Mayor is Director-General of UNESCO
Feedback please to
j.verhoeven@euconflict.org