All posts by CPNN Coordinator

About CPNN Coordinator

Dr David Adams is the coordinator of the Culture of Peace News Network. He retired in 2001 from UNESCO where he was the Director of the Unit for the International Year for the Culture of Peace, proclaimed for the Year 2000 by the United Nations General Assembly.

Hidalgo, Mexico: Networks of Women Peace-Builders created in Apan, Tula and Pachuca

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article from News Hidalgo (translation by CPNN)

Within the framework of the Fund for the Well-being and Advancement of Women (FOBAM) of Inmujeres, this year the Hidalguense Institute for Women (IHM) carried out processes of awareness, training and strengthening of municipal and state institutional mechanisms to reduce adolescent pregnancy in 13 municipalities with medium and high adolescent fertility rates and build safe and peaceful spaces in Hidalgo.


Questions related to this article:

Protecting women and girls against violence, Is progress being made?

Is there progress towards a culture of peace in Mexico?

Three Networks of Women Peace-Builders (MUCPAZ) were created in Apan, Tula de Allende and Pachuca, strategic municipalities for the reconstruction of the social fabric. These citizen networks are made up of women from the community or municipalities who help with government agencies in the prevention of gender violence. Their strategies include to identify risk factors, detect possible situations in a timely manner violence, promote equality between women and men, help create environments free of violence and promote a culture of peace.

The members of the MUCPAZ networks include women regardless of whether or not they have schooled and they may speak Spanish or an indigenous language; They are survivors of gender violence, they know their communities, they know what the main problems are, and they have the capacity to create alternatives, solutions, and actions to transform their realities.

Both the women members of the networks and the civil servants of the participating municipalities received training workshops on peace, gender equality and prevention of violence against women.

With the advice and technical support of the IHM, they prepared a community action plan with the components of recovery, appropriation and new ways of living together. The plan was presented to the community in a public forum.

(Click here for the original article in Spanish.)

Rachna Sharma: thought leader for world peace

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

Special to CPNN by Jalsut Luthra

Rachna Sharma, the founder of Phuro Innovations (India) is a popular political peace expert, social entrepreneur and speaker. 

It was her journey at Harvard Business School that gave her the clarity to articulate her purpose, a place where people empower and peel the onion of self-awareness. That is the most profound thing that ever happened to Rachna. Since then she has been contributing as a thought leader for world peace. 

Rachna has compiled her views and supported them with published research about the nations which received freedom around the same time as India, and how those countries rank on the global indices of Peace. She shows how these nations lifted themselves out of poverty and conflict, and how they participated in global institutions and campaigns to benefit their people. 

World Peace is a very wide subject and one has to take up pressing issues as goals and contribute to it. That is why this year she is focused on South Asia. 

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Question related to this article:

Do women have a special role to play in the peace movement?

Where in the world can we find good leadership today?

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Honours, Awards & Volunteer Work

Rachna was recognized as “LinkedIn Power Profile – Social Impact in 2018” making her amongst the top 73 profiles in India. Rachna has co-authored a book “Globalization and Voices from Indian Practitioners” in 2013 . Rachna also volunteered as ambassador for Pashmina Goat Project of Kashmir Ink foundation. She has volunteered and served on the Board of Gift Foundation an initiative of Mr. Sam Beard who in the capacity of public affairs advisor served several US Presidents from former Presidents Nixon, Ford, Clinton, Regan & Bush 

Rachna was born in Kishtwar Jammu & Kashmir, one of the most conflicted geographies in the world. It was her early life exposure to conflict which launched her interest in world peace.

Amidst the turmoil and migration in Jammu and Kschmir, Rachna finished her Bachelors in Hotel Management from Srinivas University in Mangalore Karnataka India. She began working In India’s tourism and hospitality industry in 2002 and served the industry till 2014. At that point she was a development director in India. 

In 2019, Rachna established Phuro Innovations to promote and further her cause of World Peace by adopting a project called “Political Peace Dialogue SAARC” (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation).

The project celebrates United Nations World Peace Day, UN Peacekeeping Day and Peace Education by hosting awareness events, publishing articles, research papers, policy notes, and delivering small projects. Rachna created and delivered several prototypes in India as mentioned in Timeline  and proposed a Venn diagram of Peace   in the capacity of a Thought Leader. She co-chairs the India Chapter for Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs India since 2019, promoting innovation and leadership in India. 

Please read this article in Outlook Magazine  about her work in South Asia.

Brazil: Culture of Peace Fair seeks to combat various types of violence in Juiz de Fora

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article from the Tribuna de Minas

The project “Weaving Networks for a Culture of Peace and Violence Prevention” was part of the Culture of Peace Fair, held this Monday (the 19th), in Juiz de Fora in front of the Cine-Theatro Central.  The objective of the event is to show the project’s contributions to the establishment of an effective network for preventing and coping with the various forms of violence in the city.


The event is organized by the Intersectoral Nucleus for the Prevention of Violence and the Promotion of Peace (Photo: Divulgação)

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Questions for this article:

Can festivals help create peace at the community level?

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The event is organized by the Intersectoral Nucleus for the Prevention of Violence and the Promotion of Peace, implemented through municipal decree 15.034, of February 18 of this year.  Institutions and professionals that make up the nucleus presented the actions that they have developed.

For the professor of Psychology and coordinator of Culture of Peace, Cacilda Andrade de Sá, this was an opportunity to address a sensitive issue in a more welcoming way. “We aim to bring knowledge from the university to the community in general. In today’s case, the focus was on violence prevention by knowing the types of violence and proposing actions to reduce them, bringing a culture of peace to the population of Juiz de Fora.”

The project is a partnership between the Municipality of Juiz de Fora (PJF) and the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) and seeks to contribute to the development of the Municipal Plan for Strengthening the Prevention of “External Causes”.

(Editor’s note. “External causes” in this case refers to injuries and deaths that are not caused by cancer or other malady present in the individual concerned, but that are caused by accidents, inflicted violence, etc.)

(Click here for a Portuguese version of this article)

Jalisco, Mexico: V Global Forum on the Culture of Peace

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article from Estado de Jalisco (translation by CPNN)

With the purpose of analyzing the conflicts and problems that trigger violence, as well as proposing solutions to promote social reconciliation, the “V Global Forum on the Culture of Peace” was held at the facilities of the Jalisco Legislative Branch, promoted by the deputy Rocio Aguilar Tejada.

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(Click here for the Spanish original of this article)

Questions for this article:

The culture of peace at a regional level, Does it have advantages compared to a city level?

Is there progress towards a culture of peace in Mexico?

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The Forum highlighted the need to guarantee the participation of civil society through art, traditional games and gastronomy to promote values such as empathy, love and compassion. People were asked to join efforts to reduce the gaps of inequality and resolve through understanding the problems of the society.

For her part, legislator Aguilar Tejada, in her capacity as President of the Peace Committee, pointed out the need to create tools that consolidate respect for human rights. Finally, she said that “by 2023, forceful actions should be taken to improve security and establish a partnership between government and society.”

Among those in attendance were Iram Valdés Chávez, President of the organization “Comnapaz México”; David Hernández Pérez, representative of the Tlaquepaque city council; Dante Jaime Haro Reyes, Defender of Human Rights at the University of Guadalajara; Esperanza Loera Ochoa, Executive Secretary of the State Human Rights Commission in Jalisco and Rafael Medina Martínez, President of the Dr. Alfonso García Robles diplomatic foundation.

Colombia: This is how the new Peace and Human Rights Observatory of Armenia will work

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION . .

An article from Cronica del Quindio (translation by CPNN)

In Armenia, Quindio, the Observatory for the City, Peace, Coexistence and Citizen Culture has been created so that organizations, associations and foundations, public and private entities, as well as members of civil society and victims of armed conflict can contribute to the construction of the peace of the municipality.

It is a program of the mayor of Armenia with 4 lines of work: the promotion of actions and culture of peace, historical memory, human rights, and conflict management. In addition to the lines mentioned, the program willl contribute to the production of knowledge, the investigation and characterization of the victims of the armed conflict in Armenia, as well as the articulation with policies at the national level for the construction of peace.

The Observatory for the City, Peace, Coexistence and Citizen Culture of Armenia began with the issuance of Decree 181 of July 12, 2022, which provides for its formation. “As of this moment, it begins to meet in order to establish the strategic lines for the research and development of peace in Armenia.

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(Click here for the original Spanish version of this article.)

Questions related to this article:

What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

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The objective of the Observatory for Peace and Human Rights is to strengthen research and knowledge management for the production, use and approval of official information on peace processes and citizen culture, linking the participation of related actors and sectors. in the municipality of Armenia, Quindío”, explained Andrés Ocampo, manager of peace, human rights and civic culture of Armenia.

The 18 members of the Observatory will meet in bimonthly sessions. The members include secretaries of Armenia, delegates of the municipal table of victims, delegates of the Ombudsman’s Office and the Municipal Ombudsman, representative of human rights organizations, representative of institutions of higher education, delegate of the youth table, among other actors, to determine the strategic lines of impact on issues of peace and reconciliation.

Likewise, they will provide inputs for public policies, alliances, databases and information that allow the construction of peace and the recognition of the victims of the armed conflict. In the same way, they will realize projects of the national policy Total Peace, an event to recognize peace builders and the realization of a work route created by all the members of the Peace and Human Rights Observatory of Armenia . “We plan to obtain resources to show how many victims of the armed conflict Armenia currently houses. In addition, we seek to articulate with the national government for the implementation and adoption of national policies,” said Andrés Ocampo.

He also emphasized the importance that the victims of the armed conflict, post-conflict actors and civil society know that in Armenia there is a peace observatory that is a pioneer at the national level. “We are the second city with a Peace, Coexistence and Citizen Culture Observatory in a municipal administration. We need everyone to know of the support of the mayor José Manuel Ríos Morales for this entire peace process. Victims will receive guarantees and attention from all his work team, cabinet and offices of the city.

Russia’s Ukraine War and Energy Crisis have Scared the World into Turbocharging adoption of Wind, Solar for Power

.. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ..

An article by Juan Cole: Informed Comment

new report  by the International Energy Agency suggests that the 2022 global energy crisis, caused in part by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, has had the effect of greatly accelerating the world’s rush to green energy. The IEA suggests that its estimates for the pace of the transition to renewables, made only last year, now have to be revised upward by at least 30 percent, the highest revision the body has ever had to make. It estimates that the world will add 2,400 gigawatts of new renewable power over the next five years, equivalent to all the installed power capacity of China today.


Renewables were already growing with celerity, but they are now expected to rocket ahead.

Fatih Birol, the IEA executive director, said, “The world is set to add as much renewable power in the next 5 years as it did in the previous 20 years.”

The IEA projects that global solar capacity will triple 2022-2027, and that wind power capacity will double in the same period. Wind and solar will account for 90% of new power installations over these next five years. Solar alone will overtake coal by 2027 as the single biggest source of power.

The world is making good progress, then, on greening electricity. It isn’t doing nearly so well in using renewables for heating purposes, where coal and fossil gas still dominate. Renewables in heating buildings will only increase from 11% to 14% from now until 2027.

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Question for this article:

Are we making progress in renewable energy?

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In Europe, IAE projections of renewables growth has have had to be upped by 50%, and in Spain 60%, given that governments in both countries are introducing streamlined permitting, increased auctions, and more generous payments to consumers with solar panels on their homes.

The rapid changes are being driven in Europe by the Ukraine War and consequent energy crisis. The U.S., China and India, which are less affected by the war, nevertheless are legislating incentives for private industry to turn to renewables at a pace far beyond what had been expected.

In India, new renewables capacity, primarily solar, are expected to double by 2025.

The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, which has already jump-started the construction of new battery factories and which incentivizes turning to renewables, is a case in point. The Act could scarcely be imagined in 2020, when Donald Trump, who called the climate emergency a “Chinese hoax” and actively promoted coal, was in power. Now the IEA is having to sprint to keep up with the new implications of the Act.

China alone is expected to account for over half of all new green energy installations during the half-decade leading up to 2027.

By 2025, only about two years from now, renewable energy will surpass coal as a power source globally.

The report also admits that it may be underestimating the speed with which these changes will take place, and if countries with advanced economies cut through the forest of regulation, we could see an addition 25% growth in renewables over the next five years.

All this is very good news if the projections are borne out, since only such an acceleration can hope to keep global heating to an extra 2.7 degrees F. (1.5 degrees C.) above pre-industrial averages. An increase in the average temperature of the earth’s surface any higher than that risks throwing the world climate system into chaos, according to scientists who are modeling these changes. We have already seen just this year a mega-flood in Pakistan that inundated a third of the country’s land area and briefly created a new inland sea 67 miles across. Cyclones and hurricanes are already more intense and more destructive than they had been in the twentieth century. Wildfires devastated Australia in 2020, and the U.S. Southwest also is suffering from them as it struggles into the 22nd year of a mega-drought. All of these phenomena will get worse, in unpredictable ways, if we shoot past a 2.7 degrees F. increase. We are already at a 2.16 degrees F. (1.2 degrees C.) increase over pre-industrial times, and we can see dangerous disruptions. You won’t like a 3C or 4C world.

Africa Well-represented in Catholic Non-Violence Initiative on “just peace” in Rome

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article from ACI Africa

Africa was well-represented at a recent Rome conference that explored the concept of the gospel of nonviolence and “just peace”, interrogating Catholic “just war” teaching in the present day as an example of Vatican II’s call to “scrutinize the signs of the times” referenced in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, 4.


Credit: Martin Pilgram/Pax Christi International

Members of the Clergy, women, and men Religious, and Laity from Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda were among the participants in the three-day conference that concluded on December 7.

Organized by Pax Christi International under the theme, “Pope Francis and the Fullness of Pacem in Terris”, the conference that brought together some 70 activists, peacebuilders, theologians, academics, war victims and survivors, Clergy, Consecrated, and Laity was a follow up to previous meetings in 2016 and 2019.

In a reflection shared with ACI Africa following the conference in Rome, John Ashworth who is part of the Catholic nonviolence Initiative says that for decades, the Catholic Church has sought to find out the possibility of having a “just war”, amid growth in scale and destructive power of modern weaponry.

“Beginning with Pope St John XXIII, through Paul VI, St John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and now Francis, there has been a trajectory of recent Papal teachings questioning whether there can ever truly be a ‘just war’ given the scale and destructive power of modern weaponry, and returning us to the nonviolent teaching of Jesus who taught us to love not only our neighbor but also our enemy, and not to return a violent slap on the cheek with a similar slap but to offer the other cheek,” Mr. Ashworth says.

He adds, “On the one occasion in the gospels when we might have thought that violence could be ‘justified’ to prevent the unjust arrest of Jesus, Our Savior’s command to St Peter was, ‘Put away your sword!’”

“The early Church took this seriously, and Christians refused to fight for the Roman Empire even if it led to them being imprisoned, tortured, and martyred. It has been said that as Christians we should be prepared to die for our beliefs, but not to kill for them!” Mr. Ashworth says in his reflection shared with ACI Africa December 10.

The retired Catholic missionary who has spent forty years working with the Church in Sudan and South Sudan refers to the invitation of Pope Francis who has challenged the people of God to rethink the concept of a “just war”.

The Holy Father says, “A war may be just; there is the right to defend oneself. But we need to rethink the way that the concept is used nowadays… Every war leaves our world worse than it was before.”

According to the Holy Father, war is “a failure of politics and humanity, a shameful capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil.”

“War is the negation of all rights and a dramatic assault on the environment. If we want true integral human development for all, we must work tirelessly to avoid war between nations and peoples,” Pope Francis says.

In his reflection following the Rome conference, Mr. Ashworth notes that deeper than simply avoiding war (and other forms of institutionalized violence such as capital punishment), nonviolence calls the people of God to a new spirituality, a new way of life that respects the human dignity of every individual, whichever side of a conflict they are on.

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Question(s) related to this article:

Religion: a barrier or a way to peace?, What makes it one or the other?

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“As Christians, we do not have enemies – all are our sisters and brothers, created in the image and likeness of God, and in whom we see Christ! And as the Holy Father’s namesake St Francis of Assisi taught us, all of creation is also our sisters and brothers, so that nonviolent respect must also be extended to our environment, which is in crisis at this moment,” the author says.

He describes nonviolence as a broader concept than pacifism, saying, “It is much more than the absence of violence and it is never passive. Violence is utterly opposed to the Gospel; nonviolence is at the heart of the Gospel.”

“Nonviolence is a paradigm of the fullness of life. It is a spirituality, a constructive force, a method for social transformation, and a powerful way of life committed to the well-being of all,” Mr. Ashworth says.

Active nonviolence works, he says, adding, “Many people perhaps feel that it would be a good thing but they don’t believe that violence can successfully be countered by nonviolence.”

The Kenya-based retired Catholic missionary refers to an evidence-based study, “Why Civil Resistance Works” by Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan, which he says found that nonviolent resistance is twice as likely to succeed as a violent struggle.

Non-violence, He says, is far more likely to produce a peaceful, stable, democratic, human rights-respecting post-struggle society than a violent liberation struggle.

Mr. Ashworth says that it was nonviolence that overthrew a brutal military dictatorship in Sudan in 2019, adding, “Although the military eventually launched a fresh coup d’etat, the nonviolent struggle continues.”

He recalls that South Sudan, on the other hand, attained its independence after a violent 22-year civil war, but that the violence did not produce a just and stable society because a mere two years later, the new country relapsed into a fresh fratricidal conflict.

He notes that many African countries have experienced violent liberation struggles, whether from the evil of colonialism or the excesses of military regimes, as well as ethnic and religious conflicts. In all this, Mr. Ashworth says, there is an increasing awareness that responding to violence with violence does not bring peace.

“Violence begets more violence in an endless cycle which needs to be broken,” the Catholic author says, adding that in South Sudan, church leaders within both the Catholic Church and the council of churches have included quotes from Pope Francis’ 2017 World Day of Peace message “Nonviolence: A style of politics for peace” in their pastoral messages.

The Church leaders, he says, have been constantly appealing for peace.

Ashworth acknowledges that training for nonviolent resistance is beginning little by little in many African countries.

A nonviolent movement, he emphasizes, must be committed, organized, disciplined, and trained.

“There will be casualties… but the nonviolent activists hold the moral high ground and gradually their numbers are swollen by ordinary people, young and old, female and male, across the divides of religion, ethnicity, and politics, people who simply want a just and peaceful society in which to raise their children and grandchildren,” he says.

In his reflection shared with ACI Africa, Mr. Ashworth urges the people of God to reflect on non-violence, now that most places in the world are experiencing war of one kind or another.

“A brutal war between nations is waged in Ukraine, and no less brutal civil wars continue across Africa and many other parts of the world. Pope Francis has described the current situation as ‘a third world war being waged in installments’. Now is surely an opportune moment to reflect on nonviolence,” he says.

The retired Catholic missionary says that the importance of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative for the universal Church was brought to the fore at the closing Mass of the conference that ended on December 7 in Rome.

Robert Cardinal McElroy and several Bishops and Archbishops from France, Germany, Italy, the Philippines and the USA participated in the conference, while South African Bishop Kevin Dowling was unable to attend due to ill health but followed closely on WhatsApp.

Two senior Vatican officials also participated in the conference. These were Under-Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, Sr. Nathalie Becquart, and Prof. Emilce Cuda, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, along with staff of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development whose Prefect is Michael Cardinal Czerny.

Greenpeace on COP15: A bandage for biodiversity protection

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article by Gaby Flores from Greenpeace

The 15th UN Conference on Biodiversity, known as COP15, has ended. The final deal, known as the Kunming-Montreal Agreement, is being labelled historic but is just the beginning of the work needed to halt mass extinction.


At a press conference in Montreal’s Hotel10 during COP15, global Indigenous leaders from Brazil, Canada, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Indonesia gathered to call for nature protection that centres Indigenous rights and shifts power from industry to Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
© Toma Iczkovits / Greenpeace

What’s good about the agreement?

The final text recognises Indigenous Peoples’ work, knowledge and practices as the most effective tool for biodiversity protection. Indigenous Peoples represent 5% of humanity but protect 80% of Earth’s biodiversity, and the language in the text is now clear: the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal deal must respect their territories, ensure their rights and their free, prior and informed consent ─  according to the UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples ─ and their effective participation in decision making.

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Question for this article:

Indigenous peoples, Are they the true guardians of nature?

Sustainable Development Summits of States, What are the results?

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 In short, Indigenous-led conservation models must become the standard from now on if we are going to take real action on biodiversity.

What’s not so great?

The target to protect at least 30% of land and of seas by 2030 successfully secured a spot in the agreement but does not explicitly exclude damaging activities from protected areas. Without the crucial qualifiers, the needed goal risks remaining an empty number, with protections on paper but nowhere else.

Moreover, corporate schemes like nature-based solutions and offsets are included in the text and will allow industries seeking to profit from biodiversity to continue exploiting nature. These false solutions and greenwashing may prove to be costly mistakes. 

Finally, the often fought over question of finance is still not answered, with commitments made not yet sufficient to bridge the biodiversity finance gap. To save biodiversity, finance will not only be a question of how much, but how fast. 

What’s next for Biodiversity protection?

The Biodiversity COP15 left the most crucial work for nature protection as homework for world leaders. To start with: setting up a fund in 2023 to get money to developing countries faster as well as direct finance for Indigenous Peoples. Rights-based protections are the future of conservation and to global biodiversity protection. Additionally, vital to making 30 x 30 actually happen will be securing a historical Global Ocean Treaty at the reconvening of IGC5 in February 2023.

COP16 will convene in Türkiye in 2024, where governments will need to act fast to build upon the work done in Montreal. 

About the Soccer World Championship and Education for Cultures of Peace

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

Special for CPNN from Professor Alicia Cabezudo, Rosario, Argentina, December 2022 (translation by CPNN)

A Soccer World Championship has always been a “party” for the entire population of the world, whatever the age considered, gender, socio-economic and cultural condition that is analysed, geographical and climatic situation. For many days people live pending transmission schedules in all possible media, comments and sports press, results, bets, penalties, player names, generating endless meetings and talks about the infinite winning combinations.


Photo by Pablo Morano/BSR Agency/Getty Images

It is an obsessive topic among friends, neighbors, relatives, and fellow students and workers – turning the world’s greatest sporting event into a field for dialogue, criticism, defending positions, sharing hours of expectation, happiness and grief, physical and spiritual accompaniment, of solid and liquid food and where hopes, despair, misfortune, joy and expectations will be present.

It is a party that facilitates meeting, communication, the exchange of ideas and socializing tinged with affection. Invaluable practices in the entire teaching process.

It is an extraordinary opportunity in the educational task of parents, families, teachers, professors and communities to make this global sports festival a learning experience in itself. In such a way that the values of coexistence, respect for others, interculturality as social wealth, cultural differences and similarities and, above all, the enormous collective effort that being a good team implies, is also perceived as an ethical and political value, an urgent and necessary pedagogical dimension in today’s world.

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(Click here for the Spanish original of this article)

Questions for this article:

How can sports promote peace?

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We should be able to turn the Soccer World Cup into a space for democratic education where “soccer knowledge and experiences” are also an active, popular and irreplaceable pedagogical resource as a source of new learning and tools for understanding reality.

Tools with a resignified educational value according to possible didactic transfers and particular disciplinary applications according to the various areas of knowledge and even the specific school curriculum at all levels of formal education and in the field of non-formal learning.

Knowledge about other countries, their position and geographic characteristics; its form of government and laws; art, folklore and customs; the various religions and cults; past and present history with the problems of the world in which we live; economic links; trade; the arts ; common science and technology; The global problems that afflict everyone and the collective search for solutions, as well as many other topics of interest, open up new possibilities for analysis, reflection and creative dialogue inside and outside of schools and in all areas where we meet and meet.

Understanding diversity and differences; the multiplicity of ways of life and visions of the world; the different civilizations and their manifestations; the richness of the diverse cultures that these multicolored, multilingual, multireligious soccer teams represent, with men so different and so absolutely interdependent that they esteem and respect each other, creates the possibility of an enriching pedagogical dialogue and demonstrates a lesson in political pluralism, religious and cultural that enriches every educational process and is part of the civic-democratic training of children, youth and adults in current education.

The construction of these values, the defense and international recognition of the free self-determination of peoples, the right to peace, respect for human rights as international law and learning about the collective and united effort of men as creators of socio-political, economic and cultural transformations are part of this pedagogical proposal that should be added to the merely sporting one.

It is time for today’s world to become a huge solidarity football team, where each “player” contributes from his “position” to the necessary and urgent collective construction of a harmonious, balanced and cooperative result through the practice of a game. clean, mutual help, respect for others and sensitivity to their needs and problems.

In this way the game would probably make more sense, giving the world exemplary vital lessons in human warmth, teamwork, collective spirit and efficiency – which is exactly what is sorely lacking and . . . what we need so much.

Let us consider this pedagogical challenge without hesitation. . .

Chad: the provinces of Lac and Hadjer-Lamis come together for a sports cultural festival

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . .

An article from Al Wihda Info (translation by CPNN)

Focused on the culture of peace and living together, this festival brings together the provinces of Lake and Hadjar-Lamis. It will take place from December 15 to 17, 2022.

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Question related to this article:

 

Can festivals help create peace at the community level?

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For the president of the organizing committee, Dénénodji Marylène, the festival aims to strengthen the bonds of fraternity through sport and culture in order to consolidate social peace and living together. It is organized by the province in partnership with the Project for the recovery and development of the Lac region (PROLAC) and financed by the World Bank,

The president stresses that it is an opportunity for citizens to celebrate unity towards the peaceful rebuilding of the Chadian nation.

Activities on the program include: folk dances, theatrical performances, exhibition of objects for sale and football.

(Click here for the French version of this article)