… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

An article by Laura Lucía Romero Mireles in Gaceta UNAM (translation by CPNN)

For peace, the great challenge is to transform the current culture of violence into one of dialogue, understanding and solidarity, characterized by respect for life and the dignity of people, social harmony founded on the principles of freedom, justice, democracy and solidarity, and rejection of all forms of violence,. This is the conclusion of the first session of the VI Virtual Forum Agenda 2030, libraries as drivers of a peaceful and sustainable future.

The keynote address was delivered by Ana Dolores Barrero Tiscar, director of the Culture of Peace Foundation in Spain. She said that developing a culture of peace is the only way to address the complexity of current needs and insecurities. However, carrying out this transformation is not an easy task, because violence has existed since the beginning of humanity; it is learned, socially constructed throughout history.

In her address, she mentioned that the United Nations Agenda 2030, in its 17 sustainable development goals and its 169 targets – which aim to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and ensure peace and prosperity for all people – recognizes the transversal and multidimensional scope of the culture of peace.

At the opening ceremony, Verónica Elena Solares Rojas, deputy director of Education, Training and Updating for Sustainability of the University Coordination for Sustainability, representing Tamara Martínez Ruiz, secretary of Institutional Development, highlighted that libraries are key players in building an environmental, peace-building, informed and proactive citizenry, by providing access to scientific, humanistic, reliable and quality knowledge.

More and more higher education institutions and spaces for the dissemination of knowledge around the world are recognizing their central role in the transition towards sustainability, she added at the meeting held from September 25 to 27.

UNAM, in its Institutional Development Plan, proposes sustainability as a cross-cutting axis for its substantive tasks. “Education strategies cannot be carried out without the existing material resources that are in the library collections; thus, from the Coordination we seek to strengthen education for sustainability at all levels.”

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(click here for the original version in Spanish).

Is there progress towards a culture of peace in Mexico?

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Elsa Margarita Ramírez Leyva, general director of Libraries and Digital Information Services, described these facilities as living centers where learning, innovation, creativity, recreation, and enjoyment coexist, and which until now have been places of peace and harmony.

In this Directorate and the 140 libraries that make up the UNAM library and information system, she added, they have long been contributing to sustainable development through different actions. An example of this is that they all facilitate efficient and broad access to physical and digital collections, and open access resources, which also benefits other communities.

Rocío Cázares Aguilar, head of the Acquisitions Department of the National Library of Mexico, explained that for some years now this agency has had an annual program of donation of bibliographic materials to the Eastern Preventive Men’s Prison, and it has been very successful.

“We have received comments from inmates commenting on how their lives have changed by being sent stimulating materials of interest, of a legal or literary nature, which encourages us to continue sowing those seeds of peace among those citizens who also have the right to the information and recreation that libraries can offer.”

The coordinator of the Graduate Program in Library Science and Information Studies, Lina Escalona Ríos, commented that from the library education “we reflect on what we have done for the training of professionals, teachers and doctors, who must contribute to the achievement of the objectives of peace and sustainability.”

For his part, Gerardo Zavala Sánchez, coordinator of the College of Library Science and Archives, of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, stressed that the education of librarians in training is relevant at this historical moment, and it is necessary to have a comprehensive vision in the quality study plans and programs, where respect and harmony between society and the planet must be paramount.

Máximo Román Domínguez López, president of the National College of Librarians, highlighted the commitment to society to rebuild the social fabric with the active participation of librarians, and how libraries can be agents of peace in a country where violence prevails.

Finally, Daniel Jorge Sanabria Barrios, president of the National College of Librarians, highlighted the commitment to society to rebuild the social fabric with the active participation of librarians, and how libraries can be agents of peace in a country where violence prevails.

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… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

An article by Luis Reyes from Universidad Iberoamericana (translation by CPNN)

The Department of Interdisciplinary Reflection of the Universidad Iberoamericana (IBERO) presented the book Reconciliation: A Possible Path to Peace, by Dr. Mónica Chávez Aviña, a work that addresses the context of violence that people, families and communities experience daily in Mexico. The book provides a reflective dialogue with different authors who have addressed the origin and the causes of the violence. causes of this scourge, where it began to develop and whether it is possible to eradicate it.

Photo: Luis Reyes

Is peace an illusion or a naive utopia? Is reconciliation and forgiveness possible? Is there hope or is everything already lost? These are questions that the text written by Dr. Chávez Aviña seeks to answer. The context is the wave of violence that looms daily in the country makes us look at the terror that has been experienced for a month in Culiacán or the recent execution of the mayor of Chilpancingo, Alejandro Arcos Catalán, at the hands of organized crime.

During the presentation held at the Martín Buber Auditorium of the IBERO, the moderator was Maestro (Mtro.) Alberto Segrera Tapia, who gave the floor to several personalities who were invited to make comments and reflections on the volume.

Maestro (Mtra.) Lucila Servitje Montull said that, as a response to violence, reconciliation is complex; it is a personal and social problem that originates from unjust structures and the serious lack of justice for reparation of damages.

“What Monica chooses is reconciliation as a response to violence (…) When violence is not recognized, one is complicit in injustice. Monica underlines that we can speak of a resentful memory, but also of a happy memory, which can recover the past, follow the present and glimpse into the future.”

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Is there progress towards a culture of peace in Mexico?

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Miguel Álvarez Gándara, National Human Rights Award 2017, pointed out that the logic that dominates today is that of force, where patriarchy, exploitation of resources, neoliberalism and dispossession are exercised with violence and who has to change this situation is the power, which is totally exhausted.

“The possibility of forgiveness is in reconciliation (…) Where we are capable of dialogue, we initiate processes of reconciliation. Dialogue has depth because it has to do with the causes, not only with the effects. Peace is a process that does not come from outside, it is built from within with local actors,” he said.

The Director of the Department of Interdisciplinary Reflection, Dr. Fernando de la Fuente S.J., reflected that there is no reconciliation without justice because it is evident that the person who commits harm must compensate for it. However, he pointed out that Dr. Chávez Aviña’s text rethinks this situation from different angles and provides an alternative for reconciliation.

“That is fundamental. If we do not believe this, we will not be able to move forward and open ourselves to hope. We must narrate from the truth so that we can empathize with the suffering of the victims, know the social causes that led to these unjust and violent acts so that they are not repeated. In some way this is present throughout the text,” he stressed.

Dr. Chávez Aviña, author of the book, explained that the text asked questions that challenge and try to give different answers so that whoever reads it can dialogue with different authors and propose reconciliation as a possible path to peace.

She pointed out that there are still many challenges to achieve this, such as caring for people in vulnerable situations and connecting with people, groups, foundations and educational centers to build a culture of peace, ensuring that people live with dignity and their human rights are respected.

“Reconciliation first implies moving from silence to words based on truth. We have to transmit hope to the next generations and create a culture of peace, where we can live with reconciliation, fraternity and solidarity. We must commit ourselves to creating new narratives of justice, of reconciliation to create bridges that make this horizon possible,” she noted.
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… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

An article from Lindero Norte Noticias (translation by CPNN)

The University Council of the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC), the highest collegiate body representing the Cimarron community, approved the report on activities and the 2025 Work Plan of the Institutional Program for the Culture of Peace (PICP).

The report was presented by the coordinator of the unit for Gender, Diversity and Educational Inclusion (UGDIE), Yessica Martínez Soto, who highlighted that it reports on the actions carried out in five areas: educational inclusion; gender and violence; diversity and interculturality; mainstreaming of the culture of peace; and collaboration networks.

Among the activities presented by Dr. Martínez Soto is the formation of the LSM-UABC Commission made up of 16 people from the university community, who were in charge of interpreting the university motto in Mexican Sign Language (LSM).

Other notable actions include the publication, on November 25, 2023, of the “Declaration by which the Pronouncement of Zero Tolerance is issued for any situation or expression that violates the well-being and rights of people at UABC”; the ÚNETE and ORGULLODIVERSA UABC campaigns.

Discussions on university experiences were also organized, in which topics such as the inclusion of people with disabilities at UABC, women in academia, and the implications of trans identity in the classroom were addressed.

In addition, workshops, training sessions and discussions were held on topics such as inclusive language, autism, art and gender, prevention and eradication of violence, interculturality and higher education, suicide prevention, teaching, culture of peace and human rights.

In collaboration with BBVA and the Vice-Rectorate of the Tijuana Campus, the Job Fair for People with Disabilities was held. Likewise, work was done on training peace agents, through the integration of the Reading Circle for Peace.

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Likewise, the project “Daily Steps for Peace” was implemented, through which, through a monthly digital calendar, each day an informative and dissemination resource is offered related to the main dimensions that contribute to the construction of a culture of peace, such as human rights, gender, diversity and inclusion.

The UGDIE coordinator explained that, among the actions scheduled in the PICP 2025 Work Plan, are the preparation of guides, decalogues and protocols that establish guidelines for inclusion from language, disabilities, for the construction of peace actions in university instances, attention to sex-gender diversity and harmonious coexistence.

The university violence meter will also be created, a program to prepare trainers in non-violent communication, a MOOC course on peace culture, a toolbox for self-care and personal peace, and a network of young people for peace.

Likewise, a university consultation will be held on violence and discrimination rates; the route for reissuing documents due to change of identity will be outlined, and a day of intercultural self-determination will be organized.

Modifications in the educational program and academic unit

Likewise, with the purpose of responding to the needs demanded by the global context, the University Council approved modifications of the educational program of the doctorate in Administrative Sciences.

Finally, at the request of the Technical Council of the Faculty of Sports, the Faculty was divided into three independent academic units, one for each campus. The split is based on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions and needs presented by the Faculty. In addition, it will contribute both to the efficient decentralization of the university’s resources and functions and to the promotion and development of the region.

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FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION .

An article by Rudecindo Vega Carreazo in Otramirada (translation by CPNN)

This October 2nd marks the 20th anniversary of the journey into eternity of RP Felipe Mac Gregor SJ, the former rector of the PUCP (Pontifical Catholic University of Peru) and the United Nations University, the creator of the concept “Culture of Peace”, universalized by UNESCO and enshrined in a Universal Declaration of the UN. It is a shame that in Peru this universally valuable achievement is little known and recognized. Hopefully it can be taken up and valued today in a crisis of violence, insecurity and crime. Hopefully the PUCP, which owes so much of its development and institutionalization to him, can promote a permanent project of this type.

I was a PUCP student when he was no longer Rector, but his image was of validity and admiration, distant and unattainable for a student from the barrios and small towns (in my case, Camporredondo). Thanks to my teacher Marcial Rubio Correa (former PUCP rector as well) I had the good fortune and honor of working with MacGregor for 12 years, first at the Peruvian Association of Peace Studies (APEP) and then at TRANSPARENCIA. I have hundreds of teachings, anecdotes, life lessons as simple as they are profound.

Thanks to his generosity and that of Marcial, I shared with them, at APEP, the central team of multidisciplinary research on “Structural violence in Peru” (for me they were a master’s degree and a doctorate without a degree together), “Violence in the Andean Region: Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela” (another master’s degree and doctorate on Latin American reality) and; the investigation into drug trafficking and cocaine that developed proposals from Peru, Bolivia and Colombia that were presented at the summit of Presidents Barco, Alan García and Paz Zamora with Bush Sr. in 1990 (another specialized master’s degree).

Between 1988 and 1992 I learned about another of MacGregor’s concerns, little developed, the concept of “Human Security.” He said, always ahead of time, that it was one of the great problems that the world would face in the coming decades. Imagine how valuable his advice would be in times like the present where insecurity, violence and crime reign everywhere. Father Felipe moved with incredible ease in that world of influencing decision-making for worthy causes. I was very happy, running from my house in SMP to the PUCP in Pueblo Libre, then to the Colegio Inmaculada in Surco (where he was also Rector and resided) and the Universidad del Pacífico in Jesús María where he presided over the Institute for Peace.

In TRANSPARENCIA he was equally valuable and wonderful. I got to know his love for Peru and the future of Peru, his vocation for human rights and democracy. To take advantage of his prestige, he was invited by Fujimori to create and preside over the High Commissioner for Human Rights, but he rejected it in front of the ministers and presidents of the PJ (judiciary) and MP, pointing out that those functions were already in those constitutional bodies.

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

How can we carry forward the work of the great peace and justice activists who went before us?

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I also remember, because I accompanied him to an event organized by the JNE (National Elections Jury) controlled by Fujimori in 1999, in which the central speaker and honoree was him as a member of TRANSPARENCIA. Before the full JNE, politicians, judicial authorities, prosecutors, congressmen and the executive, his conference focused on the autonomy and independence of the JNE, the role of the rule of law and the defense of democracy and why electoral power could not be manipulated by the government. superb master class, I was an eyewitness, we left together, this time alone, without company protocol, he leaning on my arm, in the elevator with a sweet, half-broken voice he said to me “Was I right? I had to tell them what Peru deserves, but let’s get out quickly, otherwise they will only understand and not let us leave.” In TRANSPARENCIA he was a voice that gave institutional personality, how necessary his knowledge and voice would be for our Peru today, which suffers its worst moral, institutional, political, electoral crisis. Many times I comfort myself with his teachings and anecdotes.

One time he asked me what my promotion was at the Colegio Inmaculada, I told him I had studied at the GUE Nicolas de Piérola in El Agustino, that my primary school I studied at the School Center N°131 of Chachapoyas and that I was from Camporredondo; Without being surprised, with a naturalness that reached my bones, he told me “that is why we understand each other, that is why we get along so well, you are a Jesuit without being a Jesuit and I am a civilian being a Jesuit.” I admired him more, much more. He asked me again, why was I an atheist or perhaps agnostic? I told him that I was not an atheist, nor an agnostic nor a nihilist, that I was just a young man confused about his beliefs and that I had not yet found my way. Again, without any gestures of surprise, he told me that he “was also a confused priest and continued to search for his way”; and, quoting Machado, he told me “each of us will make our own way as we go.” He was a sublime teacher, a priest teaching a disciple to find his own way, not to follow his own.

I did not see him much during the last years of his life, but we were aware of each other. His death did not surprise me, but it did surprise me; At his wake, in his church, Our Lady of Fatima, without realizing it, but with much peace and security, after many years, I prayed again, for the joy of having known him, for his earthly life, for his eternal life. Today I continue to do so, sporadically it is true, and his image and name always come to my mind. He will continue to build his path in eternity, while I continue trying to build my earthly path, knowing that “that is why we understand each other, that is why we get along so well.” Glory to you, Father Felipe Emilio Mac Gregor Rolino S.J.; in my memory and heart always.

(Editor’s note: As described here Felipe MacGregor launched the initiative for a culture of peace at UNESCO.)

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