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Survey of national measures and unilateral efforts toward disarmament
an article by International Peace Bureau survey (excerpt)
In order to assess the internal capacities and
priorities of states to undertake national and
unilateral actions toward disarmament the
International Peace Bureau launched a governmental
survey on national disarmament efforts. The survey
was sent to 172 government delegations in Geneva,
Switzerland in June 2012. This included all
members and observers to the Conference on
Disarmament, and also all other states with
missions in Geneva. Reminders of the original
request were emailed to the missions twice with
results by September 2012. Responses were received
from eight countries: Colombia, Czech Republic,
Finland, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and
Switzerland. This represents a tiny fraction of
the countries sent the survey, however. The UN
General Assembly requests information on
disarmament matters from all 192 member states,
and in the subjects covered by this survey receive
about 7 or 8 responses, so this disappointing
number is about par with the experience of the UN
itself.
click on photo to enlarge
Drafts of the questionnaire benefited from comments
and suggestions from the United Nations Office on
Disarmament Affairs (UN ODA) and the United Nations
Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) for
which the IPB is grateful.
The questionnaire consisted of a two page cover
and introductory letter and a one page
questionnaire. The first section focused on
education, in particular Disarmament Education. In
2000, the General Assembly commissioned a study on
Disarmament Education as it was “Conscious of the
need .. to combat the negative effects of cultures
of violence and complacency in the face of current
dangers in this field through long-term programmes
of education and training”. The General Assembly
requested that the study “ define contemporary
disarmament education and training, taking into
account the need to promote a culture of non-
violence and peace” and to do so at the primary,
secondary, university and post-graduate level.
The 2002 UN Group of Experts (GoE) study concluded
that: The objectives of contemporary disarmament
education and training are: (a) To learn how to
think rather than what to think about issues; (b)
To develop critical thinking skills in an informed
citizenry; (c) To deepen understanding of the
multiple factors at the local, national, regional
and global levels that either foster or undermine
peace; (d) To encourage attitudes and actions
which promote peace.
The General Assembly has requested member states
to provide reports on their efforts in the field
of Disarmament Education five times. In 2004,
2006, 2008, 2010 & 2012. On average, only seven
states respond each year, with a low of 5 in 2010
and a high of 9 in 2012.
If the eight respondents to the survey, three,
Colombia (2012) and Hungary (2004) provided one-
time reports to the UN on their efforts in
Disarmament Education. In August 2012, Germany
provided a report to the UN for the first time,
the day before it responded to this questionnaire,
to which it attached a copy of its report.
In brief, Disarmament Education is a program
designed to empower the domestic population of a
state to question policy and support disarmament
at an informed level. It is counter intuitive
that a state would educate its own population to
question its sovereign prerogatives, and the
author was not optimistic of finding a genuine
disarmament education program run by a state.
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DISCUSSION
Question(s) related to this article:
Can the culture of peace be established at the level of the state?,
* * * * *
Latest reader comment:
The state has come, over the centuries, to monopolize the culture of war. It would require a radical change in its very nature for it to abandon the culture of war and adopt a culture of peace.
For details on how the state has come to monopolize the culture of war, see The History of the Culture of War
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