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Building a culture of peace in Africa
an article by Sasha Rubel, UNESCO Press
Africa’s leading decision makers, business
leaders, thinkers and artists will gather in
Luanda, Angola, from March 26-28, along with
representatives from inter-governmental
organizations and civil society, to lay the
foundations for a continent-wide movement to build
a culture of peace.
click on photo to enlarge
The Pan-African Forum, Sources
and Resources for a Culture of Peace, is
organized by UNESCO and the Government of Angola.
It will be opened by the President of Angola Jose
Eduardo dos Santos, UNESCO Director-General Irina
Bokova and the Chairperson of the African Union
Commission Nkosazana Diamini-Zuma.
Keynote addresses will be made by the former
President of the Republic of Mozambique Joaquim
Alberto Chissano and Bineta Diop, President of
Femmes Afrique et Solidarite.
Over the three days, participants will focus
discussions on Africa’s wealth of cultural, natural
and human resources and look at ways of harnessing
and mobilizing these forces for sustainable peace
and development.
Special emphasis will be placed on ways to engage
African youth (aged 15-35), who make up 65 percent
of the continent’s population, and who add 10
million people to the continent’s workforce
annually.
The Forum will prepare an Action Plan for the
prevention of violence and the resolution of
conflicts in Africa, to be submitted to the
African Union Heads of States and Governments
Summit in May, 2013. It will also launch a major
continent-wide campaign for the promotion of a
culture of peace, under the auspices of UNESCO and
the African Union, to sensitize public opinion,
and particularly young people, on ways to
construct and consolidate peace and non-violence
in daily life.
The full programme for the Forum is available here.
Remote participation is also possible for this
event. See details on how you can participate here.
(Click here for a French version of this article)
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DISCUSSION
Question(s) related to this article:
Will UNESCO once again play a role in the culture of peace?,
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Latest reader comment:
It is very appropriate that this new impulse for the culture of peace at UNESCO should come from Côte d’Ivoire, since the global movement for a culture of peace was initiated at a UNESCO conference in that country in 1989. See Yamoussoukro and Seville in the early history of the culture of peace.
Note added on September 2:
The official reports from the UNESCO Conference in Abidjian are now available:
English
French
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