Category Archives: EDUCATION FOR PEACE

Spain: The Second Latin American Congress makes Vila-real the international capital of police mediation

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article from the Castellón Journal (translated by CPNN)

The town of Vila-real has again become these days the “world capital of police mediation” thanks to the second edition of the Ibero-American Congress of Police Mediation held until Friday [April 15] ]at the Municipal Auditorium Músic Rafael Beltrán Moner with more than 400 congressmen and 40 speakers. The mayor, José Benlloch, the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, the rector of the Universitat Jaume I, Vicent Climent, and the chief of the local police, José Ramón Nieto, inaugurated this morning the congress, organized by the city of Vila-real collaboration with the UJI, which aims to “deepen the values ​​of dialogue and agreement” as effective and efficient tools for conflict resolution and “peace-building”.

mediacion
The mayor, the president of the Generalitat and the rector of the Universitat Jaume I inaugurate an event that brings together more than 400 delegates and 40 speakers

Benlloch highlighted especially the role of local police in Vila-real, through the Unit of Police Mediation and the Department of Police Mediation of the University which are consolidating “a methodology still in its infancy but which has already shown its full potential “. “The police unit that was born as a pioneer in 2004, has given new answers to different realities. Today it marks the way forward for police forces around the world,” says the mayor. To further strengthen this discipline, from the theoretical and practical level, Benlloch advocates a reform of regional laws concerning local police that “gives greater means to our bodies of municipal security, who are closest to the problems of people, that incorporate a culture of mediation as an intrinsic part of their work”; this is a reform on which, he points out, the Generalitat of Valencia has been working in recent months.
   
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(click here for the Spanish version)

Questions for this article:

Mediation as a tool for nonviolence and culture of peace

Where are police being trained in culture of peace?

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The president of the Consell stressed in his speech the support of the Regional Administration for the practice of mediation as an example of “social innovation” that addresses conflict resolution as “diversity management ensuring equal between the parties”. “Police mediation extends the value of the police at the municipal level, with the added value of proximity,” says Puig, for whom the Second Latin American Congress of Police Mediation “is a demonstration of the role of local goverment to participate in global debates. The City of Vila-real has opened a fundamental debate about police mediation as prevention with the training of security forces for dialogue and consensus.”

In the same vein, the rector of the Universitat Jaume I stressed the importance of meetings such as the Ibero-American Congress to consolidate a discipline that is “still emerging” and to “advance values ​​such as respect, freedom and justice, which are the values of peaceful coexistence. ” Rector Climent considers the Congress and the work done by the Department of Police Mediation of the city Vila-real to be a “reference in the international arena, as an example of” inter-agency collaboration, through the transfer of innovative knowledge.”

After the inaugural presentations, the mayor of Vila-real delivered the first lecture of the conference, which in its first day featured speakers such as Peter Blasco, on behalf of the NGO Messengers for Peace, the inspector general commissioner of the National Police of Panama, General Willington Zambrano, and the human rights activist Mamadou Dia. The morning session, included the award of the Josep Redorta prize to deepen the implementation of mediation in police forces in Latin America, while on Friday the Alternative Nobel Laureate and founder of les Peace Studies, Johan Galtung, spoke at the closing session.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Europe

Nonviolence Charter: Progress Report #8 (April 2016)

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article by Robert J. Burrowes, Anita McKone and Anahata Giri in the TRANSCEND Media Service (abbreviated)

Here is the latest six-monthly report on progress in relation to ‘The People’s Charter to Create a Nonviolent World’ and a sample of news about Charter signatories. Building a worldwide consensus against the use of violence in all contexts is quite a challenge but we are making solid progress!

charter

Since our last report on 14 October 2015 –which Antonio C. S. Rosa kindly published in the TRANSCEND Media Service Weekly Digest—

–we have gained our first signatories in another four countries – Argentina, Costa Rica, Kazakhstan and West Papua – a total of 93 countries now. We also have 104 organisations from 33 countries, the latest of which is the Associação Internacional de Poetas based in Brazil. If you wish, you can see the list of organisational endorsements on the Charter website.

If you wish to see individual signatories, click on the ‘View signatures’ item in the sidebar. You can use the search facility if you want to look for a specific name.

The latest progress report article ‘Ending Human Violence is a Task for Each of Us’ was recently distributed to many progressive news websites and mainstream newspapers: it was published by a number of progressive outlets in fourteen countries, thanks to very supportive editors–several of whom are Charter signatories. . .

You may remember that in the last Charter progress report we repeated our promise to report on those of you about whom we knew less by asking you to send us some information about yourself and the reminder that you don’t have to be world famous to be valued here. Well, the good news is that a number of people responded and, in addition, we did some more research ourselves. However, as we continue to find, extraordinary people seem to invariably consider themselves ‘ordinary’. So, irrespective of how you consider yourself, we would love to hear about you for the next report!

(Editor’s note: The news of charter signatories is too long to be printed here, so reader’s are encouraged to see them here in the full report.

Question for this article:
EDUCATION FOR PEACE, global

Zanzibar Peace, Truth & Transparency Association

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

from Ali Mussa Mwadini

Dear Sir / Madame,
 
Please help our organization to unite & work together. to promote & sustain a true culture of peace & peace operations and local conflict resolution in Zanzibar community. The Zanzibar Peace, Truth & Transparency Association is a non-profit Organization, non-political, non-religious, and non-military registered in Zanzibar Tanzania, with its headquarters in Zanzibar Town.

zanzibar
Photo of Association on International Day of Peace

Against a background of wars, conflicts, tension and insecurity within Zanzibar community, our Organization was founded to focus on True Culture of Peace, and Peace related issues, such as Human rights, Gender Inequality, Interfaith, Democracy, Good Governance and Rule of law within Zanzibar and the Tanzania at large.
 
Our Organization is triggered by the resurgence of political misunderstandings between ruling and opposition political parties in every multiparty election in Zanzibar since 1995, which ends up with conflicts and distorts social fabrics. Zanzibar Peace, Truth & Transparency Association, is committed to address those political misunderstandings accordingly in order to safeguard lives and properties of the Zanzibar community.  In this respect, we therefore need to bring together and live Peaceful and prosperous society, and to ensures equal rights and privileges to all Zanzibar citizen.

We aim to:

– build a peaceful Zanzibar Community, free from Violence, Conflict, Hatred and Fear

– To promote compassion and understanding, respecting the Differences, Gender Equality and tolerance and for others live together in Harmony

– To promote peace Community in the Villages, Districts, Regional and National, encourage and strengthened for a National Movement for a True Culture of Peace in Zanzibar

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Question for this article:

Can peace be guaranteed through nonviolent means?

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– To undertake Peace Training program within rural Community Leaders, Religious groups, Women Groups, Youth Groups & Youth Centers, Schools, Colleges & universities,  in order to reduce conflicts and create  sustainable future generations

– To empower community members with skills and knowledge to produce income generating activities in order to reduce poverty and increase peace

– To Change and Revive the norms and rules governing Zanzibar community, Religious Groups & Political Parties, at all levels in order to ensure that conflicts are dealt with constructively through institutional channels

– To seek cooperation with Peace Loving countries and institutions which indulge in promoting Peace Awareness, Conflicts Resolution, Peace Building, Negotiation and Reconciliation, Strong Dialogue and Forgiveness and promote the Culture of Peace as an urgent task that requires the committed engagement of all the people in Zanzibar & the World.

Our Organization is working in Unguja & Pemba Islands through community training,  group meetings, mobile cinema, Political meetings, Religious Groups and Women Groups. The large population in our two Islands have adopted a peaceful way of life to avoid Conflicts

It Is Never Too Late To Live Together As Humans Despite  our Political Parties & Religious Differences
 
To consolidate peace after war is a long-term process. To consolidate democracy is an even longer one.

LET US UNITE FOR THE WORLD PEACE.
LET PEACE PREVAIL ON EARTH

Ali Mussa Mwadini
Executive Secretary & Peace Activist
ZPTTA NGO Zanzibar
( Tel: +255 777 451257 )
(amwadini1950@yahoo.com)

Africa, EDUCATION FOR PEACE

Nonviolent Peaceforce: A paradigm shift?

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article from the Nonviolent Peaceforce

As violent chaos overwhelms all existing approaches to civilian protection, unarmed civilian protection is gaining attention. Over the past three months, NP has given high-level presentations in Europe, the Middle East and the US.

paradigm

On February 1, Rolf Carriere, NP board member and senior advisor, spoke at a Brussels forum on Civil Society Perspectives on European Union Implementation of the 2015 UN Reviews. In noting that unarmed civilian protection (UCP) was prominently cited in two UN reviews, Mr. Carriere asserted, “UCP is ready for scaling up. There is almost no conflict where it would not be suitable for these unarmed strategies to be used, especially if the engagement is early on in the conflict cycle, more preventative.”

NP board chair Mukesh Kapila and Tiffany Easthom, NP director for the Middle East, spoke on a panel at the World Bank’s Fragility Forum in Washington DC., March 1-3, where they noted that the sum of the various efforts by international actors is clearly not adequate to today’s needs of rising toll of humanitarian disasters and violence against civilians. They stressed the need to be guided by the local communities, to utilize unarmed approaches and to challenge institutional norms.

Two weeks later, Dr. Rachel Julian of Leeds Beckett University in the UK joined Easthom in Berlin to testify before a subcommittee of the Bundestag. Based on evaluations, case studies and interviews of those involved with nine organizations providing unarmed civilian protection, Dr. Julian has found that UCP changes the behavior of armed actors, helps communities stay at home and saves lives. Ms. Easthom was impressed by the parliamentarians’ high level of knowledge and keen interest to scale up UCP. Mel Duncan followed up with a delegation of German parliamentarians when the visited New York in early April.

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Question for this article:

Can peace be guaranteed through nonviolent means?

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Chris Holt and Shannon Radsky of NP’s team in South Sudan spent a week in mid-March speaking at parallel events for the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women as well as meeting with UN officials in New York. While affirming the findings of the March 10th UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Report of extreme violence in South Sudan, they went on to detail ways that women are not only victims but also effective agents of civilian protection.

On the religious front, Easthom participated in a retreat sponsored by the World Council of Churches in Beirut where they adopted a strong theme of nonviolent approaches. And Mel will take part in a conference on nonviolence at the Vatican in mid April.

So what does this all mean? Merely a dizzying array of junkets? Or will this advocacy translate into a meaningful increase in the protection of civilians? Dr. Julian observes that a paradigm shift is underway, “One of the most dramatic shifts will have taken place when everyone realizes that, the assumption that an armed actor will not yield to anything except a weapon has been proven to be untrue.”

Together we are proving that point from the bush of South Sudan and bringing the messages to places like Bundestag of Germany.

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article.)

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, global

USA: Kids4Peace Boston summer programs

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

Excerpts from website of Kids4Peace Boston

Each year, Kids4Peace Boston works with Muslim, Jewish & Christian youth from Boston, Israel, Palestine, and the United States. Among peace education efforts, Kids4Peace is unique in three ways:

kids4peace

1) We begin with 12 year olds, engaging their natural openness to live, learn, play, and make friends with others different from themselves. Because the children are young, their families also become involved in the program and get to know one another.

2) We focus on faith, getting close to what matters most in many people’s lives. We highlight our common heritage as children of Abraham and pay attention to each tradition’s impulse toward peace and justice.

3) We maintain and nourish the relationships made in this initial encounter of children and their families so that these young people become effective interfaith peace leaders by the time they graduate from high school.

We believe that it is our obligation to teach our children to be peacemakers, leading by our own example and learning from young people’s fresh perspectives on how to live together in friendship and peace.

SUMMER CAMP FOR 6th & 7th GRADERS

Kids4Peace Boston is looking for Muslim, Jewish, and Christian 6th and 7th graders to join us for 8 days of summer camp activities (swimming, boating, sports, hiking, camp fires, arts and crafts and more) on the shores of a crystal-clear lake in the mountains of New Hampshire

Who? We are looking for participants who live in the greater Boston area and are in sixth or seventh grade during the 2015-2016 school year. Kids4Peace campers are open-minded, like to try new experiences and make new friends, and are eager to share about their lives, cultures, and religious traditions.

When? July 31 – August 7, 2016 at Camp Merrowvista in Center Tuftonboro, NH

For additional questions, email info@kids4peaceboston.org

2016 SUMMER PROGRAMS – 8th GRADE

Service Learning Program in New Haven, CT Monday, July 25 – Tuesday, August 2, 2016

8th graders, with peers from North America and the Middle East (including Israelis, Palestinians, and Syrian, Iraqi, and Afghan refugees), will explore interfaith citizenship, identity, communication, leadership, and peace by participating in a nine-day service-learning program led by Jerusalem Peacebuilders (a K4PB partner). Activities will include: dialogues, sports, workshops, presentations at local faith communities and field trips to the United Nations HQ, the 9/11 Museum at Ground Zero in New York City, and historic Mystic Seaport and Aquarium.

Click here for more information and an application:

2016 SUMMER PROGRAMS – 9th & 10th GRADES

Kids4Peace International Global Institute in Washington, DC Wednesday, July 27 – Monday, August 8, 2016

9th and 10th graders will join their peers from Kids4Peace Jerusalem and from other K4P chapters in America to learn about social change movements, gain skills in advocacy and organizing, and interact with public policy and diplomatic leaders. They will return to Boston with a few of their Israeli and Palestinian friends to implement their new skills through an interfaith community action project.

For more information and an application: www.k4p.org/summer2016/.

(Thank you to Norma Shakun for proposing this article to CPNN.)

Questions for this article:
EDUCATION FOR PEACE, North America

Costello students take part in UK Peace Jam

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article from the Costello School

Twelve Year 10 Costello students attended a pioneering conference at Winchester University exploring human rights for indigenous people. They welcomed a special guest, Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum from Guatemala. In 1992, Rigoberta Menchú Tum was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of efforts to improve the rights of the Mayan of Guatemala and native people everywhere. She was the first indigenous person to receive the award. During the 30 years of dictatorship, war and violence that followed the 1954 military takeover 200,000 Guatemalans were murdered. Rigoberta helped her father organise resistance, and, despite losing both her parents, two brothers, a sister-in-law and three nieces and nephews to the violence, persevered with the search for a peaceful way to resist military oppression.

peace-jam

The two-day conference held at The University of Winchester, and organised by Peace Jam UK, welcomed around 250 delegates including secondary school students from all over the UK.

Throughout the weekend, the Peace Jam conference discussed Nobel Peace Prize winners and various themes including identity, difference, power, privilege, peace and non-violence in an increasingly complicated world.

Early on in the conference the audience were invited to ask Rigoberta questions and Joe Duerden made a real impression when he asked Rigoberta “As the next generation of humans, how can we tell our world leaders to treat our world with peace rather than violence?

Students were also given the opportunity to present their local community projects to an audience, as part of the One Billion Acts of Peace movement – a fundamental element of the academic Peace Jam programme. Some of the students learnt about a scheme called “Roll out the Barrels”,

In Africa and developing countries around the world, women and children carry their own weight in water, in dirty jerry cans and containers, not just from a local pump (a few hundred yards away) but sometimes over 6 miles or even further, just to survive – “Roll out the barrels” provides a simple solution!

Other students visited Hyde Gate Residential home and spent time talking to residents and taking part in activities with them whilst others went onto the streets of Winchester to talk to young people about the Street Reach Community Project.

The Conference had a huge impact on all the students and they are setting up a Costello Peace Jam group in the summer term with the aim to launch our own contribution to the Billion Acts of Peace campaign! For as Rigoberta told the students, “We all have energies and if we combine these energies we can make a difference!

All of the Costello students would like to say a HUGE thank you to the Basingstoke and Deane Rotary Club who so kindly sponsored their trip and without whom this opportunity may not have been possible!

Question for this article:
EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Europe

Romania: Systemic Peacebuilding, Conflict Transformation & Post-War Recovery and Reconciliation

. EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An email received by CPNN from PATRIR

The Advanced Certificate Program in Systemic Peacebuilding, Conflict Transformation & Post-War Recovery and Reconciliation (PCTR) will be held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania 20-24 June 2016. The program is accredited by COTIPSO [Certificate of Training in United Nations Peace Support Operations].

patrir

“I will not hesitate to unreservedly recommend this programme for all actors in the peacebuilding field. I dare say that without it you stand the risk of missing the mark, with it your chance of success in your endeavours are quite significantly enhanced!”

— Paul Ebikwo, African Union/United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), Sudan

By bringing together experienced practitioners and policymakers from governments, the United Nations, regional authorities (EU, AU, OAS, ASEAN), and national and international organisations and agencies, PCTR fosters a unique opportunity to interchange experience and practical learning with those working in conflict situations worldwide. Internationally noted as one of the best-evaluated programmes in the field, PCTR is unique in thoroughly addressing all three phases of violence and war – the before, during and after periods – grounded in rigorous professional training and practical operational experiences.

PCTR is a five-day intensive programme which provides experts, practitioners and policymakers with a forum for reflection and targeted, relevant professional development goals within a dynamic and stimulating environment. Given the issues it addresses, the programme is relevant for those working in political, gender, security, human rights, development, and humanitarian fields, as well as donors and diplomats specialising in areas affected or threatened by war, armed conflict or in post-war situations. PCTR draws upon a network of global experience, systematically weaving together key operational and policy lessons identified as good practices. The direct, needs-based skills and knowledge-intensive approach of the PCTR is suitable for senior and executive level field staff, and those in leadership roles in governments and organisations. It has also proved pertinent for those employed as staff and field practitioners within national and international aid and development organisations. The programme’s focus on practical experiences and skills that can be utilised in the field, and its emphasis on modules in systemic peacebuilding, and assurance that prevention works; also, its attention to conflict intelligence, peace consolidation and applied peacebuilding methodologies have received strong feedback from participants during the programme and for years to come.

Question for this article:

Where is peace education taking place?

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View our full course outline for a comprehensive overview of this exciting and innovative programme.

HOW TO REGISTER: 

You may apply online or download an Application form.

After submitting an application, IPDTC will contact you within ten working days regarding an admission decision.

Course places are limited, so apply today!

Participant Contributions:

Full contribution for OECD Participants: €845

Full contribution for non-OECD Participants: €595

Discount Category I (-10%): Early Payment [by 16 May 2016] or Multiple Participants (3+ staff members from any Department, Agency or Organisation)

Discount Category II (-15%): Category I options paired together (Both Early Payment and Multiple Participants)

Deadline for Applications:

9 May 2016 for applicants who REQUIRE A ROMANIAN VISA, and
30 May 2016 for applicants who DO NOT REQUIRE a Romanian visa

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Europe

Nonviolent Peace Force Nominated for 2016 Nobel Peace Prize

. EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

A press release from the American Friends Service Committee

Nonviolent Peaceforce, an unarmed, paid civilian protection force which fosters dialogue among parties in conflict and provides a protective presence for threatened civilians, has been nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC).

nvpf

“Unarmed civilian protection is a method for direct protection of civilians and violence reduction that has grown in practice and recognition. In the last few years, it has especially proven its effectiveness to protect women and girls,” according to a UN report of October 2015 cited in its nominating letter by AFSC, a Quaker organization working for peace and justice across the U.S. and around the world.

“Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Nonviolent Peaceforce would highlight and strengthen their work and the work of other similar organizations, at a time when worldwide tensions seem to be at a boiling point, and their work is vital and relevant,” AFSC wrote.

“We are honored to be nominated. We are especially honored to have this nomination come from the American Friends Services Committee. This is a tribute to our courageous civilian peacekeepers who are at the frontline of violent conflicts around the world,” said Mel Duncan, co-founder, and Doris Mariani, CEO of Nonviolent Peaceforce.

Founded in 2002, Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) fielded its first intervention team one year later, in Sri Lanka. With headquarters in Brussels and an office in Minneapolis MN, NP field teams are presently deployed in the Philippines, in South Sudan, Myanmar, and the Middle East. Their field staff include veterans of conflict zones, experienced peacekeepers, and those new to the field.

Aware of the danger of neocolonial models of intervention, Nonviolent Peaceforce only serves in areas where they have been invited, and they conduct extensive and thorough interviews and research with all parties to a conflict before they decide whether or not to deploy teams to a conflict area.

NP is also clear that their goal is “to arrive to leave,” not intending to establish long-term presence, but seeking to address the conflict that caused their invitation, see it through to resolution, and then withdraw.

As part of its work, NP has reunited child soldiers with their families and helped create weapons-free zones in conflict areas. NP mitigates gender violence through their Women’s Security Teams, “which have dramatically lessened the number of rapes that South Sudanese women experience while gathering water or firewood for their families. In the past year, (NP) provided over 1,000 accompaniments for vulnerable people, primarily women and children, throughout South Sudan,” the AFSC wrote.

In 1947, AFSC and the British Friends Service Council accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of “Quakers everywhere.” Peace Prize laureates have the privilege to nominate candidates for this honor. The AFSC Nobel Nominating Committee includes a representative of Quaker Peace and Social Witness, the AFSC’s counterpart in Great Britain. For more on the nomination criteria, visit http://quakernobel.org/

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article.)

Question for this article:
EDUCATION FOR PEACE, global

Where to Study Peace Education: A Global Directory

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An announcement by the Global Campaign for Peace Education

All around the world there is a growing demand for peace education, yet few know of the learning opportunities that exist for gaining knowledge, developing capacities, and building the fundamental pedagogical skills for teaching peace. In support of this need, the Global Campaign for Peace Education, in partnership with the International Institute on Peace Education and the Peace Education Initiative at The University of Toledo has developed “Where to Study Peace Education: A Global Directory.”

peaced

This online catalog provides an easy to search inventory of formal and non-formal programs, courses, workshops and recurring conferences in peace education from around the world.
Peace studies programs are abundant in the US and abroad, however, few of these programs focus on educational theory or practice. Therefore, our directory is unique in its focus on programs, courses and trainings specific to research and the study of peace education, and the preparation of formal and non-formal educators to teach for peace. Current listings are oriented towards adult learners or educators, not programs offered directly to students in schools.

Listings in the directory fall into two broad categories:

1) The study of education (systems, philosophy, pedagogy) and its role in building peace

2) Teacher and learning facilitator training and preparation in peace education (theory, methodology, pedagogy)

The Directory thus far includes programs, courses and trainings focused on the study of the philosophy of education, critical pedagogy, democratic education / citizenship education, emergency education, social justice education, restorative practices, conflict resolution education (and peer mediation), educational development studies, human rights education and learning, and education for gender equity / equality and women’s empowerment.

Visit – Where to study Peace Education: A Global Directory

We need your help to grow the directory!

We know there are many more programs out there. If you are running a program, teaching a course, or are currently a student studying peace education, or have the necessary information about such a program, please take a few moments to complete our online submission form. We are interested in gathering details about current formal (university based), informal (conferences, non-university based trainings) and non-formal (independent, citizen-based) programs of study and ongoing trainings and workshops. Programs submitted should go beyond the content of peace and conflict studies courses and should emphasize pedagogy or practice, teaching theory, educational policy, or research related to peace education.

Question for this article:
EDUCATION FOR PEACE, global

Africa: Through Peace Education, Youth Can Become Vanguards of Peace in the Great Lakes

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article by Ntumba Luaba, KBC TV

Over the past five decades, the youth have played a central role in the numerous violent conflicts that have afflicted the African Great Lakes Region. Young people have most conspicuously been active participants in the hundreds of armed groups that have traversed the region since independence in the 1960s, operating across sovereign borders with an unsettling ease and leaving great devastation in their wake. The UN estimates that over six million civilians have lost their lives since the 1990s alone, and that the civil wars, genocides and cross-border conflicts in the region have produced the world’s highest number of fatalities since the Second World War.

great-lakes
Photo of Ntumba Luaba from Radio Okapi

The existence of deeply entrenched stereotypes based on ethnicity or nationality has been a key impediment for the prospects of peace in the region. These stereotypes, marinated over the decades, have long been internalised by local communities and have regrettably been handed down to successive generations, breeding hatred and placing the region’s youth in a vulnerable position for manipulation into violent conflict. As a result, many of armed groups recruit youth into their ranks through manipulation and the promise of economic reward. Cases of outright coercion of the youth have also been documented.

Numerous efforts have been undertaken over time and at different levels in an attempt to ameliorate this state of affairs, but significant change has not yet been achieved. It is understandable that much of these efforts place priority on post-conflict reconstruction. The result has been that most interventions have overlooked the fact that the process of effectively countering hatred requires us to begin by planting the seed of peace. Building sustainable peace is a long-term process which, considering the cross-border nature of the region’s conflicts, demands that we perceptualize our peacebuilding efforts from both the local and regional levels. For any peacebuilding effort to stand a chance of success in the Great Lakes region, it must also target the emancipation of the youth from the ethnic or nationalistic encumbrances that make them easy targets for recruitment or mobilization into conflict action.

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Question for this article:

How do we promote a human rights, peace based education?

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A research study carried out in 2014 by the NGO Interpeace and six partner organizations in Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) found that the people in the region generally agreed that ethnic hatred is a fundamental problem in the Great Lakes region. The research also found that people across the three bordering countries endorsed peace education as a priority intervention that would both strengthen existing peacebuilding efforts and more importantly help in the prevention of conflict among future generations. The findings of this research resonate closely with the mandate of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) to promote a comprehensive approach to peace and stability in the region, a mandate that includes empowering the region’s youth to become agents of peace.

The ICGLR and Interpeace are partners in the promotion of peace in the Great Lakes region. In December 2015, the two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding, creating a powerful synergy in which the ICGLR brings its clout as an intergovernmental body tasked to facilitate the promotion of peace and stability in the Great Lakes region, and Interpeace contributes its unique experience and capacity to bridge between high level actors at the national and international levels, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and local populations at the grassroots level.

We have a strong conviction that peace education offers the promise of nurturing a new generation of youth into vanguards of peace in the Great Lakes Region. It is on this premise that the ICGLR and Interpeace will bring together key stakeholders from the region to a Peace Education Summit in Nairobi on 3 – 4 March 2016. The summit will focus on the promotion of a harmonized understanding of formal peace education in the region. The Nairobi Summit is by no means a singular engagement. It is rather a pilot initiative that could hopefully be expanded across all ICGLR member states because peace education is an invaluable investment for the future peace, security and prosperity of all member states, as well as the entire African continent.

Building peace is a collective effort in which every citizen and every stakeholder in the Great Lakes region has a role to play. We therefore call upon all key actors, particularly our member states, CSOs, other regional organizations and donor partners to embrace the idea of peace education as a preventive measure, to help us plant this seed for lasting peace in the region.

Professor Ntumba Luaba is the Executive Secretary of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), an Intergovernmental Organization established on the initiative of the African Union and the UN as a regional mechanism for peace, security, stability and development. ICGLR’s 12 core member states are Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. It additionally has seven co-opted member states, namely Botswana, Ethiopia, Egypt, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

(Thank you to the Global Campaign for Peace Education for distributing this article.)

Africa, EDUCATION FOR PEACE