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Santos creates a Peace Commission to avoid violence and intolerance (Brazil)
an article by globo.com
The Mayor of Santos and the City Secretary of
Defense of Citizenship signed this Friday (December
12), the document creating a City Peace Commission
to avoid violence and intolerance.
click on photo to enlarge
The idea for the creation of the group is to
transform society to be more civilized. "We have
been carrying out actions since last year like the
"Peace Wave", along the beach with the
participation of thousands of Santistas. It is
ever more important to stimulate such actions and
to spread a culture of peace in the everyday life
of the population," affirmed the Mayor of Santos,
Paulo Alexandre Barbosa.
According to the City Secretary of Defense of
Citizenship, Marcelo Del Bosco, between January
and August of this year 223 incidents of violence
were reported, and the majority were against
women. "We are going into the communities with
workshops, trying to reach the women who are not
reporting the aggressors. We know of some cases
already where women are afraid to report the
offender. With work and discussion, we can
resolve this problem ," said the Secretary.
The City invited the former Minister of Justice
and former National Secretary of Human Rights,
José Gregori, who is chairman of the Commission on
Human Rights of the University of São Paulo, to
help form the peace commission . According to him,
education is the main and best way to achieve a
more just society. "We put education as the top
priority and, accordingly, we value teachers,
increase the quality of education that the teacher
is able to pass on, and hence improve the quality
of basic education in Brazil," said Gregori.
The Commission will have as one of its challenges
to strengthen social work, and thus to avoid any
violence, whether physical or psychological. "The
issues of racial equality, the struggle against
prejudice and against homophobia; these are kinds
of violence that have plagued our country and
that we can fight. The Peace Commission can play
an important role, in coordination with the
various city departments and people from the civil
society," concluded Del Bosco .
(Click here for a Portuguese version of this article)
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DISCUSSION
Question(s) related to this article:
What is the history of culture of peace in Santos?,
How can culture of peace be developed at the municipal level?,
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LATEST READER COMMENT:
The following comes from the blogspot of ABrasOFFA. . .
What is a Culture of Peace ? Are we born violent ? or do we acquire violence throughout our lives ?
It's questions like these that ABrasOFFA has been working on over the years, according to the guidelines of UNESCO, indicating that there is an imperative need to build a new vision of Peace
Peace is the absence of expressions of violence, minimizing conflicts and transforming them through real negotiations as a possible alternative. To that end, since 1987 the NGO ABrasOFFA, has been working on the creation of International Folklore Festivals in Brazil and abroad, in order to meet different folk groups around the world and work with the issues surrounding cultural diversity of each nation with this initiative. The organization has worked on important issues like cultural revival, actions and exchanges for young people in order to spread the culture of peace and nonviolence among youth.
Within the Programme of Action for a Culture of Peace of United Nations, adopted in 1999 are eight programme areas that deserve special attention, such as : Culture of Peace through Education, Sustainable Development and Social Economy; Commitment to all human rights, equity between genders; democratic participation; understanding, tolerance and solidarity; participatory communication and the free flow of information and knowledge; and peace and International Security .
Working with other international movements for peace, ABrasOFFA has already obtained prominence with international organizations such as UNESCO on two of its projects : the Network of Youth for Culture of Peace and the International Folklore Festival in Brazil. In the International Exhibition of Best Initiatives for Peace, held in Paris in 2006 and 2008 ABrasOFFA was the only Brazilian organization invited to participate in workshops and lectures aimed to promote their projects.
In August 2009 ABrasOFFA realized the World Peace Congress in the Americas , with the support of Senac and UNIP Santos.
People came from projects linked to the Culture of Peace and Non Violence from countries like Spain, Norway , Austria , United States , England , Mexico, Paraguay and Brazil. The highlight was the renowned Lia Diskin from Sao Paulo, who attended the opening event at the Coliseum Theatre .
Also participating in this initiative was a former Director of UNESCO , the neuroscientist David Adams, an American who was responsible for the Decade of Peace under the guidelines implemented by UNESCO in the year 2000-2010 .
In March 2010, David Adams, returned to Brazil and lectured in the presence of over 500 people in the Auditorium of UNISANTOS, requesting the creation of a peace council in the city of Santos to the Alderman at that time, Arlindo Barros, who headed Executive but it was not yet accepted.
Since then, ABrasOFFA has carried out projects focused on Culture of Peace and Non Violence, such as Peace as the Tip of Chalk, the Peter Crescenti School and the Santos Municipal Market besides continuing the creation of Festivals of National and International Folklore with a focus on the Culture of Peace and Nonviolence .
Responsible in Brazil for the preparation of the Decade of Peace World Report, the NGO participated with renowned organizations throughout the world, collecting and compiling information on Civil Society and the actions undertaken. . ...more.
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